Participants: Rowland Nwsou
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000324
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00:31 Hello. Welcome to Faith Chapel.
00:34 My name is Pastor Rowland C. Nwosu, 00:37 the pastor of the All Nations Africans 00:40 Seventh-Day Adventist Church in San Bernardino, 00:43 California, and the President also of the 00:46 Adventist Our International Ministries 00:49 based in the Melinda, California. 00:53 I want to share with you today a message that 00:55 I had told Break Your Fallow ground. 01:00 Let us pray, Father we thank you 01:02 today for the opportunity that you've given us to 01:06 share your word, to receive your word, 01:08 to meditate upon your word to reflect upon your word. 01:13 Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit will help us 01:16 to internalize these words and to allow 01:20 ourselves to be used by your Holy Spirit, 01:24 help us, Oh father to break our fallow 01:26 ground in Jesus precious name we pray. 01:30 Amen. Break Your Fallow Ground is the message 01:36 that God gave to his people Israel. 01:42 Israel had been disobedient for so long, 01:46 they had backslid in for so long. 01:49 They have turned their backs on God for so long 01:53 and worshiped idols, and had fallowed after 01:58 all the nations and had done things that please 02:01 them in their eyes and God have become so 02:04 frustrated with them, that he was tired of 02:08 being frustrated. But, he gave a message to 02:12 prophet Jeremiah, which was recorded in 02:15 Jeremiah Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. 02:20 I swell where we want to draw our lesson today. 02:25 God involved himself in that conversation 02:28 with his people, he initiated a repentance 02:32 and his people responded and as they 02:36 innocence had this conversation, 02:37 let us speak that conversation up from 02:40 Jeremiah Chapter 3, Verse 22, 02:46 Jeremiah Chapter 3, Verse 22. 02:49 God calls upon his people, Return, you 02:53 backsliding children. And I will heal your 02:57 backslidings. And notice that his people responded. 03:00 "Indeed we do come to You, For You are 03:04 the Lord our God. And it goes on to say, 03:08 that the people recognize their need for repentance, 03:14 they willingness to comeback to him". 03:16 In Verse 22, we read that they profess their 03:20 repentance toward God. They express their desire 03:24 to return and they claimed, they were serious, 03:27 they swore that they were serious than the message, 03:32 the discussions shifts and that we read in 03:36 Chapter 4, Verses 1 and 2, God saying to them 03:41 and the God says "If you will return, 03:44 O Israel," says the Lord, "Return to Me; 03:48 And if you will put away your abominations out of 03:52 My sight, Then you shall not be moved 03:57 and you shall swear, 'The Lord lives 04:02 In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; 04:05 The nations shall bless themselves in Him, 04:08 And in Him they shall glorified. 04:11 In other words, in other words, 04:14 God says if you're serious My people, 04:19 if you're serious that you've, that you all 04:23 wanted to repent or that you've repented. 04:25 If you're serious and if you really mean 04:28 what you're saying, if you've taken this oath 04:31 and you're genuine and you're honest, 04:34 notice what will Lord says, he says in Verse 4, 04:38 in Verses 3&4, he says, 04:41 for thus says the Lord to the men of Judah 04:46 and Jerusalem: "Break up your fallow ground, 04:49 And do not sow among thorns. 04:51 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, 04:54 And take away the foreskins of your hearts, 04:57 You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, 05:00 Lest My fury come forth like fire, 05:03 And burn so that no one can quench it, 05:05 Because of the Evil of your doings". 05:10 You see in these passage, we see God's message 05:13 to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, 05:16 as the message of warning, a message of 05:20 loving invitation, a message of warning 05:23 for impending judgment that was to come to them 05:26 and God does not just invite them to return, 05:29 to return after righteousness, 05:32 to return to him, to repent, 05:33 but God also, also gives them a warning that, 05:38 if they do not repent, if the do not return to him. 05:42 Something will fallow. But besides that God 05:45 also prescribes how that return should be. 05:49 What a Loving God, we serve. This message to 05:55 His people is similar, it's like the some 05:59 message God has given to his people in their 06:03 last days, a message of warning that is recorded 06:06 in the Book of Revelation Chapter14, Verses 6-12, 06:11 that we should, beyond we're invited to return 06:16 back to the Lord, we must return, 06:19 if we do not return there is message of 06:23 impending judgment and then there is also 06:27 a prescription as to how that return should 06:31 take place. So to the people of Judah, 06:34 God prescribed these messages. 06:38 Return, Return break up your fallowed ground, 06:42 do not sow among thorns and circumcise 06:46 your hearts and not just your foreskin. 06:50 That leaves me to ask, what is, 06:54 what does it mean to break, Israel's fallowed ground. 07:01 You see in the Old Testament, 07:03 the Jews were required to cultivate a piece of land, 07:08 their piece of land for six years, 07:10 but then on the 7th year, they were to 07:13 allow the land to rest. 07:16 So, that it can recuperate and then have his yield, 07:21 a yielding capacity again. 07:23 In Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 10& 11, 07:27 we read these words. He says, 07:30 "For six years you're to sow your fills 07:34 and harvest the crops, but during the 07:37 seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. 07:42 Then the poor among your people may get 07:46 food from it, and the wild animals 07:49 may eat what they leave. 07:51 Do the same with your vineyard 07:53 and your olive grove. 07:57 " So a fallowed ground is a piece of land 08:02 purposely allowed to lie idol, 08:06 during a growing season, a land is allowed 08:11 to lie idol and the reason is to encourage 08:14 this land to have fertility and have its 08:18 nutrients restored and if properly 08:22 conducted these land, this fallowed land 08:25 restores in the soil, the nutrients 08:30 necessary for good productivity. 08:35 But sometimes some things happen due to 08:38 some laziness or some poor management by someone, 08:42 a fallowed land lies wasted, stays longer than 08:47 necessary, because someone forgot, 08:50 someone neglected, someone 08:52 did not care to prepare it for fallow. 08:56 Sometimes due to negligence or lack of care, 08:59 this fallow ground becomes a dumping ground. 09:03 Because of lack of care and negligence or 09:06 something, this piece of land, this fallow 09:08 ground, that has been left unplowed becomes 09:13 a place where beast of pray 09:15 will hide and cause great harm. 09:20 Somehow because of negligence, 09:22 this fallow ground grows thorns 09:26 and it is because of this that God warned 09:29 that they should not sow among thorns 09:32 because the land has been left for so long, 09:35 uncultivated, unplowed. 09:38 It is no wonder why King Solemn in his 09:41 wise writings in the book proverbs 09:44 Chapter 13, Verse 23 and the Bible reads that. 09:49 Much food, much food is in the fallow ground of 09:53 the poor and for lack of justice there are just waste. 10:02 So, in our Chapters that we're discussing with, 10:05 discussing in Jeremiah Chapters 3&4 10:09 God uses the imagery of farming and circumcision 10:14 to describe the spiritual condition of His people. 10:18 the fallowed ground is their heart. 10:20 They all the ground, the fallowed ground. 10:23 Gods people have allowed their hearts to be vested. 10:29 They've allowed they are largely vested. 10:31 God's people have backsliding so long. 10:34 They've stayed beyond. They fallow time. 10:39 They've served idols so long. 10:42 They had done things in their own way. 10:44 They had done their will. They had abandoned what 10:47 God had wanted them to do and they needed to 10:49 return back to the Lord. They needed to break up 10:53 their fallowed ground. They needed not to sow 10:55 among thorns, what they needed to plough, 10:58 the ground of their soul and their aligns 11:00 and plant in this newly plowed land seeds of 11:06 repentance that will grow up and become mature 11:10 and produce good fruits and good productivity, 11:15 and as if that was not enough 11:19 God said to them listen, 11:20 I am sure you're familiar with the circumcision 11:24 process, I don't really care. I don't really mind 11:28 about circumcision of the flesh. 11:31 I really do care about the circumcision of 11:35 your heart, circumcise your heart. 11:38 Yes, I gave the circumcision, 11:41 God send to say, I asked you to circumcise. 11:44 Yes, that is a sign between me and you, 11:47 but it is okay for you to do it. 11:49 But you done mean, it doesn't mean that 11:52 you've relationship with you. 11:53 If you just cut out the foreskin and not render 11:58 your hearts to me and not give me your heart. 12:01 If you just performed this circumcision alone 12:05 it's like having a form of Godliness and 12:08 decline a part of it, if you just cut the 12:10 outside form alone and not the heart. 12:13 I am not interested on the outside part, 12:15 I am interested in the inward part. 12:18 God said break your fallow ground 12:23 and do not so among thorns and then 12:26 circumcise your hearts to the Lord 12:29 and not just your foreskin. 12:31 O our God is good, lesions we can learn 12:36 from this conversation between God 12:39 and his people first. The invitation 12:44 to repent begins with God. 12:49 God initiates it, except the Holy Spirit 12:53 comes to us we can't have the desire to 12:58 come back to God. So we need to ask God 13:05 for his continued our pouring and the giving 13:09 the Holy Spirit, so that each day 13:11 we will be renewed. 13:14 Now if you're watching this broadcast, 13:17 are you do not have a personal relationship 13:19 with God. It is some opportunity for you to now 13:24 to come down on your knees and say Lord, 13:26 I've gone too long without you, 13:29 I need your relationship with you, I've fallow 13:33 too long Lord coming now and listen to the voice 13:39 of the Holy Spirit and I do believe the 13:40 Holy Spirit led you to this station 13:44 and God is speaking to you right now. 13:48 God is initiating that invitation to comeback 13:51 and to return to him and when you return to him 13:58 let the seed of your repentance, the words 14:01 of God be planted in the soul of your heart, 14:06 So, that it can blew some. 14:10 So that the Holy Spirit will put the water of his 14:13 Spirit, God will put the Holy Spirit water 14:16 if you please, so that 14:18 it would rain upon this soul of your heart 14:22 and then a plant of a new life will grow. 14:28 Do you accept Jesus Christ as your 14:29 personal savior? Do you love him as 14:33 the Lord of your life? Are you accepting him as 14:36 one who you need to feel your sin sick soul to 14:41 clean it up and to feel that need, 14:43 that void you have? You see invitation to 14:49 repent is initiated by God and repentance is done 14:56 directly by the person to whom God has invited. 15:02 God has invited you to repent, to comeback 15:06 to him and only you will have to respond to 15:10 that personal call. God makes those 15:13 individual calls to us. He may make it as a group 15:17 but we respond individually. 15:20 so we are not saved as a group, 15:22 we are saved as individuals. 15:24 So when you repent, when we repent, 15:27 we cannot repent, we cannot be saved, 15:30 we cannot be Baptized on behalf of somebody else. 15:33 when we are Baptized, we are Baptized 15:36 just by ourselves. when we are saved, 15:39 we are saved by ourselves. 15:41 We do not Baptized by property. We don't 15:44 Baptized or we don't repent on behalf of 15:47 the dead or anyone else that is alive. We respond 15:51 to God as individuals and he saves us 15:54 as individuals. He says for the soul that 15:57 sin shall die. And he who serve God, 16:02 he who loves God, whosoever loves the Lord 16:06 and believes in him shall be saved. 16:09 Lesion 2 that I think we need to learn 16:12 is that, we can obey God all we want but still 16:17 have the wrong attitude. Let me explain this, 16:21 the Israelites followed. 16:25 God asked them to fallow they are land. 16:28 But now, you can see, the land is fallow, 16:33 God is obeyed, but they allowed the land 16:35 to stay wasted, wrong attitude. 16:40 We read in the scripture, the rich young ruler, 16:44 who came to Jesus by night, 16:48 had obeyed the Lord. 16:50 He had obeyed it all his life. But guess 16:53 what, he had a wrong attitude. 17:00 Figuratively speaking my dear friends, 17:02 the Israelites obeyed God alright, 17:05 but they did not till their land. 17:09 They fallow their land, but they didn't till it. 17:11 they didn't break this soil. They didn't 17:14 clear the farms and the wheeze before 17:17 they planted the seed of repentance. 17:21 They had good seeds alright. 17:24 But they filled to clean up their acts 17:27 and to clear the farms that when necessary 17:30 to be cleared before planting. 17:34 That is to say that we can obey God 17:38 and go through the motions and the look 17:41 motions that have to do with serving God. 17:44 But we failed, when we failed to 17:47 meet the favor of God. 17:50 It is because we have the wrong attitude. 17:53 It's because we've not allowed the Spirit of 17:56 the Lord to direct the things we do. 17:59 We have not allowed the love of God 18:01 to be the oiles, that grease our 18:03 behavior and our attitudes. 18:07 That was the problem with God's people? 18:12 Lesson 3 that I believe that I have, 18:16 learned in this passage is that 18:18 the value of the fallowed ground lies, 18:22 listen to this, listen to this, 18:23 the value of the fallowed ground lies not in the 18:28 looks of the fallowed ground, but in the 18:30 content of it, you see God saw the 18:33 fallowed ground, he saw all thorns, 18:35 he saw all weed. He saw places where 18:38 animals who hide. He saw places where 18:41 people can dump things, but there was something 18:44 special with fallowed ground. 18:46 Inside it, there was rich soil. It had the 18:50 propensity to have richness because 18:53 when the rains comedown they will drip down in. 18:56 So, God says listen, I can see through this 18:59 dirt, but clean it up. I am willing 19:05 to make changes, I am willing to help you, 19:07 I am willing to rain down to pour my rain down 19:11 upon this ground. But till it, break it up, 19:14 repent, break it up, dig deep, 19:17 scooped it up, turn it over. 19:21 Do you need your life turned around, 19:25 as your life been beseeched with all kinds 19:28 of difficulties and trios and situations and 19:32 drug addict and smoking all kinds of things 19:35 and messing up your body and living a life that is 19:39 not something that is honorable? 19:44 God says break it up. Break up your 19:48 fallow ground, dig it up, 19:49 clear those thorns and weeds. 19:57 You see, prepare yourself, God says, to receive 20:03 blessings of the Lord. Sow good seeds of God's 20:08 word and allow the Holy Spirit to water it 20:11 and then the sunshine of God's mercy 20:15 and grace will produce, will help you produce 20:20 good fruits and good result. 20:24 However, and all repentance, stubborn 20:27 heart that would not humble himself 20:30 or herself and return to the Lord, It's like a 20:34 fallowed ground. It's untilled, it's not tilled 20:37 well, it's not even tilled. It's unoccupied. 20:40 It's unfenced. It's valueless. 20:43 It's a dumping ground for waste. It's full of fishers. 20:47 It's not capable of improvement, 20:49 it is full of overgrown weeds. 20:52 The Bible says to us. Return break up your 20:59 fallowed ground, break up your fallow 21:02 ground and circumcise yourselves. 21:07 In Hebrews Chapter 6 Verses 7 and 8, 21:09 we read this very wonderful passage that 21:13 describes the, Hebrews 6 Verses 7and 8 say this, 21:18 for the earth which drinks in the rain 21:21 that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful 21:27 for those by whom it is cultivated, 21:30 receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns 21:35 and briers, it is rejected and near to 21:39 being cursed, whose end is to be burned. 21:47 My friends the instruction is do not sow seeds of 21:55 repentance in unfit soil. Just as a farmer prepares 22:03 the ground by clearing it off weeds and exposing 22:06 it to the sun and to the rain, 22:09 before interesting to it the seeds sow we must 22:14 regard repentance as a serious matter, 22:18 as the serious matter requiring full thought, 22:21 anxiously, planning 22:26 and dependence and trust in God, to sow in an 22:30 unfallowed ground was practically to sow on 22:35 a land full of thorns. Is your life full of thorns? 22:44 Are you sow seeds of repentance 22:49 in a land full of thorns, in an unplowed land? 22:55 We go to Church every time.We listen to 22:59 the music. We even hear God's word, 23:03 but are these words, are these messages 23:06 falling on hard soil, on plowed soil. 23:14 That brings us to our next lession. 23:18 Do not sow among thorns. 23:21 Hosea Chapter 10, Verse 12 says. 23:24 Sow for yourselves righteousness 23:28 Reap in mercy. Break up your fallow ground, 23:30 for it is time to seek the Lord 23:33 till He comes and rains righteousness on you. 23:40 The people of God are called not to Sow 23:44 wickedness, but to sow righteousness. 23:48 We're suppose to sow righteousness for what 23:52 we sow is what we reap and I will like you to 23:56 refer you to, what apostle Paul talks about 24:00 in Galatians Chapter 6, Verses 7 and 8, 24:04 Galatians Chapter 6, Verses 7 and 8, 24:07 in that Verse, apostle Paul is 24:10 trying to let us know that when we sow 24:14 goodness, we reap goodness, 24:16 when we sow sadness, we reap sadness, 24:19 Whatever we sow we reap. 24:22 Galatians Chapter 6 Verses 7 through 9, he says 24:29 do not be deceived, God is not mocked. 24:32 For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 24:37 For he who sows to his flesh will of the 24:42 flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the 24:45 Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life 24:50 and let us not grow wary while doing good, 24:53 for in due season we shall reap 24:57 if we do not lose hearts. 25:00 My dear friends my last point is this, 25:06 circumcise yourselves to the Lord. 25:09 The Lord says circumcise under wood, 25:11 circumcise has to do with cutting of, 25:14 cutting of yourselves, kill yourselves if you 25:17 please, kill that superficial naughtiness, 25:21 the addiction, the human habits, that discuss, 25:25 that discuss us, that destroy us, 25:29 the uncaused the Greek word uncaused those things that 25:33 lay around us, that hinder us, that prevent us 25:36 from being who we're, from serving the Lord 25:39 from being faithful, cut it off, 25:42 circumcise yourselves to the Lord, 25:44 dedicate yourselves to the Lord, for that is 25:48 the sign between God and his people. 25:51 God says circumcise yourselves to me, 25:54 I am not interested just in the outward cutting. 25:59 I am not interested in just going to Church. 26:02 I am not just interested in the form of it, 26:05 but I am interested in the circumcision of the heart. 26:09 Deuteronomy Chapter 10, Verses 16 and 17, 26:14 the Bible says. Therefore circumcise, 26:18 circumcise your heart. Therefore do not be 26:21 stiff-necked any longer 26:24 for the Lord your God is God of Gods and 26:28 Lord of Lords, and he is the great God, 26:32 mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality 26:35 nor takes a bribe. In Joel Chapter 2, 26:39 Verse 13 says, rend your hearts, rend your hearts, 26:46 rend your hearts, and not your garments 26:48 return to the Lord your God, for He is 26:51 gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, 26:55 and of great kindness and He relents from 26:59 doing harm. My friends return to God, 27:02 if you've been gone from the Lord so long, 27:06 return. If you've been in the church too long 27:09 and have allowed your ground to be fallowed, 27:12 render your hearts and not your garments. 27:15 Yes listen to those good music, but let it 27:18 come from the heart, study God's word, 27:21 have personal relationship with him, 27:23 allow the soil of the soul to receive the 27:27 blessings of God, to receive the power, 27:30 the sunshine of God's goodness and mercy. 27:32 The rains that God is willing to pour, 27:35 let his spirit pour out and when his spirit 27:39 comes down, when we receive the Holy Spirit 27:42 then we, our hearts will be changed, 27:45 we will do the works that God want us to do 27:48 and our hearts will be in place, where God 27:52 will live. May Lord bless you. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17