The Seed That Stopped a Plague: Sowing Your Way Out of Trouble

Sermon outline

When you face a battle, put your trust in God rather than your own strength, and sow a seed that costs you something with a specific assignment, as David did to stop the plague.

1. Trials are not the end: receive the word and face your giant

   As a young Christian he faced trial upon trial, and only years later understood that God was training him to be a shepherd who could feel what others go through. Don't be discouraged in hardship, because your miracle is around the corner. Come to church to receive the word, not sit numb, so that like David before Goliath you can say, 'Today God will give you into my hands.'

   Illustration: The first week he gave his heart to the Lord, Pastor Zubeda's brother borrowed his old Toyota Corolla, bought for R300 and still being paid off, and wrapped it around a light pole. It was uninsured, and he asked, 'Why did God do this?'

   “I had to go through all those trials so that I could be able to be empathetic towards people and put myself in their shoes when they go through things.”

   • Matthew 9:29
   • 1 Samuel 17:42-46

2. David's mistake: trusting in his army instead of God

   David ordered a census of his fighting men to see how strong his military was, and his commander Joab questioned it. The Bible shows the failures of its heroes as well as their successes. David's sin was relying on his army rather than on God, who would have given him victory with five men or fifty thousand, and it cost seventy thousand lives. We face the same question in every challenge: will we trust man or God?

   Illustration: He turns the service into a conversation, asking the congregation why counting the troops was a sin; Yajna starts the answer and Pastor Zubeda finishes it: he should have trusted the Lord.

   “Would we trust in man or would we trust in God?”

   • 2 Samuel 24:1-15
   • James 5:17-18

3. The remedy: build an altar that costs you something

   Through Gad the seer, God told David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Araunah offered the land and oxen for free, but David insisted on paying, because an offering to God must cost you. He paid fifty shekels of silver, offered sacrifices, and the plague was stopped.

   “Whatever I give to the Lord as a sacrifice, it must not be something that I receive from someone for free.”

   • 2 Samuel 24:16-25

4. Number one: David sowed a battle seed with an assignment

   David's sacrifice had one intention: to stop the plague. That is a battle seed. Everyone faces problems in relationships, marriage, children, family or work, and the way out is to sow a battle seed. Most Christians sow without knowing why, but every seed in God's house must be given an assignment.

   Illustration: He asks everyone with a problem to stand, then says anyone still sitting must be from Mars.

   “You must sow a battle seed to get out of that problem.”

   • 2 Samuel 24:25

5. Give your seed a photograph of what it will produce

   Elijah asked the widow of Zarephath for her last bread and then described exactly what her seed would do: the meal and oil would not fail until the rain came. Prayers are seeds too, and Job's captivity turned when he prayed for his friends. Aim your seed like an arrow, because your seed is your way out of present and future trouble.

   Illustration: He tells the church that, as a prophet over the house, he declares that whatever they give, God will give them a hundred times more.

   “Your seed is your door out of trouble.”

   • 1 Kings 17:8-16
   • Job 42:10

6. Ask in faith and wrap your faith around your seed

   A person who wavers should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, so your faith needs a specific instruction. When you sow, wrap your faith around the seed like a target and an arrow. Many never see the harvest God promised because they never ask.

   “When you sow your seed you wrap your faith around your seed like a target and like an arrow.”

   • James 1:6-7
   • James 4:2

7. Sowing a battle seed for the house of God

   He explains the church's dilemma: the old air conditioning in the former cinema cannot be repaired, and a large new system has been offered at about half price if paid in instalments from March to July. Rather than rebond the debt-free church, he and Pastor Zubeda pledge the first R50,000 and invite everyone to write an amount, the months to spread it over, and a specific assignment on their envelope. He admits the burden was so heavy he could not sleep, stresses the money is for God's house and future generations, not for himself, and says everyone gives at their own level, because a widow's small seed deserves a blessing too.

   Illustration: A family trip to Disney World would cost around R200,000 and no one would complain; a two-hour flight to Cape Town is sat through without moaning, so an extra few minutes under the word is no burden.

   “I feel like David now that said I will not do anything that will cost me nothing.”