The Unseen Hand
Category: Peace & Assurance
Key Passage: Esther 7:9-10
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: July 24, 2024
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Esther, the book of Esther, chapter number seven. Esther, chapter number seven. Thank you. What a blessing that was. And Esther seven, I’m going to read just a couple of verses. It kind of gives us the conclusion, not all of it, much of the conclusion of what happens in the book of Esther.
We’ll pray, and we’ll try to rehearse it a little bit. I believe the vast majority of you know the story of the book of Esther, but we’ll try to refresh you a little bit. And then I don’t think we’ll be real long, but try to draw a couple conclusions out of it. And I’m praying God will just use it to be an encouragement to you. Esther chapter number seven in God’s word.
And just two verses will read: verse number nine, Esther seven and verse number nine and verse number 10. Would you please stand as we read God’s word together just out of respect to it?
Esther 7 and verse number 9 if you’re there would you say amen? Good deal. Verse number 9: “And Harbona, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also the gallows 50 cubits high.” A cubit was basically from the fingertip to elbow, typically about 18 inches is what we say average. And so you’re talking about 75 feet high. The gallows 50 cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, stand at the house of Haman." Then the king said, “Hang him thereon.”
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
The unseen hand would be the title of the message tonight. Many of you know it, but Vashti. She was the queen. Persia was the nation. It was the world of power at that time. It was a great kingdom. And it was over 127 countries. Can you imagine that? And he was having them in and really having a party, if you will.
And the king, Ahasuerus, he calls in his queen Vashti to show off her beauty and so-and-so to his guests. She said, “Nope, not coming in.” And she would not come in. And so he began to think about that thing. He said, “Well, that’s not good. It’s not going to look good. And it’s a poor testimony to the others.” And so we’ve got to do something about it. He talked to his counselors and whatnot.
So they said, “To tell you what, we’ll find us another queen.” And so they, through a series of events, whatnot, they were having ladies come in to find out who’d be the next queen. And Esther comes in the story. Now Esther was a Jewish person. She was a Hebrew. And she was there in the palace city there. And she was raised, often we say by her uncle, but actually it’s her cousin, Mordecai.
Now, her mom and dad had died. And so Mordecai, probably much older, had raised her. It was kind of a parent to her. And Mordecai gave her little advice, and she always followed his advice. And Mordecai said, “Don’t tell them. Don’t tell them what your race is. You’re Jewish, and a lot of people look down on you. And you might not get the position because of it and so on and so on.” So she didn’t. Through a series of events, she becomes the queen.
And Mordecai—this seemed like just such a good godly man and raised his cousin and so on—he worked at the courthouse, and he had found out about a plot by two men specifically that were plotting to kill the king. And he heard about it, and through Esther the queen, he turned it in, and the plot was revealed.
And those two men were taken care of and the king’s life was saved and everything seemed good. Of course, Mordecai never got any recognition for it. He was all right with that.
Then there’s another man in the story named Haman. And Haman, he was climbing the political ladder. I mean, he was all about that position, and he had risen basically to the king’s right-hand man.
Haman, and everybody knew of him. Everybody knew the power and the prestige, and how he was just right there by the king. And so when Haman would come through, everyone would bow down to Haman, everybody that was in the courthouse and whatnot, besides Mordecai. Now, he was a Jewish man, and he bowed only to Jehovah. Praise the Lord for that right there.
And no, he wouldn’t bow. Don’t bow to Jehovah, nobody else. But Haman, boy, it just infuriated him. I mean, everybody’s bowing down besides this man wants to deal with that man, and he finds out he’s a Jewish man. And the Jewish people just, they didn’t bow down to anyone besides Jehovah. They just kind of stuck out like a sore thumb, if you will. And he hated the Jewish people. I think, of course, Satan was behind it.
And he’s always behind that. And so Haman plots to kill all the Jews. In fact, he convinces the king—remember, he’s his right-hand man—he convinces the king to sign a law saying on such and such a date that they can kill the Jewish people. And he kind of deceives and just convinces the king to sign it. Well, Mordecai hears about it.
And boy, he’s just, he’s in fasting and mourning. He rinses his clothes. He puts sackcloth and ashes on them. And even in the king’s gate or where he works at the courthouse and all that, he’s just, he’s crying out to the Lord for mercy, if you will, for the Jewish people. Queen Esther, she hears about it. And she sends messengers, her servants down and says, “Hey, what in the world’s going on?” And so…
Mordecai tells Esther through these people what’s going on, and Haman’s going to have the Jewish people killed and slaughtered on this day. And so Mordecai says, “Now look, Esther, you’ve got, you’re a queen, you’ve got to go talk to the king about this thing.” Well, Esther says, “You don’t understand this. It’s not exactly like you think. I haven’t seen him in 30 days. And I just can’t march in there and just bust in the door and say, I won’t talk to you. It’s not quite the typical marriage here. He’s a king now, you know.” And she says, “I can’t do that. There’s a chance I can lose my life doing that.”
And, you know, the statement of Mordecai, I said, “You got to do it. And it might be God has you there in that position for such a time as this.” And so Esther says, “All right. You fast and get all the Jewish people to fast, and I’m going to fast, and I’m going to get my servants to fast, and I’m going to go in.” I like the statement she makes. She says, “And if I perish, I perish.” I’m just going to go in.
And she does, and the king grants her permission to speak and commit all that, and the king says, “What do you want, old queen?” And she said, “I’d like to grill out some steaks and some shrimp and have some baked potatoes with sour cream and onions, you know, not onions on there, sour cream and some butter on there. Or sweet potatoes. Anybody out there like sweet potatoes? Yeah, come on there. Now we’re talking. We get some sweet potatoes and some little cinnamon butter in there. And now we’re talking, you know. And I want to have a banquet just for you, old king. You know, I like for your right-hand man Haman to come to that thing also.”
And the king said, “Well, I like the sound of that. I mean, sounds pretty good to me.” And so the king said, “All right, let’s do it.” And so they’re going to have the banquet. And, boy, can you imagine Haman when he hears about that? Man, you talk about the head swelling. And he goes home and he’s going to have the banquet, you know, and everybody bows down for that one sorry, of course in his mind, sorry guy Mordecai. And it just bothers him. I mean, he don’t like it. My goodness, what are we going to do?
And he goes home and tells his wife and the friends about it. And they said, “Tell you what, why don’t you go ahead and build a gallows and just build it? Because you’ve got so much power, surely you can hang that guy Mordecai.” So they build the gallows. 75 feet tall. Can you imagine that? That’s up there, friend, and going to have him hanging so high everybody can see him, you know. And so they build it.
And well, that night, that night the king—I mean, that steak and that shrimp he had pizza a little bit later on with the anchovies on top of it, you know, and you can never sleep after that, you know—and I’m adding a little bit in here, okay. And um, but he can’t sleep.
And God’s in control of all that, friend, and he can’t sleep. And so he’s just tossing and turning and tossing and turning. Finally he says, “Hey, somebody bring me the business meeting notes.” I mean, you talk about boring reading. I mean, that’s all the notes from the meetings, you know, they’ve had. And he’s reading. That’s about like reading the dictionary, you know. But he’s reading it.
And he reads about the past where that plot was to kill him, and this man revealed the plot. And his life was saved, and he thought, “Wow, I don’t remember much about that. Did we ever honor that guy? What was done for that man?” They said, “Nothing. Nothing, nothing was done for that man.” Now, this time, it’s early morning hours, and he hadn’t been sleeping all night, and he’s reading, he finally read that.
And never did anything for that man. About that time, old Haman comes in. Now, Haman was planning on talking to the king about hanging Mordecai. But before he got a chance to talk to him about that, the old king says, “Hey, Haman, let me come over here. I got a question to ask you. If I wanted to honor a man and just give him great honor, what would you suggest how to honor a man?”
Now this guy with a fat head, you know what he’s thinking. The old king’s going to honor me. Look at that. Right there, king, right on that, right shoulder right there. Go ahead, you know. And he says, “Tell you what I would do.” He said, “I would get some of your garments rolled out. Put it on that man. Get the king’s horse. Everybody knows that’s the king’s horse. And then I want you to take one of your crowns and put it on his head and then get your most noble leader to take this guy through the streets of the palace here and just honor that man. I mean, just let him wear your clothes, your crown, and your horse. Take him to the streets and have trumpets playing. And this noble, noble man just honor him.”
And the king says, “Sounds good to me. Haman, I want you to do that very thing. You be the nobleman, and you go honor Mordecai.” Oh, dirty big backslider, that’s what he was saying, you know. Yeah, boy, it’s funny how the tables turned. And so sure enough, old Haman had to take Mordecai and running through the streets and all that. And, oh, Mordecai, he went home with the puce-y lippy disease that day for sure.
And somebody said, “Boy, if you’re messing with the Jewish people, you better be careful. That’s God’s people. Labor to turn on you.” And by the way, you better get back to the palace because you’ve got that banquet, second banquet with the king and the queen, you know. And so Haman takes off. And he goes over there, and then they had the steak and shrimp again. Haman, come on now. How about it? I’ve been going from medium rare to rare. Anybody out there with me like that now? Well, we’ve got some people on board there. Now, you well-done people, I don’t know. We have to work on you, you know.
But anyway, and they go there and they’re sitting there having their feast and finally the king says, “All right, Esther, this is the second banquet you’ve had for us. You never have really told me what’s going on. What do you want? I mean, there’s something up your sleeve. What’s going on? What are you after, you know? I’d give you pretty much whatever, half the kingdom. What do you want?”
And she said, “Now, king, somebody’s trying to kill me and my people. I mean, the Jewish people.” She’s finally revealing you. “And they’re trying to kill us. We’ve got an enemy.”
And the king, poor—can you imagine? He’s finally got a wife that’s flattering him—and boy, he’s upset and he said, “Who in the world would try to kill the queen and her people?” I imagine she probably had all her jewelry and painted fingernails and all that that night. I don’t know, but she took that old finger, probably painted, and pointed that man right there, Haman.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine how Haman’s face dropped? Wow. We get to heaven, I’m going to watch a video of that right there. I mean, come on. We’re going to have a good movie night there. We’re going to watch this thing, you know. And, boy, the king is mad. I’m talking about he’s in a rage. What? My right-hand man is trying to kill my wife and her people?
And he’s so mad, he goes out to the garden. He’s willing, “Before I do something crazy, I better think about it.” He goes out in the garden for a moment. And while he’s out in the garden, old Haman begins to beg Esther. “Esther, Esther, please, you can’t do this to me.” And he falls on the bed where she is, begging for mercy. About that time the king comes in. And he sees Haman on the bed and he says, “What in the world? Are you trying to force my wife in my own palace?”
Before the words could really get fully out of his mouth, they put a cover over—those servants were on him—and they put a cover over his head. He’s about to lose his head there, saying. And sure enough, somebody says, “Hey, by the way, old king, you know that fellow right there? He’s got some gallows he built 75 feet tall. He was trying to kill—trying to hang your queen’s cousin that raised her—on those gallows.”
And the king—this part we read—the king said, “Hey, you take that fellow out there and you hang him on the very own gallows he made for Mordecai.” You know the story. Mordecai got moved up. He became the right-hand man. And it took care of the Jewish people.
Here’s the part I just wanted to tell that whole story briefly. Here’s the part that’s very unusual. Many even know it, I’m sure. But of all the Bible, the books of the Bible, some of them short, especially the minor prophets—all the books of the Bible—the book of Esther is the only book in the Bible where the name, in some form, the name of God, is not used. It’s the only book in the Bible. There’s no form of the name of God mentioned. Every other book of the Bible in some form, the name of God is used in some way, but you won’t find that in the book of Esther.
But here’s an amazing thing: the whole time you read and hear a story of the book of Esther, you’ll see the unseen. See, his name is not mentioned. The unseen hand of God moving the whole time.
The unseen hand of God. It’s amazing how it’s not mentioned anywhere, but what you can see is the unseen hand by faith. And, friend, I just briefly want to say, hey, there’s always, there’s always, has been, there always will be the unseen hand of God working in your life. It’s always there. In the darkest of days, there’ll still be the unseen hand of God. In the loneliest of days, there’s always still the unseen hand of God. When it looks like the world is caving in on you, there’s still the unseen hand of God. When it seems like there’s no way out of the predicament you’re in, there’s always the unseen hand of God.
Everything you’re going through, every day, every second, every night when you’re lonely and you’re depressed and you feel like the world’s against you and people are turning on you when you’ve not done anything wrong, there’s still always the unseen hand of God working. You could not see in any form the name of God, but all you can see is His hand moving.
In our day and time, in this world, when it seems like things are looking so bad and things are turning against good godly people in America, friend, don’t you worry, the unseen hand of God’s overseeing this thing. You say, “Man, they’re having a field day. They are just living out what the Bible says they were going to do.” The unseen hand of God is still moving. You say, “Satan’s having a field day.” Friend, Satan is just getting a little bit closer to that lake of fire. That’s what he’s doing. He knows his time is short, friend.
Years ago, some of you—some of you, I’m not sure who, I know Tim and Mary, maybe some others—were with us in our last storefront. And they were building, they weren’t building, they were remodeling a little store, and they were turning it into a bar. My mom was there, Ms. Brenda was there, and some of them. And they were going to start a bar. Now, from the end of the building, it was too close, according to city ordinances. And they were going to do it. And so we were going to the city and the meetings, and we would go—we’d have our church people go—and oh, I think maybe three times, and the papers were there and all that, and God still used it. That’s how the Stovers got in their church, by the way. And the papers, and so the Stovers thought, “Well, man, somebody’s fighting against the beer, let’s go check it out,” and that’s how they got in their church. But anyway, we were standing and trying to stand in that, and they let me speak at it. But then that last time, last time they had hired a lawyer, and they had money, and they let the lawyer get up and talk, and they didn’t even let me talk the last time. They just kind of railroaded that thing through.
Boy, can that bother you if you’re not careful. And God used it, though. We got members in our church. In fact, one of the people that, I think, was a janitor or something at the bar, I think Brother Fontaine led him to the Lord. God worked with all that. God takes care of all that. The bar is not going to stop God’s church. Nothing besides, all the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. God took care of that.
But here’s the interesting thing. Years later, years later—I wish I’d have got real, and I wanted to ask my wife about this story because she’ll remember details better. You know women always remember details better than us men. So she’ll tell me later on tonight, “Well, this is exactly how the story went,” you know. But the best I can remember, years later—amazing, amazing story really is—years later, totally different thing. We were going through Interfaith Dental, and I had been going there, and they gave you a discount and all that stuff. And they were having a big banquet fundraiser. And they wanted me to come and pray at the banquet, whatnot. And so I said, “Sure, I told them, we’ll pray and go and pray in Jesus’ name at it.”
But anyway, we went. It was at a country club down in Murfreesboro. And in that room, hundreds of people—I think I’ve got 300 in my mind, I don’t know—but just a lot of people there. There are many lawyers and doctors and dentists, the wealthy, the elite. And the preacher of a storefront church, amen, you know. And we’re sitting at a table, and I think at our table it was all, if I remember, all doctors or lawyers at the table we were at. And we were sitting talking, and they’re very friendly. They’re very nice at our table, very friendly people. Had great conversation. We had some good food out of it, amen for that right there, you know.
And the fellow that was sitting—I think maybe right beside me—he said, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” And it wasn’t like just, you know, people got—the whole table we’re talking, everybody, the whole table could hear what’s going on. And he said, where everybody could hear, “Sir, don’t I know you from somewhere?” Well, I’ll be honest with you, I did not recognize him if I remember the story right, but my wife told your wives, they never forget things, you know. And I’m not sure if I’m not sure if my wife nudged me and said, “Hey, you know who he is?” I think she had said, “Yeah, you know who.”
Sure enough, he asked me, by the way. And I said, “Yes, sir. Don’t you remember you were helping the people open the bar?” And we were the church that was trying to keep the boy. You talk about him turning red. And those other doctors and dentists and lawyers at our table, man, they had a field day on him. It really did. It’s an amazing story. They just chewed him up and spit him out. He even said, if I remember, I even said, “Boy, isn’t this justice? I’m sitting beside the preacher tonight.”
Now, friend, I’m just telling you the unseen hand of God. It’s always working. It’s always working. I mean, the name of God not mentioned one time in this whole book, and yet you can see the unseen hand of God working. Friend, you can trust that unseen hand. You can trust it. The devil will say, “No, it’s too bad. Everything’s too dark. It’s horrible. Nothing good can come out of this.” Friend, you can always trust that unseen hand. You trust it.
During those times, don’t let fear control you. Esther was battling it. You’re already in Esther. Look in chapter 4, verse number 16. Chapter 4, verse number 16 there.
Esther 4:16. She was talking there through people; she’s talking to her cousin Mordecai. She says, “Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan. Fast ye for me, neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also, and my maids, will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
Friend, you’re going to have fear, but can I encourage you? Make a decision of faith like Esther did. Esther just said, “Hey, I’m just going to do right. I believe this is what God wants. It’s the right thing to do. If I die doing it, I’m just going to do it.” And somewhere along the line, you need that when you don’t necessarily see the hand of God, but you trust His unseen. You’re just going to say, “I’m going to do right. If it’s easy, I’m going to do right. If it’s hard, I’m going to do right. If it gets me, you know, a pat on the back, I’m going to do right. And if everybody’s mad at me, I’m just going to do right. If it lands me in jail, I’m just going to do right.”
If I get fired—I think about my dad witnessing on the job. And he tried to be wise about it, get his job done, but I’m just going to witness. Now, be wise about things, but, friend, at the end of the day, you just do right, and you let the chips fall where they will, and you trust the unseen hand of God.
Paul, I can see him in jail for preaching the gospel. And yet Paul in jail, he said, “You know, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” He’s in jail. I’m just saying, you do right, what you believe God wants you to do, and you do right. God will always give you a way to do right. I think it was maybe a little bit more than Esther could handle at first. And she said, “I can’t go in there. I haven’t seen him in 30 days. He’ll have to kill me.” Yet God gave her—Mordecai.
You’re in chapter four there. Look down if you would in chapter four there. Look in verse number 14, verse number 14. “For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” This is Mordecai speaking to Esther.
She didn’t have the faith, but God used Mordecai to give her the faith. God will always give you what you need to do right. Where it’s a marriage—we preached on marriage altogether—and sometimes the relationships, you can be in such hurtful situations and just your heart’s broken, and there are times, there are times that everything is not hunky-dory, if you will, whether it be with your relatives and family or whatever the situation may be.
But, friend, during those times, that unseen hand—you won’t see His hand, but it’s always there and it’ll give you what you need to do right. God used Mordecai to give Esther the faith to do it right. God will always be there. You’re alone maybe and you said, “I just don’t know if I can take another step.” God will always give you what you need to take another step. He always will. The unseen hand of God.
It’ll always give you what you need. You know the verse: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” You can bank on that, friend. That’s always true. First Corinthians 10:13 is always true. You don’t always see His hand, but it’s always, always working.
By the way, often in relationships and situations, whether it be at work or maybe often the good guy looks like the bad guy, and the bad guy looks like the good guy. Boy, isn’t it true in our day in time? And, boy, it would be so discouraging. What are we going to do about it all, and how can we change him? In relationships, you know, God knows all the little secrets that nobody else knows. Nobody else ever understands it all. You can’t tell the world your side, but God knows about it. And His unseen hand is prevailing. It’s working. In His time, His will be done in His time.
His hand is all powerful. I think about Joseph. And, of course, his brothers hated him and sold him. And then even when he’s over there in Egypt, God’s with him and he’s trying to do right, but Potiphar’s wife lies about him. Now, maybe some people knew what Potiphar’s wife was like. And maybe some people—well, I don’t know about that—but I guarantee the whole lot of people believed it. I guarantee you a whole lot of people just drug his name through the mud, old Joseph. I mean, he’s in prison. And imagine the talk around town about Joseph. I mean, man, he was so good to him. He put him in charge of his whole house. I mean, that slave boy had everything, and look at that. Can you believe what he—can you imagine all the talk about Joseph? I guarantee you Joseph did about it. It bothered him.
A friend, when nobody else knows, God knows. When the world’s against you, God knows. You trust His unseen hand. And God’s time, said, “All right, old Joseph, I’m going to flip the gallows, if you will.”
God’s unseen hand. Never happens in my time, always in the Lord’s time. Can I say this? The unseen hand protects us so often we don’t even know we need protecting. I don’t even know if Mordecai knew about the gallows that Haman—maybe he did, I’m not sure—but God protected him. So often we don’t even know we need protection, and the unseen hand protects him. It’s always there. Often before the brightest of days, there’s the darkest of nights. Oh, Joseph in prison. Esther, she thought, “Man, we’re all going to be killed.” And, boy, tomorrow was a bright day for them.
I’m just saying it’s the only book in the Bible the name of God is not mentioned, but all you can see is unseen hand all through it. And His unseen hand is working in your life. In America, our day and time? Yep, yep. It’s working. My way, can you just say this? Don’t give up on America. I know we’ve got a lot of problems, a lot of flaws, but don’t give up on America quite yet, friend. We don’t—in the timetable, we don’t know. We don’t know. And maybe the Lord’s going to come back tomorrow, maybe so, but it may be a while. You don’t know, I don’t know.
Christians at the turn of the century—and not the 2000s but the 1000s—they thought the Lord was going to come back then. He didn’t. Adam sold their land. I’m just saying, don’t give up on America is what I’m trying to say. Let’s keep praying and doing what we can. Adam Miller’s going to be president before too long anyway. Okay, all right. Let’s delete that part right there.
Oh, Bob Jones Sr. used to say, “Do right, do right, do right, do right till the stars fall.” Just do right. An unseen hand still working. Esther and Mordecai during the darkest of times, they just did right. Just did right.
I think about old Paul. I love Apostle Paul. I mean, he just, he goes and gives the gospel, tries to start churches, and people start persecuting. And they beat him. I mean, he said, “I bear in my body the marks.” One time they stoned him and they thought he was dead. Can you imagine? He’s bleeding and probably some guts hanging out here and there, and they thought, “Well, that guy’s dead.” They drug him outside of the city while that guy’s dead. You talk about the impression on his mind and his heart from that. I mean, he’s trying to reach these people and they’re killing him.
And he got thrown in jail pretty soon. Pretty soon when Paul was going to visit a town, he didn’t go to the inn; he went to the jail to find out where he was going to sleep in that night, what the jail was going to look like when he was going to sleep in there that night, you know what I mean? Just, he just, everywhere he turned, he got persecution and trouble, arrested. But just kept doing right.
And he’s on trial. He’s on trial before he’ll go to Caesar. And he just keeps witnessing everywhere he goes. Just keep doing right. He gets put in jail and he’s leading cellmates to lead old Onesimus to the Lord. I mean, he just keeps doing right. Yes, yes. Second Timothy, the last book he wrote, he said, “I am ready to go home.” And yes, yes, it looks like maybe under Nero’s leadership, he had his head chopped off. But friend, we’re about 2,000 years later, give or take a couple. And I imagine him up in heaven saying, “Man, I’m glad I did right.”
“Man, when things looked bad, I was in jail. Hey, Onesimus, man, I’m glad God gave me the boldness to witness to you while we were in jail together.” All these years later, did the gallows turn for Paul? You better believe it, man. He’s got a crown. He’s rejoicing. God used him to pen 13, probably 14 books of the New Testament—start, I don’t know, it’s a debate—about 20 or so churches. I mean, he spread the gospel over to the western part of the world. I mean, he’ll be doing real good for all eternity. Hey, friend, just do right.
Just do right. Even when you can’t see it, you don’t see the name of God in any form in the book of Esther, His unseen hand is still working in your life.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? If you’re there tonight, you say, “Preacher, I want to grow in trusting and resting in His unseen hand. I want to grow. I’m there myself in trusting and, yes, in resting in His unseen hand. God spoke to my heart. I’d like to grow in that right there.” That’s you tonight, you slip your hand up, preacher. “I’d like to grow in trusting and resting in His unseen hand.” God bless you. God bless you. He wants that for you. It’s always there, always there. The devil will tell you it’s not there, but he’s a liar. It’s always there. It’s always there.
Maybe you’re here tonight and you say, “Oh, it’s a dark time for me.” Lord, I’m asking you, would you—and I know you will—but Lord, give you extra grace just to do right. I’m determined, and I’m asking God, “Help me just to do right in the midst of it. What happened to do right in dark times and times I don’t necessarily see it? Having to do right because there’s an unseen hand.” Lord, would you, by Your grace, I’m determined by Your grace, would you help me just to do right there these times? Maybe tonight, just lift your hand up. “That’s me right there, preacher.” Oh, God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Would that be all of us? God bless you.
Would you please stand tonight? Let’s have a word of prayer. Would you come spend some time with the Lord? His unseen hand is always working. Would you thank You for it and love on Him? Father, thank You. We can trust You. Lord, thank You for this wonderful book in Your word, the book of Esther. Help us to learn and grow. Forgive me times Your unseen hand is there and I doubt and I worry and I fear. Forgive me, Lord. I’m so sorry. Help us tonight, Lord, just learn to trust and rest and do right because Your unseen hand is there. Bless our people tonight, Father. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Would you come draw nigh unto Him as we sing? Would you draw nigh unto Him? Maybe He needs to say, “Hey, Lord, I need You more today.” Would you let Him know that? Let Him know that. “Lord, I need something here. Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee.” He told us to call. You’re in trouble, call. He doesn’t get mad about that. He says, “And thou shalt glorify Me.” He gets glorified when you come unto Him in a dark time. So, Lord, I know Your hand is there, but I need something. Would You touch me with Your unseen hand? Would you let Him know that tonight? Draw nigh unto Him tonight. Help me to trust Him and rest. All for grace to trust Him more. Would you let Him know that tonight as we’re singing? Would you let Him know that?
“Jesus, I surrender. I give myself…”
How you can bank on it, His unseen hand will always be there. You won’t see it. I guarantee it’s there. If I was a better man, I bet it’s there, amen. I’m not a better man, though, but it’s always there, and it’s always there. I hope the book of Esther’s encouragement to you. And just God working—those names not mentioned—He’s working the whole, every little bit of angle. You see God’s working, and He’s working in your life. He’s working in a situation, and it’s going to go through some dark days, but He’s working, and His unseen hand is always there.
I’m so glad you’re in church tonight. Don’t forget, if you would, of course, be here tomorrow if you’re assigned a bit. Pray. Let’s just pray that God will use this thing. If one—if one couple gets some help, it’d be worth it. And let’s just pray God to use it. And um, maybe someone’s on just the beginning of a road going the wrong direction. And we won’t know until we get to heaven. Maybe they’ll get off that, get on the right road. And let’s just pray God will use it. And would you do that? Be in your place tomorrow night and Tuesday night and Wednesday, everybody just praying. God bless you, using it in a great, great way. Praise the Lord. Brother Gregory up here, he stayed awake. He took notes. Man, I’ll tell you what, I’m impressed. I’m teasing. He did a good job singing. All of them did this morning, tonight, too.
Original File: ＂The Unseen Hand＂ Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday 11⧸7⧸21 PM [p54Bg9cAfd4]