Hide and Seek

I'm going to start today by drawing your memory back to something I think we all have in common. Probably no matter where we grew up, no matter what our socioeconomic status is when we were growing up, no matter what neighborhood we were in when we grew up, no matter where we were or whatever, there are some things that we all have in common. And some of that are some of the games that we play, you know, as we are growing up and things like that. And one of those games that we all play that didn't take any internet to play, didn't have to have any TV set to play, didn't have a phone or anything else to do, is one of those simple little games that every child seems to be interested in and I think learns a lot from, and that's the game of hide and seek.

Remember hide and seek? I remember even as a parent, I always liked to hide and seek with our kids. It was kind of a fun thing to do, and you know, they're very little, they're kind of cute, they find the easiest places to hide, and you have to kind of pretend that you need to find them and whatever, and that they've done good, and then as they get older, you know, they're a little bit more astute in how they hide, and they're a little more diligent in when they're seeking you and how they do that, and I'm sure the child development psychologists would say there's a lot our children learn from hiding and seeking.

And it's just one of the things that's kind of fun that you learn a lot from, and I'm sure it develops good skills in them for going forward. It's just one of those things that we do. But you know, in the Bible, there's hide and seek, too. Hide and seek as well that you find in the Bible. It's not a game, not a game in the Bible, something we take very seriously when we read about hide and seek in the Bible. God makes some pretty clear statements on hiding and seeking and what we may learn about ourselves as we seek and as we hide and the various things that hiding represents in the Bible.

So today we're going to talk about hiding and seeking in the Bible, and we start off with seek. Well, let's start off with a key verse. I've got a keynote verse for today that we'll reference back to, so let's go back to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 and verse 6. Isaiah 55 and verse 6 says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. You know, when we read the word seek, we know what that means, but when you read what the Greek and what the Hebrew translated seek means there, there's an energy to it.

There's a determination that's part of that word. It's not just seeking kind of nonchalantly. It's something you put your effort into. When we play hide and seek, and our kids play hide and seek, they put effort into it. And you can tell when they're getting tired because they'll kind of nonchalantly do it and say they give up and whatever. God says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Put determination. Put energy into it.

Find him. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to God. And he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Let him return to the eternal and to God. He will abundantly pardon. So when we seek God, we have our part in looking for Him, putting determination into it.

But when we find Him, we need to be turning our way to Him. Not just saying, oh, I found Him. Game over. But turning our way to Him. I don't have to go through and have you turn to every verse in the Bible that uses the word seek. You know many of them just as you sit there that have come to your mind already.

Matthew 6, verse 33, says what? It says, seek you first the kingdom of God. Put your determination. Put your priority in there. Seek first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Now God is saying, you know, it's important these other things in life, but seek first. Always make it your priority to determine to seek His kingdom, to seek His righteousness. Let that be the thing that overlays everything we do, the jobs we do, the mortgages that we pay, the way we live our daily lives.

Let that be the thing that guides and directs us. Let that. Don't sacrifice seeking His kingdom. Don't put that in second or third place as you focus more on all these things that need to be done. Always keep that first. Seek Him. Seek Him first and all these other things that can distract us from Him will come about. God will see that they will happen and we'll be taken care of. We don't need to needlessly worry and spend our time doing that. We need to focus on Him and do the things that we need to do and all those things will be taken care of.

The same sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, He says, Ask and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. Seek. Ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find. Seek and you will find. There's something we have to do. God could just open up our mind and pour everything into it, just like a sieve, funnel it all in. He doesn't always do that. He wants to see where our hearts are.

Are we determined to seek Him? Are we determined to put His way into our lives? Are we determined to seek and search the Scriptures to see where we're falling short and what we need to do in order to be allowing Him to transform our minds and living our lives a little more closely to the manner that He would have us live? Now, God is looking to us to do that. Where's our determination?

Where's our motivation? He'll give. But we have to ask. We have to knock. We have to seek. We have to determinedly look for what He would have us do. Hebrews 11, 6 says that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

He'll reward it if we diligently seek Him, if we diligently look for Him, if we diligently are asking for His will to be done, if we're diligently seeking Him, He'll reward us. He'll give us what we're asking for. He's a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Let's go back and look at a few verses here in Proverbs that may not come immediately to mind. Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18.

And verse 15. Proverbs 18, verse 15 says, The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge. Got a good head on his shoulder. He's going to acquire knowledge, all sorts of knowledge, spiritual knowledge, knowledge we get in the world as we prepare for a living and go to high school, go to college and do those things. The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. He's determined to find it. Not just going there and letting it be poured in, but he's looking for it. He's looking for it like a treasure, something that's really important to him, something that he wants to do and put into his life. So we seek God, we seek his will, we seek his righteousness, we seek the kingdom, we seek knowledge. Back in Proverbs 2, at the beginning of the book, Proverbs 2, verse 1, It says, Does that word apply? Apply your heart to understanding. It means you've got to do something. You've got to put some effort into it. Apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver.

Now, if someone told us in our backyards we had an oil field or whatever they call it down there. You know what? I'll bet a lot of us would put a lot of time seeking how that oil could be extracted from that soil. Someone told you, you've got a silver mine, you've got a silver load sitting under your backyard.

I'll bet we would seek a ways to find that silver and get that out of there and make it into something. God is saying, if you would put the same effort into seeking, seeking understanding, seeking discernment, seeking those things and wisdom, the same as you would put into that, then you will understand. And search for hers in verse 4 as for hidden treasures. Then you'll understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God. But it takes our effort. Not just sitting back and waiting for God to do it all. He wants us to do it. He wants to know where our hearts are.

And if we don't want to take the time, if it's just not that important to us to put in the effort to seek His will, seek His righteousness, seek understanding, seek discernment, seek wisdom, and apply those things into our lives, then God says, you know, then you're not who I'm looking for. You're not the person that I want to be in my kingdom and working with me. We have to develop that.

We have to pay attention to it. And we need to be seeking, seeking those things. Now you might say, well, how do we seek? How do we know that we're seeking? Well, you know the answer to that. We can seek God by praying to Him. Not just the sleepy time prayer or the prayer that we've got.

I've got 10 minutes before I have to head out the door. I need to say something to God before we go just to get that in. But know some specific prayer, some heartfelt prayer, some fervent prayer, some direct communication with God. And you know what it's like when you're directly communicating with God and you can feel that as you're praying. Are the prayers, you know, we know that when we're doing just filling our time as opposed to actually communicating with God. So prayer is one way that we seek God.

Certainly Bible study is one way that we seek God. I mean, this is His Word. This is all we need to understand Him. We need to know the Word. We need to have our eyes in it. We need to be seeking what the Scriptures say. Not just reading it and saying, we put in my 15 minutes or 30 minutes or an hour or 2, 3, 4 chapters, but really seeking and understanding and asking God, help us understand what's in these words. Because these are the words of life, the words of eternal life.

And then when we see the things, to readily apply them into our lives. When we know we can meditate, we read the things, and David, how much did David learn? Well, he meditated on God's Word at night. He learned a great deal just by meditating and thinking about it.

When he didn't have the hustle and bustle of the day, didn't have the phone ringing, they emailed things, clinging and all these things happening. But in the middle of the night, when he meditated on it, he could put it all together and he saw the wisdom in it. And he understood, I see it now, I see where God is going, I have a deeper vision of what God is working in us. We can seek it when we train ourselves and make ourselves meditate, and of course there's fasting. Sometimes if we're seeking God, we need, we really need to deny self and deny ourselves the food and water and humbly come before Him, to seek Him.

And there's times in our lives when we know we need to seek Him. There's times where God seems distant from us. And those times we need to be seeking Him every day, but during those times, you know, we do what we can to get back in that relationship with Him that we know.

We know when it's, when we're there and when it has waned a little bit.

Back in Acts 17, you know, there's a group of people that were seeking truth, and when truth came to them, they really did search for it, and they did apply themselves, and they, they did learn what they were doing. You know, the Bereans, we talk about the Bereans every now and then, let's go back and look at them and read a few verses here in Acts 17, because we can learn a lot about seeking God. In the examples that they set, and we can see that the effect of our seeking and our searching for His truth, for understanding, for discernment, for wisdom, for knowledge, for His kingdom, for His righteousness, the effect that it can have on us, certainly, but on others as well.

Others in our family, others in the congregation, even others that we may work with. Acts 17, let's begin it in verse 10. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the synagogue of the Jews. There they were going to teach the Jews in Berea. These, it says in verse 11, the Berean Jews, they were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica.

So, I think the King James Version says they were more noble, meaning that they, you know, basically fair-minded is a better way of translating that. You know, they had an open mind to what Paul was going to teach them. Those in Thessalonica just flat-out refused it. Not what we want to believe. Not our idea. Not the way we see God.

We don't want anything to do with it. You know, whatever. Closed mind. The Bereans had an open mind. Here was some truth that was being taught by Paul from the Scriptures. They were fair-minded. And if we're going to be seeking God, we need to be open to what He has to say. We can't just immediately say, nope, that's not me. Can't read something in the Bible and say, yep, but God doesn't understand this. He's okay with this because of this. We have to have open minds. And when we read something that's opposed to what we do in our lives, or something that we're handling in a different way, we have to be open to it.

We have to have the humility. The Bereans had humility. They didn't come forth with the attitude, I know it all. We don't need you, Paul. I'm not going to accept any of this stuff. I'm here. You know, so many today, it seems like, you know, you kind of want to teach the church as opposed to having the Bible and the church teach them.

The attitude we see more and more. But you know, the thing is, is that the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible interprets itself. The Scripture cannot be broken, Jesus Christ said. And we go back to the Scripture, and the Bereans did that. They were listening to what Paul had to say. And then as we go on in verse 1, it says, notice it says, they received the Word with all readiness. They were alert. Okay, we will listen to this.

And they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. They went back to the Word of God. Okay, Paul, we've heard you. We've heard what you have had to say. We're ready to listen. We understand that this man, Jesus Christ, lived and died, and that he was resurrected. And then they went back, and they proved from the Scriptures. They didn't go to the Internet. They didn't look for other opinions.

They didn't go to someone else in another church, you know, for instance, the Jews in Thessalonica, and say, what do you think about this? They searched the Scriptures. They went back to the source, to the Word of God. And that's where they proved it. And that's how they knew it was true. And when they found it, and when they knew they had found the truth, they held on to it. They clung to it, just like Paul said in 1 Thessalonians, you cling to that when you find the truth.

When you prove it, and you know it's the Word of God, and when God sees us searching and seeking, He's going to let us know when we found the truth. He's going to let us know. And we'll know. And we'll know, as God opens our minds to see these things, if we have that ready and fair-minded attitude that the Bereans did, or if we don't have a closed mind that says, nope, don't want to hear that, nope, I'm not going to pay attention to that, no, I won't listen to that, my ideas trump everything that you might be saying.

So they searched the Scriptures daily. Not just once, they made sure that what they knew or what they were being taught was true. And notice what happened as they did that. They set a great example. They set a great example for the people around them. It says, Therefore many of them believed, many of the people believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. So the people watched the Bereans and they saw what they did. And as they talked, they said, you know what?

Well, Paul said, but you know what? We look back in the Old Testament, we looked at the Scriptures. What he said is exactly what went on with Jesus Christ. It's exactly what he said. This man fulfilled every single prophecy that's in the Bible. And they saw the diligence and they saw how they sought. And many Greeks, men and women, and many of the Jews in that area learned. You know, someone sent me something that they heard on the radio the other day. And I thought it was an interesting quote and they thought it was as well.

They don't know who it was that said it. They were just flipping channels and they came across a channel and they think it was a preacher that said, you know, some people, the only Bible they will ever read is you and me.

The only Bible they'll ever read is you and me. And that's true, isn't it? They won't have any idea what the Bible says. They're not going to take the time to pick it up. The society we're in will say, you know, don't have to do that. But when they see what we do, the example that we set, when we're able to explain what we believe, when they see it in motion, and they see it in action, and they see it in our day-to-day lives, they're reading the Bible. And they're saying, these people, these people I would like to be like.

These people I would like to have as my friends. I would like to have them. They're honest, they're open, they're committed to what they say. What they say they do they're going to do. They keep a Sabbath and they can explain why. And they keep the whole 24 hours, not just one or two hours during the day and then go off and do everything they want. But they seem settled, they seem calm, they seem established. The Bereans set a good example, and we, we as God's people, need to be setting that example as well.

The only Bible some may read is you and me, the people in our neighborhoods, the people we work with, the people we see in the stores and encounter in various ways. In verse 13, you know, the Bereans, you know, what happens so often is as people come to the knowledge of the truth, something happens that tries to distract them from what they're doing.

When the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and they stirred up the crowds. And doesn't that happen often in life? Someone begins to know the truth. They realize that God's Sabbath is the seventh day.

They do come to church, but then something happens. The next week they've got to do this. The next week they've got to do that. And all of a sudden, everything is interrupted. Something comes up and pretty soon, pretty soon you don't hear from them anymore, you don't see them anymore. That's what the Jews of Thessalonica were doing. You know what? We don't want that Word of God preached there. These people are listening to what Paul had to say. We'll go up and stir up things, and sometimes we can have those things stirred up among us.

But if we've proved, if we've sought, if we know God, if we're seeking Him daily, we're not going to get distracted by this or that or anything else that goes on. And those among us who have been here a long time, we need to seek God daily, too. I'm going to say this because we've been here 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years that we've done the job seeking. We've done a good job in enduring to this, but we still continue to seek. And those who are newer among us, we seek. We seek and don't get distracted.

Don't let the Internet, don't let others distract you. You go back to the Bible and you prove what is there, and then you follow God, and you set your course to follow Him. And so then in 14, you know, they protected Paul. They had brought them the truth, and when it was time, the Jews from Thessalonica were there. They decided that they would send him away, but it says that Silas and Timothy remained there with him.

They wanted to hear more of the truth of God.

So when we seek, when we seek, we learn.

And when we seek and when we learn, we must turn to God, and we must relinquish our ways, our ideas, and turn to God and do what His will is.

Well, that's the seek part of it. We'll come back and seek shows up in some other verses here that we'll talk about a little later. But let's talk about hiding a little bit, because hiding is there in the Bible and a number of, well, there are actually three different areas that we can look at hiding.

If we look at the Bible from beginning to end, who was the first people to hide? Where's the first place that we find hiding in the Bible? And it's right there at the beginning, right? Genesis 3. We find that the first people to hide was Adam and Eve. Let's go back there and look at that.

Begin in verse 8 of Genesis 3.

I always like verse 8, the first part of it. I don't really like the last part of it, but the first part of chapter 8 kind of tells us a lot about God. You know, here He is. He had created the earth, made it a perfect place for mankind to be, and He wanted to be with mankind. He didn't make him and just kind of go off and do something else. He was very interested in mankind. He enjoyed being with him.

Just like God enjoys being with us, He wants a relationship with mankind. He wants a relationship with us. And He wanted a relationship with Adam and Eve. So in verse 8 of chapter 3, we find Him doing something just so nice. It says, He was down there among them. He was looking for them. He wanted to be with them. He wanted to talk to them. He wanted to be in their company.

But it says, Now, they hadn't done this before. Why would they hide from God? He gave them everything. He provided literally everything. Life, the Garden of Eden, everything they ever could possibly want, He had given. But here He is looking for them, and they're hiding. They're hiding from Him.

The Lord God called to Adam and Eve, and called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? Where are you? Well, He knew exactly where they were. Where are you, Adam? Adam said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. I hid myself.

Why did Adam hide himself? Well, God asked them, you know, said, Well, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you shouldn't eat? Well, indeed, He had. And now He was hiding from God.

Now He had the guilt. Now He had to hide from God. Now the relationship had been altered, not because of anything God did, but because of what Adam and Eve did.

You know, when I was growing up, we lived in a small house in Hammond, Indiana, and I would always know when I crossed a line, either with my mouth or something that I shouldn't have done, because my mom would say, You just wait until your father gets home.

And I knew those were tough words to hear. And I knew I'd better wait, and I'd better not be out playing when he got home, and I understood that it was going to be much worse if they had to come looking for me.

But I never waited upstairs. Well, I wouldn't say never. We had a basement in that house, and I always waited in the basement.

I hoped I don't want Him to see me when He walks in. I don't want my mom to see me when He walks in. Maybe if I hide in the basement, they'll forget about that. You know, it's a few hours until He gets home. Maybe she'll forget to tell Him. Maybe He'll say, Yeah, no big deal or whatever. Never worked that way. Never worked that way.

My dad never disappointed. He always found me, and I always paid the price, and I learned. But you know, sometimes we think we can just hide ourselves from God. We just never want to hide ourselves from God. Adam and Eve, there was a reason they hid themselves from God. They were guilty. They did something wrong. They didn't want to face Him. There was this load on their shoulders that kept Him from, kept them from wanting to be with Him.

You know, the same thing can happen to us. We can hide from God. We can think, Oh, God doesn't see that. Oh, I'll kind of do this, and I can keep it hidden over here, and I can kind of do the things that I want to do. Maybe we can hide from God, and maybe we do, right? Maybe we just don't pray as much, and maybe we don't study as much. We think if we don't with God, we just kind of kill at that B as a separation, because what becomes us between us and God is what? Isaiah 59, verse 2. Iniquity has separated you from God. That's what separated Adam and Eve from God, separates us from God. And we just don't want to deal with the things that we've done.

But, you know, we forget that God knows everything, that there's no sin hidden from Him, and that we can't just disappear.

You know, sometimes I think people hide from God by the way they hide from fellowship with each other as well.

Sometimes, you know, people can seem like they're right with things, and all of a sudden, they're not there.

They miss a week here, they miss a week there. They're disdaining and avoiding some social activities, and I find myself wondering, what are they hiding? Why don't they want to be with the people of God? What's with them? What's going on?

And they know. I don't know. I've proven over and over that people can fool me all the time, but we can't fool God, right? He knows exactly what's going on, and what's in our hearts, and what's our minds.

And, you know, He wants us to come to the point where we will repent and do the things that He wants us to. Let's go back to Isaiah. Isaiah 3.

Sometimes we can kind of just look at someone's face and know there's something wrong. You know, when God was walking at the garden that day, He knew. He knew what they had done, but He knew there was a difference in action.

And that's what He said on the knee. Here in Isaiah 3, in verse 9, to the nation of Israel, who was turning from God and doing all sorts of things that they knew better to do, but they did it anyway. God says this in Isaiah 3, verse 9, He says, To look on their countenance witnesses against them. I can just look at them. Look at the face. Look at their attitude. I can see on their face that there's a problem.

And they declare their sin is Sodom. They don't hide it. Of course, this time in Israel, they were just flaunting it to God. It's like, you know what? We're going to do whatever we want, however we want. We don't really care what you have to say, God. We'll just do it. And as we depart from God and as we allow sin to be unrepented and dwell on us and dwell on our minds, it does change the way we look.

No longer do we have that vibrant, excited look to see people, but more kind of a downtrodden look and always weary, always something else, you know, something other than the joy that we should have on our faces if we are close to God, seeking Him, not hiding from Him, and not hiding things from Him.

You know, we all make mistakes. We all sin. Not one of us is exempt from sin. It's how we handle the sin when it comes to our attention that God is looking for and everything. Let's go back to Psalm 69. Psalm 69. You know, David was a man after God's own heart. David, of course, had some major sins with Bathsheba and Uriah earlier on in his life. Later on in his life, he didn't live a perfect life either. He sinned like you and I do, but he learned to not let that sin wear on him and not to wear that sin like he did with Bathsheba and Uriah. He carried it with him for nine months and it became a different person, a different person until he repented and acknowledged what he had done. Here in Psalm 69, verse 5, David says, Oh God, you know my foolishness and my sins aren't hidden from you. They're not hidden. You know, I'm fooling myself if I think I'm hiding my sins from you. I might be able to fool my wife. I might be able to fool everyone in that church. I might be able to fool my employer. I can't fool you. And it wears on me. It wears on me to do these things. Let's go back to... Let's go forward this time. Let's go to Mark. Mark 4. Mark 4, 22. Mark records a comment here that's also recorded in Matthew and Luke. And over the course of our lives, you know, we see this happen. We see this happen in our lives, and not in our lives, well, in our lives, or... Maybe sometimes people we come in contact with or know. Mark 4, 22 says, There's nothing hidden which will not be revealed. Nothing hidden which will not be revealed. You know, that's a true statement. True statement. And it's very true for the people of God. We can hide our things from each other, and we can do things, but if it goes on, and it grows and grows and grows, God's going to reveal what is in our hearts. God's going to reveal what the problem is. There is nothing hidden that won't be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light. It will. You know why? Is it because God wants to embarrass us? No, it's not because He wants to embarrass us. He wants to get our attention. What does God want for us more than anything? Anything. He wants us to repent, and He wants us to have eternal life. And so, the things that are keeping us from that, the sins that are hidden, the sins that we conceal, the things that we keep from each other and deny that we even have a problem with, even when they're brought to our attention, even those things, God says, I'm going to reveal them, not because He just wants to embarrass, but because He wants us to repent. He will do what's best for us and our eternal life. And sometimes that can be very painful, and sometimes when we learn things about some people, it can be disconcerting. And we can kind of raise our eyebrows even more than we normally do and say, really? That was going on? It's not because, it's not for us to judge, but we hope that when those things happen, people repent. And people turn to God. They seek Him and turn from their way to His way. That's what God wants. That's what God wants.

So if we have anything that's sitting, that's loading, laying us down, anything that's weighing us down, anything that's keeping us hiding from God, hiding from each other, hiding from what we know we should be doing, we might want to do exactly what David said back in Psalm 32. Psalm 32, and it's stated many times in the New Testament as well, but let's look what David said. So really eloquently and simply back here in Psalm 32.

32 and verse 3.

When I kept silent, David said, when I just kind of just kept it all bottled up inside, I didn't say anything. When I kept silent, my bones grew old. Kind of weird on me. People could see it in my countenance. People could see it on my face. They could see my demeanor. It wasn't the same as it used to be. I kept silent. My bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy on me. God's hand will be heavy on us. Because He says, repent. Turn back to me. I want to give you everything.

Just turn back. Don't hide. Don't hide. Come forth. Come to Him. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I just felt all dried up. I acknowledged my sin to you. And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I'll confess my transgressions to the eternal, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. If you're hiding, if you feel like you're hiding, if you feel like God is not there, examine. Confess. Take it to Him. Get the load off of your shoulder and get the vitality and the energy and the Spirit flowing in you again. Seek Him. Don't hide from Him. Don't hide from Him. Don't hide from each other.

That's one aspect of hiding. We can hide from God, and often it's because there's something we're doing that keeps us from Him. And we know better. And we know better. And you know what? God gives us the strength through His Holy Spirit to overcome whatever it is. We just have to put the determination and the energy and the commitment to deny self and to look to Him for the strength that we don't have ourselves to overcome. And God will provide. God will provide. You know, sometimes God hides from us. We can hide from God. He can hide from us.

There's instances in the Bible where God hid from people. Usually a reason that He hides from people. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 31. We find Him talking to Israel. And Israel in ancient times wasn't any different than we are today. We have the Holy Spirit, but we can fall into the same behaviors that Israel did.

In Deuteronomy 31, verse 16, God and Moses is preparing Israel to cross over into the Promised Land.

Moses, of course, has the many, many words to say to them, to remind them to stay close to God, to seek Him, to follow Him, to do so many of the things of the words that we say that are recorded in the New Testament that Jesus Christ said. We're said back there in the Old Testament as well. Israel just didn't get it and never did it. Deuteronomy 31, verse 16.

You know what they're going to do, Moses? They're going to go ahead and sin. Even though I've told them, don't look at the nations around you and worship me the way they worship their guys, they're going to do it anyway. They're going to break the covenant. They're going to really lay down with anyone that will have them and be like the people around them. That's what's going to happen, Moses. That can be us, too. If we don't watch it and we don't, you know, we can become very enamored with the world and try to be like the world and like God. It doesn't work. God says one or the other, right? Can't serve God and Mammon. Can't serve God and the ways of this world. But this is what they're going to do, Moses. Verse 17.

Ezekiel 39 talks about a time in the future when God says, Israel's going to look for me. They're not going to find me. I'm hiding my face from them. I'll forsake them and I will hide my face from them and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will befall them so that they will say in that day, Haven't these evils come upon us because our God is it among us? Shouldn't they say that when all these things happen to them? Shouldn't they say, It's because we've sinned against God, because we've departed from Him, because we're not seeking Him anymore. We're seeking our own way. We're doing what we want, not what He wants.

No matter what our words say, what's in our hearts. Verse 18, And I will surely hide my face in that day, because of all the evil which they have done, and that they have turned to other gods. And in verse 19, He says, Moses, I'm going to give you a song. I'm going to give you a song. And He records that in chapter 32 for Israel. That when they get over there and these things happen to them, this is what I predict will happen to them, because they're going to go this way. And God says, I won't be there. I won't be there. I'm going to hide from them when they do that. Let's turn back to Proverbs. Proverbs 1.

Proverbs 1, verse 24.

Solomon, writing to his son, God, writing to us, his children. Proverbs 1, verse 24.

You know, rebuke is one area that God learns a lot about us. When we're rebuked, how do we respond? Do we decide? Do we justify ourselves? Explain away? Or do we look at it and say, I need to look at that? If someone or God, if we're reading the Bible, is rebuking me for something I've done, maybe I need to pay attention. Maybe I need to pay attention. And if we don't, we're falling right into what it says here in 24 through 31.

They'll call. They'll call, God says. But I won't answer. They didn't want me then. They kind of disregarded me then. They didn't want anything to do with me then. But now things are tough. I'm not going to answer. They'll seek me diligently. But they won't find me. I'm going to hide my face from them because they hated knowledge and didn't choose the fear of the eternal. They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. They wanted it their way. They wanted their ideas. They wanted to do things the way they wanted and didn't want to hear what God had to say. He says, because of that, they will eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies.

Oh, when God hides from us, it's a painful thing. When God hides from us, it's a painful thing. And if we feel that God is not with us, if we feel that God is not answering prayers, if we don't have that connection with God when we pray and it goes on and God has hidden his face, it seems like to us, we may want to do some real seeking, some real self-examination. We may want to find out why is that? Is there sin? And if we ask God and we diligently seek the answer, he'll provide it. He'll provide it. Maybe not overnight. Maybe it's going to go on for a while, because probably we've been ignoring him for a while. Probably we've been concealing it for a while. Probably we've been making excuses for ourselves for a while. So he'll see, is our heart really in this, or are we just looking for some immediate relief? Well, it could be sin. We can look at an Old Testament example. Saul. There's Saul in the Old Testament. He had the Spirit of God, and he sinned. He kept disregarding what he was told. He would take little liberties with what he was commanded. And on the face of it, you think, you know, okay, I can see where Saul did that in his mind. He was using his logic. But God said, don't do that, Saul. Do it exactly the way I said. Wait. Wait until Samuel gets there before you do the sacrifices. It's not you to do those sacrifices. It's him. And God kept reminding him and finally said, that's it. He doesn't do things. He trompromises. He kind of wants to do it his way. Trying to do things or saying he's doing things my way, but he really wants to do it his way. And God said, his heart isn't in me. It wasn't there. And Saul felt distant from God. It caused him a lot of problems. It was heavy on his mind. He wasn't getting any relief, any satisfaction, no comfort in life. What did he do? Did he ever repent? You never see Saul repenting. You never see him going back to God and forsaking his way and going to him. He just kept moving on. It was heavy on him. And things got worse and worse and worse.

What did he do? When he was going to battle, he turned to the witch at Endor. I can't find God. I'll go to the witch at Endor and see what she has to say. I'll try to conjure up Samuel that way. I'm not going to go to God and do what he says. I'm going to do it my way. I hope none of us would ever find ourselves in that situation that we go to the world. Instead of seeking God, instead of doing the things that we need to do to find him, when he hides his face from us, there's a reason that he does it. There's a reason he did it to Israel. There's a reason he did it to Saul. There's a reason that even men who didn't sin, who weren't sinned because sometimes it isn't sin that God hides his face from us. He hides his face from us when there's sin. Unrepented, continued sin. But there's other times that he hides his face from us and it's not because of sin.

There's Job. Job went through a monumental trial that none of you, none of you and me have ever gone through. Anything like it. We haven't lost what Job lost in our lifetimes. We haven't lost home and all our belongings and all our children and all our family. And then that wasn't enough. We lost all our health well and was covered in covered from head to toe in boils. I don't know if I've even had a boil, but for people that have, tell me that it's quite painful.

And he was covered from head to toe in boils. You know, in Job 13, verse 24, Job, as he's kind of with his friends and whatever, he asks God, Why have you hidden your face from me? Let's go back to Job 13, 24. You know, his friends keep telling him, Job, it's because you sinned. Yet God said, When Satan approaches his throne, have you seen Job? He's blameless. He's a good guy. He does what I say. And they were convincing him, No, Job, the reason God isn't with you is because you've sinned. You've done this. And Job is analyzing himself. And he's saying, Well, I haven't. And of course, it leads into some self-righteousness on his point and him trying to justify himself to God. In verse 24 of Job 13, it says, God, Job's talking. Why do you hide your face? Why are you hiding from me? Why do you regard me as your enemy? I thought we were close. I was living that way of life. Why all of a sudden are you so distant? Why aren't you listening? Why am I going through this? It's a good question. Think on that for a minute. Why would God put Job through that? Why would he hide his face from us, maybe for a little bit of time? Now, the same thing happened to David. After he repented of his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, let's look at a few verses here in Psalms. Psalm 13. And there's many, many in the Psalms. I'm not going to turn to all of them. You can go back and do a word search on hide, hidden, concealed, hid. See how many times in the proper context that it is, you'll see a lot of hide as in flesh hide in there as well. So you just kind of have to use that English nuance there. Job, or not Job, Psalm 13, verse 1. How long? David asks. How long? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long? It seemed like a long time to David. He says it many times in his life. And here's a man who was after God's own heart in Psalm 44. Psalm 44. And verse 24. Why do you hide your face? God, why are you not listening to us? Why do you forget our affliction and our oppression? Our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body glings to the ground. Where are you? Why aren't you listening? Why have you hidden your face from us? We can feel that way sometimes. Where is God? Why am I going through this? Why isn't this immediately resolved? And God doesn't immediately resolve everything in our lives, right? We continue to ask. He doesn't immediately heal us. Sometimes He does. Sometimes it goes on for days, weeks, months. There's a reason that we might feel like God is hiding His face from us. Psalm 88. Psalm 88, verse 14. Lord, why do you cast off my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? I've been afflicted and ready to die from my youth. I suffer for your terrors. I am distraught. Where are you? Why are you hiding from me? In those cases, it wasn't necessarily—certainly in Job's case, it wasn't because of his sin that God was hiding him, or Job felt like God was hiding his face from him. Sometimes we might feel like God is hiding his face from us in an ongoing trial. And we think, why doesn't he solve that? We may do the search. Am I doing anything? I read in the Bible, and I don't see where I'm sinning. I don't see that thing. And I ask God, what is it I'm doing? Show me, and I'll repent of it.

Are we there in Psalms? You know, I was going to use this verse later, but let's go back to Psalm. If we're in Psalms, let's look at Psalm 27. There's an attitude that David shows in Psalm 27 that I think is just outstanding, and one we should have on our mirrors that we see every day almost, I think. Psalm 27 in verse 7 says, Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy on me and answer me. Verse 8, when you said, Seek my face, my heart said to you, Your face, Lord, I will seek. This is what you said to do? My response is, I'm going to do it. My heart said it. I'm not going to fight. I'm not going to make excuses. I'm not going to challenge. I'm not going to try to bargain with you. You said, Seek my face? I'm going to seek your face. I'm going to do what you say. I'm going to seek you, and I'm going to turn my life over to you, and turn my way back to you. Now let's go to Isaiah, Isaiah 54.

Isaiah 54. One chapter before our keynote scripture for the day, Isaiah 54, verse 7, says this. It says, For a mere moment, God says, For a mere moment, I forsaken you, just for a little while, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. You know through those times when it seems like God is hiding His face from us, He learns something about us. Will we go seek after the witch of Endor? Will we curse Him as Job's wife wanted to curse Him? Did we say, I can't trust in God anymore, He hasn't answered my prayer immediately, therefore I'm not even going to follow Him anymore, I'm not going to pay attention to Him anymore?

Or through it all, like Job, did we continue to have faith in Him? No matter how hard it hurt, no matter what the questions were, we never let go of God. We never quit seeking Him. It's through those times, and through those times where God may seem distant, that He learns we really want Him. We really trust Him. We really understand there is no other answer. There is no other alternative out there. It is Him and Him alone who will provide, who will direct, who will provide salvation for us. It's only Him.

And through those times, we develop the character, the loyalty, the commitment, the endurance, the patience with God that He wants us to have. And maybe in no other way would we feel that, even when He feels distant, that we might ask, where are you? Don't give up on Him. Don't run somewhere else. Don't look to someone else for the answer and say, I'm going to find my answers with the witch of Endor.

No, you keep going to God and He will answer in His time. Because remember, He's looking at what is best for us. When He hides from us, it's for a reason. Don't disdain it. Don't count it off. Don't give up on Him. Don't think He's given up on us. He never gives up on us. It's always us who give up on God. When He feels hidden from us, seek Him more. Fast more. Study more.

Pray more. Congregate more. Be with God and do the things He says even more. Show Him where your heart is. Well, we can see. We need to seek God. We can hide from God and we should never hide from God, and sometimes He hides from us for various reasons. We should always seek Him. We should never disdain Him. And there's one more aspect of hide and hiding in the Scriptures that I want to talk about before we close here. It's something that God has done with His people in times past. Moses was born at a time when Pharaoh was killing all the babies, all the males, two years old and younger in Egypt.

And there was Moses. He was born, and God hid him from Pharaoh. He was there with his mother for a while, and then his sister put him in the basket, floated him on the Nile, and Pharaoh's sister found him. And there he was raised, a Hebrew, a forbidden Hebrew, right under Pharaoh's nose.

God hid him and protected him, and his life was there because God had a purpose for him. And against all odds, Moses grew up in the court of Pharaoh, whose edict was, all these Hebrew babies need to be killed. I don't want any of them alive. And later on in life, when Moses realized who he was and he slew the slave master there, in a way, God hid him then, too. He ran away from Egypt, and for 40 years he was hidden in Midian, while God was working with him and developing him, molding him into who he would want to be.

And Moses had no idea what God was doing that time. He didn't know that he was going to one day go back to Egypt in the face of a murder trial and a murder charge, and work under God's direction to bring the people out of Egypt. But for 40 years, God hid him in Midian, and God worked with him and developed him and sent him back in Moses, and some objections did go back and fulfill what God had done.

You know, God hid Elijah. When he was by the brook, you remember, God kind of hid him from the people that wanted to destroy him, and the raven came and fed him, and fed him every day. God does hide his people in John at times, John 8. We find that it happened with Jesus Christ as well. In John 8, in one of the confrontations with the Pharisees, Jesus Christ said some things, and in verse 58 of John 8, He let them know that He was equating Himself to the I.M.

of the Old Testament. That infuriated them. And so in verse 59 of John 8, it says, They, the Pharisees, took up stones to throw at Christ, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. Now, if He was standing there with Him, He made a comment. They knew exactly who He was. They knew exactly what He said, and somehow He was able to just walk out of that temple. And they didn't see what happened to Him. It wasn't His time to die at that time. God said, I'm going to hide you. Get out of here. And He did. John 12, verse 36.

John 12, verse 36.

Christ speaking to His disciples this time, He says, While you have the light, believe in the light. We have the light now. We should believe in the light, and we should be committed to believing in the light. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.

These things Jesus spoke, and He departed, and He was hidden from them.

They didn't see Him. He was all of a sudden wasn't there.

Last week we talked about some signs of the end time. We talked about some domestic things, we talked about some global things, we talked about signs of the end time with what the Church of God could be.

Sleeping. And Christ warns us, watch. Watch that you be not asleep. Watch that you be counted worthy to escape.

Not just watch world events do that, but watch yourself. You make sure you're still seeking God. You make sure you're not hiding from God. You make sure that you're doing His will, and looking at yourself and letting God through His Holy Spirit transform you into who He wants you to become. Which is not always what we want to become, but we yield to Him.

We could turn to some verses in Revelation 3 and 12, how you know them, but you know that in Revelation 3, where it talks to the church at Philadelphia, the Philadelphian church, if you will, it says, "'Because you persevered, because you've held onto my name, and you haven't denied it, I will keep you from the hour of trial that comes upon the whole earth.'" It's kind of a scripture we hang on to. And we trust God. We may not know full exactly what that means and how long or the length of it it is. In Revelation 12, at the end of the chapter there, we hear about God or we read about God, nourishing His people away from the face of Satan for time, times, and half a time.

And we look at that because we know that the scriptures tell us Satan has been descended to earth, and He's bringing woe upon the earth, and God even says woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of what is going to be happening when Satan is cast down to the earth. And He says to His people, "'I'll nourish you for a time and times and half a time away from the face of the serpent.'" It tells us in the last verse, last verses of chapter 12, that when God leads and people follow, there will even be a great flood that comes out from the mouth of the serpent, as if it would swallow up the woman. Some may panic. But those, through the course of time, should have learned to have total and complete faith in God. And know that Satan will do anything to distract us, do anything to send us off course. But the people of God would not fret in the times of that type of panic. They would stand still. They would see the salvation of God. And it says, then, that the earth would swallow up the flood.

And so let's look at a few scriptures where God uses hiding in a positive thing that He will do for His people. Back in Psalm 17. Psalm 17.

And verse 8. Psalm 17, verse 8. Keep me as the apple of your eye. God, keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings. Just like those baby birds that hide under the shadow of their mom's wings. Hide me. Protect me. I trust in you to do that. Hide me into the shadow of your wings from the wicked who oppress me from my deadly enemies who surround me. Hide me. Hide me, God. Psalm 27. Psalm 27, a few minutes ago when we read verse 8. Where God said, seek my face. And I said, or David said, your face I will seek. But let's look at verses... Let's begin in verse 4. Psalm 27 is a good psalm to read through. Psalm 27, verse 4. One thing I desire to the eternal. That will I seek. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. That's the thing that I'm going to ask. That's what I will seek. That I may dwell in His house. And we know where His temple is being built today. Not in the physical temple that David and the Old Testament people went to, but in the temple that He is building in you and me, and individually and collectively today. Verse 5, for in the time of trouble, He will hide me in His pavilion. In the secret place of His tabernacle, He'll hide me. He'll set me high on a rock. I trust. He'll hide. Supernaturally.

Psalm 32. We're in Psalm 32 earlier as well, when we read about David and how the sin was weighing heavy on him. And he needed to confess to God. No longer hide or keep it hidden, but go to God and get it off his shoulders, and then felt the life and the joy come back into him.

Psalm 32. Verse 6, for this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. There's times that God isn't going to be found. Today's the day that He can be found. For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near Him.

You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. You. You're my hiding place. You're where I will look. You will preserve, protect, defend. Isaiah 26.

Verse 20.

Isaiah 26. 20. Come, my people, God says, come. Enter your chambers. Shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is passed. For behold, the eternal comes out of its place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.

The earth will also disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain. Come into my chambers. Shut the doors behind you. Hide. Hide in me. Because God will hide through that time of His indignation. You know, you can go through and you can see so many verses, you can read through so many of the things that God has said about hiding and seeking. And I hope, you know, that we'll remember how to seek, to always seek. That we won't hide from God, and when He seems like He's hiding from us, what we need to do. And trust in God that He will hide us when His time is and the way that He wants done. One more verse as I close. There's a little book here in the Minor Prophet, and actually the name of this Minor Prophet actually means, The Lord has concealed. The Lord has protected. Let's go back to Zephaniah. Zephaniah 2.

Verse 3.

Here we find hide and seek. Because we find in many scriptures as we go through in Zephaniah 2 verse 3, It says, Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, all you who are humble, all you who are strong in the faith, all you who are looking to do what God says and allowing Him to lead you. Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger.