Access!
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Access denied or delayed
Access denied or delayed
Tonight in our Practical Christianity Series we are looking at access.
When you think of access, what do you think of?
(not on a slide or handout) So having said that, why would someone not be granted access, have access denied, or delayed?
Access can be denied because of sin (Isa59:2; Mic3:4; Exo32:33)
2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
4 Then they will cry out to the Lord, But He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time Because they have practiced evil deeds.
33 The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.
Those are pretty scary verses aren’t they?
We may know this one pretty well (Jer29:11, then 10)
Access delayed (Jer29:11, 10)
11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
But look what was going on at the time
10 “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
They were denied access because of their sin, they were taken into captivity. We too at one time were separated from God because of our sin.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and we know the penalty
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Access denied, or delayed when we don’t acknowledge our sin and turn to the solution to our sin problem. (expand, history for you can be hope for others)
Let me expand just a bit more historically (Isa42:6-7, 43:1-2; Jam1:2; 1Pt1:6, 4:12)
6 “I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, 7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
God calls Israel to righteousness and the sin of the people separated them, but God had a plan to open their eyes, to set the prisoners free!
1 But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! 2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.
Though the redemption they received was far short, they were redeemed from the Babylonians and Assyria, but the real redemption was to come in Jesus!
In this life we will face tribulation, hard times, we will suffer but James says we are to count it a joy doesn’t he?
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
Peter says the same thing, as well as don’t be surprised.
6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;
Don’t be surprised, count it a joy, access may have been denied or delayed, but it is not to late to know about the access that is granted to those who believe
I. Access Granted
I. Access Granted
We know that our sins separated us from God as we looked at (Isa59:2); it kept us from the Lord’s presence, it was a veil.
Access granted by the work of Christ (Mt27:50-54)
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.
52 The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
54 Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
Access granted because Jesus was God’s acceptable sacrifice (see Heb10:1-18) focus (v.14).
14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
Access granted means nothing can separate you from the Love of God (Rom8:38-39)
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(be careful here, expand on that!) - - - we can separate ourselves
God could not love us more and will not love us any less. It is by the work of Jesus that we have our access.
Access granted not by our works (Tit3:5-7)
5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Christ’s work of righteousness on the cross satisfied the wrath of God and gave us access through the torn veil that separated us previously.
Granted access does not mean accepted access does it?
II. Access Accepted
II. Access Accepted
Now let’s look at those who have accepted the access, have obeyed the gospel (Rev3:20-22, 15-19)
(Have everyone open bible to Rev3!)
20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
22 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”
Written to believers (the church as Laodicea)
Written to believers, not unbelievers, many take these verses out of context so that is why we need to stay in context
Written to those who have access, have the door unlocked to. But if the door is unlocked and someone knocks what do we have to do? (open the door; invite the person in)
Warning to the church (vv.15-19)
15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
17 ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
In brief we can see the following in this passage:
The warning (vv.15-16)
The charge (v.17)
The solution (v.18)
The reason (v.19)
So what do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you in this passage in context all the way through (v.22)?
So being lukewarm is a scary thing, and there are things that can hinder us from enjoying the access we have. So I want to move to hindrances or a few minutes.
III. What hinders us from using our access?
III. What hinders us from using our access?
Jesus came to give us life, and give us life full (or abundant) according to Jn10:10. Our part is to know it, believe it, receive it, walk in it. There are things that can hinder our walk.
Pride? (Pro16:18)
18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.
(expand on this)
Company we keep? (1Cor15:33)
33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
(expand on this)
Selfishness? (Lk9:23)
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
(expand on this)
Maybe it is lack of trust? (Pro3:5-6)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
(expand on this)
Can you think of things that can hinder you from using the access that is granted?
If there are hindrances then there needs to be solutions too, right?
IV. Access Solution!
IV. Access Solution!
We all love solutions don’t we, we don’t like problems, and as soon as we know there is a problem most the time we seek a solution to the problem. The access problem has an easy solution! (Heb12:1-3)
1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
(be sure to expand on each of the below points) - WATCH TIME
Lay aside every encumbrance and sin (v.1)
Run with endurance the race set before us (v.1)
Fix our eyes on Jesus, author and perfecter of our faith (v.2)
Consider Him and His sacrifice so we do not grow weary, lose heart (v.3)
(Lead to encouragement)
(Add encouragement slide) - maybe access granted slide