You hold two passports. One of them matters far more than the other. This past Sunday, Pastor Chip continued the Counter Culture series with a message called Biblical Citizenship from Philippians 3 on what it means to live as a citizen of heaven while still living here on earth.
When Politics Swerve Into God’s Lane
Pastor Chip opened by naming something up front. This was not a political sermon. He is not a political pastor and First Baptist is not a political church. Politics exist to handle roads, taxes, and court cases.
The problem is that politics have swerved out of their lane and into the theological one. Questions about the value of unborn life, gender, sexuality, and marriage were never political questions. They are questions God already answered in His Word.
So when politics come into that lane, the Church has to speak. Not out of aggression, but out of faithfulness. Many pastors avoid these subjects because they do not want to be political. But when Scripture has already spoken, staying silent is not neutrality.
He also walked through a framework from sociologist Aaron Renn describing three eras. Before 1994 was positive world, when being a Christian was culturally and even politically advantageous. From 1994 to about 2014 was neutral world, where faith was one voice among many and largely tolerated. Since roughly 2014 we have lived in negative world, where Christianity is increasingly viewed with suspicion.
That shift feels new to American believers. It is not new to Scripture. Nearly every person in the Bible lived in negative world. So do most of our brothers and sisters around the globe right now. We are among the small handful of Christians in history who ever experienced anything else.
Your Primary Citizenship Is Heaven
Citizenship means you legally belong to a country for its rights and protection, and in return you give loyalty, obey its leaders, and live within its culture.
Pastor Chip pointed out that we tend to think of citizenship only in physical terms. Scripture speaks of it spiritually. We are born into sin, born into the kingdom of this world, with the enemy holding sway over everything not under the feet of Jesus.
Then the King of heaven stepped down and became a citizen of earth. Fully God and fully man. He lived under our laws and our culture without ever sinning, without ever bending to political wickedness or religious hypocrisy. He went to the cross, died for our sin, was buried, and rose again. Because of that, your citizenship changed.
Philippians 3:20-21 says our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body.
Pastor Chip drew out something easy to miss. That verse is present tense. You are not waiting to become a citizen of heaven. You already are one. What you are waiting for is the Savior Himself.
The context makes it even richer. Philippi was a Roman colony separated from Rome by hundreds of miles of sea. The people there still wore togas, spoke Latin, and lived under Roman law. They lived as Romans in a place that was not Rome. That is exactly what Paul is describing for the believer.
He also offered a way to examine your own heart. One of the clearest signs that you truly belong to Jesus is that you long to see Him. If you find yourself hoping He holds off a little longer because you still have living to do, that is worth praying about.
He shared the story of his daughter Brooklyn telling him and Michelle right before the school bus came that she could not wait to die and meet Jesus. After some careful parenting questions, they realized it was not about death at all. It was about Jesus. They got to share Philippians 1:21 with her. To live is Christ and to die is gain.
For anyone who is tired of the pain, tired of the temptation, tired of the struggle, that verse holds both truths. One day death will be gain. Until then, to live is Christ. Let God appoint the day and live fully for Him in the meantime. If you are not dead, God is not done.
Your Secondary Citizenship Is Earth
Pastor Chip was careful not to let the first point become an excuse. We are not meant to be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.
He laid out the contrast. Our heavenly citizenship belongs to the kingdom of heaven, ruled by Jesus, governed by God’s Word, aimed at the Great Commission, and lasting for eternity. Our earthly citizenship belongs to a nation, governed by magistrates and laws, aimed at peace and order, and lasting only a lifetime.
Then he asked a question worth sitting with. Based on what you watch, read, listen to, do, and give your money to, which citizenship are you actually living for?
He shared that the Apollo astronauts described holding up a thumb from the moon and blocking out the entire earth. Jim Lovell said the earth had never felt less consequential. From that distance you cannot see political parties, national borders, or military strength. Just a blue marble hanging in the expanse of God’s universe.
If you could see earth from heaven’s perspective, earth would no longer be your primary perspective.
Not Assimilate. Not Isolate. Permeate.
So what do we actually do here? Pastor Chip turned to Jeremiah 29, written to the Israelites exiled in Babylon.
They had two obvious options. Assimilate into Babylonian culture to avoid persecution. Or isolate, hide out, and wait for rescue.
God gave them a third way. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Marry, have children, have grandchildren. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you and pray to the Lord on its behalf, because in its welfare you will find your welfare.
The answer was not to assimilate and it was not to isolate. The answer was to permeate.
He illustrated it with a lawn full of weeds. One option is to scrape everything off and lay new sod. That would be God starting over with another flood, and He promised He would not. The other option is to overseed. Church, he said, God is calling us to overseed the culture of this world with the Gospel.
Live boldly. Live with courage. Be vocal about your faith. Be in the world without being of the world, so the world is not influencing you but you are influencing the world.
Four Marks of a Biblical Citizen
Pastor Chip closed with four practical applications.
Our identity is ambassador. Second Corinthians 5:20 says we are ambassadors for Christ, and God makes His appeal through us. An ambassador is from one place, living in another, representing where they are from. Sports fans are not shy about their team no matter what stadium they walk into. Our message is Jesus, and it should be just as unashamed.
Our warning is sin. First Peter 2:11 urges us as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. The enemy will try anything to pull your eyes off Jesus. Alcohol. Drugs. Immorality. Anger. Materialism. Greed. Pride. Selfishness. All of it aims at taking you out of the game.
Our prayer is for peace. First Timothy 2:1-2 calls for prayers and intercessions for all people, including those in authority, so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. We are not called to be political rebels. We are called to be disciplemakers.
Our culture is the Gospel. Philippians 1:27 says let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel, standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side for the faith, and not frightened by your opponents.
Pastor Chip closed with Paul. When the authorities threatened persecution, Paul said he wanted to know the sufferings of Christ. When they threatened death, he said to live is Christ and to die is gain. When they threatened a painful death, he said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. They could not touch him, because his citizenship was in heaven.
Jesus, a citizen of heaven, became a citizen of earth so that you, a citizen of earth, could become a citizen of heaven.
Live It Out
This week, ask God one honest question. Which citizenship am I actually living for?
Then take the three challenges Pastor Chip gave. Witness to one person about Jesus this week. Just one. Confess and repent of the one sin you have been wrestling with most, and put it to death in Christ. Get on your knees daily and ask God to make heaven your primary citizenship in the way you think, spend, speak, and live.
You already know how the story ends. Live like it.
There’s a Seat for You
Whether you are wrestling with how to live out your faith in a culture that pushes back, or you are just beginning to ask where you actually belong, you belong here. We are a church that believes your true citizenship was settled at the cross.
Plan Your Visit and come be part of what God is doing here. Or take your next step and Get Connected with our church family. We would love to walk alongside you.