These notes accompany the sermon of the same name found here.

Introduction

• The upward call of God is to be like Jesus Christ. This sermon series is focused on the mindset and practices that produce progress in response to this call. It encourages us to strain forward to what lies ahead and to help others to do the same.
• For this session: Read Philippians 1:12-26, For background, Read Acts 16, 21-27.
• Today’s Big Idea: Believers should expect God to be working salvation for his people in every circumstance through advancing the gospel to them, growing them spiritually, and bringing them home.

Three senses of salvation are present in the Bible for believers in Jesus Christ: 

• • We have been saved, Past: Romans 8:24, 10:10; Ephesians 2:5, 8; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5;
  • We are being saved, Present: 1 Corinthians 1:18, 15:2; 2 Corinthians 2:15; 1 Peter 2:2, 3:21;
  • We will be saved, Future: Romans 5:9-10; 1 Corinthians 3:15, 5:5; 2 Timothy 4:18; Romans 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; Hebrews 1:14, 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5;
  • Brother Adrian Rogers expressed these three as the believer being saved from “the penalty, the power, and the presence of sin.”

Background:  What  happened to Paul?

• Philippians 1:12;
• Acts 21-27.

How It Advanced the Gospel:

• Philippians 1:12-18, 4:22.
• Jerome in his work Philemon indicates that Paul’s imprisonment resulted in some of Emperor Nero’s household being converted. “Being by the emperor cast into prison, became more known to his family, and turned the house of Christ’s persecutor into a church.”

How It Brought Paul Salvation:

• In Spiritual Growth: Philippians 1:20, 3:8-11; Colossians 1:24.
• In Death: Philippians 1:19-26, 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6-8.

Conclusions

• Lesson One: Adopt this mindset.
• Lesson Two: Stop waiting for the right situation to progress the gospel.
• Lesson Three: Start looking for God at work around you.

 Recommended Hymns today

A Christian’s Daily Prayer

In Christ Alone