Hide And Seek Series

Sunday Morning, June 30, 2002 Bel Aire Baptist Church

Series: ¡§Requirements For Revival¡¨ [#4]

HIDE AND SEEK

Psalm 24

Introduction:

1. Stand with me as we read 2 Chronicles 7:14.

2. As we continue in our series, ¡§Requirements For Revival,¡¨ I want us to look at the subject of seeking the face of God. As we approach our 4th of July celebrations, I pray that we would not only listen to this sermon as individuals, but that we would also listen to it as Americans. Our country desperately needs to seek the face of God.

3. As a child I enjoyed playing a game call ¡§Hide And Seek.¡¨ This simple game had one objective: Find the hidden person before someone else did.

4. Although God is not hiding, we cannot just run into His presence and yet we are told by God to seek His face.

5. Why do we need to seek God and how do we do that?

We seek God¡K

Because He Is Creator

Psalm 24:1-2

1. No one else is more capable than God of solving our problems.

2. God created this entire world and everything on it. If He can do that, isn¡¦t He able to take care of all of our problems?

3. Jesus tells us not to worry about things, but instead seek God.

Matthew 6:25-33

We seek God because He is Creator. We also seek God¡K

Because He Is Holy

Psalm 24:3-6

1. ¡§The hill of the LORD¡¨ is referring to Heaven where God is and is not an easy hill to climb. How can we go into the presence of a holy God? Remember, God cannot look upon sin. That is why when Jesus died on the cross that it became dark. God is light and when He turned His head from Jesus because of the sins of the world, it became dark.

2. So how can we as sinners seek the face of God when we are not allowed into His presence? We must have¡K

„« Clean hands and a pure heart.

„« Not worship anything else.

3. But, since we are sinners, how can we have clean hands and a pure heart? Verse 6 says that these are the requirements to seeking the face of God. We now have a problem because Isaiah 64:6 says, ¡§All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;¡K¡¨ This brings us to the third reason we seek God because He is Creator and Holy. We also seek God¡K

Because He Is Savior

1. To answer the question, ¡§How do we have clean hands and pure hearts,¡¨ we must look at the last verse in this chapter.

Psalm 24:7-10

2. ¡§Who is this King of glory?¡¨ Jesus Christ came to this earth so that He could be our sacrifice. God loves us so much that He fought Satan and his evil helpers to free us from eternal death. Jesus won the victory.

3. The way we become clean and pure is through the blood of Jesus Christ. With the blood of Christ upon our lives, God sees us as holy which allows us into His presence.

Conclusion:

1. ¡§Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty ¡V he is the King of glory.¡¨

2. By the way, just knowing who He is, is not enough. That is why we are to seek God¡¦s face. Seeking His face is something that is personal and intimate. You are not to seek His hands for what you can get from God, but seek His face because He is your King of glory.

3. If you are here this morning and have never surrendered your life to Jesus Christ let me read to you a warning.

Isaiah 55:6-7

4. Don¡¦t wait too long to meet the Savior. You can run out of time!