Episode Transcript
If you turn to Hosea chapter 10 this morning, Hosea chapter 10,
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and while you're turning there, our weekly outreach is 170,
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and that brings your yearly subtotal up to 1384.
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That's just absolutely wonderful.
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Thank you for sharing the gospel and reaching out to people.
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I still see folks greeting each other this morning online.
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We've got a healthy audience here and a healthy audience online.
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All right, Hosea chapter 10, verse 12.
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We have everyone time to get there.
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Don't forget, after church today, we have a dinner on the grounds.
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So when we finish here, this is what I'd like to do.
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When we finish here, whoever's helping in the kitchen,
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you're welcome to go over there and help.
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But I want to have a quick business meeting
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before we go over there, just a quick business meeting.
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So don't let me forget that, Brother Shepherd,
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to have our quick business meeting.
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Hopefully it'll be quick.
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Hosea chapter 10, God willing, will be expounding, verse 12.
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The title of the message is "Fallow Ground."
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"Fallow Ground."
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Thank you, Leah.
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I just got a compliment on my shirt and tie.
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Thank you very much.
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I'm an incredibly seasonable dresser.
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Earned that from my wife.
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Israel was a very blessed nation.
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God cared and provided for all those years.
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And Israel was good at receiving God's provision,
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we learned last week.
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But they were terrible at giving him thanks
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and the service that was due him in return.
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She was like a fat, lazy heifer, we learned.
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That loved to tread the corn out and loved to eat it.
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But she wanted no part of plowing the field to make it grow.
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So in verse 11 last week, God told Israel
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that he was going to make her plow the fields.
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He was going to make her bear the burdens.
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And her easy life was going to be over.
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If she wouldn't plow for the Lord,
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then she would plow for her enemies.
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Continuing this agricultural train of thought this morning,
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God now tells Israel in verse 12,
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"So to yourselves in righteousness."
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Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you for your precious word.
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I pray to your Lord you'll remove all distractions
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this morning.
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And I pray, Father God, that you'll bless us greatly
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in your truth this morning today.
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Glorify your great name.
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Help us to understand it deeply and clearly this morning,
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we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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Hosea 10, 12, "So to yourselves in righteousness."
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God's telling Israel to sow.
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Now to sow means to put seed in the ground.
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How many of y'all put seed in the ground this year
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for your gardens?
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We've got quite a few.
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I have two.
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But to sow means to put seed in the ground
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for the purpose of making your ground fruitful
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for agriculture.
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The only way you can get produce from the ground
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is to put seed into it.
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That's the only way you can get it.
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Unwanted grasses in weeds, they come up natural, right,
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in the earth.
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They come up naturally in our yards,
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in any kind of bare land.
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You don't have to do anything to it.
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Just give it some time and these unwanted grasses
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and weeds will come up.
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But nobody after church today is gonna say,
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"I need to get home and treat my yard for spinach.
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It's really bad this year."
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(congregation laughing)
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You may treat it for weeds,
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but you're not gonna treat it for spinach.
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It's not gonna come up on its own.
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No, you have to sow seed
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to get the good stuff out of the ground.
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And I enjoy growing good food every year in my backyard.
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I put my seed in the ground last month
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and I'm looking forward to harvest time.
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And this verse, of course, is not talking about
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sowing physical seed.
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It's not talking about vegetables.
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It's talking about sowing spiritual seed
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being sown into spiritual ground.
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And the ground here is the life
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that God has given every one of us here on this earth.
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I can't sow my seed in your ground.
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I've gotta sow the seed in my ground.
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I can't sow physical seed in my neighbor's ground
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and I can't sow spiritual seed in my neighbor's ground.
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That's a place that God has given him to sow,
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that God has given you to sow.
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I have to sow my seed in the ground that God has given me.
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And there I must reap the harvest
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of what I've sown and so must you.
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So God told Israel to sow,
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if you look back in your text, how?
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Sow in righteousness,
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which simply means do what right.
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That's what righteousness is.
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When we do what's right,
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we are sowing righteousness into our ground.
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God wanted to bless Israel.
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So he told her to take advantage
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of this God-ordained principle that he's given us.
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It's the principle of sowing and reaping.
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And the same principle that God had established back then
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is still established today.
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We reap what we sow physically
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when we sow physical seed into the ground,
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but we also reap what we sow spiritually as well.
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It is a God-ordained principle.
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God has designed it so that if we sow in righteousness,
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then we're going to reap, look back in your text,
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we're going to reap in mercy.
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God's established this great principle in our lives.
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You want He's wanting Israel to do?
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What He's wanting us to do?
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He wants us to exploit that principle
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of sowing in righteousness and reaping in His mercy.
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The principle is this, sow in righteousness
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and you'll reap in mercy.
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And mercy is speaking about God's goodness
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and kindness toward us.
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It's not talking about mercy
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in the sense of simply having mercy
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from our sins through a sacrifice.
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There's talk about His goodness and His kindness toward us.
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If we will sow, that is if we'll do what's right,
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then we will reap, which means we will experience
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and enjoy God's goodness and kindness toward us.
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In God's 10 commandments concerning idols,
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when God forbade them to make idols,
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listen to what God said in Exodus chapter 20,
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verse five and six.
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He said, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,
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nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God,
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visiting the iniquity of the fathers,
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upon the children and to the third and fourth generation
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of them that hate me, watch this now,
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and showing mercy that is good, my goodness and kindness,
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unto thousands of them that love me,
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and keep my commandments.
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You see, He's going to be showing mercy to those
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that keep His commandments.
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In other words, if they're keeping His commandments,
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they're sowing in righteousness,
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and then they get to reap in His mercy.
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So when we love God and we keep His commandments,
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we are sowing in righteousness.
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And then when God responds by showing His kindness to us,
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we are reaping in mercy.
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That should be a great encouragement for us
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to live our lives in obedience to God's commands,
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for He promises to show mercy unto those that love Him
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and keep His commandments.
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I want to experience God's goodness and kindness in my life,
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and if you do, then you need to get busy
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following His word.
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God's commandments are the good seed,
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and when we obey those commandments,
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we're sowing them in our ground.
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Makes sense?
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The seed's great.
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I've got a package.
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Did y'all ever get y'all's plants and seeds
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on my porch I left out?
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I left my dad a package of green bean seeds.
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I used mine from last year,
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the green beans that I planted last year.
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I just took those seeds that came from those plants
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and replanted them this year,
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but I had a package of store-bought seeds
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that I left for my dad so he could sow at the house.
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Those seeds are good seeds,
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but if they remain in that package,
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they're not gonna do Him any good,
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and God's commandments are good commandments,
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but if God's commandments just remain here in the Bible,
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they'll still be good commandments,
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but they won't be any good for you,
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until you obey those commandments,
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and when you obey those commandments,
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you are then taking the good seed,
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you're sowing it into your ground,
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so you can reap His goodness in your life.
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This is what God's telling Israel to do.
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Seems pretty elementary, doesn't it?
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But you can't just sow seed anywhere, not a good seed.
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You can't just go sow it anywhere.
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I mean, when you plant a garden,
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you don't just walk outside
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and throw vegetable seeds on top of your lawn.
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On a bigger scale, if you've got a farm,
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you don't just get in the tractor
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and just start sowing seed everywhere.
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What's the first thing they do,
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Tammie, before they sow that seed?
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They start breaking the ground up, don't they?
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You gotta get that ground prepared.
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No, those seeds have to get into the ground
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before they can produce and grow fruit for you.
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So if you want to reap the fruit of God's commandments,
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then you have to look back in your text,
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you have to, what, break up your fallow ground.
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Now fallow ground, that fallow means ground
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that's left unattended.
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It's not been farmed.
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It's just sitting there being unused,
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going to waste in a way.
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It's just a beautiful parcel of land
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that is not being used for anything.
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All that's growing is weeds.
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When land is left like that,
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the only thing that grows there
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are things that naturally grow of themselves.
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This is the whole thing.
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This is why God's telling them
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to break up that fallow ground.
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You've got ground, you've got a field out there.
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It's not being used for anything.
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The only thing growing in that field
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is what grows naturally from this fallen world.
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It's not what grows from the unfallen world.
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It's what grows from the fallen world.
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Again, you don't have spinach as poppin'.
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We've got this field across the road from us here
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at the church homes.
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It's our overflow parking.
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We hadn't had to use that many times.
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We had to use it in the past.
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But you've got that overflow parking out there.
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You won't find any spinach out there.
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You won't find any carrots out there.
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You won't find any squash out there.
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Brother Richard, have you gone to look?
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Don't have to, neither do you.
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We know what grows naturally
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when a field is left unattended, uncared for.
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When you leave your life that way, your heart that way,
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the only thing that'll grow in your heart,
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if you don't break up that fallow ground in your heart,
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the only thing that's gonna grow
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is what the world throws your way.
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That's why so many people,
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their heart is just fallow ground.
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It's growing the weeds and the wild grasses
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that cover it.
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And when they cover it, they create a network of roots
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that hold that soil in place,
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and they cover the ground with all that grows naturally
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from this fallen world.
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Fallow ground is the human heart
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that's been left unattended spiritually
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and full of the things that naturally grow from our flesh.
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If you were to sow your vegetable seed
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on top of fallow ground, what would happen?
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Most of that seed would never spring up.
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And if some just happened to spring up,
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then it would be struggling to find the nutrients to grow.
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And if it did grow, it probably wouldn't have enough
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nutrients to produce fruit
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because the weeds would be choking it out.
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That's why God's telling them break it up.
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Why is that so important?
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Well, you have somebody,
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and they've been living in the world their whole lives.
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All they've ever known is ungodliness.
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All they've ever known is whatever the world
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throws their way.
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That's what's been growing in their heart.
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Then they get exposed to Bible truth.
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They get exposed to Christianity.
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They get exposed to religion.
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They start coming to church.
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And so what can happen is they can start saying,
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well, I'll sprinkle a little of this stuff in here.
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I'll mix some of the Bible in with my sinful life.
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I'll just kind of mix it all together.
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You know what's gonna happen?
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That it's gonna get choked out by this world.
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Though again, remember, Jesus said,
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"No man can serve two masters."
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You're gonna love one and hate the other.
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You're gonna cleave the one.
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You're gonna despise the other.
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You cannot serve God and man, and Jesus said.
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And so if you just go out there
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and you just throw a little Christianity
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on your fallen heart and you don't take the time
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and the energy necessary to break up
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and root out those things that don't belong in your heart,
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then you're gonna struggle to produce any fruit at all.
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If you've come here and we've got people like Brother Doug,
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who again, used to be the motorcycle gang,
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we've got people like Brother Chris
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that was an atheist for many years.
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We've got folks from all kinds of different backgrounds.
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And what you have to do if you wanna grow as a Christian,
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if you wanna really have God produce the fruit
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of His word in you, His commandments in you,
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you gotta break up that old fallow ground.
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You've gotta destroy the root system
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that's been built in your heart over the years by the devil
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and say, you know what?
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There's things in my heart that just don't belong there.
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Instead of saying, I'm gonna have a little Christianity,
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I'm gonna have a little of this, a little of that,
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I wanna let 'em both grow in my heart,
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you're gonna have a hard time.
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You've gotta be willing to say, I'm gonna get rid of it.
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If it doesn't belong in my life, I wanna root it out.
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How many of y'all ever seen a plow
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go into fallow ground before and just bust it up?
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Y'all ever seen that before?
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Man, that looks good, doesn't it?
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I love watching that ground just peel back
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and all the sod busting, man, and then those roots,
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they just get all broken up by that plow.
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That's what God is telling us we need to do with our hearts.
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That's what God is telling Israel they need to do
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with their hearts.
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The belief system of the world around them
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has started growing in their heart.
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They've been unattentive to the things of God
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and all that was growing was the sin
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and the worldliness in their heart.
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He says, break it up.
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In this verse, you gotta break up your fallow ground.
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I want you, if you would, in this verse,
17:00.200 --> 17:01.800
underscore the word so.
17:01.800 --> 17:03.560
Underscore the word reap.
17:03.560 --> 17:08.560
Underscore the word break up.
17:08.560 --> 17:14.660
Here's the kingdom and truth for you this morning.
17:14.660 --> 17:19.900
To experience the blessing of reaping and sowing,
17:19.900 --> 17:26.020
you must first exercise the discipline of breaking up.
17:26.020 --> 17:32.860
To experience the blessing of reaping and sowing,
17:33.860 --> 17:38.420
you must first exercise the discipline of breaking up.
17:38.420 --> 17:42.980
Breaking up fallow ground, again, speaks of breaking up
17:42.980 --> 17:47.640
that old network of our fallen flesh.
17:47.640 --> 17:52.380
It speaks of rooting out the things in our lives
17:52.380 --> 17:54.880
that are contrary to the word of God.
17:54.880 --> 17:56.980
Do you have something in your life right now
17:56.980 --> 17:59.020
that you're allowing to grow, meaning you're allowing
17:59.020 --> 18:01.100
it to be rooted in your life and you're feeding it
18:01.100 --> 18:04.380
through your thoughts, your actions, the time you spend,
18:04.380 --> 18:08.140
your money or whatever else, you're entertaining it
18:08.140 --> 18:10.940
and you're allowing it to live in your heart,
18:10.940 --> 18:13.540
but it's contrary to God's word that is fallow ground
18:13.540 --> 18:18.540
that is growing nothing but fallen things.
18:18.540 --> 18:23.340
And God says, if you want to experience the blessing
18:23.340 --> 18:27.440
of sowing His commandments and reaping the fruit,
18:27.440 --> 18:31.180
you've got to get that junk out of your lives.
18:31.180 --> 18:35.220
Root out.
18:35.220 --> 18:40.280
Man, I hope this morning that there's people in here
18:40.280 --> 18:44.660
and you know there's something in your life
18:44.660 --> 18:46.020
that doesn't belong there.
18:46.020 --> 18:47.420
You know it.
18:47.420 --> 18:50.160
I hope this morning, and right where you're at in your pew,
18:50.160 --> 18:52.740
I hope that this morning you say,
18:52.740 --> 18:53.780
"Dear God, I'm ready to break that up."
18:53.780 --> 18:56.140
God told them to break up that fallow ground.
18:57.000 --> 19:00.400
It's a decision you have to make.
19:00.400 --> 19:02.160
You're the only one that can put that out of your life.
19:02.160 --> 19:04.960
You're the only one that can quit it.
19:04.960 --> 19:06.560
You're the only one that can say,
19:06.560 --> 19:07.400
"I don't want that in my heart anymore."
19:07.400 --> 19:10.480
Now fascinatingly, and I mean it's fascinating to me,
19:10.480 --> 19:15.000
the Hebrew word has translated break up.
19:15.000 --> 19:19.380
I mean I went there studying in the Hebrew,
19:19.380 --> 19:21.320
I was expecting it to mean like rip,
19:21.320 --> 19:24.680
to tear in to, to plow up, it's not what it means.
19:24.680 --> 19:29.320
It's fascinating.
19:29.320 --> 19:30.360
The Hebrew word translated breaking up,
19:30.360 --> 19:32.520
it literally means to glisten with light.
19:32.520 --> 19:35.740
To glisten with light.
19:35.740 --> 19:39.120
And then I see, I saw Miss Elizabeth,
19:39.120 --> 19:42.360
her head cocked like a dog, I'm like, "Woof."
19:42.360 --> 19:44.880
You know, I did the same thing when I read it, Miss Elizabeth.
19:44.880 --> 19:48.440
And I said, "Lord, explain this to me."
19:48.440 --> 19:50.040
Oh man, he did.
19:50.040 --> 19:51.520
So I'm gonna explain to you as he explained it to me.
19:51.520 --> 19:54.200
You see, you got this fallow ground.
19:54.200 --> 19:57.320
You get all this network of these old weeds
19:57.320 --> 20:02.220
and natural grasses that are growing in it.
20:02.220 --> 20:04.680
They've been there a long time.
20:04.680 --> 20:08.120
In the soil beneath those weeds,
20:08.120 --> 20:12.920
hasn't seen the light of day for a long time.
20:12.920 --> 20:15.600
It's been in the darkness, Brother Doug.
20:15.600 --> 20:19.720
That's all it's been, it's just darkness.
20:19.720 --> 20:22.380
But when you break it up, the idea is to take your heart
20:23.920 --> 20:28.200
and say, "God, I know this is wrong.
20:28.200 --> 20:31.600
"I'm willing to rip it out of my life.
20:31.600 --> 20:33.840
"I wanna break it up and I'm gonna expose my heart
20:33.840 --> 20:37.160
"to the light of your word."
20:37.160 --> 20:40.240
Glisten with light.
20:40.240 --> 20:43.400
That's the whole idea.
20:43.400 --> 20:45.700
I started studying the history behind this word,
20:45.700 --> 20:48.840
and the idea is when that ground gets broken up,
20:48.840 --> 20:52.140
it sees the light.
20:52.140 --> 20:53.840
The light shines off that soil that had been hid
20:53.840 --> 20:57.520
in the darkness for so long.
20:57.520 --> 20:59.640
Freshly broken soil, lying in the darkness,
20:59.640 --> 21:08.240
broken to the point that it is exposed to the light.
21:08.240 --> 21:12.880
That's what our heart needs to be.
21:12.880 --> 21:15.820
Christian, you'll never reap the fruit
21:15.820 --> 21:17.840
of God's commandments until you break open your heart
21:17.840 --> 21:21.320
and expose it to the light of God's word.
21:21.320 --> 21:25.120
And whatever you find that is contrary,
21:25.120 --> 21:28.840
when God's word starts coming in to your heart
21:28.840 --> 21:32.440
and you get exposing that ground,
21:32.440 --> 21:35.280
whatever you find there that's contrary to God's word,
21:35.280 --> 21:38.320
get it out.
21:38.320 --> 21:40.080
You don't just go out to your garden bed
21:40.080 --> 21:43.400
and just break it up.
21:43.400 --> 21:45.120
After you break it up, you go out there
21:45.120 --> 21:48.520
and you break up that soil in your garden bed
21:48.520 --> 21:51.760
and you've got those wild grasses and stuff in there
21:51.760 --> 21:54.440
and there's weeds in there.
21:54.440 --> 21:55.320
You just go in there and break it up and turn it over.
21:55.320 --> 21:57.520
You don't just go stick seeds in there, do you?
21:57.520 --> 22:00.400
What's gonna happen if you do that?
22:00.400 --> 22:02.280
Well, man, you got fresh oxygen in that soil.
22:02.280 --> 22:05.960
You're now gonna water the seed you sowed.
22:05.960 --> 22:08.520
What's gonna happen?
22:08.520 --> 22:09.360
Everything you broke up, it's just gonna start growing
22:09.360 --> 22:11.320
their roots back in that soft ground again,
22:11.320 --> 22:13.200
and it's just gonna start growing again.
22:13.200 --> 22:15.260
You gotta get rid of it.
22:15.260 --> 22:16.880
Get rid of it so there's no competition
22:18.160 --> 22:20.360
to God's word in your life.
22:20.360 --> 22:22.980
Let your entire field be dedicated to God's word.
22:22.980 --> 22:27.400
Be shown in your heart.
22:27.400 --> 22:31.640
When my wife and I go to Indiana,
22:31.640 --> 22:34.560
it's not uncommon to see farmhouses
22:34.560 --> 22:38.580
out in the middle of all this corn or soybeans.
22:38.580 --> 22:42.480
You know what their backyard is?
22:42.480 --> 22:45.040
Corn or beans.
22:45.040 --> 22:47.600
You know what their front yard is?
22:47.600 --> 22:48.560
Corn or beans.
22:48.560 --> 22:49.400
You know what their side yard is?
22:49.400 --> 22:50.240
Corn or beans.
22:50.240 --> 22:51.380
They don't have some big playground.
22:51.380 --> 22:53.760
They got acres everywhere.
22:53.760 --> 22:54.880
They don't have some big playground out there for the kids.
22:54.880 --> 22:56.800
The kids wanna play.
22:56.800 --> 22:57.640
They have to learn to drive a John Deere.
22:57.640 --> 22:59.480
I mean, they have to cultivate all that land
22:59.480 --> 23:03.200
'cause that's gonna make them the money,
23:03.200 --> 23:05.360
and that's what's gonna put food on the table for them.
23:05.360 --> 23:10.060
As long as you allow the weeds of a sinful life
23:10.060 --> 23:15.320
to grow in your life, have very little fruit
23:15.320 --> 23:18.720
because the weeds are gonna choke it out.
23:18.720 --> 23:21.560
Breaking up, ground destroys that root system
23:21.560 --> 23:24.200
what's previously been sowed there
23:24.200 --> 23:25.720
by the world in your life,
23:25.720 --> 23:27.880
so God's word can be sown by your obedience to it.
23:27.880 --> 23:32.440
Ground doesn't get plowed by accident, folks.
23:32.440 --> 23:35.480
You can come church all you want to.
23:35.480 --> 23:39.000
You can tolerate as many sermons as you want to,
23:39.000 --> 23:43.000
but ground doesn't get plowed by accident.
23:43.000 --> 23:45.680
It must be done intentionally and thoroughly
23:45.680 --> 23:49.640
and constantly because sin will always grow back
23:49.640 --> 23:53.720
where ground is left unattended.
23:53.720 --> 23:56.240
I saw it this morning, Brother Doug.
23:56.240 --> 23:59.520
I went out and I watered my garden spots this morning.
23:59.520 --> 24:02.520
I had some fresh green bean plants popping up.
24:02.520 --> 24:05.560
My squash is doing well.
24:05.560 --> 24:09.320
My tomatoes are growing.
24:09.320 --> 24:12.040
But you know what else is trying to grow?
24:12.840 --> 24:15.560
Little sprouts of stuff that I don't want in my garden.
24:15.560 --> 24:20.200
So what's gonna have to happen?
24:20.200 --> 24:21.520
I gotta go out and weed my garden,
24:21.520 --> 24:23.440
and if I don't, there's gonna be competition
24:23.440 --> 24:25.980
over those nutrients.
24:25.980 --> 24:27.160
And Brother Doug, it's not gonna get done by accident.
24:27.160 --> 24:33.840
I'm not gonna wake up one morning,
24:33.840 --> 24:35.760
go out and look out the window and say,
24:35.760 --> 24:38.360
"Honey, come here.
24:38.360 --> 24:40.360
"Good Lord, good Lord, weeded my garden last night for me."
24:42.520 --> 24:46.160
It's not gonna happen.
24:46.160 --> 24:47.680
It's not gonna happen.
24:47.680 --> 24:49.240
I'm gonna have to exercise the discipline
24:49.240 --> 24:51.720
of getting rid of it.
24:51.720 --> 24:53.200
God says, "Get to the business of breaking,
24:53.200 --> 24:55.840
"sowing, and reaping."
24:55.840 --> 24:57.700
Why?
24:57.700 --> 24:58.540
Look back in your text.
24:58.540 --> 24:59.380
"For it is time to seek the Lord."
24:59.380 --> 25:04.380
Underscore the word seek.
25:04.380 --> 25:06.160
Well, we're getting some principles down here
25:06.160 --> 25:10.400
this morning, aren't we?
25:10.400 --> 25:12.100
We've got breaking, sowing, reaping, and seeking,
25:12.100 --> 25:17.100
but not in that order.
25:17.100 --> 25:25.040
Seeking, in the Hebrew, the word seek here,
25:25.040 --> 25:31.020
it means to pursue for the purpose of inquiry,
25:31.020 --> 25:34.260
to pursue for the purpose of inquiry.
25:34.260 --> 25:40.080
This morning, I had someone seek me.
25:40.080 --> 25:42.440
Brother Jess did.
25:42.440 --> 25:46.800
I was getting ready to broadcast to Sunday school
25:46.800 --> 25:50.040
and teach Sunday school this morning.
25:50.040 --> 25:52.460
Brother Jess walked from where he was to where I was
25:52.460 --> 25:56.680
for the purpose of inquiring.
25:56.680 --> 25:59.080
He had a question.
25:59.080 --> 26:00.160
I'm not gonna tell you what his question was.
26:00.160 --> 26:03.120
That's private, nothing wrong with it, but it is private.
26:03.120 --> 26:06.000
But he came and he says, "I know you're busy,
26:06.000 --> 26:09.240
"but I've got a question."
26:09.240 --> 26:10.720
So I put what I was doing on hold.
26:10.720 --> 26:13.840
I turned, I listened to his question.
26:13.840 --> 26:15.640
I gave him the answer.
26:15.640 --> 26:17.000
He sought me out.
26:17.000 --> 26:18.640
That's the idea of seeking here,
26:18.640 --> 26:20.760
to pursue for the purpose of inquiry.
26:20.760 --> 26:24.400
Oh, there's Brother Eddie back there.
26:24.400 --> 26:28.620
I had a question I wanted to ask him.
26:28.620 --> 26:29.640
"Hey, Brother Eddie."
26:29.640 --> 26:31.200
That's the seeking idea here.
26:31.200 --> 26:34.760
And of course, who are we seeking in the text?
26:34.760 --> 26:37.580
It's time to seek what?
26:37.580 --> 26:39.340
The Lord.
26:39.340 --> 26:40.720
That means you need to start pursuing me
26:40.720 --> 26:43.740
for the purpose of inquiry.
26:43.740 --> 26:45.880
Now, breaking is something, an action we take on our part.
26:45.880 --> 26:51.560
God told them you break up the fowl of ground.
26:51.560 --> 26:54.080
God told them you so.
26:54.080 --> 26:55.760
Now, the reaping, they're gonna reap,
26:55.760 --> 26:59.880
but the fruit's gonna be God's work.
26:59.880 --> 27:02.820
They're gonna enjoy and experience the fruit of God's work.
27:02.820 --> 27:06.840
But the sowing, the breaking, all that,
27:06.840 --> 27:11.840
that's their job.
27:11.840 --> 27:15.880
That's our job, and so is seeking.
27:15.880 --> 27:18.320
Seeking's our job.
27:18.320 --> 27:19.480
We have to pursue God for the purpose of inquiry.
27:19.480 --> 27:23.280
We have to be able to say,
27:23.280 --> 27:24.320
"God, I want to know what your truth is.
27:24.320 --> 27:29.320
"I wanna know what your word says to me."
27:29.320 --> 27:33.760
I enjoyed looking at a Facebook post this week
27:33.760 --> 27:37.240
of you and your granddaughter.
27:37.240 --> 27:40.520
She's the one that was reading the Bible with you, right?
27:40.520 --> 27:43.560
Just a beautiful post,
27:43.560 --> 27:45.480
and had her granddaughter over there,
27:45.480 --> 27:47.080
and they were reading the Bible together.
27:47.080 --> 27:50.120
And you know what you do when you get up
27:50.120 --> 27:53.240
and you say, "You know what?
27:53.240 --> 27:54.080
"I'm gonna get into God's word.
27:54.080 --> 27:55.560
"I'm gonna read and I'm gonna start seeing what it says."
27:55.560 --> 27:57.360
You know what you're doing?
27:57.360 --> 27:58.200
You're seeking.
27:58.200 --> 27:59.320
You're going to the book for the purpose of inquiry.
27:59.320 --> 28:02.480
Lord, what does your word say?
28:02.480 --> 28:05.200
Lord, show me truth as I study your word today.
28:05.200 --> 28:08.960
You see, those seeds that I put,
28:08.960 --> 28:17.840
and that I had in that packet for my dad,
28:17.840 --> 28:21.340
before he can put them in the ground,
28:21.340 --> 28:23.140
he's gotta go to that packet.
28:23.140 --> 28:25.000
He's gotta rip it open.
28:25.000 --> 28:26.560
He's gotta dump those seeds out in his hand.
28:26.560 --> 28:28.880
Before he can ever put them in the ground,
28:28.880 --> 28:31.200
I gotta get in his hand.
28:31.200 --> 28:32.880
I have to get out of the package,
28:32.880 --> 28:34.480
into his hand, so he can put them in the ground.
28:34.480 --> 28:37.460
Now, this is the package with all the seeds in it.
28:37.460 --> 28:40.640
And it's our job to seek the Lord.
28:40.640 --> 28:44.960
We're responsible for doing what's in this book.
28:44.960 --> 28:51.400
The only way you can have the seeds to put in the ground
28:51.400 --> 28:54.720
is if you start digging down this book.
28:54.720 --> 28:57.280
Man, when I got my green beans out,
28:57.280 --> 28:59.200
I like setting my green beans in the holes
29:00.760 --> 29:04.480
that they were developed in.
29:04.480 --> 29:07.360
They dry naturally, they breathe,
29:07.360 --> 29:09.640
they allow aeration and everything.
29:09.640 --> 29:11.320
And then this spring, I just took those old green bean hulls,
29:11.320 --> 29:16.320
I cracked them open, and I started scraping
29:16.320 --> 29:20.000
the green beans out of them, got them in my hand,
29:20.000 --> 29:22.440
then I went over there and I sewed them in my garden.
29:22.440 --> 29:25.040
And when you go to God's word and you start reading it,
29:26.520 --> 29:30.920
you start studying, man, I tell you what,
29:30.920 --> 29:33.760
I enjoyed Sunday school so much as,
29:33.760 --> 29:37.800
I think it was the third time I listened
29:37.800 --> 29:39.520
to Brother Shepherd's Sunday School last week.
29:39.520 --> 29:41.880
That's third time, wasn't it?
29:41.880 --> 29:43.540
Man, I enjoyed it as much the third time around
29:43.540 --> 29:45.600
as I did the first and the second.
29:45.600 --> 29:46.720
I enjoyed the second time the best.
29:46.720 --> 29:48.880
And then the third time.
29:48.880 --> 29:50.440
And what am I doing that I'm listening
29:50.440 --> 29:53.000
and I'm eagerly learning and hanging on those words.
29:53.000 --> 29:56.360
As he's expounding the truth in there.
29:56.360 --> 29:59.120
And what am I doing?
29:59.120 --> 30:00.600
I'm taking seeds out so I can say,
30:00.600 --> 30:03.240
God, teach me the truth from your word
30:03.240 --> 30:05.840
so I can apply it, sow it to my life.
30:05.840 --> 30:09.080
And the sad thing is a lot of y'all have packets of seeds
30:09.080 --> 30:14.800
you've never torn into.
30:14.800 --> 30:17.160
You've got Wednesday night teaching, never listened to.
30:17.160 --> 30:21.000
You've got Sunday morning teaching, never turn on,
30:21.000 --> 30:24.280
never come sitting here and listen to it.
30:24.280 --> 30:26.480
You got seeds that are by the wayside.
30:26.480 --> 30:28.800
You listen to more TV, watch more YouTube,
30:28.800 --> 30:32.040
more stupidity instead of just getting in here
30:32.040 --> 30:35.300
to God's word.
30:35.300 --> 30:36.280
You're allowing fallow ground in your life
30:36.280 --> 30:39.080
and you're not reaping the goodness and kindness.
30:39.080 --> 30:42.040
You say, well, my life's doing well now.
30:42.040 --> 30:44.080
You don't know what it's gonna be.
30:44.080 --> 30:45.400
You always reap later than yourself.
30:45.400 --> 30:47.320
Always reap later than yourself.
30:47.320 --> 30:50.440
And I'll tell you this,
30:50.440 --> 30:51.680
the longer that ground stays fallow,
30:51.680 --> 30:54.400
the harder it is to break up and weed out.
30:54.400 --> 30:56.720
Sure is.
30:56.720 --> 30:59.160
Time to seek the Lord,
30:59.160 --> 31:04.480
time to inquire from God,
31:04.480 --> 31:06.520
run to Him for the purpose of discovering
31:06.520 --> 31:09.600
what His will is in your life.
31:09.600 --> 31:11.320
You have to get that seed from someplace.
31:11.320 --> 31:13.840
That light has to come from somewhere
31:13.840 --> 31:16.240
before it can glisten on that broken soil.
31:16.240 --> 31:18.840
(audio cuts out)
31:18.840 --> 31:21.600
Before you can
31:21.600 --> 31:24.680
obey God's commandments,
31:24.680 --> 31:29.080
you first have to know what those commandments are.
31:29.080 --> 31:32.000
Before you can light,
31:32.000 --> 31:33.000
let the light of God's word shine upon your freshly broken
31:33.000 --> 31:37.840
heart, I had to repeat myself 'cause my mic cut out
31:37.840 --> 31:40.280
for those online.
31:40.280 --> 31:41.480
You have to first know what God's word says.
31:41.480 --> 31:43.960
Seeking is just as important as breaking.
31:43.960 --> 31:48.080
And sowing, seeking is gathering good seed.
31:49.080 --> 31:52.160
Breaking is getting rid of disobedient lifestyle
31:52.160 --> 31:55.120
and exposing God's word to your heart.
31:55.120 --> 31:57.440
Sowing is obeying the word that you hear.
31:57.440 --> 32:00.400
Reaping is enjoying the kindness of God
32:00.400 --> 32:03.840
that you serve when you serve Him.
32:03.840 --> 32:05.840
We seek, we break up,
32:05.840 --> 32:08.520
we sow our obedience to God's word,
32:08.520 --> 32:10.760
and we do that, look back at your text,
32:10.760 --> 32:12.640
'til He come and reign.
32:12.640 --> 32:16.320
How about that?
32:17.080 --> 32:18.080
Whose job is it to seek?
32:18.080 --> 32:21.960
Ours.
32:21.960 --> 32:22.800
Whose job is it to break up?
32:22.800 --> 32:26.440
Ours.
32:26.440 --> 32:27.280
Whose job is to sow ours?
32:27.280 --> 32:30.840
Whose job is it to reign?
32:30.840 --> 32:34.200
That's God's.
32:34.200 --> 32:35.760
We can't make it reign, can we?
32:35.760 --> 32:37.560
(laughs)
32:37.560 --> 32:38.800
God's gotta come and make it reign.
32:38.800 --> 32:40.600
Man, that brings us to the reigning part.
32:40.600 --> 32:42.680
If you seek God's word and obey it,
32:42.680 --> 32:45.320
God says you take the time, you take the trouble
32:45.320 --> 32:49.200
of breaking up your heart, exposing it to my word,
32:49.200 --> 32:52.920
and then applying it to your life,
32:52.920 --> 32:54.600
which means sowing it down in your heart and your life,
32:54.600 --> 32:57.520
I will take the time to come
32:57.520 --> 33:01.360
and make it where you put that seed.
33:01.360 --> 33:03.960
We get to reap, we get to sow, we get to break up.
33:03.960 --> 33:09.120
But you know what?
33:09.120 --> 33:09.960
God's the one that gets to reign
33:09.960 --> 33:11.800
and make that field in your heart bear fruit.
33:11.800 --> 33:16.800
And he promises us that if we will follow his word,
33:16.800 --> 33:21.840
if we'll take the time to break that heart up
33:21.840 --> 33:25.240
and get rid of those things that are contrary to his word,
33:25.240 --> 33:27.800
he promises us that he will come and reign.
33:27.800 --> 33:31.800
What's he gonna reign?
33:31.800 --> 33:35.200
Righteousness upon you.
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Righteousness upon you.
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Righteousness upon you.
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That reign's coming down.
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It's gonna be reigning righteousness.
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I like this.
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That why reign in righteousness?
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What is that all about?
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Oh man, this gets good.
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Get ready for a blessing.
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Get ready for a blessing.
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I want you to notice that how do we sow?
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Look back in your text, how do we sow?
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How did God tell them to sow?
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In righteousness.
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Same word.
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We sow in righteousness, God reigns down righteousness.
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We put righteousness in the heart
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and then God reigns righteousness down on it.
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We sow, listen now, remember we've learned this.
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When God talked about sowing in righteousness,
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he said, "Showing my mercy to thousands
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that love me and keep my commandments."
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So keeping God's commandments is us sowing in righteousness.
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Okay?
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That means we sow, right?
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By keeping the commandments of God's word.
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We'll say that again.
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We sow by keeping the commandments of God's word.
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That's sowing in righteousness.
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God then returns after that seed's in the ground
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and then he reigns in righteousness.
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How does that work?
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Does he, is he raining more seeds down?
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No.
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See, we sow by keeping the commandments of God's word.
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God reigns by keeping the promises of his word.
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It's all God's word.
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We're obeying the word.
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We're keeping the commandments of the word of God.
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And then God's coming back and in response to us
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keeping his commandments, he's keeping his promises.
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He's raining it down.
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His promises are taking our obedience to his word
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and fruit defying our lives
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so we can enjoy a marvelous harvest
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of the goodness of our God toward us.
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Here's the kingdom truth.
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Unbroken commandments, rain unbroken promises.
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Isn't that good?
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Unbroken commandments, rain down unbroken promises.
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Righteousness sown becomes mercy reaped.
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And with that, we'll go ahead and close.
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Man, I sure had a good time in the Bible this morning.
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Oh, I love God's word step by step.
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You sow it, you break up, you reap.
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I will come and I'm gonna rain on what you sowed.
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That is a promise from God's holy word.
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Father, we thank you so much for your Bible.
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We thank you for the fruit, the seed rather,
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that always germinates, always germinates.
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And we thank you, Father God,
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for you keeping your promises, Lord.
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Always raining down on that seed and bearing fruit.
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It will only follow your word.
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Seek it so we'll know it.
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Obey it so we'll sow it.
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And by your grace, we'll soon reap it.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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