Blessings Of Following Christ #5 - We Get Access To God And His Blessings Series

Blessings of Following Christ

#5 – We Get Access to God and His Blessings

Various Scriptures

November 25, 2007

NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT USED IN MY MESSAGES IS BORROWED FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."

Introduction

How many here would turn down a call from the President, no matter who it was, because he needed your input on something?

He flies you in, you meet in the Oval Office, and he says to you, “I like what you’ve had to say about this, and I want you to implement it. You will have all the access you need in terms of money, support, media, or anything else, to make it work. You have the resources of the US government at your disposal, and my public and private support as well. Go for it.”

I’d be thinking, “Let’s make it illegal for politicians to advertise – especially on TV and over the phone.”

Or what if you got a call from someone you never heard of before, telling you that you are a relative of a wealthy person who wants to bestow all his wealth on you.

And from this moment on, you have access to all the wealth you could dream of and more. Would you turn it down?

Probably not.

“Access” is a wonderful thing. Access basically means being able to get hold of something we can use for our benefit or the benefit of someone else.

Access to the internet, for example, opens up countless resources to research any topic on the face of the earth, or to purchase any type of product you can think of.

Obviously, this kind of access can have its disadvantages as well. Because just as there are resources for good, there are resources for evil, and unfortunately, that seems to be a growing industry.

Because of the internet, we have access to things that we could not even think of accessing 15-20 years ago.

This will be the last of a series regarding blessings we gain from following Christ.

I wanted to grab just a few to show you just the tip of the iceberg that living for Christ is worth it – worth the time, worth the effort, worth the sacrifice, because God is in the business of rewarding such things, in many different ways.

One of the goals of my preaching on any given Sunday is to show you just what God wants to do in the lives of His people. And my hope is that as you intentionally and diligently apply the Word of God to your lives, you will experience first-hand the blessings God has in store for you as He transforms your life to be more like Jesus.

Today I want us to look at the fact that because of Christ, we get access to God and His blessings.

We/Me:

I have a feeling that sometimes we live as though we are unaware of all the blessings God has for us who have become His children through faith in Christ.

It could be that we’ve grown up hearing only about the wrath and judgment of God, and hearing little, if anything, about His love, grace, mercy, and His desire to bless us as we follow His Son.

It could be that we grew up not hearing much of anything about God, at least not from the Scriptures about Him, and so you haven’t heard of the wonderful things God has for those who love His Son.

For my own part, not only did I not grow up hearing about this stuff, I have found that at times, I take for granted these things that I’ll be sharing with you today.

I’m not proud of that, but it’s the truth. So even though I’m talking to you today, these are things that I need to be reminded of on occasion so I can praise and thank God for His blessings in my own life.

My purpose today is to let you know that God has a treasure-house of blessing just waiting for us.

We’re going to look at only a few of them, but if you will take the time to really get into the Scriptures on your own, you’ll see the abundance of promises God has for us.

God: There are two main passages I want to show you that discuss this access, both from the book of Ephesians. The first is found in 2:18 –

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

The second verse is in the next chapter, 3:12 –

In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Everything I’m sharing with you today hinges on the fact that because of Christ, we have direct access to God the Father.