“Break It Up”
“Tearing up the fallow ground in your life”
by
District Elder Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr
Hosea 10:12 & Isaiah 43:19
Whenever I begin to tell the story of when I was hit by a car at the age of 12 while riding my bike to school, my wife will either finish the story for me or she will say something like O.K. that’s 1 million and 5 times now. She says she has heard that story more times than not and I need to find another story to tell in order to make a point. The thing that I have come to realize about this story and my telling of the story is at the time I am telling the story in my mind I am literally living in the past. I am trying to hold on to a former experience in my life and I am seeking to receive the same sympathy, understanding, and pity I received nearly 30 years ago.
A few years ago there was a show on television that I like called “Married with Children”. On the show the father, named Al Bundy was a ladies shoe salesman. He always felt as though life had dealt him a bad hand. However, for those that remember the show will remember that Al went to Polk High School and played football. During one game he scored 4 touchdowns. Everyone knew the story and dreaded when he told it, but he would begin to smile and gloat and feel good trying to hold on to some former glory.
Just like Al Bundy in the show, when I tell the story of when I got hit by the car in my mind as I am telling the story I am literally stuck on Friday September 12, 1977. I am in my mind expecting the same understanding, the same sympathy, and the same experiences I received on that day, but the truth is life has moved on some almost 30 years, but I’m trying to hold on to yesterday.
Sadly the church is oftentimes this very way. They say stuff like I remember when the church use to be full. I remember when during service someone from off the street would walk in strung out on drugs and alcohol and possessed with demons, but the saints would began to pray and those demons would have to flee. Then there are the ones with this testimony 20 years ago God brought me out of sin, I remember it just like it was yesterday.
ILLUSTRATION: God brought them out of sin 20 years ago, but they have not moved from that very point in the past 20 years. Life and the Body of Christ has moved on yet instill they are standing there holding on to some former glory. God is saying I want to do a new thing in you, I want to take you to another level, I know the thoughts I have for you, thoughts of good and not of evil to bring you to an expected end, but you need to tear up that fallow ground in your life.
WATCH THIS: They are still trying to hold on to a former experience, they are trying to retain some former glory. The fact of the matter is they are stuck in place. This place is a place where we as an individual or as a church should not be. It is a scary place, it is a desolate place, it is a lonely place, and it is the place of mediocrity and complacency.
What am I saying: Once we have experienced a level of success, once we have seen the hand of God at work, once that thing that we have been praying for comes to fruition we become like the rich fool in Luke 12:16-19 “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17 and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” He had gotten to a place of complacency and mediocrity and he didn’t want to be bothered or disrupted any more. This is how the church is getting, we’ve experienced a level of success, we’ve seen God work now all we want to do is sit back, kick off our shouting shoes, sing a few songs, hear a short and sweet message, say a quick prayer and just be comfortable. We really don’t want God to move because that will disrupt our level of complacency. We have experienced God, but now we have placed a Do Not Disturb sign over the door knob of our hearts. We don’t pray like we use to pray, we don’t fast like we use to fast, we don’t move like we use to move, we don’t love like we use to love O ZION what’s the matter now. We have become stuck and comfortable with where we are, spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally, we say I’m on my way to heaven and I’m so glad, but God is saying I want to do a new thing, there’s more I have for you then just to bring you to heaven, but you must tear up that fallow ground in your life. BREAK IT UP.
WATCH THIS: A parable is a natural story with spiritual implications and ramifications. In Matthew the 13th chapter Jesus told the parable of a sower who sowed some seeds. Some of the seeds fell on good ground, some on stony ground, and some fell among thorns. Later on the disciples came to Him and asked why do you speak to them in parables. Jesus said because it is give for you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to them it is not given. Not only here did Jesus speak in parables, but all through the Bible there are parables. Remember I said a parable is a natural story with spiritual implications and ramifications.
Well the word ground in the natural is soil, dirt, and earth, but the spiritual implications is talking about the heart. Whenever you see the word ground in the Bible the spiritual implication is the heart.
In our text in Hosea 10:12 the Bible says “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” BREAK IT UP.
What does it mean to break up your fallow ground? The word “Break’ comes from a Hebrew word called “Shaw bar” and means to crush, to burst, and to tear into pieces. The statement “Fallow Ground” is ground (HEART) that at one time was fruitful. It is ground that at one point in time had been cultivated and productive, but now it is just dirt. It’s ground that is no longer producing that which it did previously.
ILLUSTRATION: God gave me a good picture here. A few years ago my wife and I bought a house. My wife said she wanted a garden in the back yard. Now we bought the house in late September, to late for a garden, but the following spring I cultivated a section in our backyard. I removed the grass, turned the soil over; I had made nice and neat rows in this garden. Then we planted in this garden Tomatoes, onions, greens, okra, and peppers. I like peppers a lot, we had red, green, yellow, and chocolate peppers and my wife made lots of stuffed peppers that I enjoyed exceeding and abundantly. Soon however, fall came, the weather began to change, and the garden stopped producing. Then winter came and the ground began to freeze. Finally springtime came around again I looked at our garden the rows that were nice and neat last years were now crumbled and hard. Weeds had begun to spring up where there was once beautiful green, red, yellow, and chocolate peppers. Rocks were now in our garden and I don’t know how they got there. Now unless I get out in my garden and break up that ground that last year produced greatly and re-plant new stuff (NEW STUFF) all I am going to be able to do is remember how it produced before. I can believe I have a garden because the outline of the garden is still there, but it’s not producing anything. I can talk about the greens, onion, and peppers it produce, but nothing new is going to come from it until I break up the fallow ground and sow some new stuff.
Sadly many in church are this way they believe they have a hunger for God because at one point they did. They believe that God is still working in their lives because at one point He did. They believe they are seeking God still because at one point they did, but just like when I tell my story of being hit by the car in my mind I am still stuck at that time in 1977, life has moved on. Spiritually they are the same way stuck in the former glory and experience of God, the rest of the Body of Christ has moved on, but they are stuck. God is trying to do a new thing in you, but you must break up that fallow ground in your life. BREAK IT UP.
Someone may be saying preacher how do break up the fallow ground? Well to break up fallow ground you have to plow it. The plow is an instrument used that digs deep down in the ground and turns the soil over breaking clumps of harden dirt into pieces. The plow exposes the stuff that is under the surface. The plow up roots that stuff that is growing there that does not belong there. The plow crushes the hard lumps of dirt. The plow removes the rocks that are hidden deep within the dirt.
Remember the word ground is synonymous with HEART and the plow is a proper relationship with God. The plow has 3 prongs or tillers on it they are the prongs of fasting, praying, and reading the Word of God. The thing about the plow is many people don’t like the plow because it digs deep into the soil of our heart and up roots stuff that is growing there that has no business in our heart. It up roots jealousy, envy, malice, strife. It crushes backbiting, favoritism, and cliques. It turns over hatred, self-reliance, and pride. No-one really cares for the plow because the plow disrupts complacency. The plow does away with mediocrity. The plow exposes disunity and inconsistency. The plow takes the comfort zone and turns it into discomfort. We don’t like the plow. But there is Power after the plow. (THERE IS POWER AFTER THE PLOW)
After the plow has come through the ground/heart has now been re-cultivated new seed can be planted and not only will it now produce fruit, but it will produce more fruit and even much fruit why because the fallow ground has been broken up. BREAK IT UP.
What kind of soil is your heart? Is it that good soil that has been plowed and broken up, free of all the weeds of sin that would cause it from being fruitful or do you need to still break up the fallow ground in your life?
God wants to do a new thing in you. Out of your belly shall flow, rivers of living water, but you got to break up that fallow ground. God wants to take the church into an atmosphere that they have never experienced, but first that fallow ground must be broken up. There is too much, in the church, well I’m not part of that program so I’m not going to participate. Well since my friend is doing it now I’ll be apart of it that’s fallow ground. I don’t care how much you try to push it under the rug as well now they see a need or now the understand the importance of it, it’s fallow ground. BREAK IT UP.
We want the church to grow, but this side of the church is separated from this side of the church and until that fallow ground is broken up, you can want until the devil can go ice skating, but until that fallow ground is broken up the church is not going to grow. BREAK IT UP.
Psalms 51:17 says “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. “ If you want God to do something new in you, you got to Break It Up.
Hebrews 13:15 says “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
If the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart and the sacrifice of praise which is the fruit of our lips that we offer up to God, yet there is backbiting coming off your lips, if jealousy is coming out of your heart which is where the mouth speaketh, if envy, strife, malice is in your heart then all your singing, all your testimony, all your preaching is just holding on to a former glory. You need to BREAK IT UP.
Break up that fallow ground in your life and watch God do a new thing in you.
District Elder Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
Assistant Pastor
Boanerge Ministries.
