James Richards

Details

Sunday Morning Service

Jeremy Richards

Copalis Community Church

07 September 2025

Bible References

• Philippians 3:20
• Romans 8:29

Audio MP3 PDF

Three. And we're talking a little bit about citizenship. I remember in Honduras, Stacy had two children there. Malachi and Isaiah were both born in Honduras. And part of the process of having a child born in Honduras is that you actually wanted to bring that child back to the United States with you when you came.

And so you needed to get proof of citizenship for them prior to being able to bring them back to the United States. And so we lived on a small island off the north coast of Honduras. And so we would have to take the ferry, usually the ferry. Only one time, I think the little plane. And then there was a bus journey to the capital, Tegucigalpa.

Right. And we had to go to the embassy. I remember the first time that Stacy and I went to the embassy. We got there in the morning, and there was a very long line of people at the embassy. And we're like, oh, boy, this is not going to be fast.

And so we're like, okay. And we just get in line behind everybody else, waiting for the embassy to open. And then when it opens, a guard comes up to us and says, no, you two come this way. And he escorts us to the front and opens the door, and we bypass everybody to get into the embassy. And you might think that's strange, but he recognized there was a difference between us and the rest of the people waiting in line at the embassy.

We were citizens. Other people were not. They wanted to come to America. But there were certain rights afforded to Stacy and I because we were citizens of the United States. There are rights individuals have as citizens of a country.

Paul, when he was on the steps in Jerusalem and had been grabbed, arrested by the Roman official, asked if he could speak to the people. And he said, aren't you. The Roman official said, aren't you so and so who led a rebellion out of the wilderness? And he said, no, I am a citizen. I am a citizen, a Roman citizen.

The individual said, with great price, I have bought my citizenship. Paul said, I was born a citizen. He had certain rights. He said to one, are you allowed to whip openly uncondemned Roman citizens? He said, I have rights as a citizen that people who are not citizens do not have.

So we're going to look at that in chapter three, verse 20 of Romans. Chapter three of. I said Romans. I meant Philippians. Okay, chapter three of Philippians, verse 20.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body. According to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to Himself. For our citizenship is in heaven in 2 Peter, I'm going to turn there. Or 1 Peter, it says in chapter 2, verse 9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

So there is a special people set apart and called citizens by God. They have rights inherent to them as citizens. These people are a holy nation. They are a special people. They are a different kind of people because their citizenship is of a kingdom that is not the same one, that here's an earth.

Jesus says, if my kingdom were on earth, I would fight for it. No, but I am part of a different kingdom. These people are a special people because they belong to a different kingdom. In the kingdom, they are kings and priests. There are rights associated to them with their position as a member, as a citizenship, a citizen in this kingdom.

This kingdom is one where the only people who can be a part of it have to be a family member. Have to be a family member. In our country, there are rights and things that you have to have in order to be a citizen. Right? Wasn't it President Trump is green lighting a process to citizenship?

Anyone heard about that? Like if you have a million dollars or something like that, you get. You get bumped to the front of the line, right? There are ways in which people can become citizens. It's a great thing.

If you have a million dollars or two and you want to become a citizen, you just put that down in your bank deposit and you can become citizen of the United States. Now, maybe at some point, but there are other ways in which people become citizens. There are naturalized citizens and there are individuals who are born as citizens. But in the kingdom of God, it is not enough to have a million dollars in your bank account.

Now, I'm not necessarily saying if you do have a million dollars, it's a, you know, it's something you should regret. But the way into the kingdom of God is not millions of dollars that we, at one point, every one of us who maybe are a citizen now, were not a citizen at one point. There is an actual process that has to happen to turn an individual who was once not a citizen, who was once not a people, and to make them a people. And everybody knows, or we knew that when we left the embassy. It Was kind of a little bit of a funny thing.

Stacy and I lived a very basic life. No technology, no phones, no cameras. And we got in with this baby, right? And we said, this is our baby. And they're like, can you prove that that's your baby?

Hmm. Can we prove. Well, it was Stacy and I alone in a room giving birth to a baby we had. No doctor. No one watched it.

Can you prove it? Like, do you have any pictures? We're like, no. How can you prove that that's your child? If you really want citizenship, how can you prove that that child belongs to.

We're like, well, look, it's our baby. And then Stacy came up with the brilliant I can nurse the child. And the lady was like, that is proof that that is your baby, right? And so that child, even though that child was not born in America, was given American citizenship. So in this case, there are ways in which an individual can become a citizen.

You were not born a citizen. We were born in a far country, in a country that is not the one that we want is citizensh. So how do we become citizens? It says, for our citizenship is in heaven. I'm going to go.

Let's see, where are we in Romans, chapter 8. This citizenship is not dependent on your bank account. This citizenship is not dependent on. On your intellect. You know, I've heard at some points in our history that in order to become a citizen, you go to Ellis island, right?

And there you had to prove that you are worthy. You had to have some understanding of the English language or of American history. You had to be free of infectious diseases. And if you passed all of these qualifications, then you had the good opportunity to become a citizen of the United States, and many did. But this citizenship, of which.

Which we become a part of, is one that is only entrusted to family members. But there was a process involved into it. I'm going to read in Romans 8, 8, 29. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the images of the Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called.

Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he just these he also glorified. In becoming a citizen, there had to be an individual willing to sponsor you in that quest for citizenship. It says that he transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son. The word also is conveyed.

Has anyone ever been on a conveyor belt before? They got big ones at airports now. And you step on them. And what's the purpose of the conveyor belt?

To move you quickly. You see these guys sometimes that really want to move quickly, and they're walking on the conveyor belt, right? And so they're getting double speed. And that's true. But to be conveyed, it means to be transformed without your own energy somewhere by someone else.

It says that he has transferred us from the kingdom or conveyed us from the kingdom of darkness into that of his beloved son. There had to be someone who took you from being a part of a different kingdom, a kingdom that is of this world that's ruled by the prince of the power of the air, in which we once operated according to the lust of our flesh, that we, being a part of that country, of that state, of that nation, were at war with God because we were individuals who operated in and broke God's commandments. But there had to be someone if we were to become a citizen of this heavenly country, There had to be a conveyance from our citizenship of the old country into the new. There had to be someone willing to do that. First of all, there had to be a will.

There had to be a sponsor. In our case, we living in Honduras, there was always a little uncomfortableness in dealing with individuals who were Honduran and Guatemala. And there was always something in the back of my mind possibly that, you know, they wanted to have a friendship with an American because of sponsorship. Right. And afterwards, sometimes we'd get phone calls or talk to people, and they asked, you know, is there a way that you can help sponsor me and make me an American citizen?

Right. It's a very real thing, a sponsor. Well, first of all, for us to become a member of a heavenly kingdom, there had to be a sponsor. That had to be a person willing to make us a part of the family. It says that by his will, he predestined us.

There had to be a way in which you could take someone who had been at war with us and bring them into our country. It's very easy to see that there are countries at war with another. Hamas and Israel are involved in a conflict, and they feel very strongly about the other side. We were at war with member, the member of the heavenly country. Yet he had a will to take his enemies who had, as it were, done many grievous things against his nature and against his character.

And he said, I want to bring my enemy and I want to make them a part of my country. And so there had to be someone not only who wanted to, but could effect that process. And so Jesus Christ became the one who paid our spiritual price so that enemies of God could now be included in that spiritual country, that heavenly country. We don't see that happening very much when enemies, countries, nations, people at war. We don't see Israel right now trying to make Hamas members citizens of Israel.

We don't see the Prime Minister Netanyahu coming up and saying, you know, this is what we should do. Let's make every Hamas member an Israeli citizen with full benefits and rights. People would be screaming, no way. No. Lock them up.

Put a fence around him. Do you know, do something right. Keep them separate. But the Father took individuals who were his enemies, terrorists, lawbreakers. And he said, I want these people as a member of my country.

I will pay for that which they owe. I will pay the price for them in order to make them eligible for adoption. And he takes individuals who were his enemies and he adopts them into his family, giving them full rights as citizens. The only people who are members of God's nation are the children of God, those who have been made children because of the work of Jesus Christ. If you are not a child of God, you are not a citizen of heaven.

You should not have any false hope that you will be received there with honors.

It is only the citizens heaven that should expect a welcome in heaven. Let's go back to first to Philippians, Philippians, for our citizenship is in heaven, for which we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a mark on citizens of a heavenly kingdom. There is something that permeates the life of every believer. When we were in Honduras, people would regularly, for some reason, think that Stacy and I, me most of all, was an American just by looking at me.

I was always surprised.

They saw something in me that made them think I was a citizen of the United States.

In the life of a believer, there are telltale signs that you may be wherever you may be. And something seems to come out of individuals that makes you think that this individual, though he may be an American or a Honduran, is a child of God. Their citizenship is in heaven. They have a king that reigns on high that makes them different in how they live on Earth. There is something that is in the life of every citizen that you can tell that even in the weirdest and remotest type of circumstances that you come across an individual and there's just something in you that says you love the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's something about you in the way you act. You are different than other people. Are you a Christian? I've been in situations all over the world. There'll be someone that just sticks out.

And I just find myself just kind of just edging closer to them, you know, wanting to know, hear their voice, hear what they're talking about. And I come to the conclusion, I knew it. I knew it. You love Christ also. You serve a God in heaven that is not on this.

Your priorities are different. The way you talk is different, the way you act is different. There's something about you that says, sets you apart as belonging to a different kingdom, it says, for which you eagerly wait for the Lord Jesus. There is in every believer a groaning in our spirit because not wanting to be unclothed, but further clothes, wanting to put on something more than we currently possess. It seems as if the things that people dress themselves with us on or dress themselves with on earth are not enough to keep a spiritual person satisfied.

There are, it seems, things which people try to use to cover up. But I tell you, the highest high really leaves you no different than where you were before it. The greatest amount of sexual satisfaction leaves you in a depressed state the next day. It doesn't bring you anywhere. The most amount of finances, the biggest check doesn't really change anything about you.

They don't fully clothe the soul of an individual everyone tracked with me, but an individual who is looking towards Jesus is eagerly waiting to put on something better than what this world can produce.

And they recognize that though we're able to taste it today, they're looking forward to that day when we can put it on fully. That that which we can see as though through a mirror, dimly becomes fully known to us. That we are able to see him as we are seeing. That every Christian has to put off and willingly puts off the encumbrances of this world. That we might put on the rights of citizenship eventually and as much as possible to hear.

There is a groaning in us. This groaning for non believers, for people who are not citizens, becomes a burden that they try to cover over. They seek to placate this inner cry, but whatever they try to cover it with, it cannot cover. This spiritual groaning is only something that can be satisfied through Jesus Christ. It says, eagerly wait for the Savior for you and I.

The groanings of the flesh are not to be despised. They are the fuel which moves forward the spirit's work in our life for something better. Groaning, not wanting to be unclothed, but further clothed, it says in verse 21, it says, who will transform our lowly body that it might be conformed to his glorious body in 1 Corinthians, the whole thing. We probably don't have time to read a whole chapter, but I'm going to start with in verse 18 in chapter 15 it says, Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If the dead do not rise.

If in this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who've fallen asleep. If Christians do not have the rock that is our foundation, that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, then if we were to measure ourselves by the world, we are the ones to be pitied the most. They at least are trying to satisfy their fleshly nature as much as possible. Let's just eat, drink and be merry, right?

They are trying to put on and fulfill. But Christians are denying those fleshly lusts, hoping for something better.

If Christ has not risen from the dead, then we are the most pitiable. But Christ is risen from the dead in verse 35 of the same chapter. But some will say, how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come? Foolish ones, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow.

That body that shall be but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain, but it gives it a body as he pleases, and to each seed its own body. And then later on it says in verse 43, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam became a living spirit. The last Adam became a life giving spirit.

That work which Jesus doing Back to Philippians, who will transform our lowly body. The viewpoint of the Scripture on what you and I are experiencing today is not high.

That satisfaction you get from the physical entities you pursue is not valued high by Scripture. Everyone tracking me, those things that you motivate yourself to obtain, that relief from pain which you are pushing for is not a an embellishment that Scripture gives much weight to. You may be able to obtain that thing for which you are investing your resources, but it is not held in high esteem. In God's sight people expend energy to possess either a relief for pain, temporary pleasure, those things and that covering that comes from putting those things on is not valued highly in the sight of God. You may get a little Relief by experiencing it.

But it is not one the Lord puts much stock in as a treasure to be trusted in that which he has for people he is not confused about.

If he had a choice. What did they say? Jer showed me a picture that they took in the biggest haul of cocaine ever, right? Like 40,000 pounds of cocaine or 50, 60,000 pounds of cocaine. And you line that up in a straight line from here to Maine and said, go for it.

And you just laugh. What you could gain from it would be something, but it would not be valued very much in heaven. You would get a high for sure, but the Lord wouldn't think much about it. Because what he has is actually superior than what you could gain by lining it up. You could go to the casino and win big.

I'm not saying you can't. Some people have. I'm only saying that the Lord doesn't think very much about it compared to what he has for people. He's going to transform what this lowly body looks after into something actually better. I'm not angry.

I'm just telling the truth. What he has for you is better than the most you could get here. Looking for stuff, too, but it leaves me disappointed. It leaves me broken. It leaves me unfulfilled.

But the Lord is looking for something real that lasts in your heart. He takes what is lowly and he transforms it into something holy and lasting in value. It says he will transform our lowly body, that it might be conformed to his glorious body. There's going to be a day when the things that you have sought after are going to be weighed in the balance with what you should have had.

You made a trade, you made an investment. You pushed and plowed, you planted and weeded. You took those things and you invested them into something. And the Lord is going to see if that investment was real compared with how you should have invested your citizenship.

He will transform our lowly body. You might say, you know, I don't like the investment that I'm making in my lowly body. It's left me destitute. It's left me broken. It's left me burnt out and empty.

I'm trying. I want to do better. I'm trying to do what's right. The amazing thing is this work of citizenship, this work in the life of a believer who finally. Of a person who finally says, I don't want any more is not a work that is done by you and I.

It is a conveyance. It says, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to Himself. We have this glorious man, this Creator of everything, who made all things according to his own wisdom and power, called them and spoke them into existence. Out of nothing. He made everything.

What a glorious man. He loved men so much that he was willing to lay down his life in order that they might have his life in themselves. This individual who holds all things together, to whom every knee will bow, every tongue, confess that he is Lord. This individual is actively desirous in taking your lowly body and making it into something marvelous. He who has the power and also the will, having accomplished righteousness through the blood of his own cross, is now actively engaged in calling people who are enemies of Christ and bringing them effectually into his kingdom.

He can do it because he wants to do it. He can do it because he's already paid the price for you already. His will has already been. They're made available. What's lacking is your willingness to say, lord, take me.

It says, he by himself has purged our sin. He has done the work all by himself, taking us, making the way available for you and I to come into the kingdom. He is able even to subdue all things to himself.

I'm going to close with this. If he is able, if he can do it, if he wants to do it. My question to you, honestly, what kingdom do you belong to? There is a kingdom that is carnal and ruled by the prince of the power of the air. It appeals to our physical nature.

We fit into it smoothly. It has a wide gate and a broad way. It doesn't take any effort to travel along it. But there is a heavenly kingdom. There is a heavenly kingdom in which that one, the Spirit, is calling people to walk.

In which kingdom do you belong to?

Members of that kingdom confess freely that Jesus is Lord and then walk in line with that lordship. They believe he is Lord. And what you believe is your doctrine.

You walk what you believe, not what you say you believe.

The way you walk proves your doctrine. Those who walk after Jesus, who believe in their heart, walk like Jesus. The truth is, if you had a home or a business and someone was acting out of line, they couldn't walk with you. They couldn't work for you. Eventually you would have to come to a road, no, you can't walk with me.

You can't walk with Jesus and live like the devil. It's impossible. Now he welcomes those freely and openly, those who live like the devil, to Follow him. But you have to be willing to take up your cross. Otherwise you can't walk with Jesus.

But those people who want to walk with Jesus, he takes and he transfers them. He conveys them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son. He is able to do it. My question for you and I, first is what kingdom are you in? And then if you want to be a part of God's kingdom, what is stopping you?

Why any longer do we trifle with the affairs of this world when that glorious body is waiting for you and I? When he will take that lowly thing which you and I possess and transfer it into a heavenly body? Do you love and long for the coming of Jesus Christ? Or is your hope for a little bit of high on this earth it will all go away. We're going to go into communion.

And there is a part of communion that is real. That is, it says if you confess your sins one to another and pray for one another, that God will heal those things. And confession of sin is an important thing. Maybe a little bit of a lightness here which has a little bit of a deeper truth to it that we have juice to drink to be a representation of the blood of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, normally that is grape juice, but today it is not grape juice only.

It is a mixture of cranberry juice and grape juice. There's a reason for that. The reason is, is because the Richards have been using the fellowship hall as their kitchen for the last two weeks.

The Richards boys, especially including the ones with the least amount of hair, are greedy and self centered and like to eat everything. And the grape juice was in the refrigerator and one old guy was the leader in drinking all of the grape juice. So there is none left for communion. And I'm very sorry about that. Not necessarily that we don't have grape juice, but I'm sorry for being so self centered and so greedy.

And I am just like a vacuum when it comes to trinkets and stuff that nice to eat. And my children follow after me. And I'm very sorry for that and I'm sorry, I really am. But we're going to take communion. But one of the important parts of communion is confessing our sin.

It's not enough to try to change. It is right to confess things in your life as sinful. There's no excuse for them. They are wrong, they hurt people. And to confess them as such, to bring them before God and say, God, this is an area of my life that isn't just a distraction.

It just Isn't a bad habit. It's just not something I shouldn't change. It's not my last one. It's not something I promise I'll never do again. Just be it's sin.

Lord, I bring this to you because you are the one who takes sin upon your own body. I paid the price. I give it to you. And then if there's an individual that has been dealing with sin, if you're struggling with it to call it sin, then seek someone to pray with you, to confess it to them as a person. They're not the Pope, they're not a father, they're not someone who can take away your sin.

But the prayer of two people together has an effect on the life of a person in the real world. This is the Bible says that if you confess your sins one to another and pray for another, the prayer of the righteous person. So we're going to take communion. I'm going to pray first. But this is a spiritual decision that you are making.

When we take the bread, that is an act, a decision saying that I have chosen to take up my cross and follow the master Jesus Christ with my life. It means just as he broke his life, that your life is also going to be broken. You have to take up your cross. And the blood is a reminder that his sacrifice on the cross is for our atonement, that we don't carry a sin load. We forget those things which are behind and move forward towards that which is ahead.

That we do not have to carry the load of sin as Christians. Free yourself from it. Jesus blood is enough. Shake yourself free from that load. You don't have to carry it any longer.

Let's pray and then we'll just do it. Father, we do come to you, O Lord. For there is no one like Jesus Christ, Lord, who gave himself for us as an example, who we should follow. But also he spent his blood on our behalf that we might be free, Lord. And in this symbol, in this spiritual decision, I pray you'd make it real to our hearts in Jesus name.