Where Can I Hide From God? Series

NTRODUCTION

 When you were a kid, did you have secret hideout? This was a place that only you and a very select few friends knew about.

 This hideout was a place that you could go to escape the worries of your young world. It was a place where you thought you could do things that you were not supposed to do.

 This hideout made you feel that no one knew where you were. When I was a kid I had such a place. Whenever my mother wanted me to come home, she would stick her head out the door and yell my name at the top of her lungs. You could hear her for it seemed like 100 miles away.

 I made the mistake ONCE when we were at the hideout of saying that I did not hear her.

 Do we lose that “hideout” mentality when we grow up? Sometimes we do not. I told you about some of my business trip experiences last week. The idea was that these people thought they could hide things from their spouses and or girlfriends since they were out of state.

 Today I want to talk about the last of three attributes that make God, God. Today we will look at the fact that God is OMNIPRESENT. Put in layman’s terms, “God is everywhere all the time.”

 This is good news the those who know and love God, because no matter what we do or where we go, we can never be far from God’s comforting presence.

 The bad news is that if we do not follow God is that He knows that also. GALATIANS 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

 What I am not saying is that God is IN EVERYTHING. God is not in the rocks, in the trees, in the earth and so on. God has the ability to be in all places all the time. That is a big concept to grasp isn’t it?

 David, in the first six verses of Psalm 139 talks about the fact that God knows everything about us, that nothing is hidden from Him.

 How is it that God knows so much about us? Remember what verse five said? God is always with us. One reason God knows us so intimately is because He is with us continually. The first six verses answer the question; "How well does God know me?" Verses 7-12 answer the question; "How near is God to me?"

 An atheist was lecturing at a University. He wrote on the chalkboard; "God is nowhere." After his lecture, a Christian student went to the board and separated the letters "W" and "H" of "nowhere" leaving the statement: "God is now here." God not only knows us intimately; He is with us all the time.

 This is one of the reasons that it is futile to run from God when we have problems in life with sin or with life in general. God is with us so He knows.

 Once again I want to take this very large subject of God’s omnipresence and bring it down to a personal level. Nothing can separate you from God or the love of God. ROMANS 8:39 says, “nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 There is no “hideout” from God. Today we will see that death, distance or darkness can hide us from God!

SERMON

READ PSALM 139:7-12

QUESTION

 In verse seven David asks the question. Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

 I feel a sense of excitement in the following verses as David tries to answer his own question.

 I don’t believe that the question here expresses any intent to run from God. He didn’t express any fear in verses 1 to 6 when he thought about God’s detailed knowledge of him. Throughout David’s life when God confronted him, David did not run from Him. On the contrary, he was so grateful for God’s love and care, expressed in such intimate concern for him that he breaks forth in worship. And even here in verse 10, he sees God’s omnipresence as for his benefit. He says; "Your hand will lead me, your right hand will lay hold me."

 The question of verse 7 is a statement of joyful astonishment that God is everywhere!

 As we look at our text let us see that:

I. DEATH CANNOT HIDE US 8

 David tells us that if we ascend to heaven, we cannot hide from God there since He God lives there.