{"id":32990,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"hide-and-seek","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/","title":{"rendered":"Hide and Seek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/19131.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <em>Illustration: <\/em>A pastor phoned the home of some recent\nvisitors to his church, and a voice on the other end of the phone answered with\na whispered &#8220;Hello.&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>The pastor said, &#8220;Who is this?&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>The whisperer said, &#8220;Jimmy.&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>The pastor said, &#8220;How old are you, Jimmy?&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Four.&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Well, Jimmy, can I please speak to your mom?&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;She&#8217;s busy.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Well then, Jimmy, can I please speak to your\ndad?&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;He&#8217;s busy.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Jimmy, are there any other adults in your home?&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;The police.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Can I speak to one of the police officers?&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re busy.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Jimmy, who else is there?&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Firemen.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Well, Jimmy, can you put one of the firemen on the\nphone?&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re all busy.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Jimmy, what are they all busy doing?&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re busy looking for me.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>Like Jimmy, a lot of people in life are hiding. They are\nhiding from the police or parents. They are hiding from coaches and teachers.\nSome of them are hiding from bosses, and others are hiding from spouses. Many\npeople today are hiding from God. But that raises an important question: In\nlight of the fact that God is everywhere and knows everything about us, what\ncould possibly motivate us to want to hide from him?<\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">Sin causes us to hide from God<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>There are probably a lot of answers to that question, but I\nthink biblically speaking one of the key answers is we have a tendency to hide\nfrom God because we know we&#8217;ve done something wrong. A natural human\ncharacteristic is, when we&#8217;ve done something wrong, we want to run and hide\nfrom the authorities.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>Illustration:<\/em> A few months back I was driving on\nSouth Sheridan, and I won&#8217;t tell you how fast I was going, but it was pretty\nfast. Before I knew it, I saw those red flashing lights in my rearview mirror,\nand I had to pull over. I dutifully pulled out my license, my registration, and\nproof of insurance. I was submissive to the police officer, who was kind and,\nunfortunately, issued me a ticket. But the whole time I was sitting there, what\nI really wanted to  I could I wanted to floor it and run away and\nhide.<\/p>\n    <p>That&#8217;s the story of humanity with God since the dawn of\ntime. Go back to the Book of Genesis in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were\nthere; everything was wonderful and perfect. There was full disclosure,\ncomplete and total  hiding. But then they chose to disobey God, and\nbecause of their sin they fell from the state of grace. Later on, the text\ntells us God came into the garden looking for them, calling out for them, and\nAdam responded to God, &#8220;I heard you walking in the garden. I was afraid,\nand I hid.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>Sin and hiding are the Siamese twins of the fallen state of\nmen, women, and children. All of us at different times in our lives are going\nto try to hide from God. In fact, this morning you may have even come to\nchurch, but for some reason you are hiding from God. There is only one way to\ndeal with our hiding and its cause, which is our sin. The answer comes to us\nfrom Luke 19.<\/p>\n    <p>Luke directs us to the story of Jesus and says, &#8220;Jesus\nentered Jericho and was passing through.&#8221; In the larger context of this\nstory we know Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and this event takes place in\nthe last few days or so of his life. As he goes towards Jerusalem, he passes\nthrough the city of Jericho. Jericho was a wonderful city. It was quite\ncosmopolitan. It had wonderfully wide streets, beautifully decorated, and it\nwas one of the centers of Roman imperial power in that part of the world.<\/p>\n    <p>As Jesus is passing through, Luke tells us in verse 2 that a\nman was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and\nwealthy. Many of you know that tax collectors in the ancient Roman world were\nviewed as the scum of society. You see, in Israel there were four occupations\nthat marginalized people because they were considered immoral occupations. One\nwas to be a gambler. The second was to be a usurer, to lend money at an\nexorbitant interest rate to other people. A third occupation considered immoral\nwas to be a pigeon trainer. Nothing against the pigeons, it&#8217;s just that they\nwere used in gambling. The fourth and the lowest and least esteemed occupation,\nthe one considered the most immoral, was to be a tax collector. <\/p>\n    <p>There were two reasons why. Tax collectors, first of all,\nworked for the Romans, and Rome was the imperial oppressive authority over the\nJews. So tax collectors were considered traitors. The second reason tax\ncollecting was considered immoral was that tax collectors almost always\nfinancially raped their own people. The Romans would hire a tax collector, and\nthey&#8217;d say, &#8220;You need to collect this amount for us. Anything beyond that\nyou can keep for yourself.&#8221; And so they did. In fact, one Roman writer\ntells us that the idea of an honest tax collector was so rare that when one\ncity in the empire had a tax collector who was somewhat honest they erected a\nstatue to memorialize him.<\/p>\n    <p>Well, this story tells us Zacchaeus was a chief tax\ncollector, which meant he had numbers of tax collectors working for him, and\nthat he was wealthy. This meant he had ripped off a whole lot of people for a\nlong period of time. He was not a good guy; he was a bad guy. He was morally\nragged and on the fringes of society. <\/p>\n    <p>But somewhere along the way he heard about this rabbi named\nJesus, a religious person who, on occasion, hung around morally ragged people\nand happened to go to parties where there were prostitutes and riffraff and tax\ncollectors. So he was curious about Jesus.<\/p>\n    <p>Luke says in verse 3 he wanted to see who Jesus was, but\nbeing a short man, he could not. He was vertically challenged because of the\ncrowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus\nwas coming that way. We can imagine the scene: The crowds pack the streets, and\nZacchaeus wants to see Jesus. He runs to the street, but the crowds are there.\nThey are taller than he is, and he can&#8217;t see. I also suggest to you they knew\nwho he was and did not like him, and so they wanted to exclude him from the\nview. He has one option. He runs down the street and climbs a sycamore fig tree\nto see Jesus.<\/p>\n    <p>That&#8217;s an interesting detail in the story. Why would Luke\nsay Zacchaeus climbed a <em>sycamore <\/em>fig\ntree? Why not just a tree? That caught my curiosity, and so I looked it up and\nhere&#8217;s what one expert said: &#8220;Because the branches of the sycamore fig\ntree are strong and wide spreading, and because it produces many lateral\nbranches, it was an easy tree for Zacchaeus to climb and in which he could easily\nbe hidden.&#8221; Oh, Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus, but he doesn&#8217;t want Jesus to\nsee him. He&#8217;s hiding.<\/p>\n    <p>Let me ask this question this morning. Are any of us in this\nroom this morning hiding from Jesus? Oh, you can run, but ultimately you can&#8217;t\nhide. Look at verse 5: &#8220;When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said\nto him, &#8216;Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your home\ntoday.'&#8221; <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">Jesus finds us when we hide<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>Jesus didn&#8217;t care about his occupation. Jesus did not care\nabout his reputation. Jesus was concerned about his salvation, because\nZacchaeus was a human being made in the image of God. Yes, he was morally\nragged and, yes, he was hiding; but that&#8217;s what Jesus does. In the midst of our\nhiding, he comes and he finds us. The reason he does that is because he loves\nyou and me more than we will ever know.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>Illustration:<\/em> One of my favorite authors is John\nOrtberg. In one of his books he tells the story of his sister Barbie and her\nfavorite doll when she was growing up, a doll named Pandy. Here&#8217;s what he says:<\/p>\n    <p>When Pandy was young and a looker,\nBarbie loved her. She loved her with a love that was too strong for Pandy&#8217;s own\ngood. When Barbie went to bed at night, Pandy lay next to her. When Barbie had\nlunch, Pandy ate beside her at the table. When Barbie could get away with it,\nPandy took a bath with her. Barbie&#8217;s love for that doll, from Pandy&#8217;s point of\nview, was nearly a fatal attraction.<\/p>\n    <p>By the time I knew Pandy she was\nnot a particularly attractive doll. In fact, to tell the truth, she was a mess.\nShe was no longer a valuable doll. I&#8217;m not sure we could have given her away.\nBut for reasons that no one could ever quite figure out, in the way that kids\nsometimes do, my sister Barbie loved that little rag doll still. She loved her\nas strongly in the days of Pandy&#8217;s raggedness as she ever had in her days of\ngreat beauty. Other dolls came and went; Pandy was family. Love Barbie; love\nher rag doll. It was a package deal.<\/p>\n    <p>Once we took a vacation from our\nhome in Rockford, Illinois, to Canada. We had returned almost all the way home\nwhen we realized at the Illinois border that Pandy had not come back with us.\nShe had remained behind at the hotel in Canada. No other option was thinkable.\nMy father turned the car around, and we drove from Illinois all the way back to\nCanada. We were a devoted family, not a particularly bright family, perhaps,\nbut devoted.<\/p>\n    <p>We rushed into the hotel and\nchecked with the desk clerk in the lobby. No Pandy. We ran back up to our room.\nNo Pandy. We ran downstairs and found the laundry room. Pandy was there wrapped\nup in the sheets about to be washed to death. The measure of my sister&#8217;s love\nfor that doll was that she would travel all the way to a distant country to\nsave her.<\/p>\n    <p>Jesus traveled all the way from the distant country of\nheaven down to earth to save Zacchaeus. Jesus traveled all the way from that\ndistant country of heaven to find people like you and me. Let me ask you once\nagain this morning: Are you emotionally or spiritually or morally in some way\nlike Zacchaeus, up a tree and hiding from Jesus? Well, he loves you so much\nhe&#8217;s coming up to that tree, and what he&#8217;s telling you is, &#8220;I want you to\ncome down and I want to come over for lunch today.&#8221; The reason is he is\nthe only answer to the cause of our hiding, and that&#8217;s our sinfulness.<\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">Jesus cures our reason to hide<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>To show you what I mean, look at verses 6 and 7: &#8220;Jesus\nsays to Zacchaeus, &#8216;Come on down immediately. I must stay at your house today.&#8217;\nSo Zacchaeus came down at once and welcomed him gladly.&#8221; Oh, he&#8217;s excited\nnow. Jesus is coming over. But look at the crowd. All the people saw this and\nbegan to mutter, &#8220;He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.&#8221; Well,\nthat was no news to Zacchaeus. He knew he was a sinner. He knew he was immoral.\nHe knew he was morally ragged. But one of the keys to coming out of our hiding\nis to finally admit  it out in the open and let Jesus deal with it.\nThat&#8217;s true for you; that&#8217;s true for me.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>Illustration:<\/em> When I was nine years old, it finally\nstarted to dawn on me that I was a pretty sinful person. I have an older sister\nnamed Becky, and I really do love my sister a lot. We get along well now. We\nsee each other a couple of times a month, and she&#8217;s a great person, has a great\nsense of humor. I really love my sister a . But when we were growing\nup, it wasn&#8217;t always that way. You see, she was older and bigger, and she used\nto pound on me all the time, and it hurt. And in my devious way, I looked for\nways in which I could take out revenge. <\/p>\n    <p>One day my mom took me to a department store, and they had a\npet department where they were selling exotic pets. One of the pets they were\nselling was a  crocodile, and my mind started to race ahead. So I\npressed my mom, and in a moment of weakness she caved in and bought me this\ncrocodile. They put it in a container with a wire top.<\/p>\n    <p>As I was carrying it out of the store the crocodile bumped\nup against the wire and tried to bite my fingers, and I thought, <em>Cool<\/em>. I couldn&#8217;t wait until we got home.\nAs soon as we got home, I started to chase my sister around the house with the\ncrocodile. It kept trying to get out and bite her, and she was terrorized,\nmortified. My dad came home a couple of hours later. He didn&#8217;t punish me, but\nhe said, &#8220;You can&#8217;t terrorize your sister. That&#8217;s a wrong thing to do, and\nthe crocodile is going back to the store.&#8221; He didn&#8217;t use these words, but\nI got the impression, <em>You have sinned<\/em>.<\/p>\n    <p>I have sinned and so have you. So did Zacchaeus, and so did\nall those people around Zacchaeus. The only cure for our sin is the death of Jesus.\nLuke doesn&#8217;t tell us in this passage, but if we turn over just a few pages and\nmove a few days ahead in Jesus&#8217; life, that would be the day Jesus walked that\npainful road to Calvary. That would be the day Jesus hung naked on a Roman\nexecution rack before all his enemies. The reason Jesus did that was because he\nhad to pay the penalty for our sin to a holy God. Jesus died for us.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>Illustration:<\/em> I used to have a good friend named\nDebbie Johnson. Debbie was beautiful and bright and gifted. She was a wonderful\nmom to a couple of young boys and the wife of a good friend of mine named Dave.\nDave was a pastor here in town. In early 1994 Dave and Debbie Johnson got a\ncall to leave their pastorate in Denver and go back to Minnesota and serve the\nLord in a church there. About six months after they went to Minnesota, Debbie\nwas diagnosed with cancer, and about eight months after that she died. <\/p>\n    <p>But she didn&#8217;t have to die. They caught the cancer early on.\nAll they had to do was give her radiation and chemotherapy, but she wouldn&#8217;t\ntake it. Two months before she was diagnosed with cancer, she found out she was\npregnant with their third child, and the treatment for the cancer would have\nkilled the baby, so she said no cancer treatment. She went full term, gave\nbirth to that baby, and then she died. She died so that baby could live.<\/p>\n    <p>That&#8217;s exactly what Jesus did for all of us. He made that\nhuge journey from heaven to find us but also to forgive us of our sin. There is\nno one in this auditorium who does not need to be found and to be forgiven of\nsin. You know this as well as I do. Sin grabs us and holds us. It binds us and\ntangles us up, and then it pulls us down.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>Illustration:<\/em> In his great novel <em>Toilers of the Sea, <\/em>Victor Hugo tells the story of his antagonist,\nthe bad guy in the story, and his name is Clabare. Clabare is on a ship with a\nvariety of people, and he wants to rob them. So he runs the ship aground on a\nsandbar. Pretending to be the hero, he persuades all the people to disembark\ninto lifeboats. He sends them into the ocean and tells them they will be\nrescued. He promises to try to get the ship unstuck and come to help them. <\/p>\n    <p>Well, after getting them off the ship, he goes into the\nstateroom, breaks open the safe, and takes all the jewels and money. Then he\ngoes into the rooms and finds anything of value, puts it in big bags, and puts\nthe bags on his shoulders. He is going to swim to a nearby island where he\nknows he will be rescued. He jumps off the side of the ship and cuts into the\nocean. He goes to the bottom. As he touches the ocean floor, he pushes off to\ncome back to the surface. But just as he does so, an octopus tentacle reaches\nup and grabs him around the ankle. He shakes free of it, but as he tries to\nswim higher another one grabs him around the shoulder. Then another one grabs\nhim around the waist. He struggles to get free, but he can&#8217;t, and the octopus\npulls him down to the bottom, where he dies.<\/p>\n    <p>We have all had that experience with our sin, haven&#8217;t we? It\nwill grab us and hold us and bind us and tangle us up. The only person who can\nhelp us is Jesus. <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">Salvation frees us from sin&#8217;s grip<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>Look at verses 8 and following. Apparently after lunch\nZacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, &#8220;Look, Lord, here and now I give\nhalf of my possessions to the poor. If I have cheated anybody out of anything,\nI will pay back four times the amount.&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>Zacchaeus makes an incredible claim. The Old Testament law\ndid not require him to compensate his victims this much. It certainly didn&#8217;t\nrequire him to get rid of half of his wealth or more. Why does he take such a\nradical step?<\/p>\n    <p>Jesus gives us the answer in verses 9 and 10. Jesus said to\nhim, &#8220;Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son\nof Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.&#8221;\nThat&#8217;s what salvation is. Salvation is being found by Jesus and forgiven by\nJesus, but salvation, in the fullest sense of the term, is to be set free from\nthe power of sin by Jesus.<\/p>\n    <p>The thing that had Zacchaeus&#8217;s heart, the thing that had\ntangled him up was money, materialism. I think I understand why. He was short;\nhe was probably unattractive; he felt bad about himself, no . But he\nwas good with numbers. He figured out the way to gain significance and security\nin this life was to become a tax collector, and it didn&#8217;t matter if you ripped\nother people off. So money got his heart, and it was the sin that kept pulling\nhim down. Only when he met Jesus did he realize that significance and security\ncome not in stuff but in the Lord.<\/p>\n    <p>I&#8217;d like to ask a few questions of us this morning, and I&#8217;m\nasking them of myself. <\/p>\n    <p>Are you like Zacchaeus: you hide in the pursuit of\naffluence? Or maybe the thing that&#8217;s got you bound up is sexual immorality. Oh,\nyou have legitimate needs there, but you are trying to meet them in\nillegitimate ways. Or maybe many of us are seeking to find significance and\nwe&#8217;re tangled up in things that are culturally respectable, like achievements\nor higher education or good grades, and that&#8217;s what drives our life.<\/p>\n    <p>Maybe some of us are tangled up in guilt. Something happened\nin the past. Something bad took place. We made some bad choices, and we live in\nguilt. You know the truth of what Garrison Keillor said, that guilt is the gift\nthat keeps on giving.<\/p>\n    <p>Friends, I say this to myself and I say it to you: The only\nperson in the entire universe who can set us free from the power of sin is\nJesus. He&#8217;s come to find us. He&#8217;s come to forgive us, but he wants us to invite\nhim over for lunch, invite him into our lives and say, &#8220;Lord, I am\nstruggling with this area. Will you please by your grace set me free from its\npower?&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>Illustration:<\/em> In the 1840s and 1850s, major portions\nof the United States of America were dominated by the institution of slavery,\nand it was expanding fast. On one occasion a young congressman from Illinois by\nthe name of Abraham Lincoln heard about a slave auction being held near where\nhe lived, and so he went. As he stood at the edge of the slave auction, he\nobserved as black Americans were led onto the block and auctioned off. Finally\na young slave woman was led up to the block, and they started the bidding on\nher, and Lincoln bid. Somebody outbid him, and then he bid higher. Somebody\noutbid him, and he bid higher still. After a few moments they said, &#8220;Sold.&#8221;\nThey took her off the auction block and brought her to Lincoln, and he had the\nslave master let her out of her chains. Then Lincoln looked at her and said,\n&#8220;Now you are free.&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>She looked up at him with a curious look and said,\n&#8220;Free? What does it mean to be free?&#8221; Lincoln said, &#8220;It means\nyou can think anything you want. You can say anything you want. You can go\nanywhere you want.&#8221; <\/p>\n    <p>It sunk in, and the tears streamed from her eyes down her\ncheeks. She looked at him and said, &#8220;Then I will go with you.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>Friends, that&#8217;s why Jesus made the long journey from heaven\nto planet earth. It was so he could find us, so he could forgive us, and so he\ncould set us free from the power of sin. This morning I&#8217;d like us to meditate\non three questions. Are we hiding from Jesus? Have we allowed him to forgive\nus? Have we invited him home into our lives to set us free from the power of\nour sin?<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Scott Wenig is teaching\npastor at Centennial Community Church in Littleton, Colorado, and associate\nprofessor of applied theology at Denver Seminary in Denver, Colorado.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p> Scott Wenig<\/p>\n    <p>Preaching Today Tape #\n211<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>A resource of\nChristianity Today International<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306],"tax_ctp_authors":[2982],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[4110,4749,4782,4864,4877,4963],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-32990","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-scott-wenig","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-guilt","tax_ctp_tags-pursuing-sinners","tax_ctp_tags-redemption","tax_ctp_tags-running-from-god","tax_ctp_tags-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-shame"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hide and Seek - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hide and Seek - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Illustration: A pastor phoned the home of some recent visitors to his church, and a voice on the other end of the phone answered with a whispered &#8220;Hello.&#8221; The pastor said, &#8220;Who is this?&#8221; The whisperer said, &#8220;Jimmy.&#8221; The pastor said, &#8220;How old are you, Jimmy?&#8221; &#8220;Four.&#8221; &#8220;Well, Jimmy, can I please speak to your Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/\",\"name\":\"Hide and Seek - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-08-26T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2005-08-26T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hide and Seek\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hide and Seek - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hide and Seek - CT Pastors","og_description":"Illustration: A pastor phoned the home of some recent visitors to his church, and a voice on the other end of the phone answered with a whispered &#8220;Hello.&#8221; The pastor said, &#8220;Who is this?&#8221; The whisperer said, &#8220;Jimmy.&#8221; The pastor said, &#8220;How old are you, Jimmy?&#8221; &#8220;Four.&#8221; &#8220;Well, Jimmy, can I please speak to your Read more...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/","og_site_name":"CT Pastors","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@CTpastors","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/","name":"Hide and Seek - CT Pastors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-08-26T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/hide-and-seek\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hide and Seek"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","name":"CT Pastors","description":"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization","name":"Christianity Today","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","caption":"Christianity Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors"]}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermons\/32990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermons"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermons"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermons\/32990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32993,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermons\/32990\/revisions\/32993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_audience?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_authors?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_categories?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guides","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guides?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_format?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_multimedia","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_multimedia?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_point_editor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_point_editor?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_publications?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_sermon_series?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_tags?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_topics?post=32990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}