Prepare Your Hearts

Hosea 10:12

When we lived in Delhi I decided to plant a vegetable garden in my sideyard. I bought the seeds, made a plan, and had the tools I needed. When it came time to plant, I realized the soil was rock-hard—dry, cracked, and untilled for years. I couldn’t just sow the seeds on the ground and expect them to grow. First, I had to break the ground. I tilled, watered, sweated, removed rocks, weeds and years of stuff. After the soil was broken and softened, then I could plant the seed and expect a harvest.

The same is true of our hearts. Hosea 10:12 says, “Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord.” 

A fallow heart—left uncultivated, hardened by sin, pride, or distraction—won’t bear spiritual fruit.

Before we ask God for blessing or seek His direction, we must prepare our hearts.

That means digging deep, repenting honestly, and inviting the Holy Spirit to soften us for His work.

How deep are you willing to dig to sow Righteousness?

Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

The Seed We Sow (12a)

· We come to a chapter where Israels sin is exposed and laid open for all to see.

· Hosea 10:1-2 - Israel is a luxuriant vine; He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, The more altars he made; The richer his land, The better he made the sacred pillars. Their heart is faithless; Now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars And destroy their sacred pillars.

· There is no sugarcoat in this passage – Israel has walked away from God.

· They are focused on themselves and not God.

· God has had enough, and punishment is coming.

· However, in the middle of this chapter of condemnation is a verse that is as beautiful picture of God’s truth and grace as you will find anywhere.

· Sow with a view to righteousness…

· In other words, “turn back to Me, do what you are supposed to do, live the way you know to live.”

· God is calling on Israel to do what they are supposed to do and live for Him.

· Israel has gotten off course – they are set up for their good and glory instead of God’s good and glory.

· Israel needed to get back to sowing for God instead of sowing for themselves.

· Christians if we sow for ourselves, we can only reap our best.

· Isaiah 64:6 - For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

· If we sow with God’s righteousness in view, we will sow grace, mercy, love, justice, etc.

· We will do all we can to live and love like Jesus.

· Certainly, Hosea didn’t comprehend Jesus, but He did know a follower of God lived their life for God and not themselves.

· As we will see shortly, when we sow for God, we will reap a harvest greater than anything this world has to offer.

· E.B. Pusey – grace well used draws more grace.

· I knew for me I need God’s grace.

· Maybe you are perfect and have arrived at fulfilling His standard, but I have not. (you haven’t either)

· I need His grace, His love and mercy, His righteousness, because I have none of my own.

· My heart is to sow seed with a view to righteousness.

The Fruit We Harvest (12b)

· When we sow seed with a view to righteousness, we Reap in accordance with kindness.

· Samuel Jackson - our works do not pass away as it seems, but each thing done in time, is sown as the seed of eternity. The simple will be amazed, when from this slight seed he shall see the copious harvest arise, good or evil, according as the seed was.

· In other words – you reap what you sow.

· When we sow righteousness we will reap grace, mercy, love from God.

· When we sow righteousness, we sow what only comes from God.

· Righteousness is His alone, any that we have has been given to us by Him.

· Spo when we sow righteousness, we are sowing the very heart and gift of God.

· James 1:17 - Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

· When we sow in God’s righteousness the fruit we receive is greater than anything this world has to offer.

· J Vernon McGee – Hosea is saying that if they would sow in righteousness, they would reap in mercy. It is always true that we cannot live by the devil’s standards and expect to reap a reward from God.

· Christians we can’t

o Live hateful – expect love

o Live greedy – expect generosity

o Live graceless – expect grace

o Live merciless – expect mercy

o Live sinful – expect righteousness

o Live evil – expect holiness

· If we want to live a life of God, then we must sow the seed of God – righteousness.

· We can’t live like the devil Monday-Saturday and come to church Sunday morning and think that is how it works.

· If we sow the devil all week – we will reap the devils harvest all week.

· If we sow God’s seed of righteousness all week – we will reap the righteousness of God.

· We can’t expect rest and peace if we sow chaos and unrighteousness.

· Christians the seed we plant will be the fruit we harvest.

· Apples don’t come from orange trees.

The Ground We Till (12c)

· I want us to notice where the problem is - our heart

· Break up your fallow ground,

· Hosea said – you have to fix the problem, and the problem is in your heart.

· Hoses knew Israel had a heart problem and it was a deep problem that needed a deep fix.

· This would not be a surface till, this would be a deep breaking of hardened dirt.

· That means taking a plow and digging deep, turning over the soil, loosening what’s been hardened by religion, apathy, and neglect. It’s tough work. The heart resists. The plow doesn’t till easily. But if that ground isn’t broken, there’s no point in sowing—because nothing will grow.

· Christian getting our heart to a point where we can sow righteousness, is hard work.

· We must break down the walls we attempt to keep up, the walls we think protect us but only harm us.

· We must get down to the soil that is soft and workable – soil that is ready to surrender to the till.

· James Murphy - the soil of our hearts must ever be anew cleansed; for no one in this mortal life is so perfect, in piety, that noxious desires will not spring up again in the heart, as tares in the well-tilled field.

· For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

· How do we get our heart tilled and softened for service – For it is time to seek the Lord.

· Christian you will never sow righteousness until you seek the Lord.

· Seeking the Lord isn’t a 2-minute devotional in the morning before you rush out the door.

· Seeking the Lord is a commitment to being in prayer, in His Word and living for Him.

· It is an honest open search for His truth in His Word.

· Walls are down, the masks come off, it’s you and Him.

· I have always marveled even in my own life of our feeble attempt to hide ourselves from God.

· We go with our masks on and think in some way He can’t see us.

· God knows us better than we know us, He knows what we are hiding and why we are hiding it.

· Preparing Our Heart, is a lifestyle not a one-time event.

· We cannot create righteousness; it all comes to us as a gift from God.

· We must be focused on God, His Word, His Way.

· We must be obedient to His Word His Way.

· We must break down all the walls, and prepare our hearts for the tilling of the Spirit.