Guarding Your Heart - Jessica Baker

♪ Hello, my name is Jessica Baker and it is an honor and a privilege to be with you today and share the love of God through his word with you. I'm excited to come to you and the Lord gave me a word for you specifically about guarding your heart. So I'd like to pray with you and if you would join with me in prayer, Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful day and Lord, we come before you with hearts that are grateful, hearts that are thankful. We welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit and we say, God, have your way in us today. We're thankful that your word is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. And today we will hide your word in our heart that we might not sin against our God. And Lord, we thank you that that word is working in us mightily and we pray that it would renew our mind. It would cause us to be transformed in the way we think. Lord, I thank you that you're revolutionizing the way we think and you're radically changing our lives through your life giving powerful, infallible word. And we give you all the glory and the honor in Jesus' name. Amen. Praise the Lord. Well, I hope you brought your Bible to this Bible study because I love the word of God and it's his word that matters. Philippians chapter 2 verse 13 says, for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

I'm going to read that out of the amplified version as well so that you can hear it in an expounded way. It says, for it is not your strength but it is God who is effectively at work in you both to will and to work. That is strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose for his good pleasure. Oh, God has good plans for you, plans to prosper you, plans to give you a future and a hope. According to Jeremiah 29 11, he desires to strengthen, energize, and create in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose. That is his good pleasure. It does not please God when his children suffer. I have five children of my own and it has never pleased me when they were sick and never pleased me when they have trouble. As a matter of fact, many of my kids are in their 20s right now and it doesn't please me when they have financial difficulty or relational problems. So today I'm here to tell you that it is not pleasing to God when you have trouble. As a matter of fact, it is his will that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. And as you read the word of God today, I believe your soul is going to prosper. Amen. So Jesus died so that you and I could be set free from the destruction and the behavior of our sinful nature. He came to destroy the works of the devil and he wants to set us free from any chains of bondage and sin that have held us back.

And so it is not God who causes my trouble. As a matter of fact, God made a way for me to be delivered from my troubles. The word says many of the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Amen. So God delivered us from the kingdom of darkness. He translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. And you'll find that in Colossians chapter one, he shamed our enemies at the cross. He shamed Satan on your behalf. And God wanted me to remind you today of the importance of guarding your heart from the lies of Satan. You know, Satan would like to come in and tell you things about God that is not true. We find in first John chapter four, verse four, that greater is he that is in us than he that is in this world. So one of the lies of the enemy is that somehow his power and his works and his spirit is greater than the God who lives inside of you. When we know the Bible tells us that God's power is greater. Amen. And so one of the strategies of the enemy is to get you to have wrong thinking about God. Now, when I was a little girl, my testimony of salvation is began when I was eight years old, my dad left our family, abandoned my family. So thankful for a mother who loved Jesus and who taught me the scriptures and took me to church. She didn't give me the option. It was not an option.

On Sunday mornings, I was to get up, to get ready, to wear my best, to bring my best worship to God and to make sure that I brought some pennies out of my piggy bank to put in the offering. And so when my dad abandoned our family and there were nights of weeping and going to sleep at night in tears, I knew where to turn. And I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior as an eight-year-old little girl. And I've served him all the days of my life since. He's never abandoned me. He's never left me. And I'm here to tell you that the devil would like to tell you things, like because people did that to you, that God is going to be just like that. When we know his word says that he never leaves us and he never forsakes us. And so I was able to forgive my father. I received Christ and I walked out that forgiveness before the Lord. And so my heart was guarded from that bitterness. But the devil would love to try to bring up those things again and try to lie to you about God. He'll try to tell you things about God that will get you to harden your heart towards God. And the scriptures warn us about that and tell us to guard our heart. Your enemy will try to tell you

that God's the reason you have trouble in your life. When we know that's a lie because Jesus himself said that the thief is the one who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. But I have come that you may have life and life more abundantly. Jesus came to give you life, not to rob you of life. The one who robs life is Satan. And so today, the enemy of your life, we have to settle this right here and forever. Your enemy is not God. God is on your side and God is fighting for you. Those people have done you wrong. They are not even your greatest enemies. I know that if you wanna get a pen and paper, you could write me some names down right now, people who are your enemies. But I'm here to tell you your greatest enemy is in the unseen realm. The Bible says he is out. He's roaming about seeking whom he may devour. And today I want you to sit up right where you're at and say, Satan will not devour my life. My heart belongs to Jesus. God is not my problem. He is the answer to my problems. And today is a day to turn your heart again towards God. Maybe you have hardened your heart towards the Lord. Maybe it frustrates you when the chaplain or a Christian friend there says, let's pray.

And you say, I don't wanna pray. If you are in that place in your heart today, I believe that the Lord can restore and renew your relationship with God as you hear the word of God. You know, the world and worldly people will try to feed that bitterness in your heart. Worldly friends don't understand how you're able to forgive and have a relationship with God that is so sweet. I had a friend in college. Well, I'm not sure I would call her a friend because she spent some time trying to convince me that she knew enough about psychology that I shouldn't be healed this early in my life from what my father did to me. She tried to convince me in all kinds of different ways that I should still have all kinds of trauma and I should still be angry with my father. And she stirred it up and she tried to get my focus on the things that were already buried, the thing I had already forgiven my father for. And I found myself trying to dig that thing back up in the name of psychology, in the name of maybe I'm not smart enough to realize that I should still be hard in my heart. Well, I'm here to tell you that it has nothing to do with intelligence. My father's power is far superior to man's intelligence and there's no psychology in the world

that can explain the power of forgiveness. God's power supersedes the power of man. And so I began to listen to her. I tuned my ear to her. And if you've ever had to bury an animal in your life, I'm just gonna give you this example. I had a dog and we loved our dog and he was a big dog. His name was Kane. And one day he ran out into the road behind a trailer and he died and we had to bury him. him on our property. And that day I remember instructing my children to never go to that area and take a shovel and dig that up again. Never play right there. Never try to dig the dog back up. Why? Not only is that traumatizing to a child, but that animal will decay. That animal will begin to stink. It's nasty. It's not something that God wants for you and I to do is to go back to those things that are dead and they have been buried and God has done away with for you and to go back and to let anybody or anything cause us to dig that back up and to harden our hearts again. Because the hardening of our hearts is not only towards people. What begins to happen is our relationship with God begins to be affected and our hearts begin to harden towards God. If everything is new, then everything is new. My spirit man in Christ is born again. If I choose forgiveness and the Lord has healed me, then I am healed. Hallelujah. And there's no reason to go back to that place of hardness towards people or towards the Lord. So this is why the Lord tells us to be sober and to be vigilant because our adversary, the devil, he is roaming about. He's like a roaring lion trying to seek out somebody who will be a sucker and take his lies. Somebody who he thinks he can devour. And today you've already said it. You've said that will not be me. You have to have an attitude of faith and sobriety in Christ where you say, God, I know who you are in my life and I know what you've done and I refuse to take any steps backwards in my life because God, you are more than enough. So Proverbs 4 verse 23 tells us to keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. In the NLT it says to guard your heart above all else for it determines the course of your life. Each

of us has the responsibility to protect the posture and the state of our heart. You know, Christ has moved in and he's made me new, but he's given me the charge to walk in Christian discipline in my life, to guard the things that enter my heart and to guard the outflow of my heart, which is the conversation of my life, the words I speak, the prayers I pray, the people I'm in relationship with. He says to guard it above all else because it determines the course of our life. Now I want to read to you out of Hebrews chapter three verses one through 15. If you have your Bible, I'd love for you to turn there. I'm going to read it to you out of the New Living Translation today. But here in this passage, the Lord warns us about hardening our hearts. It says this and so dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and our partners with those called to heaven. Think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God's messenger and high priest for he was faithful to God who appointed him justice. Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God's entire house. But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses. Just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself. For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God. Moses was certainly faithful in God's house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later. Verse six, but Christ as the son is in charge of God's entire house and we are God's house. If we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ, that is why the Holy Spirit says today, when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness, they're your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for 40 years. So I was angry with them and I said, their hearts always turned from me. They refused to do what I tell them. So in my anger, I took an oath. They will never enter into my place of rest. Be careful then dear brothers and sisters, make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day while it is. today, so that none of you will be deceived in sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as we first believed, we will share in all things that belong to Christ. Remember what it says, today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as Israel

did when they rebelled. Israel saw God perform mighty miracles. Israel watched God cause the Red Sea to part right before their very eyes. It wasn't an imagination. It wasn't something on a movie somewhere. You and I have probably seen it on a movie, but they watched it and they actually walked on the dry riverbed. But yet they walked away from that and they continually hardened their hearts towards the Lord. Now I would say this to you. I've told you my testimony and you're sitting there listening to me talk. And if I were there asking you face to face about what happened in my life, would you tell me that it was my God's fault that my dad hurt me? No, I believe you would tell me that it was my father, my dad who made those choices. Yet Israel stood in the miracles of God and they watched the Lord do some mighty things, feeding them, providing for them. Their shoes never wore out in the wilderness. And yet they hardened their heart towards God and blamed Him for their lack of satisfaction in life. And so I want to remind you right here, as you looked into this scripture, the warning is very serious. And it's very clear that God doesn't want us to harden our hearts towards Him. They allowed bitterness to take root. They began to doubt God. And when they begin to doubt God, they begin to shut God out of their lives. And today, if you're walking in bitterness or anger, unforgiveness towards others in your heart, it matters to God because you begin to separate yourself from the presence of God. You begin to open yourself up to the deceitfulness of sin and the devil doesn't play fair. He waits on the first chance to come in and you have to stand against the wiles of the devil. And one of the ways you do that is to not allow anyone to speak into your life any kind of

poison that would feed bitterness. So today's a day to begin to say, I'm going to fellowship with God and I'm going to fellowship with those who fellowship with God. Today is the day. Now I'm here to remind you that God loves you with an everlasting love. And we're talking about some things that may be difficult for you to face. Maybe it's difficult to think about the things that people have done to you and, and why your heart is hardened before God. But I want to encourage you with this. Be careful not to spend a whole lot of time on why your heart is hardened and simply go before God and say, Lord, today is the day of change. Today is the day where I will not meditate on what everyone's done to me and why I'm where I'm at and why everything happened the way it happened. But today I'm going to meditate on the one who has all the answers. You are my God. You are the God who loves me with an everlasting love. You love me more than anyone else on this people planet ever could love me. And so I want to share three things with you that I believe will help you today to be able to guard your heart and to remain in a place where your heart is pliable and soft before the Lord. The first thing I want to encourage you to do is to say these words out of your mouth. I choose forgiveness. I choose obedience, and I choose repentance. I had family members hurt me deeply one time, and I would wake up and have such this horrible feeling in my heart, in the pit of my stomach. And the Spirit of God gave me these words because they line up with His word. And they were fighting words. They helped me walk out my forgiveness before the Lord and see healing happen. Today, you've got to begin to agree with God with your mouth. So say it again. I choose forgiveness. I choose obedience, and I choose repentance, because

there are areas in my own life that I needed to take before the Lord in that situation. All I need to do is say, I choose All of us are not perfect in every situation forgiveness. I choose obedience. I choose repentance. I choose where we've been hurt. We could have been responsible for some of the hurt. And so if we're willing and we're humble before the Lord, obedience. I choose obedience. I choose obedience. I choose He will help us. Number two, I wanted to encourage you to have a heart of worship. forgiveness. I choose obedience. I choose obedience. I choose If you've lost your song, the song in your heart, the Bible tells us in Psalm 34, 1, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. That doesn't mean just in the good times, that doesn't mean that I'm going to praise Him when everything's perfect. No, I'm going to praise Him in the midst of the storm. I'm going to praise Him on the days I feel bad. I'm going to praise Him on the days I'm wrestling with anger in my heart. I'm going to sing the songs of the Lord and let my heart be filled with worship. If your heart is filled with worship, it's real hard for your heart to be filled with hardness and bitterness towards God. That's the second way you can guard your heart. The third way is to make sure that every day, every day, say that with me, every day I will pray.

Let's say it again. Every day I will pray. I like to say this, prayer is simply having a conversation with the one who loves me the most. Prayer is having a conversation with the one who will never abandon you, never leave you. And so every day in 1 Peter 5, 7, it says to cast your cares on the Lord, for He cares for you. And today I want to pray with you as I'm closing this session. And I believe that God is helping you to guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flows the direction of your life. And today, as you abide by the word of God, as you submit yourself to God, you surrender all of these things to God, then your life is going to take a turn in the right direction. Maybe you've been waking up in fear. Maybe you've been waking up in anger. Maybe you've been waking up depressed in the mornings. That depression has to lose its hold on you. Today, I am taking authority in the name of Jesus and I'm praying over you and with you so that you can see this freedom and deliverance in your life. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful day. And again, we say thank you that your words are filled with life. They're filled with power. And Lord, I thank you that they carry the power to transform a hardened heart

and to make that hardness soft in your presence. And so, Lord, we cast our cares on you in this moment. We choose forgiveness. We choose obedience. We choose repentance. And Father, in this moment, if we have not yet given Jesus our heart, your word says that he who has the Son has life, but he that hath not the Son hath not life. And so today, Father God, we realize that without Jesus, we don't have life. And so if you have not prayed that prayer, I want to invite you to say these words after me. Heavenly Father, I repent of my sin. I ask you to forgive me and cleanse my heart from all unrighteousness. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was born. He came to earth to die and to be raised again on the third day so that he could restore mankind to God. And today, I believe and I receive Jesus Christ as Lord of my life. From this day forward, my heart is yours. In Jesus name. And now Father, I bless the Christian who is listening to me who has been wrestling in their heart with these things that have tried to separate them from God. I rebuke the lies of Satan that have come against them to try to get them to blame God for their circumstances.

Today and forevermore, may they fall in love with you and your word like never before. May they become the worshiper who worships you in spirit and in truth and has a song in their heart to the Lord, making melody in their heart to God every day. And Father, may they stand in a place of prayer where they're having a conversation, a real conversation with their real God because you are real, Father. You are more real than anything they can taste or touch or see or smell around them, Father God. I pray that your presence would become more real than they have ever experienced it before. And I thank you that as they have this conversation every day with the one who loves them the most, they will remain in relationship. relationship with you all the days of their lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. If you prayed that prayer today with me, I believe with all of my heart that you are set free. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. And you say that out loud, you believe it in your heart, and you will live that in your life every day. God bless you. Thank you for joining me. Stay in the word of God. It is life and health to your soul. Amen.

Amen.