Access granted

Topics: access to God

I. Access established!

* First our access to God must be initiated by faith!

1. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:17,18).
2. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).
3. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him (1 John 5:14, 15).

II. Access promised!

* Our access to God can be hindered by unconfessed sin!

1. If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear; but certainly, God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer nor His lovingkindness from me (Psalm 66:18-20).
2. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:2b, 3; see also 1 Peter 3:7 and 1 John 1:9).
3. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:8).

III. Access abundant!

* Our access to God is more amazing than we truly realize!

1. "Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:9-11).
2. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20, 21).