Break up the Fallow Ground!

“Break Up The Fallow Ground!”

Jeremiah 4:1-4, “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory. For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.”

There are some things in everyone’s life in here today that we need to break up. There are some old relationships that really don’t adhere to God’s plans for our lives that we need to break up! There are some relationships that we have currently in our lives that we need to just break up! Those users, you all know what I mean, that continually suck the life out you and leave when you’re all used up; you need to break up with those characters! Some churches that follow the preacher more than they follow God; that church you need to break up with as soon as possible! Those church members that talk people down instead of talking people up, I’d advise you to break up with that group! I know I sound in some way divisive, but the Bible warns us about the company we keep. One place in the Bible it says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” Some things have been allowed for so long that they’ve become the norm and God is not pleased, so I’d advise us all to break up from those associations and come out from among them! Ain’t that what Paul is writing to this church at Corinth? Because of the ungodliness that’s in the world today, and in some church, it’s sad to say, we need to break up!

Today, I would like to talk to you on the subject, “Break Up The Fallow Ground!”

As I encourage us to evaluate the things that surround us in our lives and break up from those alliances, be careful not to break up for selfish reasons. Some folk in the world, as well as in the church will break up for the least tension in a relationship. Tension is a part of life and if we leave every time there’s a little tension, we’ll never stay together. What God is wanting us to break up from is things that continue to stagnate our growth, hinder our spiritual development, lead us back into a sinful life, keep a negative spirit always around us, and lead us away from the God we serve. He didn’t tell us to go out and break up from everything, but those things in particular. God is a god of specifics! There are no generalities with God, He specifically instructs us to stay clear of some things and draw nigh to other things! He’s very specific! Paul wrote to this same church, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” There are particular things that God instructs to associate with and others He tells us to break up with. The word of God is specific in instructing us in what, and who to associate with, so just don’t break up to break up!

Our subject today brings to us text that instructs us to break up some things that has become corrupted because dormancy. Stale, musty, rusty, decayed and out-of-date because of just sitting! Reminds you of some church folks don’t it? God created mankind to be active, always moving and once we become static, we become stale and all that can fix it is something, or should I someone has to break it up! I remember when we used to store potatoes, Irish and sweet potatoes in the tobacco pack house pit. We’d bring the potatoes up and some had bad places on them and begin to rotten and mom would have us to cut off the rotten places and use the rest! Our lesson wants us to know that there are some bad places in our lives that if not cut away quickly, it will start to rot and corrupt the entire fruit and basket if not dealt with. Our lives can become unfruitful if not managed properly and cultivated by surrounding us with good things. Sometimes breaking up is necessary for us to get restored to be fruitful to God and to those we serve. Land, also can become useless, if not laid dormant for a period of time to renourish the soil. The expression, "Break up your fallow ground" means, "Do not sow your seed among thorns", i.e., break off all your evil habits; clear your hearts of weeds, in order that they may be prepared for the seed of righteousness. Land was allowed to lie fallow that it might become more fruitful; but when in this condition, it soon became overgrown with thorns and weeds. The cultivator of the soil was careful to break up his fallow ground, i.e., to clear the field of weeds, before sowing seed in it. So says the prophet, "Break off your evil ways, repent of your sins, cease to do evil, and then the good seed of the word will have room to grow and bear fruit." All of us have gifts, talents and blessings that God has bestowed upon us, but somehow we’ve allowed them to become fallow and unusable unless something happens. We can’t go on being this way! Fruitlessness has its own harvest! The Bible warns us, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Our bounty comes from what we sow and cultivate in our lives. If fruitlessness is our seed, we can only reap a fruitless harvest. In the next two verses of Galatians 6, Paul writes, “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” No matter how long we have to wait for it, we will get our just reward, good, or bad! Wastefulness is one of the worst sins for a believer. How many of us live wasted lives rusting and rotting away because of laying fallow in the pews? Coming to church regularly, been in church all your life, but fallow and wasting away in the pews at a rapid pace. It’s past time for us in the church to break up that old fallow ground and get in tune with the Spirit of Jesus Christ so that we can reap God’s desired harvest for our lives. It’s time to break it up! Whatever it is, whoever it is that’s holding you back, break it up!

The question that most Christians ask is how do you break it up? Tradition has been one of the hardest things in the church to break up and it is this tradition that has caused the ground upon which the foundation of the church is laid upon to be fallow. Tradition has stymied the church into this non-production organization instead of the ever-producing organism that God set it apart to be. What we thought was nourishing to the church only caused it to become fallow and unfruitful. Due to tradition we’ve strayed away from the purposeful church that Jesus founded and mostly Paul established during his ministry. Until we break it up, the church will never get back on course to be the church that God intended it to be. The question remains, how do we break it up? Our text gives us a simple formula that needs little to no deep couch thinking to see. The prophet Jeremiah writes, “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.” Israel has drifted so far from the will of God into a life of idolatry and abomination that the prophet Jeremiah was sent by God to warn them of their embedding fall if they don’t return. Their hearts had drifted so far that it had become a tradition. Sounds like the church today, doesn’t it? Do things wrong so long that wrong way looks right and the right way looks wrong. That’s what tradition will do! Jeremiah 3:24&25 says, “For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.” Not just a few, but the majority of Israel had turned their hearts away from God until it had brought shame, not just because of the young, but the young and old were lying down in their shame and confusion. Now you know why the church of today seems so confused! All of our labor is in vain if things don’t change. God calls upon Israel to return as they promised! You know how we are when we get caught: we’ll promise you the moon! Back in chapter 3, verse 22, “We come unto thee: for thou art the Lord our God.” They promised God they would return and in our text God is looking for an answer. Let me paraphrase it for you! If you said you would return, then return like you said, and if you come back you must cut out all your mess! You can’t come back out of captivity with the same mess that got you put into captivity! If you come back, come back! To come back right, you’ve got to break up some stuff! Do you all get me! You can’t come back to God expecting Him to put up with your mess! You come back to church, doing the same old things! You come to the altar, still doing your same mess! You come back home, with your man! You come back home, with your girl! And you want momma to put up with it! If you come back, come back! Its fallow, it’s unproductive; it’s never going to get right! If you come back, break it up!

Then the only way to break it up is when you say it, mean it! Our text says, “And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.” Come back home with a testimony on your lips. Don’t be talking flake, but come with a promise that you’ve turned your life around. A lot of talk don’t mean…you’ll almost made me say a bad word! Come back home in truth, in judgment and in righteousness and your homies will see the glory of God at work. If you come back, break it up in truth! If you come back, break it up in judgment! If you come back, break it up in righteousness! When you come back right, folks can’t question your sincerity! You know when you come back and haven’t broke it up, folks can see! If I talk to a brother a few minutes and look in his eyes, I can tell if he’s left the stuff alone or not! I’m not judging, but that’s how I have a hard time believing Bill Cosby; have you looked at his eyes? There is such a thing as the eyes of innocence and the eyes of guilt! Do you know what I mean? When I look in his eyes, I don’t see the eyes of an innocent man! That’s just my opinion! I might not be right, but in my 66 years I’ve learned that your eyes speak the issues of the heart. You remember I told you about the deacon that kept popping mints? There are certain signs that speak louder than your lips! When you say you’re coming back, break it up on inside, it’ll transcend to the outside!

Finally, Jeremiah gives them the dirt! Our text says, “For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” Coming back without a changed heart will be unproductive. To make a change that will last and be productive, we must break up the fallow ground that has produced what we’ve become. You can’t keep planting in ground that won’t produce! Did you’ll miss that? Why plant in ground that didn’t produce last season without doing something? I guess you missed that too? A church is a place that you have made a vow to sow into. If that church is not reaping a harvest, why keep sowing into it? If you keep planting and nothing, you keep planting and nothing! You try to change something, but tradition and keeps getting in the way and you find yourself sowing among thorns; then what? I hate to tell you church, I’m almost at that place! Why should I, or any other member of this church keep sowing into fallow ground? The foundation of this church is flawed and somebody has to break it up! Hear me, church, if we don’t break it up soon, it will nothing left to sow into! You can fool yourself for a while, but look around, you can see it; you can feel it and you can taste it! We need to circumcise out hearts, take away the foreskins of our hearts, or else feel the fury of the fire of God burn that none can quench! I’m just reading church; read it for yourself! Because of our evil doings, this church has become fallow ground! And the only way to turn back to God is to break it up!

As we close, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of coming out here Sunday after Sunday and feel the same old stuff, hear some of the same of stuff and nothing changes! Let’s be real church, I know I’m not the only one! It’s time for us to break this stuff up so that we can have church. It’s not God’s desire for us to be like this! I don’t know what you’re thinking, but this is not church! This is not one body in Christ! 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God doesn’t want us to die like this. His desire is that we live and this ain’t living! If we’d come back repenting of our sins, asking God to help up break up this fallow ground, He’ll make us productive again. He wants us to strive, grow, multiply and produce. This is what He created mankind to do. It’s 2016 and we have an entire year before us to lay down a comprehensive plan to break up, layout, replant, cultivate and reproduce the church atmosphere that will retain and draw people into this house. It’s not too late church, but the clock is ticking. Jesus is coming back sooner than it’s ever been, so let’s get ready. Let us come together this morning in true communion to eat of the body of Christ and drink of His blood to build us up in Him. Our sickness, our fallow condition is caused by us not discerning the body and blood of Jesus when we take communion! Paul writes, “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” We can break the curse of our fallow, fallen and unproductive nature by discerning the body and blood of Jesus that He bruise and bled to heal us. As we partake this morning let’s meditate on being one body in Christ to heal the brokenness that our church and many others are experiencing so that healing can come to our house. Let’s pray to God that He’ll give us the strength, the knowhow, the fortitude, the humility to break up this fallow ground!