21 June 2026 Hiding Places - Pastor Clarance Shashi

So yeah, I just wanna honor all the fathers here.

You're doing an amazing job.

And uh it's not easy being a father.

How many of you know that?

How many of the fathers here can agree?

Yeah, it's not easy being a father.

It's uh it's a challenge, it's uh uh it's a huge responsibility.

That's why we need the grace of God, and also that's why fathers always come under attack.

Uh, because the devil wants to target fathers, because if he can get fathers dysfunctional, he can get the children dysfunctional, and dysfunctional children will later become dysfunctional fathers, and you see a cycle of dysfunction.

But I believe that God is breaking that over his people, amen.

Because he is a good, good father.

Anyway, without further ado, I want to uh start by telling you about a game that we all have played uh throughout our lives.

Uh I think it is one of those games that we have a natural inclination to like or to love, and it's the game called hide and seek.

How many of you have played hide and seek?

Come and throw your hands in the air, wave him like you just don't care.

Yeah.

So you see, we all have played hide and seek at some point in our life.

It's one of those games that is almost like it's it's wired within us to like.

In fact, you can go to a to a baby, a toddler, you can go to Fabian's toddler at the back there and just do a pick-aboo.

And they'll get so excited because it is a form of, even as a baby, they play a form of hide and seek, and they naturally love it.

So we naturally, it's like almost like it's wired within us to to to to love that game.

And um, it's an easy game to play.

All you need is two people and a space.

And it's like, you know, where the scripture says where two or three are gathered in my name, there you can play hide and seek.

That's all it takes.

And and strangely, when I play with my kids, everybody loves the hiding part.

We naturally like the hiding part.

And uh I've noticed that over the years of being a pastor, that we don't just play this game as children.

Even as adults, we either consciously or unconsciously play this game in one form or the other.

Only the location where we play it becomes a bit more sophisticated, a bit more complicated.

We play hide and seek in our relationships, we play hide and seek in our careers, uh, and we play hide and seek, especially in our spiritual work.

And today, uh, being Father's Day, I want to pick a little bit on the men, because we men are especially good at this game.

Uh, men are very, very good at this, especially the hiding part.

But the bad news is, or should I say, the good news is God is extremely good at the seeking out part.

And I do believe that God is coming for you today.

He's seeking you out today, he's calling you out of hiding today.

And uh, throughout this uh message, I want to share about some of the places we hide behind and some of the things we can hide from, as men, in fact, not just as men, as every single person here qualifies as human beings.

Yeah, you see, throughout scripture, uh God seeking men out, God calling men out of hiding places, he called Moses as he was hiding in the backside of the desert, he called Saul, who was hiding behind the baggages, he called Gideon, who was hiding in the wine press.

He called Peter, who was hiding behind his fishing nets after he felt that he had failed.

He called Paul, who was hiding behind religion, and God calls them out of hiding, not so that he can expose them or shame them, he calls them out of hiding so that he can reveal them into their world, into the world that they are, into their purpose and into their destiny.

If you read the scriptures, you realize that the game of hide and seek actually originated in the Bible, originated in scripture.

It originated in the first book of the Bible.

Just after creation, men designed this game of hide and seek.

It started in the Garden of Eden with the first man.

It says in Genesis chapter 3, verse 7 at that moment their eyes were open and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness, so they sowed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Genesis 3:7

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord walking in the garden, so they hid from the Lord among the trees, and then the Lord God called to the man, Where are you?

I'm coming, and then the man replied, wasn't very good at this game, obviously.

I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid.

I was afraid because I was naked.

This is the first instant in scripture of men hiding from God, the first game of hide and seek.

Now, this is actually quite ridiculous because how do you hide from an omnipresent and omniscient God?

Uh, that's actually quite a hopeless endeavor.

The psalmist understood this impossibility in Psalms 139, verse 7 to 12.

Psalms 139:7–12

He says, I can never escape from your spirit, I can never get away from your presence.

If I go up to heaven, you are there.

If I go down to the grave, you are there.

If I ride in the wings of the morning, if I dwell in the furthest oceans, even there your hands will guide me, your strength will support me.

I could ask darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night, but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

Darkness and light are the same to you.

Basically saying you cannot hide from God.

Yet here's Adam hiding behind trees, thinking that he can escape God's notice.

And we read this and think, what was Adam thinking?

How silly.

He, of all people, should know that God is everywhere.

He's an omnipresent, and an omniscient, to be omniscient basically means that he's all-knowing, to be omnipresent basically means that he's everywhere.

And it's like when I used to play hide and seek with my kids, I'm basically omniscient in that context.

I know where they're gonna hide because I know my house, and I know my kids, and when you put those things together, there's really no place where they can hide that I won't find them.

God knows his house.

The Bible says the earth and its fullness belongs to the Lord, and he knows his kids.

You, O Lord, the scripture says, know the hearts of all men, so we cannot hide from God.

Yet many of us try, many people try, and how do we hide?

We hide in this ridiculous manner.

We stay away from God, we stay away from prayer, we stay away from getting before God, from his word, from church, from the community of faith.

And we think as long as we stay away from the people and places where we think God hangs out in, where God is, we are hidden from him.

You know, we become like those ostriches, you know, ostrich will hide its head in the sand, thinking that because it cannot see you or it cannot see people, people cannot see it.

And that's how we can behave with God sometimes.

We think because we don't see God, because we stay away from him, we live in the illusion that he doesn't see us.

But the real question to ask is why was Adam hiding?

It wasn't so much that Adam was hiding, but why?

And Adam reveals it in his dialogue with God.

In Genesis chapter 3, verse 10, it says, So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid.

Genesis 3:10

He hid because he was afraid.

Why?

Because I was naked, I hid myself.

Notice Adam wasn't hiding because he was afraid that he had sinned and he was afraid of God's judgment and punishment.

He wasn't hiding because he was in fear, he hid because, as he says, I was afraid because I was naked.

I'm hiding from you, God, because there is something wrong with me that is bring putting me in a place of shame, so I'm hiding from you.

Adam's fear was rooted in his own condition that made him feel that he wasn't good enough to face God.

And that, my dear brothers and sisters, is the main reason why many people stay away or hide from God.

There are people who are not in church, who are not in a relationship with God, not because they are afraid of God, but simply because they do not feel good enough, because they think their condition disqualifies them from coming before God, from coming before his presence.

They are afraid because of their own nakedness, their own condition, their own sense of unworthiness.

So they hide from God, and they will say things like, you know, when I'm ready, when I'm ready to face him, when I'm ready, basically trying to say that when I am good enough, when I think I'm clean enough, when I my issues and my struggles are dealt with, when I get my act together, but today God is coming out to you where you are and asking you, Where are you?

And when God asks you, Where are you?

He's not asking you that because he doesn't know where you are.

Like I said, he's an omniscient God, he's asking you that question because you need to know why you are where you are, you need to understand why you are hiding from God.

Adam's response, I hid from you because I was naked.

Basically saying, I hid from you because I'm not good enough, I'm unworthy.

There's something wrong with me.

My condition is shameful, and I love God's response in that moment.

Who told you that you were naked?

It's not a why are you naked?

It's who told you that you were naked, who told you that you're not good enough, who told you that you're unworthy, who told you that there is something wrong with you, who told you that you need to hide from me because of your condition, because it obviously wasn't God's voice that he was listening to.

And if you're hiding from God today because you think there's something wrong with you, the question to ask yourself, or rather, the question that God is asking you this morning is who told you that?

Who told you that you're not good enough?

Who told you that you need to stay away?

Who told you that you need to hide from your heavenly father?

Whose voice have you been listening to?

Because that is not the voice of the father for your life and for your future.

The enemy's greatest weapon against you, against God's children, isn't temptation, it's accusation.

After you've sinned, he doesn't want you running to God, he wants you running from God.

He wants you to believe that you're too dirty, too unworthy, too broken, too far gone to get back before him.

It's like when you fall down and you injure yourself, and your friend comes and tells you, listen, and you say, I need to go to the doctor.

And your friend comes and tells you, Listen, you better not go to the doctor.

The doctor's gonna be really upset with you, he's gonna be so angry with you because why on earth did you injure yourself?

Why on earth are you giving him this difficult work of having to deal with your injuries?

Don't go to the doctor, listen, try to fix your injury by yourself.

Listen, I know your foot is that side.

Let's try to stick it all back together by yourself.

Don't go to the doctor, the doctor is gonna be really upset with you.

How ridiculous does that sound?

But that's what the devil does to each and every one of us.

The doctor is the only one that can put you back together.

The doctor is the only one who can fix you in that same way when you sin, when you fall, when you fail, don't listen to the voice of the enemy telling you to stay away from God.

Because God is the only one that can put you back together.

God is the only one who can fix you.

In fact, in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 18, he says to Israel who has been in sin, who has forgotten God, who has done so many bad things, he says, Listen, come now, let us reason together.

Isaiah 1:18

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

He's saying, Listen, don't stay away from me because of your sin.

Come to me because of your sins and struggles and let me deal with it.

When Jesus walked the face of the earth, he didn't walk as judge, he walked as a doctor.

He said, It's the sick who need the doctor.

Even when the religious people were saying, Oh, you cannot, you know, God, God will be upset.

He said, I came for the lost.

Jesus came for the broken.

Jesus came for the ones who thought they had no hope.

He was the doctor for mankind.

The solution to the problem you're facing is God.

He is able to fix you.

In the words of that famous gospel song, lights will guide you home.

No, it's not a gospel song.

Some of your hands are going up.

I will try to fix you.

It's a cold play song, okay?

The solution to your problem is in God.

The Bible says in John 3 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

You need to stop seeing God as your judge.

Yes, one day he will come back as the judge.

But if you don't see Jesus as your savior, you're gonna have the wrong interpretation of God as your judge.

All of us need a savior.

I don't care how mature you are, how much of muscles you have, how much of muscles your muscles have.

We all need a savior, and God has given us that savior, and his name is Jesus Christ.

Come on.

In the story of the of the prodigal son, the son comes to this point.

Uh all of you know the story of the prodigal son, I'm assuming.

But the son who leaves his family, who who hurts his father and leaves the house, goes away, and at some point, you know, he squandered all his wealth.

He comes to this point.

He says, it says in the scripture, he came to himself and said, I will arise and go to my father.

At some point of his journey outside, the father's house, away from the father's heart.

It says, He came to himself.

Another translation says, He came to his senses, and he said, I will arise and go to my father.

Maybe today is that day for you to come to your senses, to come out of the hiding places and spaces that you've built for yourself, to arise and come home to your father because your father is waiting, his eyes are upon you, he is watching.

The Bible says his eyes never leave us, his ears are always open to us.

Don't hide from him.

You know, Adam tried to build leave, you know, he built a covering for his own nakedness, for his shame with leaves.

And many times we do that.

We try to create a covering for ourselves.

And and you know, leaves just work for a season before you know it, they're dried and they're gone.

And then you have to look for another covering.

And many times we try to build a covering for ourselves.

We hide.

Maybe it's our our jobs, our careers, our false sense of security.

We hide behind our social media personas, we hide behind relationships that we get into.

We even hide behind social works, thinking that you know, this makes me feel good.

This provides a covering for me for a while.

But none of those things can fix you, none of those things can cover you.

Only the blood of Jesus can cover you.

And the blood of Jesus is waiting for you in the heart of the Father as his voice is calling out to you, Come home, come out of hiding.

Adam hid behind the trees, and finally he came out and he faced God, and then he started finding something else to hide behind.

This time he is hiding behind excuses.

God says, Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?

Then the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.

Then the Lord said to the woman, What did you do?

The woman said, The serpent deceived me.

Serpent's fault, so I ate.

So you see the blame game in motion.

Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the devil, and the only one who didn't try to fix the blame was the devil because he said, Yep, that's me.

Listen, taking responsibility fixes the problem.

Making excuses fixes the blame.

So Adam was fixing the blame.

Eve was fixing the problem.

And you notice this: Adam was actually blaming God.

The woman whom you gave me, you made me a faulty product.

It is her fault, but it is ultimately your fault because you gave her to me, and it's because of her that I'm in this predicament.

Faulty product.

Blame the manufacturer.

And here's what makes this significant, right?

I often I often remind you when I preach out of this portion of scripture, I often always remind the church this.

In verse 6, when Eve was responding to the serpent, it says she took some of the fruit and ate it.

Then she gave some to her husband who was on the other side of the garden doing gardening and didn't know what was going on.

In this dialogue between Eve and the serpent.

No.

It says she gave some to her husband who was with her.

And he ate it too.

Adam was standing right next to her as she was having this conversation with the serpent.

Adam did not say anything.

And ultimately, it was Adam's responsibility to deal with this lie, this misinformation that was coming from the serpent.

Because it was Adam who got the directive from God.

When God gave Adam this law, this principle, you can eat of any tree except this particular tree, Eve was not yet in the picture.

Eve wasn't even there.

God was speaking to Adam, and it was Adam's responsibility to pass the information to Eve.

So whatever Eve heard about what God said, she heard from Adam.

Adam was there when this entire conversation between Eve and the serpent was going on.

He wasn't somewhere else in the garden.

He heard it firsthand from God.

Adam had a responsibility to enlighten Eve, take authority over the serpent, protect what God had entrusted into his hands.

Adam had a responsibility to speak up when the lies were being told.

He was empowered by God to fulfill.

Feel that responsibility, but he chose to be silent when it was his responsibility to speak out.

He chose to do nothing when he was supposed to take action.

And then he blames Eve and he blames God.

At least Eve argued a little bit with the serpent.

Adam silent.

Listen, men, don't be silent when you are men to speak up.

Don't be passive when God has put you in that family to be protective.

Identify the enemy sneaking into your house, speaking into the lives of your wife, your children, your family members, and immediately put a stop to it.

Stop making excuses, take responsibility and take action.

And because Adam didn't do what he was supposed to do, what he was designed and destined to do, he found himself in a situation that he was not supposed to be in, and the easiest thing to do is fix the blame.

So typical.

You know, put him to sleep.

Brought Eve to him.

And he saw her, his eyes was like nearly popped out.

This one.

Flesh of my flesh.

But the moment a problem comes into the picture, this woman you gave me.

Like weddings.

When they say the vows to each other, it's like a bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.

And then later when I'm counseling the couple, heela panta.

You know, irresponsible.

Hey, what happened to bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh?

Love you forever till the day I die.

Go and die, Lam! Listen, how many of us today are hiding from responsibility, hiding behind excuses?

We look at our lives, we look at the state of our marriages, our relationships, our jobs, the circumstances we are in, and we find something or someone else to blame.

If I was raised in a better environment, if life had dealt me a better hand, if my father had been around, if my mom was a better mother, if she was a better wife, if he was a more loving husband, if my boss treated me better, it's his fault, it's her fault.

Our marriage is on the rocks.

If my friends hadn't influenced me in that way, if our government wasn't so corrupt, the devil made me do it, and ultimately we blame God.

Sometimes we say if God had answered my prayers, then I wouldn't be in this situation.

If God didn't do that, if God did what I asked him to do, we take the entire responsibility of ourselves and we place it on God, on someone else, on circumstances, because we want to hide behind these things.

The woman that you gave me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.

You know, today we live in a world that encourages us or rather gives us excuses rather than challenges to take responsibility over our lives and our future.

And we've subscribed to that mentality.

We allow everything else to take the blame for where we are.

Listen, I don't discount the fact that some of us have got legitimate reasons and real circumstances based on what you've been through or what you were born into.

And I'm not minimizing the pain of your past or your experiences, but hear me clearly.

Amen.

We don't all have that same starting point in life, but we all have the same power through Christ to make our future different.

Then my father became alcoholic and abusive, and he left us when I was in my teens, and I had to make a choice.

I could either use that as an excuse for all kinds of offenses and failures in my life, or I can decide it stops here.

Because and I knew I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and I decided it stops with me as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, we will live according to the will and the purposes of God.

Amen.

I'm gonna live the life that God has for me, not what genetics or circumstances or my history dictates that I should have.

Listen, some of you should make that decision.

It stops with me.

Here and now, you may have come from a history of divorces and broken down marriages, but you can decide it stops with me.

You may come from a history of abuse and alcoholism, but you can decide it stops with me.

You can come from a uh background of addictions and all kinds of failures and and curses, but you can decide it stops with me.

As for me, I'm gonna live for the Lord.

As for me, I'm gonna serve for the Lord.

As for me and my house, we're gonna dedicate our lives and our future for Jesus.

Your future does not have to reflect your past, amen.

God has given you the strength and the power to live in that victory.

We have no excuses, no excuses other than the excuses we create and hide behind, and they will keep you in a limited space.

You know, you are where you are, and this may sound a bit harsh, but you are where you are, and if you don't like where you are, you are there because you're allowing yourself to stay there.

There are too many examples in history and in the world today of people who did not have great stats, who had lived through terrible circumstances, but are doing extremely well in life today.

Why?

Because they decided to stop hiding behind excuses, they decided to stop trying to fix the blame and decided to fix the problem, they decided to take responsibility over their lives, they decided to stop playing the victim.

The scripture says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

If you go around your day, your life thinking that you are a victim of everyone and everything, that your life is going to reflect that victimhood.

God does not want you to live as a victim, he wants you to live as a victor.

Amen.

Come on, tap the person next to you and say, Get up, you're a victor.

Maybe the only thing standing between you and the life that God is calling you towards, the life that God has for you, are the excuses that you have been making, are the is the blame that you have been fixing, God is calling you out today.

Come out.

Because ultimately, God holds us all accountable for our own lives.

We cannot one day stand before God and say, no, God, it was her fault, his fault, their fault, Anwa's fault, Madani's fault, Madhajambrani's fault.

Because if you go back to the garden, you see the man blamed the woman and God, the woman blamed the devil.

Ultimately, God judged each one for their own actions.

God addressed the serpent, he addressed the woman, then he addressed the man.

Each one had to individually face the consequences of their own actions.

Romans chapter 14 says it like this.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

And so each of us shall give an account of himself.

Give an answer in reference to judgment to God.

Then let us no more criticize and blame and pass judgment on one and another.

Ultimately, when we stand before God, we all have to give an account for our own life, our own decisions.

You cannot bring up all those excuses at that point.

Yeah?

One day we will all be standing before God.

Amen.

There's one more thing that I wanna address before I close.

One more thing Adam hid from.

That I want to expose to.

That's not so obvious, but it sticks out.

Like I mentioned earlier, Adam was charged with tending and keeping the garden.

The Hebrew word for tending and keeping, or keeping in particular, also translates to protecting.

Also translates to defending, fighting for.

So there was a fight that Adam needed to get into at that point.

He needed to fight for the truth, he needed to fight for his wife, he needed to fight for his relationship with God, he needed to fight for his destiny, his future, his purpose.

He needed to fight the enemy that was invading the space that God had given him influence over.

But instead of facing that battle, facing that fight, he hid.

Instead of embracing the battle, he hid from a battle that was meant to be his.

Let me show you another man who hid from the battle, Judges chapter 6, verse 11.

Judges 6:11

Now the angel of the Lord came, sat under the terubin tree, which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, while his son Gideon thrashed wheat in the wine press in order to hide from the Midianites.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.

Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all of this happened to us?

And where were all the miracles which our fathers told us about?

So he goes on and he gives all his reasoning.

But Gideon was hiding in a wine press.

He was in a limited, confined space.

You were supposed to trash wheat in the open where the wind is blowing, where you have that freedom of movement and space.

But he's gone into a small confined space, restricted space, doing what is meant to be in a wide open space, in this limited, restricted space, and he's hiding there.

The scripture reveals because he does not want the Midianites to see him, he doesn't want to face the Midianites.

Gideon feared the Midianites, and the term Midian in Hebrew literally means strive, it means struggle or fight.

So Gideon is living, or he's in a space of limitation because he's hiding from the fight, or he's hiding from the struggle.

How many of us here today stay away from our potential from becoming all that God wants us to be, all that God has destined us to be, because we fear the struggle or the fight that we may have to face to get there because we fear the struggle that stands between us and our destiny.

So we say, I'd rather be I'd rather just stay here, be comfortable with the little that I have in this limited space rather than get my hands dirty, rather than go out there and struggle or fight for the better life that I know God has for me.

So I'm just gonna settle for the scraps.

Some of us are living wine-pressed lives when God has called us to threshing floor destinies.

Here's what you need to understand: nothing that is worthwhile in life is obtained without a struggle or a fight.

Every time God blessed his people, I've been reading through the book of Joshua, and He's given He's given them the land.

He said, God, give take this land, it's yours.

I'm giving you and blessing you with this land.

But they had to go and fight and take possession of the blessing that was theirs, and it came to a point where they were in the promised land, but there were a whole bunch of tribes who were not yet in their promise.

They were in the promised land, but they had not yet inherited their portion of the land.

And Joshua comes to them and says, How long are you going to stay away from going and taking possession?

Because they didn't want the fight, they didn't want to engage in the struggle of laying hold of the blessings.

Maybe between you and the life that God has for you, and the destiny that God has for you, and that better future that God has for you is the struggle or the fight that you're hiding from because you don't want the discomfort of facing it.

I do believe that God is calling you out today.

Gideon was just getting by, surviving by avoiding the struggle.

But God didn't want Gideon to just get by, He didn't come to just give us a just get by kind of life.

The Bible says he has come to give you life and life more abundantly.

So God comes to Gideon and He calls him out of hiding.

He says, You mighty man of valor.

God didn't see Gideon as he was, or what circumstances had turned him into hiding in a limited space.

God sees Gideon as the man that he had destined him to be, and God had destined Gideon to be a great warrior, a mighty man of valor.

So God calls him out not by where he is or what he has become, but who he is destined to be.

And I do believe that God is looking out among this congregation and is calling you out, you mighty man of valor, you mighty woman of faith, you successful man, you successful woman, you warrior, you you history maker, you overcomer.

You may be looking at your life and thinking that's not me.

That's not me.

Look at my life.

I'm nothing like that description.

But God doesn't look at you based on where you are now, He doesn't look at you based on how you're stuck now.

He looks at you and calls you out, as I said, based on who He has destined you to be.

And God did not create any failures, God did not create any what they say, chickens, but then He did create chickens.

But you know what I mean?

God did not create any weaklings, victims.

God created more than conquerors, He created a mighty army, He created men and women of great strength, faith, strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.

That is who you are.

Come on, tap the person next to you say that is who you are.

That is who you are.

Maybe it's time to embrace the struggle.

Maybe it's time to really believe that greater is He who is in you than He that is in the world.

Maybe it's time to really get that revelation that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.

Maybe it's time to really behave like you believe that if God is for you, no one and nothing can stand against you.

Maybe it's time for you to start blessing the Lord who trains your hands for war and your fingers for battle.

Maybe it's time to realize that you truly are more than a conqueror through Him who loves you.

Maybe it's time to believe that you are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Listen, the battle is real, but so is the victory.

The struggle is real, as we like to say, but so is the strength that God gives you.

The enemy is real, but the God who fights for you is greater still.

Amen.

Come on, let's stand.