James Richards

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Sunday Morning Service

Jeremy Richards

Copalis Community Church

30 November 2025

Bible References

• Philippians 4:8-9

Audio MP3 PDF

For Philippians 8, 9, Philippians 4, 8, 9, it says, finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do. And. And the God of peace will be with you. So raising cows has benefits.

There are benefits that come. But one interesting thing is the recognition that we, in some ways, are like cows. A cow takes things, he eats grass or hay or whatever things he might find to eat, and he takes them in and chews them up, right? And then he swallows them into a certain compartment or stomach, and then has the added benefit that he is. The cow is able to, you know, to burp up that which they had eaten previously and enjoy it a second time, right?

And so they spend the second time getting into enjoy. Some of us are, you know, wish we had that ability after Thanksgiving, right, that we could, you know, enjoy that meal another time, right? Or maybe, maybe not. But a cow, I'm not absolutely sure, but I think they can. They do that actually, more than once.

And each time that gets chewed and they get more nutrients, it breaks down more and more for them to able to grow, you know, and operate, to have heat in the middle of a winter. As a incredible animal, the bovine species, right? Well, you and I are not all the same as cows. What we ingest spiritually, we do not have the opportunity to discharge of naturally. A cow when it eats something that it should not have been eating.

Some individual in our family fed our cow wheelbarrows of apple mash at the same time. And so Buttercup thought that was the best thing in the world until the next day, right? And she, by the second day, couldn't even get up off the ground. But she had the benefit of being a cow that what she ate, she could get rid of, right? And she had the worst diarrhea possible for a cow, but she was able to get rid of that thing that she should not have been eating.

For us, there's something different. What we bring into our body spiritually, we do not have the option to just discharge. It comes into us, and we get the possibility of bringing that back time, time and time again into our mind and having to meditate on what we bring into our body. It is without any contradiction to say that in the United States, in the world today, we have the opportunity to meditate on more than maybe anyone has in the past we have available to us options of things to meditate on. That is absolutely astonishing.

The benefit a cow gets from meditating or regurgitating and consuming that grass is for the cow strength. All that we meditate on is not always beneficial for you and I. And what we choose to bring into our body is, is not lost. It is simply stored there and brought back at sometimes and inopportune times and re chewed where the flavor of what we bring into our body is revisited time and time again. Sometimes you and I might be wishing, you know, I wish I would not have ate that.

I wish I would have restrained from that. My stomach is hurting, you know, I wish I would not have eaten that, that thing. In similar ways you and I, I believe at times have also come to the conclusion. I wish I would not have put that thing in my mind. Because now, year after year, time after time, that is being burped back up into my mind and I am reliving that.

The danger, the destruction that comes from that thought that were brought into my mind.

In James, we just got a little picture of this. It says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it is full grown, brings death. That which we are tempted with our flesh has a desire for. And we decide to engage with and bring into our spiritual being of that which may not be healthy for us. We are left with that in our body, sometimes suffering the repercussions of that decisions for a lifetime, having to meditate on them. Well, here we're going to talk about meditation.

Meditation. I would like to let you know that meditation is not what happens when you put on a leotard and lay out a mat on your floor and get into a certain posture. Meditation is not a specific time you reserve for some sort of study. Meditation is something that is always happening in your mind and often it is happening at times when you wish it were not. It is happening when you are feeling the most greedy, you're meditating.

It is happening when you are lustful, you are meditating, you are bringing stuff into your body and focusing on it. When we are angry, those are times you are meditating. You are taking things and bringing them into the body and receiving, receiving some sort of benefit, either positive or negative, from what you are bringing in. Here Paul is Giving us, in Philippians, what we should meditate on. Meditate on.

The truth is you are meditating continually what you have brought into your body through a decision based on sometimes your carnal desires or. Or, God willing, hopefully, spiritual desires. You are ruminating on those objects. You are chewing it, grinding it, driving the flavor out of whatever you brought into your body, and are either suffering consequences from or benefits from it. Jesus says that it's not what a body puts on that defiles a man.

It's not what goes into a man that defiles a man, but it is what comes out of a man that defiles a man. It is important to understand that what we put in in some way, like that old saying, you are what you eat, the food that you put into your body has a direct application to. To the strength that your body has available to it emotionally. Those things that you feed on emotionally will be in some ways what you portray in your own emotions spiritually. In the same way, that which you bring into your life spiritually will be either that which you benefit from or that which is a curse and makes your belly ache and hurt.

So we're going to look at meditation. Meditation. What should we meditate on? Meditation is happening when you're driving, when you're working, when you're talking. In your idle times, your mind is meditating on what you put into it.

It never stops anyone. Even in our sleep, that meditation is working. And you wake up with the conclusion. You wake up with a thought. It is working.

How important to feed that mind with things that are good? How important for that work which a cow is specifically designed to gather nutrients from grass, to churn it, to masticate it, and to bring out nutrients from it. How important, how much more important to put. Put good things in front of us. Good things.

Okay, so we're going to look at what are those good things that Paul is going to encourage us to meditate on? He says in verse eight. Finally, my brethren, whatever things are true, This may not be the most comfortable message.

The goal of a Christian church is to bring people to a place spiritually where they are able to stand upon Scripture. It is not necessarily to make people feel comfortable here. Paul is encouraging us to focus on that which is true, because a focus on something has a reward that comes from it. It's interesting. Science has started to err or to veer different ways regarding aliens.

Okay? And so recently, an individual who made investments in, like Facebook and some of these other large, large social networks, a man from Russia, his Name is Yuri or something like that. He just made $100 million donation to a group called SETI Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. 100 million dollar investment that he made to this group. They were, you know, they have those large arrays of satellites and they are looking constantly at the heavens, waiting for radio signals to from intelligent life in outer space.

And they have been searching since the 1960s or 70s. Anyone know how many radio signals they've gotten from space to date?

You don't even need a hand to count them.

Right? But Yuri thought it's a good investment. I'm going to invest $100 million in into this project and feel like I can get some reward out of it. So now they have bought up space on two of the most important telescopes in the world and are searching the heavens with 25% of the space available to these telescopes. One in Australia and one, I can't remember the other one, right.

And they are now searching the heavens instead of the work that goes could have been done with these telescopes. Now a quarter of the time has been bought up with millions of dollars donated to look for signals from outer space. That investment will bring a reward. There will be a reward for that hundred million dollars he invested there. He invested wisely maybe in Facebook and these other things and became a billionaire.

Now he's going to invest $100 million in looking for signals from outer space. I don't have to be much of a prophet to know absolutely what his investment is going to yield.

You hear what I'm saying? This is a desire. Paul is saying, look, invest and meditate on that which is true, because that which is not true yields something different than that which is true. If you invest on that which is not true and meditate on it, it is going to build something in your life based on what you meditate on. I hate to say it and am guilty as much as anyone else, but oftentimes that which is not true is easier to meditate on than that which is true.

I love fluffy white bread. At times Stacy takes these coarse kernels and grinds them between two stones. And it is not the same as fluffy white bread.

But I know there's a difference in what the two produce when digested in a person's body. Focusing on what is true is more valuable then using your time to focus on that which is not true. Paul's encouragement is to focus and meditate on the things that are true. Jesus describes himself as being the way, the truth and the life, that attention, that meditation on the truth, will bring a certain reward, though at times the eating of it may be coarser or than what you want to put into your mouth at that moment. Meditate on that which is true.

The second thing it says whatever things are noble. The second encouragement Paul gives us is to focus and to meditate on things that are noble, things that are of value. I hate to say it, but some of us are attracted to by the magazines at the counters in supermarkets. What are those called? What are the mags?

Tabloids. Right. And we're drawn to them because they seem to take not the noble things, but the ignoble things that draw people's attention and focus on them. The Bible was an interesting book that it talks about all kinds of things. Murder, adultery, fornication, deceit, destruction, and all these kinds of things it brings up as facts, but it does not glorify them in any way.

An individual doesn't go to the word of God and get the kind of chills that they might get by looking at one of these magazines. The Bible tells us here in Philippians, to focus on that which is noble, that which uses the cheap thrills and grossness of the world to draw our attention to it, that entice us to ingest it is what we should avoid. Focus on the things that are noble, that are noble, that are honorable. It says in the third verse here. In the third thing here, whatever things are just.

Just here Paul is encouraging us to focus on the things that are just. In a similar way, our flesh is drawn to the unjust, isn't it? We love to hear about when people are treated wrong, when things are not the way they should be, instead of focusing on the things that are just, whatever things are pure. In a similar way, our flesh is enticed by the things that are unclean. A desire, even though we know it's wrong, to discover the things that are not worthy to be talked about, which are done by the Gentiles in secret.

A desire to discover the ugliness in the world. We're tempted by these things to meditate on them.

Whatever things are lovely, that which is beautiful. It's interesting in our world today how our current news system and reporting goes. The whole world could be absolutely at peace and functioning beautifully. And where's the one spot that they will focus?

The whole country is at rest, people satisfied and happy and beautiful, living with their families, comfortable, having jobs. And they're going to focus on that one place of destruction, of disaster, of ugliness, of murder, of mayhem, even though the rest of the world is enjoying the comfort of God. So you and I, at times, instead of drawing our attention to the extreme bounty of what God has given to us, we focus on that one miserable place that we can find and choose to meditate on that thing. Whatever things are good report if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, it says to meditate on these things.

I do want to bring attention to this area in your and I's life that this is an area that you and I consistently struggle with.

An individual would feel if they loved animals, pretty rotten towards Obadiah. If this year, after we had an apple press, he took three more wheelbarrows mash and fed it to Buttercup, we'd be calling, you know, PETA, right? And just like, man, I got this, you know, this kid and he's destroying the milk cow here. And next year, if he did the same thing again and again, you would, you would think this, there's something wrong with him, right? But the truth is, is you and I are meditating constantly, engaging in activity that is not consistent with what Paul is saying here.

I just see people looking at me, not saying amen.

Appreciate it. The truth is, is you and I have available to us the very antithesis of these kind of things screaming for our attention constantly. When we just set down the box just for a second to set it there, you know, it's just like we come right, right back to it, just wanting to fill ourself with more, desiring to meditate on the very opposite of the things that being described here. It is not my business in any way to try to condemn people. But I see there are two options for people like you and I who know that we're continually consuming things that are not for our benefit spiritually.

There's two options. I know that if I could talk to any of you personally, including myself, you would agree. Yes, those things that I have been putting into my mind and later regurgitating and meditating on have been for my spiritual destruction. They are ultimately leading towards a spiritual death in my life. My desires, yeah, I want them, but they are not good.

I think if I could talk to anyone, no one would be exempt from the problem I'm describing today. If you could have been in the spot of where you should be, you would not be where you are today. Some of us may be eating that apple mash continually and wondering why our backside is, is so poopy.

It's not a fun place to be. And so there's two options for an individual who Absolutely recognizes that that which we consume and meditate on has an impact on us. An individual, an individual who has an experience with the same thing, guilty of exactly the same things, but one wanting myself, my children, and eventually my church community to experience something better than what you have been accustomed to. There are two options. One, I could try to put a form of legalism on you, to bind you up and put direction or walls in your life in some way.

I could take my own form of morality, try to impose that on a people group, right? And that's normally sometimes what we do for others and for ourselves. The other option is come to an individual and to release our decision making process to someone who cares about us.

You and I, I believe, have the option to approach a gracious God who knows what is good for our spiritual meditation. I believe that individual can be entrusted with the option of allowing him the opportunity to question our motivations and decisions for what we ingest.

Some people, if you have a child or a grandchild or someone you love and they only eat junk food, that's it. You hear some of these young guys, yeah, I used to drink what, like seven Red Bulls a day? And that's basically all I, you know, I lived on for months at a time, right? And you're like, maybe you should make different food choices, right? But for us as individuals, it's either a form of legalism or coming to someone who cares about us, who knows our being and a trust on his decisions for our lives.

My realization and absolute knowing that an individual who imposes legalistic behavior on other people will lead to some form of death and joylessness. But if we come to someone who loves us, who cares about us, who always speaks with the voice of grace and peace, and we entrust what we are eating to him who knows us, who created us, we have the benefit of seeing the result, positive result, in our own spiritual beings. My hope for you and I, if you are a follower of Christ, that you could entrust your meditation choices to Jesus, that an individual, I believe, absolutely can take the responsibility of what we want to ingest, give that to Christ, who always speaks with grace and peace. And we're going to go into that in just a second. But believing that he will care for us in a loving way and as a result of giving an area to him that he will introduce a type of spiritual food that is more nourishing than what we participated in before my encouragement.

Before we go into this thing of condemnation, just for a second, is that the ability to trust Christ with This decision, I believe, is one of the most important things that a Christian can do. That if you have called Jesus Lord, if you have confessed him as Lord, then the choices of what we meditate on should also be relinquished to that individual. I want to be real careful here because this is an easy form of condemnation in our life. It would be super easy for me to say things to you because I make slightly different decisions for what I meditate on than you and try to hold you to the same standard, even though it might only be ankle high that I do. Rather, we should entrust ourselves to Christ, who never condemns people.

I want to just be really clear about that. If I could spiritually encourage you to release your meditation choices to Jesus, to the Spirit of God in our life, I want you to be fully aware of what that looks like spiritually so you're not deceived. Satan, when he brings something to our attention, it is always for the purpose of condemnation. It always grinds a person down and never gives them a way of escape. It is always a hopeless direction.

Christ, on the other hand, when he brings an area to our attention, when we're consuming something that is not healthy for us spiritually, he, yes, will reveal it to us, but always give us the desire and the more available and better choice. He will always open a door where he attempts to close one in your life, where you're eating something spiritually that you shouldn't. The end goal. Satan, when he brings condemnation, he will always. There is never the option to be free of that condemnation.

It is a continual crushing that leads to more and more legalism and condemnation. Christ, on the other hand, he offers us freedom and the ability to see and make choices that have an immediate impact on our lives. He frees us for those things. So the goal here, yes, is to allow Christ to show us the areas of our life to be willing to present them to him as an offering. But the expectation is that which he replaces with is of superior value than what he takes away.

And there never has been an individual who has been given, who, when they have been giving biblical repentance, ever resented it. They always appreciated the freedom that came from that repentance. In a similar way to certain tools, there are certain tools that are blunt and awkward to use, right? And sometimes a person who has more skill in an area will say, hey, no, look, that tool that you're using is not appropriate for that job. Will introduce to you a superior tool.

You pick that thing up and yes, you had to let go something, you lost something but what you have is better than what you lost. And you don't want to pick up that other tool you use, the one that is better for you. In a similar way, Jesus takes away the old and brings in the new. And it is fulfilled, filling to our soul. It is satisfying.

My goal today is to get you, encourage you and I to examine spiritually what you're meditating on.

Meditating on what you're putting into your being, what that comes back time and time again, burped out of that lower pit, brought back into our mind and relived. You and I, if you are a Christian, have the opportunity to bring those things to Christ. He takes them away and he gives us something superior. I'm going to finish with just the last verse. This.

If there is anything praiseworthy, it says, meditate on these things, the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me. These do and the God of peace will be with you. Let's pray. Oh, Father, I can say for us as a group here, Lord, that we are guilty, Lord. Guilty of meditating on things that are not true, praiseworthy, lovely, just.

Lord. We tend, we veer towards those things which are unholy. Lord. Forgive us, Lord. And as you reveal a change, Lord, as you give us repentance, Lord, open the door for something beautiful in our lives that may build strength spiritually in our hearts.

In Jesus name we ask Amen.