Break Up Your Fallow Ground

28 years ago, I married a horse gal. I know that's maybe not a big surprise to you. Paul tell us something we don't know. But again, 28 years ago, I married this horse gal, and it's not much of a secret. There are some of you here that have known Darla since she was born practically. Thanks to her loving mother, Darlene, horses have been a part of her life pretty much since she could walk.

I thought of saying she was born with cowboy boots on, but since she could walk is good enough. But again, when I met her over 28 years ago now, she was in business with her mom, and they were raising horses, they were training them, they were selling them, and it was their business. Between the two of them, they had about 30 horses combined.

And that was something that was new to me. I kind of came into this operation later in life. Now we're down to, in my estimation, a reasonable 12, give or take, depending on what's going on. But I would say during the years of our marriage and the horse business, I've probably been Darla's biggest supporter in the business, and I've been her biggest naysayer as well. A little horse humor for you, and I'm glad. Thank you, Ms. Himes. I did not have to explain, right? But the fact is, that's been her profession. That's been her love and her passion to breed these horses, to train them, to raise them up, to sell them.

Icelandic horses specifically have been her passion as a breed. And as a result of the horse ownership, we've always owned, then, a spread of property, right? Because the horses have to graze and eat, and property just comes with the territory. I've always said the first horse is the most expensive, because you need the pasture, you need the fence, you need the horse trailer, you need the truck to pull it, you need the barn for the hay.

So, after you get past number one, it's pretty easy from that point forward, I suppose. But property has always been a part of the process. We have 14 acres just out on the edge of the Spokane Valley. Many of you have been there, and it's been a great place for our children to grow up over the years. And the years that I ran my landscape business, it was a very nice spot as well, because we're right on the edge of town, five to ten minutes away from everything, but it's like we lived in the country as well.

And for me, I would just have to say that my hobby, then, as it's developed over the years, has been taking care of the property. You know, some people go rock climbing or mountain biking or hiking, and those are wonderful hobbies as well. I found that my spare time when you own property is absorbed by the property, and so that's become my hobby now, over the years. I mow it, I till it, I spray weeds on occasion, I fix fences, I fix barn roofs, I stack hay, do all those various things, and you can generally tell maybe from time to time just how much free time I really have by the condition of some of those things.

But again, it's what I would call my hobby. It's what, for me, is a mental relief. If I'm under stress and it's around the month of, say, June, my favorite thing is to get out and climb on my 1955 Massey Harris 33 tractor straight pipe up from the engine so, you know, you can hear the roar when you fire it up, then put on my headphones and I get out there and I mow the weeds. Because horses eat grass, but they don't eat weeds, and you have to keep those things mowed down and manicured as well.

So I guess I would say, again, that ranch is my hobby, but it takes work. It takes time to maintain it. Earlier this year, I started becoming bothered by a piece of ground that lies near the back of our spread. There's a drainage ditch that runs through there and scrubbed trees along that ditch, but behind it there's a little piece of ground, probably, say, about three acres or so back there. And I can just see the corner of it from my office as I look out the window.

And so sometimes I'll sit at my desk and look out, and lately that little piece of ground has been bothering me. The fact is, it's not planted in any grass or pasture, and in fact there's no crop at all growing on it except for napweed. And maybe the bees consider napweed a crop, but I consider it more of a nuisance.

Again, it's something that has to be mowed down and kept out of the way. So again, it's really not a crop. So this is a piece of ground, and then on our property, that used to be prime farmland. When Darla was young, about the age of eight or nine, she and her mom used to ride horses from kind of the base of where they lived at Arbor Crest, kind of at the bottom of the hill, and they could ride across those hills all the way out to Newman Lake. It was before fences were put up and gates and trails were shut down, but they came over the hill.

That's the back of our property dropped in, and Darla was eight, nine years old and told her mom, I want to own this valley someday. Because it was beautiful. It was grown up with crop, it was irrigated, and it was prime farmland. And we feel God truly has blessed us to have at least a little chunk of that valley. But again, as I look back at that piece of ground that's sitting there with nothing growing on it, it was prime at one point. They grew potatoes in those fields, they grew alfalfa, they irrigated, and it was very prime. But now it is what you would call fallow.

It just sits fallow. And honestly, that's what kind of bugs me from time to time as I look out there. What do I mean by fallow? Well, those of you who are farmers and ranchers among us would know it means to let a piece of ground essentially lie for a period of time unused. It means it's not in production. It means there's not a crop being grown on it.

There's not tillage that's taking place. There's not seed that's being put into it. It is simply laying there fallow, and probably in the process it's overgrown with weeds as well. Now, to let a piece of farm ground lie fallow is not a completely bad thing, because if you're raising a crop year after year after year and you're pulling nutrients out of that land, it is actually helpful to give it a rest for a period of time.

And it seems that God's word actually for his nation of Israel incorporated that process of which the land would have a rest from time to time and lie fallow. But to lie fallow indefinitely is something that can be a problem. Short term, it is known as good for the land. But land that is not in use, that is not in production, is not bringing forth a crop and is not fulfilling its purpose. And frankly, if it's left fallow indefinitely, it isn't necessarily a good thing, because the value of that property is going to waste.

Instead of producing a crop in abundance, it is simply lying fallow. And that's what bothers me most, again, as I look back at that piece of property. I've had really years in the past where we've tilled up our land from that ditch forward, we've planted pasture, and it's doing well. But that land behind the ditch isn't what it could be. It could be producing. Fact is, I could get out there, I could put a fence across the back, I could fence the horses off, I could hook the plow to the tractor, I could rip open the ground, I could disc it, I could break it up, I could harrow it, that kind of packs it down, and I could drill seed into it.

Then I could add irrigation, and at least this grass crop that I would plant would come forth, and it would spring into life. But the fact is, again, because of my lack of time and I would say neglect, is fallow. Brethren, could that be a description of our spiritual condition? Could URI be described in our spiritual lives as fallow? Or could perhaps even we have a piece of property spiritually, so to speak, our spiritual fields, and we have spreads of ground that are in full production?

I mean, you can look out and the crop is growing, the field is green, and it's vibrant, and it is producing. But maybe off to the back or off to the side, maybe somewhere kind of out of sight where nobody really sees there's a piece of ground spiritually that is laying fallow and it's not producing really what it could in service to God. I think it's an important question for us to ask and answer in our personal lives.

Today I want to give a message titled, Break Up Your Fallow Ground. Break up your fallow ground. It's actually an instruction that we find in the Word of God. And it's my purpose today to motivate us all to examine our lives, to seek out the areas which may not be in productive use. Maybe they can be and could be, or maybe they were at one time, but now they lie fallow. Let's discover those areas and put them again in productive service to God. In the book of Jeremiah, we find that the nation of Judah was in a condition of serious spiritual decline. You recall that not many years earlier to that time frame of Jeremiah, the nation of Israel to the north had been violently ripped out of the land by the Assyrians because of their rebellion against God, their unwillingness to repent and to turn to Him from their evil ways.

And yet then you have Jeremiah then crying out to Judah because they were in a similar circumstance. But for some years, they were still given a chance. God was still allowing them a window of opportunity in which they could respond to His call, turn, and live again if only they would respond. After all, they were still God's chosen people. And they still understood and knew who the true God was, but you see they were compromised by the nations around. Idolatry was in their midst. They were people that went to church on Saturday and worshipped false gods the other six days of the week.

They were people who were compromised by the nations around them and engaged in honestly physical and spiritual immorality. And God said, through Jeremiah, turn from your ways, repent, and restore to Me again. And if they didn't truly do so and acknowledge their spiritual condition before God, the result in them and in their nation would be judgment. The judgment of God upon His people. Let's notice God's warning and admonition to them through the prophet Jeremiah because the words are specific, and brethren, they actually apply even in parallel to our time today.

Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 1, let's begin there today. Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 1. Here are the messages of God through His prophet. Verse 1, He says, If you will return, O Israel, says the Lord, return to Me. And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not be moved. And you shall swear the Lord lives. This would be their response if they turn to Him. The Lord lives in truth, in judgment, in righteousness.

The nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him they shall glory. And so God's plea to His people has always been for them to restore with Him again. If they've wandered off, if they've grown fallow to turn and repent and reignite that relationship again. And even now, I would say at the end of the age, as the gospel message goes out, and as the church has opportunity to preach, it is God's cry through His end-time messengers to the world. And to physical descendants of Israel, turn and live. But unfortunately, much like the nation of Judah, that cry is largely falling on deaf ears.

Verse 3, For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, break up your fallow ground, do not sow among thorns. That's the remedy for that spiritual condition. It's a remedy for the alienation from God. Break up your fallow ground. God says that ground which isn't producing anything spiritually, break it up and infuse it with seed. And ultimately, the point is seed of righteousness, not these seeds of sin and dissipation that you're casting on the ground.

So, righteousness. Verse 4, God says, Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts. This is a heart issue. Lest my fury come forth like fire and burn, so that no one can quench it, and because of the evil of your doings. And so, you and I live in an age today where the abominations of the land around us have reached God's ears.

The sight of it has reached His eyes. And I would say the stench of what happens in the world around us has come up to His nostrils, and God Himself has issued a warning through the Scriptures, just as He did in the day of Jeremiah to the people of Judah. And yet, there's still this offer of reconciliation.

It was extended to them, and it has been extended to us today. If we will take heed, there is still time to get our spiritual house in order before the time of judgment comes upon the earth. Again, that's a message God cried through Jeremiah, and He cries through the church today.

But instead of repenting, Judah continued headlong down the same path of destruction.

And God ultimately allowed them to receive His judgment. We know the story. He allowed the Babylonians then to come in and to rip them out of the land, take them into captivity. The beloved city of Jerusalem was plundered and burned, and the people of God, again, taken into captivity. That must not be the story of the spiritual Israel of God at the end of the age. At least that must not be our story. I pray it's not the story of the entirety of God's people, but you know we can see the parable of the ten virgins at the end of the age as it would appear at the time of the return of Christ. Five had oil and five did not, and at least as that story would seem to play out, five shut out of the kingdom of God. But we can control what we say and what we do and how we live our lives, and we can heed the call and the cry that does indeed go out today. So let this not be our story as the spiritual Israel of God. The abomination, admonition, excuse me, to us today is the same as it was to ancient Judah. Break up your fallow ground, do not sow your seed among thorns. Break up your fallow ground, do not sow seed among thorns. God said, as well, circumcise your hearts fully and submission to me, and do it before the day of judgment comes. It is the message that it is pulled from this time frame, but it transfers forward to us today as well. It is indeed sobering, brethren. The Bible reveals that the world around us will be standing in opposition to God at the return of Jesus Christ. But not only then, certainly the end of the age, as the Bible would describe it, the time of the end is described in such a way that the people of God must take heed not to get sucked into the very same mindset for themselves, not to allow their spiritual condition to grow fallow as the world around them as well. Because there are fields around us that maybe we could be tempted to venture into on our own, if we're not careful, we can get sucked in again to the same mindset, the same practice. Let's go to 2 Timothy chapter three. 2 Timothy 3. Let's notice what these fallow fields will look like and do look like at the end of the age. 2 Timothy chapter three and verse one. Ultimately, again, as we heard from Jeremiah, it is a matter of the heart. This is a heart issue before God. 2 Timothy chapter three and verse one, but know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Does any of that sound familiar? Is that not certainly descriptors of our age?

Verse two, again, lovers of themselves, leading to all these spiritual fields, these fallow fields in the world around us today. Fields that do not produce anything good. They're laying their fallow, and God says, break up your ground if you will respond to me and produce in righteousness. Verse three, it says, these fields will be unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure, rather than the lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away. Again, as the people of God, we don't ever want to get sucked into that same mindset and attitude for ourselves, because if we do, it ultimately leads then to our good fields, our productive fields, going fallow. To leave the righteous call of God and to slide into the ways of the world is to allow your productive fields to go fallow, and it must not be so among us.

And so, at the end of the age, the warning again, the admonition is still, break up your fallow ground, and do not sow seed among thorns. If we go back to the book of Hosea, Jeremiah was a prophet crying out to Judah. Hosea was a prophet calling out on behalf of God to Israel. Hosea chapter 10, Ezekiel Daniel Hosea. Hosea chapter 10 and verse 12, we find a similar instruction given to the nation of Israel. Hosea 10 verse 12, so for yourselves righteousness, as if righteousness was a seed, and you could take it, and you could drill it into the ground, and you could grow a crop. And obviously, that would be from God. Another place in Scripture says, he who provides seed to the sower, that is God. So, sow for yourselves, as he says, righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and reigns righteousness on you. Again, this concept of breaking up your fallow ground is very important to God. He wanted his people of Israel and Judah to be productive in his service, to be the shining model to the world that this is how godliness works, that the rest of the world would say, well, you know, we want to know your God because of the blessing that's in your midst, and yet they fell short of that. But God's desire for them always was to produce a crop of righteousness to their glory and to God's glory ultimately, and to their blessing.

But again, as we know the story of the nation of Israel in the north as it played out, they as well did not follow through. They were unwilling to get out the plow. They were unwilling to take the oxen and to hitch the plow and to break up the ground and to put it in productive service to God again. And the result was the Assyrians who came in and violently ripped them out of the land. Again, God's instructions are clear. Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and reigns righteousness on you. That command is still in play today. That admonition is still in effect up to the end of the age and the return of Jesus Christ. Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and reigns righteousness on you. For us in the church of God, brethren, we've been called to heed this warning of God till he comes, till he sends his son Jesus Christ back to establish his kingdom on this earth, and then righteousness will reign. So for each of us today, we come back to the question of the day, how am I doing? You know, you can ask how you're doing. I just can ask how I am I doing.

You can see me on the surface, but maybe you can't see what fields are fallow in my life.

Because, you know, when we have a potluck, we have a barbecue at our property, you know what I do? I mow the lawn because everybody drives up to our house, right? I mow the lawn. I take the tractor out and I mow the weeds in the field, then everybody comes up and says it looks nice. But maybe you don't notice that fallow ground back behind the trees, but I know it's there, and I know maybe I need to work on it. And so I'm just speaking for me, but I would suspect it's the same in all of our lives. That there can be things if we take an honest assessment, we know they are lying fallow before God. Are there any areas in our life that we can identify any part of our heart that's not been put into full crop production in service to Him?

And furthermore, have we been provided with the seeds of righteousness by His word and by His Spirit, but rather than breaking up the fallow ground, we've just taken that and we've thrown it out among the thorns? Could that even be possibly something that we have done? If so, it is time for us as the people of God to break up our fallow ground as well. It's time for us to dedicate our whole life over to God, because see, that's what it means to be a Christian in the likeness of Jesus Christ. It's through and through, completely dedicated in service in every aspect of our life to God. So we may have those fields that are in full production again. They look great. They have a beautiful mature crop coming on. Maybe the fields are white for harvest, but perhaps there could even be somewhere, again, back in the recess, somewhere that is lying untended, that we need to make productive before God. The thing about fallow ground is that it is hard ground. Okay, ground that has been lying fallow for a while is hard ground. It often has this crust that develops on the surface of the ground, because the rain has beat down on it. In the summertime, the sun has baked into it, and various places that I've lived over time, especially you had maybe a mixture of clay a little bit in the soil. You get it wet, and you bake it with the sun, and literally the surface is almost like a piece of pottery. It's very, very hard. Beyond that, here in our area, you know, the winter freezes it, the animals tromp back and forth on it, and it just hasn't been ripped open by a plow anytime in recent times. And as a result, the ground is hard. The problem with hard and fallow ground is the seed cannot penetrate. It can't go into the soil. If you decided today, I want to go out and grow some grass on a piece of ground that's never been ripped up or opened up to the soil, and you just took that grass seed and you threw it out there, it would be food for the birds of the air. And frankly, it would just sit there and scorch in the sun, because it couldn't put down a root into the soil, it couldn't draw moisture, and it couldn't produce as it was intended.

And the parallel for us is righteousness. And like manna, spiritually, hard and fallow ground resists the seeds of righteousness as well. It doesn't allow them to penetrate the ground, and it doesn't allow them to germinate and produce unto maturity. And it's a condition that then nothing good can grow. If your ground is fallow and it is hard, nothing good can grow.

Romans chapter 2, we can see the consequence of this spiritual hard ground before God.

Romans chapter 2, the writings here of the Apostle Paul, Paul had incredible insight, and I wonder if he even truly knew how much his word could be taken and used not only in his time, but in our age today. I suspect he knew he was writing under God's inspiration, but spiritually hard ground. Romans chapter 2 and verse 4, what does this look like?

Breaking into a thought here, Paul says, or do you despise the riches of his goodness, of his forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. So repentance is actually the softening of that hard and fallow ground before God.

It is a recognition of, here is a place in my life that I am hard. I am resisting the seeds of righteousness, and I need to change my ways, and I need to turn, and I need to be open to what it is that God is seeking to pour out in my life. Repentance is how we plow deep into what can be fertile ground and open ourselves up to God. Verse 5, Paul says, but in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, impenitent heart is one just simply will not yield before God.

He says, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds. So God says, you know, there's consequences to this action, and if your life is going to lie fallow before me, and if that hard ground is not going to be broken up, if you're not going to turn and repent, then the result will be ultimately wrath and the judgment of God. Because if you understand the judgment of God in its proper context, it is not evil, and it is not in an attempt to just wipe people out for the fun of it. God's judgment actually is a desire to get people to turn in a way that nothing else had ever caused them to turn before. So we know the judgment at the end of the age is setting the ground for the return of Jesus Christ, where righteousness will reign. But again, don't be that hard heart that will not yield that impenitent heart. Verse 7, but to eternal life, to those who by patient continuance and doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking, who do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also for the Greek. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God. The repentant individual who has plowed deep and has broken up their fallow ground before God will be receptive to his righteousness, and the character of God can be planted. The Spirit of God can come and water that ground, and a crop can grow, grow in response to God, and grow to his glory. For those who will not yield to the plow, as Paul says, they're going to receive the just reward of their actions as well, because there is no partiality with God. All will receive what they have reaped. You will reap what you sow. There's many things that we must watch out for our lives. Brethren, as Christians, many things that could lead to hard and fallow conditions in our spiritual lives. Things like unresolved hurts. You know, what could take a field that is fruitful and productive to God and make it go fallow or cause it to go fallow? Unresolved hurts. Maybe offenses. Maybe a circumstance you've encountered and you said, you know what? Fine. I'm putting razor wire around that section of field. I'm putting a chain on the gate and a padlock in it, and I'm never going to tend that ground again. That person offended me. That circumstance or that sermon, you know, there's things that can honestly, brethren, cause fallow ground if we would allow to develop in our lives. What about resentment?

Anger. Bitterness. I've known people over the years who had very vibrant and productive fields, and yet due to anger or bitterness or some offense, that which used to be productive in service to God, frankly, in many cases and in many different ways, have fallen fallow.

And again, it's something we must all be aware of. Jealousy. Unbelief. Again, any of these things, if they're less unaddressed, can lead to a hardness of heart, hardness of spirit, and fallow land in our life. If any of us are finding ourselves in this position, we have to ask God for his help to recover because those issues, brethren, are ultimately salvation. And they're eternal. God's language directly was, break up your fallow ground until I come and so in reign righteousness upon you. It is what we must be doing day after day. We must put it into productive use so that it is beautiful again. Now, another thing about fallow ground is that it is often weedy. It's often weedy. You know, if you're not going to have a crop there, you're probably going to have weeds after a period of time. When a field goes unplanted for a number of years, that's just the condition. And as I stated with my field, I can look back into the far reaches or I can hike back there and I've got napweed. And to me, that's a nuisance weed. God's word states that fallow ground is often overgrown with thorns and thistles. And in that condition, nothing good will grow either. The lesson I learned many years ago, we again took a piece of our land and I took the plow, took the tractor, and I opened it up. I disced it down. I harrowed it out and I seeded it. We wanted some good pasture. But there was a problem. We brought in hay over the years from the basin and other areas. And as you import hay, this field, that field, another field, your own field is going to start picking up weeds that were over there or even hundreds of miles over there. And so we had these patches of wormwood that had started to grow out in our pasture. And I thought, okay, I'll just take care of this. We want good pasture anyway. I took the tractor and I plowed all through that wormwood. And I took the disc and I ran all through that wormwood and all across the rest of the field. And I took the kind of as a tuberous root. I took those roots and I broke them all up and I spread them all across my field. What do you suppose I grew? A crop of wormwood. Oh, there was some grass there, too. We seeded grass, but you know, the wormwood came back prolific. So sometimes the ground needs to be cleared and prepared before the plowing can even start. Certain noxious weeds maybe need to be ripped out by the roots. Notice what the Apostle Paul listed as spiritual weeds that we need to contend with in our lives. Colossians chapter 3 verse 5.

You could go out there and get all zealous with the plow, but honestly, if you're not making right preparations, you might just spread all about your field something you thought you were getting rid of. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5 says, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. He says, fordication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Paul says these are all spiritual weeds, and there's no room for them to be growing in our pasture. Verse 6, he says, because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you once yourselves once walked when you lived in them, but now you yourselves are to put off all of these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Again, we have to kill the weeds before we can grow a good crop. Go out there and rip them out, maybe spray them down. You certainly don't want to till them into the soil and produce more, and if it's been fallow ground for a long time, probably other things have grown up too.

So you've got to clear the brush. Maybe you even have to cut down some trees. Then you have to yank out the stumps, and that takes work. And then if you've ever lived in a rocky area, what happens even just over a course of the wintertime? The dirt seems like it grows rocks, where there was not rocks before, because you have the freeze and the thaw and the freeze of thaw and they push up through the ground. So those rocks as well that can be a stumbling ground and actually damage to your equipment have to be cleared out. This is all part of the process of making our field ready to plow. Verse 12, again, Colossians 3 verse 12, Paul says, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and long suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Again, we're talking the heart issue and the things that get planted there. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which you also were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Brethren, these are all spiritual crops now, then, that he's describing that can be implanted in our life. As the seeds of righteousness are poured in, as the weeds have been pulled out, the ground has been cleared, it's been plowed, it's been opened up. Now the seeds of righteousness, the one who provides seed to the sower, is God. And that is only righteous seed. These things can be planted in our heart if we are people yielded to God, and ultimately they produce crops of righteousness. Maybe you're ahead of me because there is a parable of Jesus Christ that talks about the kind of ground that is actually usable for receiving this seed. Let's go to Matthew 13, verse 1. See what Jesus had to say about this crop production. Matthew 13, verse 1, I might be one to use this, maybe slightly different perspective than we've looked at it before, but it applies. Matthew 13, verse 1, says, On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea, and a great multitude were gathered together to him, so that he got into the boat and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. You know, wherever he went, it's the strongs of people, and they almost kind of like literally, I get the picture, he's almost pushed out into the ocean or the sea, so he, you know, gets on this boat, now he's out on the sea of Galilee. He's got a little space, and he can speak and project, and he offers them then this parable. Verse 3, He spoke many things and parables to them, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow, and he sowed, and some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away, and ultimately they died. That is what's being expressed here. Verse 7 says, And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them out. But others fell on good ground, and yielded a crop. Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. So what we get from Jesus' parable is that the good ground is what can receive the seed. And your ground has to be good. It has to be that which is opened up and prepared. And if it's among thorns and other undesirable ground, it's just simply not going to germinate. It's not going to come to maturity. Seed needs the good ground to grow the abundant crop. Dropping down to verse 18, Jesus' explanation now of this parable, he says, Therefore, hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed in the stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation and persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Verse 22, Now he who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. You know, it's honestly, I would say, a condition of the world around us, the fact of we can spend our whole life chasing after things that at the end of the day, their thorns and thistles that choke the word of God make our life unproductive. Verse 23, But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some 100 fold, some 60, some 30.

And so the question we often ask when we read this parable is, what kind of ground am I? Right? What kind of ground am I? Am I thorny? Am I stony? Am I hard? Am I by the wayside? Or am I indeed the good ground? I would hope and pray that all of us sitting here are good ground, because we've received God's word and we've responded. We're seeking to learn and grow each and every day, but then the question becomes in context of today's message, are we maintaining that ground so that it is productive continually? Were we good ground that received the word of God, but we sort of maybe got distracted by other things and now at least a portion of our field becomes fallow? Oh, it looks good, you know, around the house when you have company and they pull up, but back behind the drainage ditch behind the scrub trees where no one else really sees, do we have a field that is not producing what it should by God's call? Again, are we maintaining that ground so that it's productive? There's so many important points of our life that we can evaluate in this, because our life is not just, at least as I would express it today, one great big open field that's planted with the exact same crop. You know, a lot of times if you owned a big spread of land, you have fencing and cross-fencing that breaks up that property for specific purposes. We have a field for our stallion. He stays over there. We have a field for our horses that are geldings. They're over here. We have a separate field for the mares and the babies. They're out here. We have a separate fenced-off area for client horses that come in from California and Canada and other places. They're over here and they're not mixing with all of the others. So our property is segmented into various fields, and I would say our lives are very similar as well. So we can have fields in full production and other fields that maybe they're just sort of out there not getting the attention they should. What about our prayer life?

What about that field? Walk over and consider. Look over the fence into that field. What about our prayer life? You know, where we once spending much time on our knees before God, where we once zealous for communication with our Father in Heaven, but maybe we've allowed that to fallow over time. You know, maybe for a year or two it was all right because maybe it was a crop that sort of reseeded itself, and you had another crop the next year, but it was a little sparse. Maybe the year was a little less sparse, but eventually it goes fallow if you don't maintain what you should. It's our prayer life that way. If it is, brethren, then get out the plow and start breaking ground. Start cultivating a direct and personal relationship with God. What about our Bible study? What about our looking into God's Word? You know, many of us, when we were called to this way and began understanding God's truth, we devoured the Bible, right? Day by day, you couldn't get enough. You just woke up in the morning wanting to dive into God's Word, finish the day with God's Word on your mind, but get down the road 20, 30, 40, 50 years. Have we lost, maybe, that zeal for the Word of God? Is it what it once was? I hope it is. I hope that's one of those fields that, you know, you pull up in the front of the house and that's clear and plain and obvious, and it's abundant. I hope it is so, but frankly, brethren, if it is not, then it's time to get out the plow and start breaking ground, spend time in God's Word and make that feel vibrant again. What about our fellowship? About our fellowship with one another as brethren. You know, God commands an assembly every Sabbath of His people, and as I described it last week, it's a family reunion, right? Every Sabbath. And what a wonderful blessing that is. Have we forsaken that aspect of our calling? Is that field going fallow? Have we maybe allowed the COVID years that cause us to withdraw within ourselves? And I did say years, because these have been a long couple of years, hasn't it, brethren? And there have been times when we've had to be apart, we've had to separate, we've had to isolate or quarantine in those ways, okay? So those are right and proper, but our overall perspective and approach to this should not be to withdraw into ourselves.

God has commanded us to be a people who come together on the Sabbath, who fellowship together, who break bread together from house to house. That is the biblical example. And if we withdraw within ourselves and have stopped doing that, if that field is going fallow, it is time to get the tractor, hitch up the plow, and start breaking ground again. That's what God has called us to do. This is a touchy one. How about fasting? Maybe it's not so touchy, but how about fasting? Fasting. And you say, ah, that's easy. Day of atonement. First part of next month, I've got fasting handled. Okay, that is good. But if we have an evaluation between last day of atonement and the upcoming day of atonement, and we honestly talk to ourselves about that, is our field fallow? Is that ground not producing what it should? Are we missing out on an opportunity in humility to draw close with our God through fasting? Again, if that is the case, then it's time to get out the plow and start breaking ground. That's what God has called us to do.

What is the condition of your field that is posted with the sign, love your enemy? Love your enemy. You know, in my mind, I imagine, you know, as the fields are segmented, they're now, you know, posted what this field is. Love your enemy. Pray for your enemy. That even takes it up, you know, maybe even another notch, and not pray that they get what they deserve. Pray that God grants them repentance, and they would come around to acknowledging Him fully. Pray for your enemy. Is that field fruitful, or is it fallow? What is the condition of your field that is posted with the sign, willing to suffer wrong for righteousness' sake? Because as Christians, we like to, excuse me, as Americans, let me take that back. As Americans, we like to demand our rights. And yet, the Bible, what did Jesus Christ do? He who knew no sin became sin for us. And set the example of what it means even maybe to suffer wrong for righteousness' sake. Is that field in our lives fruitful, or is it fallow? What's the condition of the field that is posted with the sign, love suffers long? Because again, I'll just go back to these COVID years.

This world has become impatient. I've heard the car horn more in the last two years, I would say, than probably my entire driving life. Maybe that's me. Maybe that's my driving. I don't know. But I'll just say that people seem impatient, people seem frustrated, and again, where is our field in terms of love suffers long? The final one I have on my list here, what is the condition of your field that is posted with the sign, just let it go? That's a Mike Eimes-ism. Just let it go.

I don't know how many times I've received that advice from Mike, and I appreciate it. Just let it go. That's how we avoid offense. That's how we avoid not snapping the padlock on that gate and say, I'm never going into that field again. That's how we don't slam the door on that relationship. You have to at some time just let it go. Is our field in that way productive? Or is it fallow?

You see, brethren, there's so many fields that we could constantly be examining ourselves and not run out of fields to look at. Some are obvious, and maybe some aren't. Maybe this is even more like a days of 111 bread sermon, but I think these are the things that are good to reflect on any time of the year. We might have some very beautiful green productive fields growing some incredible crops, and yet our fallow ground is what could keep us out of the kingdom of God.

I'll say that again. We could have some very productive, beautiful fields, and yet it is our fallow ground that could keep us out of the kingdom of God. That ground way off in the back 40 will really... nobody notices, and maybe even I've forgotten about it. The fallow ground of our hearts is a rigorous process that requires a humble and a contrite heart, and it could ultimately be a painful process to get that plow out and rip up the surface of our heart. If we want to use that analogy, rend your heart and not your garments, God says. Come before Him in humility, but that can be a bit of a painful process. But it's what God has called us to do, because you see, ultimately, the crop that we're refusing to produce by allowing ground to lie fallow is the crop of righteousness.

It's a crop of righteousness that we're literally seeking to or avoiding growing in that fallow ground. At our baptism counseling, we all likely read the words of Jesus Christ, Luke chapter 9, verse 52, "...no one having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Which means our focus as a Christian is to always be plowing. Always have both hands on the plow with our vision focused towards the kingdom of God, but you never stop plowing.

You never stop opening up that fallow ground and putting it into service before God. And as we do that, some will produce. I hope all produce. Some will produce. Some 100-fold, some 60, and some 30. And the crop will be righteousness. Let's conclude in Galatians chapter 6.

In the writings of the Apostle Paul, Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7, very familiar words to us. Paul says, "...do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever man sows that he will also reap.

For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption." Now, corruption is a crop of weeds that you've sowed into the ground. It is not the righteousness of God, okay? So, "...he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in season, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart." There's a time to plant, and there's a time to harvest. And if the seed that you put into the ground was indeed the righteousness of God, that he supplies the seed which the one who supplies the seed to the sower, if that is what you have planted, then your crop indeed will be righteousness as a result. So, brethren, we can never afford to lose heart in the spiritual process that God has called us to. Sowing the seeds of righteousness, again, will reap that crop of righteousness and return ultimately leading to eternal life. Let us be diligent to break up our fallow ground. Let's be diligent to examine our hearts. Let us be diligent to actually be honest in this examination, for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes, until he comes, when he comes, and that time that we pray for when it does arrive, he will reign righteousness on us all.