Deposit These Things

turn your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4 Philippians chapter 4: 8- 9 appreciate all of you been praying for my voice it seems to be better hopefully we'll make it through all the service uh I uh waited and took my cough medicine right before the service here so about 9:00 I took it and that way I'd hopefully have a a good uh connection with that but actually what I took is my wife asked me why are you taking Nyquil cuz NyQuil is high the stronger now if you fall asleep during my message that's why all right because I took Nyquil but uh it's got the stronger cough medicine so I'm hoping it'll help me out and be able to get through the whole message in Philippians chapter 4: 8-9 Philippians

chapter 4: 8-9 says finally Brethren what sever things are true what sort of things are honest what sort of things are just what sort of things are pure what sort of things are lovely what sort of things are good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things those things which you have both learned and received belied and heard and seen in me do and the God of Peace shall be with you today we're starting a new series called deposit these things to deposit these things uh the word in Philippians chapter 4 verse number 8 the end of the verse it says to think on these things that word means literally to deposit these things it's an accounting term and so when we

think on these things we need to deposit these things like you make a deposit into your bank account now before you can make a deposit into your bank account you have to open up a bank account in James 2 and: 23 the Bible says and the scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed and that's the same word in the Greek language deposited unto him for righteousness he was called the friend of God so Abraham by believing in God was able to open an account with God in so to speak the bank of heaven and to deposit his soul you see what every one of us needs to do is we need to open up an ER account now many of you just finished doing your taxes you know what an IRA

account is individual retirement account where you put money away for your future for your retirement and an erra account is a Eternal retirement account and that is depositing your soul for all eternity if you'll turn turn with me put a mark in Philippians but turn over to Romans chapter uh 4 Romans chap 4 and verses 3-8 Romans chapter 4 and veres 3-8 been going through the book of Romans on Sunday night and there's a lot of great verses in there Romans 4: 3-8 the Bible says for what saith the scriptures Abraham believed God and it was counted again that's the same word now if you're a person that likes to underline your Bible underline these words as I bring them up here so first of all it

was counted or deposited unto him for righteousness now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned or deposited of Grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted there's same word again for righteousness even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth again the same word righteousness without works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven whose sins are covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin once more the same word and that word is used again a couple more times in this passage but as you look at this passage what we see here is that Abraham that when

he deposited his soul was counted or deposited under righteousness he opened up an eternal retirement account with God in John chapter 3 and verse number 16 it says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life in John chter 3 and verse number 36 it says he that believeth on the son ha everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him and so in order to have everlasting life we need to deposit our soul with Jesus Christ we need to put our faith and trust in him now to do that we've got to start by declaring bankruptcy look at Luke chapter 7 if

you would turn over to Luke chapter 7 and verses 41 and 42 Luke 7 and verses 41 and 42 Luke 7: number 41 it says there was a certain creditor which had two debtors the one owed 500 and the other 50 and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both tell tell me therefore which of them will love him more so two creditors but both of them couldn't afford to pay their debt no matter if it's big or if it's little if you can't pay it you are in bankruptcy bankruptcy is defined this way a person who is unable to pay his debt one whose property by judge's order turned over to a trustee to be administered now I don't know if you've ever gone through financial bankruptcy it's a terrible

thing to have to go through but all of us are spiritually bankrupt we cannot afford to pay the debt of our sin we cannot afford to pay for our own sin no matter how much it is in Romans chapter 3 and: 23 the Bible says for all have sin and come short of the glory of God and that includes everybody in this room now you may look around you say well I'm not as bad a sinner as somebody else in this room is and that may be true but you see these creditors one owed much and one owed little but both of them couldn't pay what they owed and you and I cannot pay the debt of our sin we are spiritually bankrupt you know sometimes people say well I'm just not that bad well let's do a little bit of math

here if you sin one time a day now the truth is we all sin more than once a day and if you won't admit that let me talk to your spouse let me talk to your parents uh if you sin one time a day you say something you shouldn't say you have a bad thought you do something you shouldn't do or don't do something you should do uh there's all kinds you get angry there's all kinds of things we can Define here if I only do one wrong thing a day 365 days a year now folks I'm 68 years old that means I have committed in my lifetime one sin a day 24,8 20 sins but the truth is I commit a lot more than one sin a day uh my wife's not in orium but if you go ask her she'll tell you that and and so let's say you

commit 10 CS a day and even that is a a low number for most of us in this room is it not and if it's 10 CS a day 6 365 days a year 68 years that's 2 48,2 sins it starts adding up and the problem is no matter how try how much you try to be good you'll never be good enough to outway and to pay that debt of sin and that's where our problem is we're spiritually bankrupt we cannot be good enough our religion our rituals our own righteousness will never be good enough to pay off that debt of sin but you know the when somebody goes into bankruptcy they appoint a trustee and Jesus wants to be the trustee of your soul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse number 21 it says for Heath made him to be sin

for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Jesus wants to give you a spiritual bailout many of you remember back when the uh covid was going on and the government came in and says we're going to give all these businesses a bail out we're going to bail out everybody they gave everybody money remember that and they were going to bail us out but you know what the government ran out of money they just didn't have enough to take care of all of us they didn't have enough to take care of all of our debt they didn't have enough to take care of all of our problems no matter how much money they give gave us it was still not going to be enough you know what Jesus has

enough to save you from your sins in first John Chapter 2 and verse number two it says and he is the propitiation or the satisfaction for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world and Jesus can can take care of your sins and he can take care of my sins and Jesus wants to be the trustee of our soul he wants to be the one that we deposit our soul with and declare spiritual bankruptcy and say Jesus I can't pay my sin debt I want you to pay it for me and he paid for it when he died upon the cross you see we cannot pay in 1 Peter 1: 18 and 19 he says for as much as you know that you're not redeemed with corruptable things as silver and gold from your vain

conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish without spot you cannot buy your way into heaven with silver and gold you cannot earn your way into heaven with your righteousness it's not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he has saved Us by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and it's it it's only Jesus Christ that can pay off our debt of sin you know I I heard a story one time about a man who died and when he got up to heaven to the Gates of Heaven to get into heaven he had the suitcase full of gold with him he took it with him and and Peter looks at him and

says what are you doing with the suitcase full of paving stones you see the streets of gold the streets of Heaven are paved with gold uh you cannot buy your way heaven and God doesn't need your righteousness because he has all righteousness there's nothing that we can do to pay our debt you ever realize that deposits are deceitful you ever notice that I I I get my check deposit in my account and I think wow I've got a lot of money and the next day it's all gone isn't that what happens they're deceitful it it seems like man I've got a lot of money but then I've got all these debts to pay as well the Bible says in Jeremiah 17 and verse number N9 the heart is deceitful above all things and

desperately wicked who can know it you see we think well we're doing pretty good but the truth is all of our righteousness is gone it's it's deceitful it's it'll be washed away there's nothing there and we need to realize that we can't pay for our own sins you know somebody once said that money talks it says goodbye I don't know about yours but that's what mine does and you know what the Bible says in Isaiah 64 verse number 6 but we are all as an unclean thing and all of our righteousness are as filthy rags and we all do Fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away you see we need to realize that our our righteousness will be gone before we know it and it's not enough

to pay for our iniquities it's not enough to pay for our sins we need to deposit our soul with Jesus Christ in heaven see to go to heaven you got to have an account with God I I heard another story about a lady who went into a bank and and she had a little just a little bit of money deposit she didn't have very much and she was in line watching all these rich people deposit big deposits and she got up to the counter and she put her deposit before the teller and the teller looked at and said said sorry ma'am we can't take this deposit and and and she got real upset and she said well my money is as good as anyone else here and she sayses ma'am but you don't have an account here your bank is

across the street you see if you don't have an account in the Bank of Heaven all the good that you're doing is not being deposited in heaven you've got to open an account with Jesus Christ that's what salvation is you see I can go down to any Bank down here and I can open an account for free it doesn't cost me anything and you can go to the bank of heaven and you can open up an account with Jesus Christ by giving him your soul and say I want to trust you for my salvation I cannot redeem myself I cannot pay for my debt I am Bakr and we put our faith and trust and we deposit our soul with Jesus Christ for safekeeping for all eternity and that's opening up an account in the Bank of heaven and

you can do that today by calling Upon Jesus Christ as your savior go over to Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter 7 and look at verses 21-23 Matthew 7 veres 21- 23 the Bible says not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and thy name have cast out Devils thy name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto never knew you depart from me he that work iniquity you see here we people were doing all kinds of wonderful works but they were not depositing in the right account they were not deposited in the account of

heaven and God says you don't have an account you have not deposited your soul you have not trusted me as your savior and today what you need to do is you need to open up an ER an eternal retirement account and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your savior and when you do that God ensures that account you know it's your bank right now your money is safe because because it's under the FDIC and that's the Federal Deposit Insurance you know you we know that if the bank goes bad that the federal government is going to take care of our money and and pay us back now I'm not 100% confident in the federal government as I don't know if you are well but it does give me confidence know my my

money is insured in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse number 12 it says for the which cause I also suffer these things nevertheless I'm not ashamed for I know whom I believe and and persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day you see I know that I have FDIC with my soul forever depending on Christ and you see that because I'm depending on him I know that when I die that I'm going to heaven I know that my sins are forgiven I know that I have eternal life you see when I go down I put money in the bank I don't worry about that money I don't go home saying oh I hope they have that money tomorrow I hope it's there tomorrow I hope the bank doesn't go bad because

I know the government is going to ensure my money now we can't depend on the government but we can depend on God and I know that when I lay my head down the pillow at night I know that my soul is going to heaven because I have deposited with Jesus Christ I know that I have eternal life the Bible says in 1 John chter 5 verses 12 and 13 he that hath the son hath life he that hath not the Son of God hath not life these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God that you may know that you have have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the son of God you see folks if you can have confidence in your bank you can have a lot more confidence in God with

your soul and you can depend on him for your salvation and if you have not done that today you need to deposit your soul with Jesus Christ you need to open up an account in Heaven by calling upon him as your savior and putting your faith and trust in him and you can do that for free I don't have to pay to open an account but you know what I have to do is I have to maintain that account in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse number four that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor you know how you need to know how to possess this account you know opening a bank account a lot of people I'm amazed how many people don't know how to maintain their bank

account you ever met people like that uh they're always bouncing checks they're always running out of money uh they they don't know how much money they have in there they don't know how to maintain their bank account and you know what's amazing to me is I I how many Christians don't know how to maintain the Christian Life you see we need to maintain that account now that we've opened that account with heaven now we need to maintain it in Titus Chapter 3 and verse number 8 it says this is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable onto men and so once we

get saved we're not saved by our good works Ephesians 28:9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of works it's the gift of God not of Works L A man should boast and we're not saved by our good works but once we're saved we need to maintain our good works my bank expects me to maintain my account uh they expect me to put money in take money out and keep track of what's going on there and not bounce checks all over the place and and when I do that then I've got to pay penalties for that but you you and I need to understand that we need to maintain the Christian Life and one of the ways that we maintain the Christian Life Is by making deposits you see you have to make this this

is this is really going to be amazing to some of you folks okay this is going to be life-changing you have to put money into your account to take money out of it have you guys figured that out yet I know people haven't figured that out yet you got to put money into your account to take money out you got to make deposits if you want to write checks if you want to make debit charges uh you got to put money in to take money out go over to James chapter 2 James chapter 2 thank you here we go James chapter 2 and look at verses 23 and 24 James chapter 2 and beginning with verse number 23 it says and the scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed the same were

deposited unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God you see that how that by works a man is Justified not by faith only now that doesn't mean we're saved by our works but my account is Justified balanced by the deposits I make every month my wife has to balance my account to make sure there's money in there to pay the bills it go down to verse number um verse number 26 for as the body without spirit is dead so faith without works is dead being alone now in verse 23 it says and and he believed God it was imputed on for righteousness the word believe means to deposit and as it and I want you to look at verse number 24 again it says you see then that how that works by works

a man is Justified and and not by faith only now let me let me say this a different way to kind of give you the idea what's saying there as the account without money is not sufficient so faith without works is dead also you ever gotten a check back that says NSF non-sufficient funds you didn't have enough money in that account to write the check on that account and the same thing is true spiritually we've got to make spiritual deposits if we want to draw upon the account that we've set up with God if we want to draw upon the promises and the blessings of God we've got to make deposits now you say well what are the deposits go back to Philippians chapter 4 Philippians chapter 4 and look at

verse number 8 Philippians chapter 4 and verse number 8 Bible says finally Brethren what sort of things are true what sort of things are honest what sort of things are just what sort of things are pure what sort of things are lovely what sort of things are good report if they're be any virtue if there be any praise think or deposit these things so there's your spiritual deposits that's what we've got to deposit into our life and over the next few weeks we're going to look at each one of those things and how we deposit truth and how we deposit things that are pure and honest and we're going to look at each one of them but you've got to make the dep positiv you see the reason that our society

today is morally and spiritually bankrupt is because we just stop depositing these things our society is is no longer deposit things are true and honest and pure look around you isn't that true and that's why as a society we're spiritually bankrupt and that's why as individuals were Also spiritually bankrupt see to draw upon the peace and the blessings of God look at Philippians chapter 3 I'm sorry chapter 4 and look at verse number s Philippians chapter 4: 7 and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus go down to verse number nine those things which you both learned and received and heard and seen me do and the God of Peace shall

be with you if I want to draw upon the peace and the blessings of God I've got to make the deposits I've got to deposit these things if I don't deposit I can't make withdrawals and the same thing is true spiritually if I'm not depositing these things then I can't draw upon the peace and the power of God too many Christians are like the guy that said I can't be overdrawn I still have checks in my checkbook you know just because you have checks in your checkbook doesn't mean you can still write checks you got to put money in to draw money out and when you can't draw upon the peace and the power of God is because you haven't been making deposits you haven't been having daily devotions you

haven't been going to church you haven't been spending time in prayer you haven't depositing things that are true and honest and pure and lovely and we've got to make the deposits in order to make the withdrawals now look at Philippians chapter 3 and look at verse number 13 Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth onto those things which are before it's good that you deposited your paycheck last week but that's it's all gone you got to keep depositing to keep withdrawing it's not a one-time thing and you got to keep going back and remember it yeah it was great what I had yesterday it's great that I had

that but that's already gone to pay these debts and now I need to keep depositing if I want to keep drawing upon the peace and the power and the blessings of God look at Philippians chap 4:1 17 for a long time there uh if you had a savings account at the bank you got what 0.1% wasn't that great 0 1% the percentage rates gone up and and we're paying more for loans and borrowing money but we're we're also getting more for our savings account we're starting to get interest again and you know the Bible says in Philippians chapter 4:1 17 not because I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your account I I I preached this series before a while a long while back and one of the things

that happened is a lot of people said well Pastor all you preaching about is money folks over this series we're going to use money as the illustration but I'm not talking about money as giving I think it I think God does bless you when give and I think part of the spiritual deposits is depositing our our giving to the Lord but more importantly what I'm trying to do is say to you I I'm not here trying to get more money out of you what I want to do is you understand if you want to draw upon the peace and if you want to draw upon the power of God you've got to make deposits and a lot of us all we're doing is making enough put enough money in to pay this debt enough money to pay that debt and we

got to start building up the reserves you got to start building up more and more because fruit interest can bear to your account the more you deposit the more it builds up the more interest you get as well and so we need to deposit these things because if you don't make deposits you can't make withdrawals in order to put put money into take money out of the bank you got to put money into it now I know Generations Z most of you don't write checks anymore you use a online debit card and things like that but they're still the same thing they're they're withdrawals and you can't take money out unless you put money in the same thing is true spiritually now I have in my wallet which probably most

of you have the same thing I have two different cards here I have one that is a charge card and one that is a debit card and and they look a lot alike but they are very different look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse number five 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse number five 1 Corinthians 13 is the love chapter it talks about love and what love does and verse number five it says love love does not behave itself unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil now that word thinketh again is the same word deposit no evil and and the difference between these two cards is simple is that with a debit card when I go and use this debit card I have to money in that account

in order to take money out of that account now with a charge card I can charge it on there and then I'll pay for it later right and I don't have to have money in the bank in order to use the charge card but some point or another I'm it's going to come back to me with interest and what we need to understand is we need to keep short accounts if you ever gone and seen somebody or maybe this Happ happened to you you go on the bank and you run your your card through the machine and the machine says nope can't take it why is that because either you don't have enough money in your account or you you've overused your charge account you're beyond your limit and so we need to keep short accounts and

the same thing is true with God we need to keep short accounts with God in in Proverbs 28:3 it says he that cover his sins shall not prosper but who so confesses and forsakes him shall have mercy and so we need to keep short accounts with God when we sin we need to confess it to God because otherwise it keeps drawing out of our account it keeps building up interests and keeps taking more and more and more and that's why we need to keep short accounts with God and get it paid for you know having a charge card is not a good thing because you're going to pay for it again and again you go to McDonald's and put it on a charge card and and pay maybe 12 bucks or 15 for your meal uh you're going to

be paying for that a long time where you're going to end up paying maybe 20 or 30 bucks for it when you add the interest in there and so we need to realize that we don't want to keep when we sin when we do wrong we need to get right with God right away and the same thing with others go over to Ephesians chapter 4 to Ephesians chapter 4 and verses 31 and 32 Ephesians chapter 4 and verses 31 and 32 the Bible says let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ sake had forgiven you you know when you run that card through the machine it rejects his

because you built up so much debt it says you can't do it it's not about what on the counter you may be only charging $10 but the machine says but you owe thousands of dollars and and I'm not going to let you add any more to that until you pay that debt and that same thing is true I I talk about this in marriage a lot of times you ever in your marriage you ever had an argument over something that was really insignificant and after you get the big fight about it you after you make up with each other you say why did we fight over that you weren't fighting over that what you were fighting was was all the charges all the debts that you had built up over the years that you had never dealt with

and never taken care of and what we've got to do is we've got to keep short accounts with each other in our relationships and forgive and not hold on to that bitterness and that anger and that wrath because it keeps building up interest and keeps building up and keeps building up so you can charge it on a debit card or a charge card or you can write a check a a check is basically a promiser note it it's a promissary note look at Philippians chapter 4 when somebody writes you a check what they're doing is saying I promise to pay you this much money for what I'm writing a check for if you go in a store and you write check you're promising the store that when you put take this to the bank that

they will give you so much money for what I just bought when you write somebody a check for services they've done you're promising them that they can get that money out of the bank it's a promissary note in Philippians chapter 4 and verse number six it says be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God you see a check is a promise and the Bible is full of promises from God and we can draw upon those promises of God it's like he's written us a check and say if you will do this now if I don't fulfill what I'm required if somebody writes me a check to mow their lawn I don't mow their lawn I have no right to cast

that check and so many of the promises of the Bible have a requirement and Bible says if you will do this then I promise I will do that it's a promiser note it's written down go over to Second Peter chapter 1 second Peter chapter 1 now I want to I want to use this as illustration so I want to have someone write me a check here and so I'm going to ask uh brother mner would you write me a check here uh you can just write my name in there and you can write any amount you want AAR and sign that check just go ahead and do that for an illustration and I'm going to use that in just a moment and and you know uh when he writes me that check that's a promiser note it's written down in 2 Peter 1 and: 3

through 4 it says according to his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escap escaped the Corruptions in the world through lust you see these promises are what we can draw upon when we are in time of trouble when we are time of need and it's a promiser note and and so brother measner wrote down a check here so if I could use that check brother measner and so I've got this check right here and he wrote down in there uh that now I've used this illustration

before uh I had a guy named Jim Craig years ago that uh I asked to write me a check and he wrote me a check for $10,000 I got real excited about that uh he wrote my name in there he signed that check and he gave it to me and uh after the service I went to him and I said hey Jim can I cash this check and Jim said no and and I never took that check to the bank for two reasons first reason was I didn't believe Jim had $10,000 and the second reason was I didn't believe he wanted to give me $10,000 I still got that check in my office I've saved it all these years and every time I talk to Jim I said can I cast a check yet he said no years later I had another guy in the church his name was Frank

devono wrote me a check he wrote me a check for $200 signed his name to it gave it to me after the service I went to Frank afterwards and by the way whenever I take money from somebody I always go to him afterwards and give it back to him but uh I offer it back to him but I went to Frank and I said Frank here's your check and Frank said no Pastor I want you to keep that check he said we love you as a pastor you've been a blessing to us and we want you to cash that check and keep it I said' Frank you don't have to do that he saidwe want you to' folks I don't have that check anymore why because number one I believed that Frank wanted to give me that he had $200 and number two I believed he

wanted to give it to me and so I took it to the bank and I cashed it and I got the money for it because I believed the promise do you believe in the promises of God do you believe that this note that God has written to you that this promise he said by God will supply all your needs Accord to Rich of Glory by Christ Jesus do you believe that when God says I will never leave you nor forsake you do you believe that when God makes you a promise if you believe it then go to the bank and cash it now as long as you fulfilled the requirement in some places they do have requirement God says I'll supply all needs when you give to missions and so when we fulfill the requirement then God will fulfill

his promise and we can take it to the bank we can take that promise to the bank you see that promise has been signed by Jesus Christ in John 14:14 it says if you shall ask anything in my name I will do it you see if I take this check down to the bank in brother meisner's name they're going to cash it for me they're going to give me the money because it's in his name he signed it he made that promise and they're going to fulfill that promise same thing is true with heaven but my God supply all your needs you see I don't worry when I go to the bank and make a deposit as long as the money's in my account I just write a check or I run the debit card or I pay the online bill because I trust the

bank now banks have failed and yes praise God our government steps in and takes care of it but sometimes governments can fail too but God will never fail you Banks always have more than enough money to pay the debt but my account may not have enough to pay it that's the difference God has enough to pay his promises but your account may be empty because you have not been depositing these things and so I want to challenge you as we go through the series first of all I want to challenge you memorize Philippians chapter 4 verses 8 9 at least 7 through n would be great even longer than that would be great there's some great verses there but more importantly every day think have I think on these

things deposit these things what sort of things are true what sort of things are honest what sort of things are pure each day make sure you deposit those things in your life because the more you deposit the more you're going to build up that interest you can't outg give God and God's going to keep building up that interest and and you're going to be able to draw upon the peace and the power of God no matter what comes in your life and you want to have those reserv serves ready for that day we want to trust in him but also keep your account short when you have a debt take care of that debt confess your sin to God get right with others around you don't keep carrying that over and over again and keep paying for it week after week and month after month and year after year with bitterness pay that debt