Break Up Your Fallow Ground: It is Time to Seek the Lord (Part 17)

As you know, we are in a long series titled "Break Up Your Fallow Ground: It Is Time to Seek the Lord" which is based on Hosea 10:12 which reads: "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." In this passage, Hosea urges the children of Israel to turn away from their sins, repent, and get right with God.

 

As we begin today, let's take a close look at verse three of Hosea chapter 10. The verse reads, "For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us?" At the time when this prophecy was given, Israel did in fact have a king. However, the children of Israel are saying that it is as if they had no king because the king is not doing them any good. The king is useless to them because the people have rejected God. 

The king was useless in protecting the nation, preserving the peace, or administering justice because the people "feared not the Lord". Matthew Henry writes that the Hebrew people ask, "What good can we expect from a king when we have forfeited the favour of our God?"

This is a very important concept for us as Christians to understand. Our country is in the middle of a presidential election season. And with Election Day just five weeks away, it is so easy for us to get caught up in the idea that the success or failure of our country rests on whether or not Obama or Romney wins. I am here to tell you that neither Obama nor Romney can help us. Only God can help us now. Just like the children of Israel who rejected God, and found their king useless, our nation has turned its back on God and no matter who is president for the next four years, nothing in this nation will change until we change and get back to serving God and loving God as we should.

Now, in this series of messages, we are addressing specific sins that folks in the church need to confess and repent of in order to get our hearts right with God, and so that we can ask God to send revival in our personal lives, our families, our churches, our communities, and our country. So far we have addressed forty-seven sins in total, and today, we are going to continue this series by addressing three more sins from our list.

 

1. The first sin we will address today is the sin of being near God with our mouths but far away from Him with our hearts. This sin is akin to hypocrisy and phonyness. In Matthew 15:7-8, Jesus reprimanded the scribes and Pharisees when He said, "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me."

How often are we just like those scribes and Pharisees. This spirit is manifested when we come to church on Sunday and we sing the loudest, we clap the loudest, we say "Amen" the loudest, we shout "Praise the Lord" the loudest, yet we are the biggest liar, the biggest cheat, or the biggest whoremonger in the church Monday thru Saturday. We serve God with our lips, but not with our hearts and with our actions. 

Many times, these people are only trying to look like they are serving God so they can look good in the eyes of others. They are worried about what others think of them and not what God thinks. But the Bible says, "the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." You might be able to fool some people by raising your hands and saying 'praise the Lord' in church, but God sees what is in your heart. He knows the dirt, the deceit, and the deadness that lies there. And there are some discerning people who know as well. I tell folks all the time that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time, and you certainly can't fool the people of God. There are some people who can see right through you.

Are you guilty of this sin? Have you been acting hypocritically in your life? Acting as though you have it all together spiritually when you know you don't? Confess this sin to God and then focus on getting your heart right with Him. Remember, it is what is on the inside that truly matters.

2. The second sin we will address today is the sin of trusting in ourselves instead of trusting God. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." This sin of trusting in ourselves is easy to fall into and it stems from pride which is a sin that God calls an abomination. 

When we trust in ourselves, we are saying that we know better than God how to run our lives. We are saying, 'God, I really don't need your help. I can do this myself.' But, oh my friend, why is it that when we get into trouble and things do not go as planned that we immediately call on God? So many people go through this cycle in their lives -- they do things their way for a while, but as soon as things go wrong, they run to God, and then when things start going good again, they turn away from God and try to do things on their own.

God does not want us to live like this. He wants us to run to Him before the trouble starts. C.S. Lewis said, "Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done." Every morning when you wake up, you ought to surrender your will to God in prayer. You ought to say, 'Lord, I can't do this on my own -- I need your help.' God's promise to you is that if you trust in Him and acknowledge Him in everything you do, He will direct your paths. He will show you the way to go. 

Don't keep on trying to live life your way. Let God take over and begin depending on Him. If you have been trusting in yourself instead of God, confess this as sin, and invite God to lead, guide, and direct you in every part of your life.

3. The third sin we will address today is the sin of being double-minded. A couple of weeks ago we talked about Christians who are lukewarm -- people who are not going in either direction. Today, I want to talk about people being double-minded -- people who are trying to go in two directions at once. James 1:8 says, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." 

A person who is double minded is a person who is divided in his loyalties and commitments  He tries to serve the world and serve the church at the same time. He tries to follow God and follow the devil at the same time. These people sing in the club on Saturday night and sing in the choir on Sunday morning. As James would say, "these things ought not so to be." 

Jesus Christ warned us against trying to serve God and money. He said, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." If you are trying to serve two masters, you will find yourself constantly frustrated and dissatisfied with life. The reason why is because you have a battle going on inside your heart. Good and evil are struggling inside of you. God and the devil want to rule in your life. And neither will accept partial rule. As someone once said, "Jesus Christ will be Lord of all, or He will not be Lord at all."

What is the solution then? Let's look at James 4:8: "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." Purify your hearts. That is the solution. Confess the sin of being double-minded, and then purify your heart. That means to wash away anything that is ungodly or unclean, any sin, or anything that is displeasing to God, and then make a commitment to serving God one hundred percent. 

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In closing, I want to encourage you to not let any sin that we have discussed today or in previous weeks remain unconfessed. Allow God's Holy Spirit to examine every part of your heart and get rid of anything that is not in line with God's Word. Begin to break up your fallow ground by asking God to forgive you and cleanse you of your sins. Then you can enjoy the sweet fellowship of a relationship with God that is unhindered by sin and wrongdoing.

 

If the Lord should tarry his coming and we live, I hope that you will be with us next week so we can continue this journey of getting our hearts right with the Lord and getting back to serving Him. Break up your fallow ground: it is time to seek the Lord.

 

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Now, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how you can be saved from sin and the eternal punishment of sin.

 

All you have to do is believe "that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" and you will be saved. And, like millions of others, you can come to know the risen Lord Jesus Christ for yourself.

 

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

 

The Bible states in the book of Romans 10:9, 13: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."  "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

 

If you are willing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, please pray with me the following simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

 

If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, I declare to you that based upon the Word of God, you are now saved and you are on your way to Heaven. Welcome to the family of God! I want to congratulate you on doing the most important thing in life and that is receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read "What To Do After You Enter Through the Door".

 

God bless you and have a great week.