Do You Have an Emergency Fund for the Kingdom?

Sermon outline

Christ emptied Himself to become a servant, so in 2025 empty yourself for His kingdom: grow in giving, become useful to the people God sends you, see people's pain, pray, and take the gospel out into your community.

1. Excel in the grace of giving, and define your desire

   Picking up Pastor Zubeda's word, he says the fivefold ministry exists to equip the saints, and Paul told the Corinthians that as they excel in everything else, they should excel in the grace of giving. The path of the righteous shines brighter and brighter. The church's goal of 36 new cell groups means 36 new leaders and 36 homes touched by the gospel; see yourself among them. It is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

   Illustration: Asked what they want prayer for, people say "just a blessing". That is vague; God wants you to define your desire.

   “Just wanting something but with no specific need is vague.”

   • Ephesians 4:11-12
   • 2 Corinthians 8:7
   • Proverbs 4:18
   • 1 Corinthians 4:2

2. He emptied Himself

   Have the mind of Christ, who did not count equality with God a thing to grasp but emptied Himself, took the form of a servant and humbled Himself to the cross, and was therefore highly exalted. Great grace is the power to do what you could not do in your own strength, as Paul laboured more than all by the grace of God. In 2025, have a servant's heart and see life through the lens of the gospel.

   Illustration: In town with his younger brother, he met a friend who had lost both legs after running with the wrong gang, and heard of another who had been killed. People who do not heed God's call find that life empties them instead.

   “Don't wait for life to empty you out because of your disobedience. Christ emptied himself out willingly.”

   • Philippians 2:5-11
   • 1 Corinthians 15:10

3. From useless to useful

   Onesimus ran away from Philemon, a new convert, and met Paul in prison, where Paul led him to Christ and discipled him. Paul sent him back as a brother, no longer useless but useful to them both. Someone who seems useless in one place may be the answer to another person's prayer elsewhere. If the new Christians placed under your wing want to run from you, something is wrong. Become a destiny helper to the people God assigns to you.

   Illustration: At home or at work there is the person who is there but not there, so you say, "Don't do anything, I'll rather do it myself."

   “Grace allows you to become a destiny helper to somebody.”

   • Philemon 1:8-16

4. Win, consolidate, disciple, send

   The church's four pillars are to win people to Christ, consolidate them, disciple them and send them out, so every disciple should also be discipling someone. Much of ministry is giving people a new meaning for what they are going through. You may not give an unemployed person a job, but counselling him with God's wisdom sends him out encouraged.

   Illustration: Falling under the power of God in church is called the power of God; falling in a shopping mall is called embarrassment. It is the meaning you give it.

   “It's not about what happens, about the meaning that you give to what has happened to you.”

5. The least of these

   The King tells those on His right that they fed Him, gave Him drink, took Him in, clothed Him and visited Him, and they did it without knowing, as part of their daily lives. Those on the left did nothing. Train yourself this year to have a heart for souls and to ask, wherever you are, what you can do for God's glory.

   “It's important for ministry, for us who have a heart for the gospel to have a heart for people.”

   • Matthew 25:34-46

6. Pray when the enemy attacks

   Herod killed James and the church did nothing; when he seized Peter, the church prayed and Peter was released. Learn to discern when your spiritual life, finances or health are under attack instead of calling it normal, and pray. Pray for the ministry too, as your own home; put your hand to the plough and do not look back.

   “When you see something happening, begin to pray.”

   • Acts 12:1-5
   • Luke 9:62

7. Called out to love, on assignment

   The greatest commandment is to love God, and the second to love your neighbour, and we are called out of every tribe and race to show that love in schools, universities, preschools and communities where evil has run riot while Christians did nothing. Measure your growth this year: in the word, in wisdom, and in the quality of your relationships, because a relationship with God that fails at the level of people should not be so.

   Illustration: A few weeks earlier, visiting his mother, he saw an acquaintance, drunk and distraught, fighting with security guards and threatening to hurt someone. He prayed to find him, followed the one road the Spirit showed him among many, got him into his car, prayed with him and counselled him. The next day the man said God had turned his situation around.

   “When you come to church, you know that you're coming to church not only to be blessed, but you're on an assignment.”

   • Matthew 22:37-39
   • Matthew 10:16

In this message