All Access- Week 1- April 30

There’s nothing better than an all-access pass. Whether it’s a backstage pass at a concert for your favorite band or a front row seat at the championship game for your favorite team, having all access makes a great experience even greater! Without an all-access pass there’s a limit to how close you can get—a hall you can’t walk down, a seat you can’t sit in, a rope you can’t cross. In other words, there’s something keeping you from truly getting up close and personal to the action. And at some point, most of us have probably felt the same way about God. Even though we show up at church, pray the prayers, and sing the songs, we feel like there’s something keeping us from getting as close to God as others seem to be. It’s as if we’re experiencing God from the cheap seats. But that’s not how God intended us to feel. In fact, God went out of His way to make sure that everyone could move past the barriers and get closer to Him. And as we’ll see this week, when we take hold of the all-access pass God’s offering us, there’s no longer anything holding us back from experiencing the greatest possible thing—a relationship with Him.

Share a high and a low from the past week.
How do you think most people would define being close to God?
What do you think keeps most people from feeling close to God?
When do you feel closest to God? When do you feel most distant?

Hebrews 10:19-20 NLT
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.

Why do you think God is more concerned with us being close than He is in us being perfect?
What are some good things that come as a result of being close to God?
What does it mean to be close to God, even when you don’t have it all together?
If you really believed that you had all access to God, what would you do differently?

We could not approach you, O God, were it not for the person of Jesus, Lord and Savior, Servant and Friend.  His perfect love and life could have widened the gap between us and you, but instead he offered himself as the way to you, by living out the truth of your love and by gracing our lives with the gift of his life. Accept our prayers and praise, our spoken and unspoken words of thankfulness for being able to approach you, O God, through Jesus— the way, the truth and the life. May this time of worship increase our desire to live lives which honor and glorify you.
This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen

Mark the Cross of Christ on each others foreheads as a remembrance of your baptism and say these words...

"(Name) you are a beloved Child of God."