Prisoner and Stewards of Grace

Exalting Jesus in Ephesians Six Marks of a Christ-Centered Missionary

Paul’s life serves as an example to believers. Like the Ephesian church, we are also called to love the church and fulfill her mission of making Christ known to everyone. We should acknowledge and appreciate Paul’s unique role in redemptive history, but we should not distance ourselves from his mission. God gave Paul the ministry of proclaiming Christ and explaining the unfolding plan of God to people; we as believers have that same purpose.

Missions text-pause in the prayer that Paul starts...chases a rabbit for 13 v

Identity

have you ever needed an interpreter?

In Him/Christ

Paul’s calling was not rooted in his circumstances, his circumstances were rooted in his calling....

I-personal=ordinary people...God Entrusts His Purposes to Ordinary People,

God’s greatest mysteries — the inclusion of the Gentiles — were entrusted to a man in chains.

Encouragement: Your limitations do not disqualify you from divine assignment.

Application: God often uses the unlikely to accomplish the essential.

Paul-Apostle-leader=Spiritual leaders must resist letting external pressures redefine their identity.

Prisoner-of Christ=He reframes his suffering through Christ’s sovereignty, not Caesar’s power.

Prisoner=of King Jesus

Paul is literally imprisoned by Rome, not from any legality or law breaking but for Christ, yet he refuses to define himself by political or personal circumstances.

Paul is the KING’s prisoner=The desire for the King to be proclaimed and worshipped and glorified is at the heart of this and every prisoner of Christ...

Suffering Does Not Cancel Ministry — It Amplifies It

Paul’s imprisonment becomes the platform for revelation, witnessing, writing, and encouragement.

Key insight: When you are faithful in hardship, God multiplies your impact.

Application: What feels like confinement may actually be your calling’s greatest stage.

Suffering from surrender not STUPIDITY!! some of you have been imprisoned by drugs or sex, your own glory....some of you have been set free from one area only to run to something else...Today is the day for you to run fully to Jesus. To desire nothing but His will and His glory, a fulfillment that only comes from Jesus!

It is time for a change!!

Steward-of the Kings People

the Churches role in this

Grace is what has been given to Paul and to all who are “in Christ” Jesus and that which is to be stewarded....

Grace comes to you so it can flow through you.

God’s gifts are assignments, not accessories.

Ministry is not ownership — it is management of what God entrusts.

Stewardship-that which belongs to another that you are put in charge of....to manage well=give out and make a return!! parable of the 3 servants matt 25;14-30

Exalting Jesus in Ephesians Six Marks of a Christ-Centered Missionary

Spurgeon said in a sermon, “Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor.… You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about him” (“A Sermon and a Reminiscence”).

Paul’s Mission Is for the Sake of Others

His imprisonment is “for you Gentiles.”

These Gentiles have been included in the promises of God...the unworthy, unlikely, unlikeable,

True ministry always has a “for you” attached to it.

Leadership angle: Spiritual maturity is measured by how much your life benefits others. Paul’s calling is outward-facing, sacrificial, and missional.