It's Time to Hide | Joe Dobbins | Twin Rivers Church

Recently, I was watching a documentary with the kids, you know, one of these nature documentaries, and they were talking about life within a pack. And they were talking about that, though it is kind of a family unit, it still can be a little dicey. They don't, you know, within the pack, they don't share food well, they're very territorial, and if one takes from the other, there's often an eruption of violence. And I was sitting there watching, and I thought, oh my gosh, this is my house. I mean, my kids are a bunch of hyenas. That's like, they don't share food well, they're territorial, and if you take one of, there's something that belongs to one, they're gonna be a fight. As a matter of fact, I will never forget, Remy and Caroline were probably four and two, and they were in Sidney's room, who's older, and they were playing with one of her Legos, and Sidney had told them, do not play with my Legos. Well, sure enough, they snuck in there and started playing with the Legos, and then one thing led to another, and all of a sudden, one of them dropped the Legos, and it shattered. And at that moment, Sidney hears it and starts coming down the hallway to correct what's happened,

and Remy utters the phrase that every sibling who is standing in the way of an impending wrath has ever said. She goes, hide, and she jumps in the closet, and Caroline does this. She just does this. I wanna share a message with you today called It's Time to Hide. It's Time to Hide. And it comes from two passages of Scripture, 1 Samuel 24 and Psalm 143. I'm gonna show you 1 Samuel 24, starting with verse one. After King Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of En Gedi. So the king chose 3,000 elite troops from all Israel and went to search for David and his men near the rocks of the wild goats. At the place where the road passes some sheep folds, Saul went into a cave to relieve himself, needed a pit stop. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding farther back in that very cave. Now's your opportunity, David's men whispered to him. Today the Lord is telling you, I will certainly put your enemy into your power to do as you wish. So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the king's robe. But then David's conscience began to bother him

because he had cut Saul's robe. So he said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord, the king. I shouldn't attack the Lord's anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him. And verse seven says, so David restrained his men and did not let them kill the king. Psalm 143 verse nine, rescue me from my enemy's lord for I, help me with this word, every campus, hide myself in you. Ask any red blooded male their favorite movies and near the top of the list are going to be things like Braveheart, The Patriot, Avengers, mainly because there are these scenes in each of these movies where the hero has a moment where he is going to lead the charge into a vast army of enemies. And it's courageous and it's one of these moments where he usually makes an impassioned speech and then heads straight into an overwhelming force because this is what the moment calls for. And if you've ever watched a movie like that, I mean, when it happens, it is like an injection of testosterone takes place. I mean, you are ready to do whatever it takes to overcome whatever you're facing. But recently I had this thought and I don't know if you've ever noticed this about all these movies, every one of the guys that does that dies.

Every single one of them, the ones we're cheering on all end up dead. They never end up with the victory, they all end up as a casualty. And that came to my mind because as I've spent time talking to believers in this season, there are two things that I'm noticing is that number one, many of them are under spiritual attack. Now, let me just say, you may be someone who doesn't fully buy into this whole idea of a spirit realm and that there's a kind of an enemy, so to say, or a devil, you know, for him, it's just cartoon and allegory. But let me just be clear, scripture is overwhelmingly clear on this subject that you have a spiritual enemy and his goal is to steal, kill, and destroy your faith. So I'm noticing first that a lot of believers are facing spiritual attack. But the second thing I'm noticing is that most believers have been more. by cinema than scripture when it comes to spiritual attacks. And the reason I say that is because it appears like that our response to spiritual attack is always to fight. It means that we're gonna kind of dig in, we're gonna try harder, we're gonna strive in our strength to overcome a spiritual attack, but it's not working. We're trying harder than we've ever tried, but yet we're walking in less victory than we've ever walked.

Because ultimately, there is, in the life of a believer, the way you fight is not the way you think you fight. You see, when you really study scripture, here's what you're gonna find. Most of the godliest characters, most of the people who God did the most with, when faced with an overwhelming enemy, they did not fight, they hid. You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, no, they fight. They're warriors, they step onto the battlefield. No, no, no, no, no, take a walk through scripture and here's what you'll find. When Moses faced Pharaoh, he didn't mount an army, he retreated and let the plagues of God break the will of Pharaoh. Look at Elijah, when Jezebel threatens his life, he doesn't come with a weapon. Instead, he retreats and lets the fire of God fall to break her will. When you look at Jesus, he doesn't wrestle with the enemy in the wilderness. No, he stands behind and hides in God's word to let the word work against his enemy. And when you find David, this guy who's familiar with war, this one who is known as a warrior, familiar with battle, when he is faced knowing that God's called him to be king but he's being chased by an evil king named Saul, he does not come with a sword, he retreats and hides in a cave.

Everybody say, it's time to hide. It's time to hide. You see, the reality is this, is that for maybe the reason you lack victory in your life is not because you don't know how to fight, it's because you don't know how to hide. For many of us, when we face something, we bow up. We decide to press forward. We do whatever it takes, putting more hours, we strive in our strength, but maybe that's the reason it's not being delivered as victory is because it's time to hide. Now, let me be clear that hiding is not escaping. When difficulty comes, there is this idea that we just throw up our hands and we look for the nearest exit. For many people, that's the way they deal with it. They just numb themselves. They numb themselves with screens. They numb themselves with substances. They numb themselves with other vices. That's not hiding. Hiding is also not pretending. It's not walking around acting like there's not really struggles. It's not wearing a mask. It's not just acting like that there's no spiritual attack at your door. No, no, no. In fact, it's the opposite. It's very much a battle stance,

not ignoring that there is a battle. And then the last thing I would say is hiding is not forfeiting. It's not just giving up. And I am concerned because it seems like there's a group of people who are believers who constantly rewrite God's character to fit their issue. You know, they come in and they just say, well, you know, God's sovereign, so he must want me to have this struggle that, you know, God just made me with these issues. And what they're ultimately doing is they are just giving up. They are saying, I don't have personal responsibility in this, but that's not spiritually hiding. Hiding is not walking in and throwing up your hands. No, no, no. It's in fact the opposite. Hiding is exactly how we fight spiritual battles. It's what Paul said when he said, our weapons are not of this world. They're not carnal, but they're mighty to pull down strong throats through God. Hiding is not you doing it through your strength. Hiding is it you doing it through God's strength. And Jesus talks specifically about when you're in need of spiritual power, that there's only one place to find it, and it's called the secret place. Let me show it to you, Matthew 6, verse 6.

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. According to Jesus, the secret place is the hiding place. That it's in these moments where we're recognized, we have spiritual battle that's taking place, and we don't stand in our strength, but we retreat to his presence. Because it's a recognition of this, in Christ, the enemy's plans are ineffective. In Christ, peace is restored. In Christ, our strength is given. In Christ, we are equipped. Listen, if you want victory, according to Jesus, the secret to victory is the secret place. There's a guy in our church whose name's Matt. I had lunch with him. Just last week, and we were talking, and Matt was sharing his story with me. Matt has a beautiful wife and family, and has a business, but before all of that, at 19 years old. old, he basically got to the place where his life was a mess, and through a series of events he found himself needing to serve a seven-year prison sentence at 19 years old. He said when he arrived, they put him into kind of a process where he would spend the first couple of weeks alone, and the only thing they offered him was a religious literature of his choice, and though he wasn't incredibly religious, he chose the scriptures. And as he sat in this cell by himself, he began to pour through the scriptures, and as he poured through the scriptures, guess what happened? Christ met him, and he surrendered to Christ.

And what happened is, is that all of a sudden there was this establishment in his life that now he was not alone. Christ was with him, and Christ in him, and he began to pursue Christ, and Christ over the seven years began to craft his character, and reveal his gifts, and renew his mind, and he said that each day you had to depend on Christ for your protection, to keep you, to keep your mind, to keep you physically. He said those seven years, it was an intense time with Christ. He knew Christ, and then it ended, and he said, you know, he came out, and life began to unfold, and God blessed him, but then he said something at lunch that shook me, and I want you to hear it. He said this, he said, in some ways, I'm trying to find my way back to what it was like to have that relationship with Christ those seven years. He said, I had never had intimacy with Christ like that, in that cell. And all of a sudden, it kind of, how powerful is the secret place? It turns a prison cell into a sanctuary, that it doesn't matter what you are facing, so rich is the presence of Christ that it literally makes you long for what most would want to escape. Listen to me, listen. You can amass so many grand things in life, you can accomplish so many things, you can go see some beautiful places, but can I tell you this? Your life will never find a richer space than the secret place with God. Your soul is longing for it, and it's not satisfied with the distractions and the rush of this life, and the accomplishments that people applaud. Your soul is longing to be in the secret place with Christ. And my assignment is very clear today, I'm here to say, it's time for you to reestablish the secret place in your life. It's time to learn to hide again. Listen, I love that you come to church, I love that you go to a conference, I love that you're in a life group, but listen to me, there is no replacement for your private time, that secret place with God.

When you hide in Him, because you recognize only He can handle what you are facing. When you go into His presence, and you don't rush out, but you linger, because He is delivering strength to your life. When you go to Him and refuse the rush of the day, because He is richer, you need to hide again in the Lord. Many of you are fighting battles, and you're not going to win unless you hide. And it's so interesting, because David, I mean, David, David is at the most pivotal place in his life in 1 Samuel 24. I mean, he is known and anointed as king, the waiting king, but he has the evil King Saul chasing him. And he has many choices of what to do. And he chooses, at the most pivotal moment, to hide. Why? What does he know that we don't know? Well, I'm going to tell you a couple things. Why would David hide in the most pivotal moment? Here's the first one. The hiding place is where pride dies. If you were to hear 10 sermons about David, 9 out of 10 of them are going to be about him and, come on, Goliath, right, right? 9 out of 10 are going to be about him and Goliath, because we love it. The underdog walks onto the battlefield. We see ourselves slinging a sway. I mean, we love that. I know people who celebrate that story at such a high degree. I don't know anybody that celebrates running to a cave. I don't know anybody that's like, I hear, come on, we're giant slayers. I don't hear anybody say, we're cave hiders. But yet, so why though would David, someone who knows how to fight, someone who's killed giants, why would he choose not to fight but instead to hide?

I think it's for this, because David knows this, that pride is way deadlier than a giant. You see, the motive behind most of what we do in life is actually pride. You say, no, it's not. There's pride. It's just this idea that I can do it. I'll take care of myself. I'm not going to be the weak one. I'm not going to be overlooked. I'm going to do what it takes. It's just that motive behind most of what we do. Okay. And the problem with it is the scripture is very clear. Pride is a killer to your relationship with God. First of all, Scripture says pride ends God's grace in your life. Grace is God's divine ability that kicks in when your physical or mental or emotional ability stops. It's just the ability to be better than you are because the grace of God is flowing in your life. But Scripture says the minute you express pride, it's constricted in its flow. Okay, pride also says this, you may not know this. Anytime you act in pride, you're actually in opposition to God. See, pride ultimately looks at God and says, I want your job. I wanna protect me. I wanna provide for me. I wanna plan for me. I wanna guide me.

And in this moment, David is tempted because he could, by his own hand, make himself king. See, there's a temptation for David in this moment to crown himself. It's the same temptation you find every day. Temptation every day, I'm gonna crown myself. I'm gonna crown myself in this moment. I'm gonna make the decision. I'm gonna be the one who does this. I'm gonna crown myself. But David knows, no, no, no. David says, no, pride, you cannot have the way if I want God's way in my life. So David doesn't go to war with Saul. David goes to war with pride. Do you know how he does that? Through worship. Worship is war on pride. That's why we worship. That's why you need a practice person. It's war on pride. See, pride says the throne is mine. Worship put God back on the throne. Pride says, we're gonna build this life around me. Worship says, we're building our lives around God. It's literally how we fight. And listen, it's not lost on me, guys. Come on, I'm gonna pick on you for a minute since it's Father's Day, we're gonna, yeah, I figured there's a disproportionate amount

of population of men here today, so let's spend a minute on it. Maybe, maybe, maybe one of the reasons that, generally speaking, men struggle with pride is because they do not worship. Look at this, 1 Timothy 2, eight. Therefore, I want the men everywhere to pray lifting up holy hands. Now, there's a lot of ways to worship, but Paul says, one of the things I wanna see in church is I wanna see men with their hands raised in worship. Because, if no other reason, that's how children will learn to worship. And if you want passionate spiritual kids, you gotta have a passionate spiritual dad. Now, the reality is this, is that, I don't know what you come from, but lifting your hands in worship is not some meaningless act. It's not something that's just for the few. It's commanded by Scripture many, many, many, many times, but here's why. Your hands represent your entire life. Your hands hold everything that's dear. Your hands hold your wife's hand. Your hands pick up your children. Your hands are what you use to work. Your hands are what you carry your money with. Your hands are what you play your hobby with. So, when you lift your hands to God,

you are literally lifting to Him your entire life. You're saying, God, here's my family, here's my money, here's my hobbies, here's my time, here's my abilities. I'm lifting it to you. That's the reason we lift our hands in worship, okay? But, let's be honest, the two most common thoughts when we go into worship, when it comes to lifting our hands is this, I don't feel like it. Me-centered, and what will they think of me? Me-protecting. See, you look at the heart of it. In both cases, pride's calling the shots. Clear biblical command, yet we refrain because pride is at war with worship. Come on, I'm gonna help some of you today. Let's do this as an exercise. Everybody in the room, all together, same time. Here we go, you ready? Lift your hands in the air. Come on, every campus. Come on, Jeff Coe, come on, ER, DCC, everybody. Okay, ready? Okay, put them down. Did anybody die? Everybody's still here? Everybody know of medical emergencies? No one was killed? Or was something killed?

Did you know that the earliest Christian art, it shows people in worship, but they don't have their hands like this. They have their hands like this. Because in worship, they were channeling or imitating the Lord Jesus on the cross. Listen, listen, listen. When you worship and raise your hands, you're not just honoring God, you're nailing pride to the cross. Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! A few weeks ago, I was with a buddy of mine and we walked into his office, and it was covered in carcasses. Like, he's got taxidermy of every hunt he's ever been on. I mean, we're talking about like, you know, some special thing, you know, this kind of deer, this thing that's only in Africa, this thing. I mean, we're talking like this guy, taxidermies, everything. I think there was a skunk over there at some point, I'm pretty sure. Listen, and if you'd walked in there, like, you'd be like, man, this guy's a man. And that's fine. Listen, if you're a hunter, that's awesome. Taxidermy all you want, that's good.

Can I just say this? We need a new definition of masculinity. And it's men who worship. Listen, listen, listen, I'm gonna push on you a little bit, you ready? I don't care how, I don't wanna hear you bragging about how many things you've killed if you aren't even brave enough to lift your hands in worship. I don't wanna hear about all the deals you've closed if you're not even willing to lift your hands in worship. I don't wanna hear about all you've accomplished when you won't even adore the God who's given you the ability to accomplish anything. Listen, when we worship, we put our pride on the wall as a trophy that says this has been dealt with, and we are here for God. It's literally us saying, not by might, not by power, but by your spirit. Your personal worship is a doorway to the secret place. Okay, here's the second one. The second one's this. The second one is the hiding place is how we protect those we love. You know, life's full of a lot of ironies. For example, on the box of Q-tips, there is a warning that says, do not put this in the ear canal.

It's like, isn't that the only point of Q-tips? What else do they use for it? Did you know the most shoplifted book is the Bible? It's interesting, isn't it? Yeah. Here's another irony. The people you love most, you will personally hurt the most. David was an asset to his family, but he's also a liability to his family. As a matter of fact, at the reading of 1 Samuel 24, his wife has already been taken from him, and one of the reasons he chose to hide is because he wasn't just protecting himself. He knows in hiding, I was protecting my family. We all have issues. Everybody's got issues. Some of you have anger issues. Some of you have addiction issues. Some of you have unrelenting ambition issues. Like, you just swear, I'm working so hard for my family, yet you're literally taking time from your family. When you don't deal with your issues, it's like going to a restaurant, and you're sitting there, and they bring you a bill for $3,500 that pays for everybody in the room, and you go, I'm not paying this. I didn't eat all this. Listen, not dealing with your issues is like making your family pay for what they did not consume or cause.

And for some of us, the most loving thing we can do for our family is we gotta deal with our issues. And there's only one way to deal with them, is to take our sin issues into the presence of God, to hide in his presence. Let me show you something. Psalm 34, five. Those who look at him are, help me with this word, radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. If a person has cancer, one of the most popular treatments is radiation, okay? What this just told us is God's presence is like radiant. It's an incredible power, and it means that sin is like a cancer, and the only way to deal with it is to take it into the presence of the one who's radiant. You see, when you go into God's presence, you are experiencing his personhood, and who he is starts to impact you. That as you're in his presence, his holiness starts to invade your life. It starts to re-gauge what your standards are. It starts to renew your mind. That when you spend time, that's the reason you, anybody, distance yourself from God and watch spiritual regression start. Get close to God and watch spiritual progression start, because his presence literally either allows sin to grow or it kills it. Now, with that being said,

here's what we have to understand. First of all, it's not a drive-by treatment. See, the reality is our sin nature is so strong, you can't just go, well, I'm just gonna drive by just a quick prayer, just a read the verse of the day. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What I'm talking about, if you really wanna see your issues dealt with, you have to learn to linger in God's presence. It's not like, you know, for some of us, that when we encounter God, we're looking at our watch simultaneously. Can I just tell you this? It's good. I'm glad that you're on the journey, but you will never be godly without learning to linger in God's presence. Okay, and then here's the second thing. It not only is it not drive-by, it's not one time. Well, you know, I'm just gonna swing through real quick. No, no, no, no, no. It's gonna require repeated treatment, repeated treatment, repeated treatment, because these things are so, I mean, you spent your whole lifetime being ungodly. It's gonna take more than one time to be godly, and that's why you use the motivation of your family, your friends, the people you love. The truth is, is if it was just me in my life, I'd probably just deal with my issues, right?

I'd just, I'd be like, ah, it ain't that bad. I like me. I'm fine with that attitude. I'm fine with this action, but the fact is, when I start seeing it appear in my kids, affecting my spouse, touching the people, there's a motivation there to go, I need to get healthy. I need to get godly, because I. I don't want my issues to impact them. Listen, I was preaching in Georgia years ago and I met a guy named David. David started a concrete business and it was a small little town and small little concrete business. And he, in 2008, he had been in business about five years and basically 2008 hits, recession comes, nobody's building and the banks want the payment on all the loans they've got out. And to start a concrete business, I mean, most people have to get a loan. As a matter of fact, David had taken in, basically gotten loans for, put collateral against his own house and his mother's land just to start the business. So now he's watching all his competitors go out of business. There are no customers and banks are saying, if you don't meet higher standards of payments, we're taking everything you have.

David said, sleeplessness, anxiety and fear became the culture of his home. My wife felt it, our two daughters felt it. He said, I was on it. He said, it was awful. He said that basically it went on for several months. There's tension in every direction and he recognized the impact it's having on his family. And he said, I've got to do something. So he took two godly steps. The first thing is he got a part-time job at Walmart. He was just an hourly wage, but he said, I've got to do something to bring income in for my family. And then here's the second one. The second one is when he got off of his night shift at Walmart, he got a key from his pastor to go to the church and from every day from four to 5 a.m., he went and prayed. Okay, so this was not like a one-time thing. It wasn't a one-week thing. It wasn't a one-month thing. For 10 months, he worked at Walmart and then he went and prayed for an hour. And he had never prayed that much. He'd never prayed that much. He'd never been in God's presence. He'd never, and this is four in the morning. There's no worship team, nobody preaching to you. It's just him and carpet. But for 10 months, he shows up and works and prays and works and prays and works and prays.

And he said, somewhere in the deal, my misery was given to the Lord. Stress melted despite circumstance not changing. And here's what he said. He said, 10 months of negotiation is what prayer was, where this business went from being mine to being God's. And don't you know, God, when he owns a business, he will make it thrive. He made it out about a year later. He was able to quit that job and slowly business started. Today, his business is quadrupled. He said, I do one commercial pour. That's more than all the driveways I did in my first five years of business. But more than that, he kept his faith, his marriage and his kids' faith. Because he said, you know what? I'm gonna deal with these issues. I'm gonna hide. Listen, I don't know what your issue is, but I can tell you this. Every issue is resolved in the secret place. Every issue. Listen, some of you just need to get in your heart. I'm going to hide till I'm healed. I'm gonna keep praying until I get peace in this situation. I'm gonna keep showing up and showing up and showing up until the holiness of God eradicates the sinfulness of me. I am going to hide because I'm not gonna pass this on to my kids,

to my spouse, to the people I love. Hiding's how we protect our family. Here's the last one. Here's the last one. I gotta move quick. The last one is the hiding place gives God the stage for victory. The most dramatic part of Psalm, or excuse me, 1 Samuel 24 is this, is that there's this moment. The king has come in to use the restroom. He has no idea David is hiding in this cave. I mean, what's the providential realities of this, right? And so David's buddies go, hey, hey, hey, this is God's hand. You need to go in there. You cut him out and you're king. And this temptation is overwhelming because David, listen, he's tired of running. He's tired of being treated unjustly. He's done nothing but serve the king and the king out of his own insecurities has pursued David. And he's thinking, I'm gonna do it. But his buddies are saying, hey, hey, go kill him. Here's what they're saying. Stop hiding and take this back into your hands. You're gonna face a similar temptation. There's gonna be a moment where you go, okay, I'm gonna hide.

I'm gonna seek the Lord. I'm gonna lock in. And then there's gonna be a moment where you're tempted to take it back into your hands. And David's restraint is unbelievable because here's what he determined. He's thinking to himself, I'm not gonna kill him by my hand because if I'm going to be king, I need to know on the tough days, it was God who put this crown on my head. He's saying this, I need the nation to recognize. This is not how the pagans overtop each other. I need them to recognize if they're gonna follow me that God's hand put me here. Listen, and he says, basically here's what he's saying. I'm not gonna take back. control because I want to give God the space to get the glory and he retreats in this cave if you want to live a miraculous life I got to break some hard news to you ready you can't be the star of the show if you want God's plan you got to let him unfold his plan in his timing in his way and that means not by your hand you got to let God work and now listen I know that's up here yeah but God told me my kids are gonna be saved and so that means every time they come to my house I'm just like shoving the Bible down their throat and I'm like pushing them and I'm you just need to hide in prayer and let God work yeah but God told me that that I was gonna be you know the manager of this place and you know if I let them know what this person is doing if I if I went and told him if I you know cut them out of the deal that I could be the manager God told me no no no no no no you want to be the manager by God's hands you got to let him work yeah yeah but God told me he's gonna give me a spouse and so I'm just

I'm just I'm gonna help him by getting on all you know tinder and all these other I'm gonna help him no no no no no no you got to let God work see this is the reality is is that you can't have God's plan by your hand a couple of last year I think it was I ran into a guy that I worked with years ago at another church he was all like on the executive team and I was the assistant to a pastor let me clear not the assistant pastor assistant to the pastor and so we you know I wasn't on his level and well now you know 15 years later you know he came up to him we were talking about family and then he just kind of said this and he was he was never the most kind of like he was always a little he just you know some people just need a better filter you ever met somebody like that they just need a better filter and he said wow he said man I'm seeing what God's doing your life he said I'd have never guessed it I was like thanks you know but you know at first I was a little insulted but then I thought yeah me too like what he was really saying is like bro yeah I didn't think you were that smart or that capable or that like your leadership was on point I'm like I just did and I you know me too and then it dawned on me what people's people see the success but they never see when you're in the secret place they see God's hand on your life but they don't see when you hid you know sometimes we do things in life we don't realize what we're doing between 18 and 22 years old nearly five days a week I would leave my job and I would take my lunch at my local church they had something called a prayer tower it was basically this big old tower on the back of the thing and you went up three flights of stairs and there was an empty room and I'd go up there and it was me and a CD player come on if you're under 35 somebody help them with what a CD player is nothing else me the scriptures a CD player and I'd seek God because I felt so overlooked and I felt like God you if you you know you you could use anybody God here I am but it felt forgotten and I saw nothing and I didn't know it then but I was hiding and here's the thing about people who hide they learn to let God work two years after the events of first Samuel 24 David is 80 miles away and he he's 80 miles away from Saul and all of the sudden a messenger shows up

and the messenger says I have a message for David and David who just gotten back from a war with a tribe says we'll deliver the message the messenger says the king has died in battle and the Bible says David is grieved because he genuinely loves Saul and the messenger says I have something to deliver to you and he opens a bag and he pulls out the crown David hid but the crown found him he thought and I missed my moment in that cave I could I could have made it happen yeah that'll probably never what God's plan for my life probably never gonna come about but here's the thing that he learned in that moment when you hide the public may not see you but you can't hide from God his favor is gonna find you you know Occasionally I'll play hide-and-seek with Caroline and it's funny because she'll say I'm gonna hide and you find me That's okay, and she'll hide but like I can still see her like her her feet are out from behind the thing or her You know her her hair is sticking out and and I'll just play it all I said, all right, baby Ready or not Here I come You see her get tense And as I was praying for you this week There's something you've been worshiping and you've been you're hiding God's Word in your heart and you've been praying over a situation And there's voices that say this isn't working. God's forgotten about me. I'm overlooked This promise is not gonna happen and I heard the Holy Spirit say ready or not. Here I come I'm coming with what you've been hiding. I'm will work in your family. I'm gonna work in this business I'm gonna work in your your hiding is not without reward Because Jesus says whoever hides in the secret place will be rewarded in the public's eye Come on it's time to hide. I want you to stand to your feet every campus. Come on stand to your feet Come on you're working hard you're fighting hard But it's time to hide

Some of you have never had a secret place. It's time. Some of you have forgotten to go there. It's time It's time to make hiding how you approach the promises of God and the attacks the enemy