Well the reports are out, and these are SplashData's top three most used passwords for 2015 according to TeamsID: 123456, password, and 12345678. Also making the top 25 was starwars! If you use one of these passwords, then you open yourself up to others accessing your personal information. Just as we use passwords to protect access to certain information, Jesus used parables to limit access or understanding to those who were and are in right relationship with Him. This is the focus of this week's Explore the Bible: Access Granted study.

Warning: You will have to remain focused on the TARGET as you walk through this study. In preparing my teaching plans, I kept struggling with the direction I should take versus the direction the curriculum was taking. We could spend a large amount of time talking about the parable and not about Jesus' explanation of why He used parables with regards to the Kingdom of Heaven. We could spend a lot of time explaining the Kingdom of Heaven and ignore the parables. We could even be tempted to expand and try to explain every parable in Jesus' discourse. I suggest you remain focused on this truth in these passages:

• TARGET: Access to understanding God's Kingdom is only available through a right relationship with Him.

Possible Discussion Questions: The focus on access or the limit of access will most likely bring up a lot of questions. You will be focusing primarily on Matthew 13:1-13, but you will have to reference Matthew 13:18-23 as well. Here are a few of the questions that you will probably end up discussing during this study:

• Matthew 13:1-2 - What kinds of viewpoints about Jesus were likely represented in the crowd? How are these viewpoints like different types of soil?
• Matthew 13:3-9 - What four types of soil did Jesus mention in the parable of the sower? Which of the soils would you say were productive, and which were unproductive? Was the problem with the sower, the seed, or the soil  in this parable? (The soil)
• Matthew 13:10-13 - What criteria limited the access of some based on Jesus' explanation?
• How are you responding to the Word of God that you hear? The way you are responding reveals the type of soil that you are at this time. Access is only limited by how you respond to God's Word.