Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask you to stay close by me forever and love me I pray. Bless all the dear children in your tender care and take us to heaven to live with you there. Amen.

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. (Hosea 10:12)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: Less than five hours now...a new year is fast approaching. When we have flipped the calendar forty or fifty times we begin to appreciate the truth that our days "quickly pass away" (Ps. 90). At the end of a year it is a good time to consider where and how we stand. Husbands and wives perhaps look at their last pays stubs and account balances. Business owners and sales people make their last entries in their data bases and begin to see how they have faired.

If we do that with things temporal, is it not appropriate that we do it with things spiritual? How has 2004 been for us spiritually? Has the Lord kept us well supplied? (remember, spiritually. I don't mean has the Lord given us every thing we hoped for or wanted for this life?) Has it ever been that we went to God and asked for forgiveness and there was none for us? Have we ever been weak and asked for strength only to have the Lord say that he was too busy to help us? Certainly not! Our spiritual receipts have been more than enough. How about our expenses, our spending of God's grace? Have we always made the most of every opportunity to trust him and to reflect his love to those around us, or have we slid backwards? Perhaps the words of the Savior to the church in Ephesus are for us: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first (Rev. 2). Perhaps we have made gains in our faith and love; perhaps a sinful habit has been conquered, an old wound forgiven. But let us not live on our laurels. Success can fade like the melting snow if we begin to let our guard down. The Apostle's word of encouragement is for us: continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2).

Now, at the turn of another year of God's grace, is a particularly proper time to SEEK THE LORD-both his forgiveness for our sin and his strength to live in faith and love.

Hosea was the Lord's prophet to preach repentance to the wayward children of Israel. He lived at the same time as Isaiah. Hosea did his work in the North, among the 10 tribes that had separated from Judah in the civil war after King Solomon's days.

Hosea's inspired words to us tonight say: Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love. Hosea is using figurative language; he is comparing our lives to gardening and farming. He is saying just as a gardener works up the soil in the spring, pulls out the last year's dead plants and any early weeds, loosens the soil, and then plants seed and takes care of the garden so there will be a harvest to enjoy...so we are to tend to our lives, have our lives worked over by God to prepare our hearts, pull the weeds and old dead plants of sin out of our lives, let the seed of God's Word take root in our hearts, so that to God's glory their will be a harvest of faith and love to enjoy.

Now, let us be careful so that we do not misunderstand Hosea. Our translation says, Sow for yourselves righteousness. We know from all of Scripture that righteousness, holiness, and sinless-ness, is not something we can manufacture or produce. The Apostle says: a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified (Gal 2). The Hebrew text, word for word, says: Plant for yourself "in, in regard to" righteousness; reap "in proportion to" mercy. In other words, Hosea says you know from where your sinless-ness and holiness come -from the Lord of grace, through the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, plant (live in) that righteousness. You know why you may live-because of the mercy of the Lord shown you in the life of Jesus Christ. Now reap (let all you do) begin and end in that mercy. Let the mercy of the Lord be the reason you do everything you do and pattern your lives after that mercy. Live in faith before God and in love toward others.

So, how have we been doing at sow in righteousness and reaping in mercy, living in faith before God and in love toward others. Have we every day and in every circumstance let faith in God's righteousness and mercy fill our hearts. In troubles have we been like Job and said: the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord? Or have we doubted God's goodness, been discontent, and complained as if we were orphans with no heavenly Father? In success have we praised our Lord and asked how shall I use this blessing for others? Or have we run off with God's blessings choosing to satisfy ourselves above all? Surely no one will lie to themselves and say, I have always been what God wants me to be. Especially now is not the time to deny sin when God has let a terrific sign of the end-an earth quake and tsunami-fill our thoughts. Oh, let us repent this night for our lack of faith toward God and our lack of love and flee to Lord again for his mercy, righteousness, and forgiveness. Let us beg Jesus to wash away with his blood any record of our sins, that the Father may remember them no more.

More, Hosea says, break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD. Some land on the farm is left to rest unplanted. Farmers call it fallow ground. It is important to let the ground rest and rejuvenate even now in the days of high-tech fertilizers. Even in our little gardens there may be corners here and there where we plan nothing. In the plantation which is the Christian life Hosea says, break up your unplowed ground. In other words, do not leave any part of your life untouched by the Lord's mercy and righteousness. Do not have one standard for your conduct at church and another when you are at home; let the Lord's mercy guide you in every place. Or, think about your old sinful habits; they are like weeds growing in fallow ground. Why do we always have trouble saying a kind word to so-n-so...why have we not read the Bible at home for years...why have we not talked to that person about Jesus, etc. Weeks and months go by; we get lazy. We know we ought to do this or that but we do not follow through. Break up that fallow ground! Do it. Say it! Change it! Pull out those bad habit weeds, work up the ground, and let every part of your life be in God's righteousness and mercy.

We have every reason to expect God's gracious blessing on us. Hosea says, sow, reap, plow in view of God's righteousness until he comes and showers righteousness on you. He was speaking to Old Testament people who were waiting for righteousness, for Jesus to come. We, on the other hand, live under the shower of God's New Testament times, the end times counting down to Jesus' Second Coming. Oh, let us walk out into the shower of his mercy and righteousness. Let us beg Jesus not only for grace to cover our sins but also for grace to empower us to break up the fallow ground in our lives that every little nook and cranny of our life be his. He will certainly hear our prayer and send us his grace. He breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free; his blood can make th foulest clean; his blood avails for me (CW:340).   Amen.