God's Invisible Hand
Notes
Transcript
How did you get here?
How did you get here?
Personal Stories
Salvation
Transition: Seeing God’s hand in the course of ones life is the doctrine of God’s Providence
God’s Providence
God’s Providence
Definition
His Hand Preserves and Sustains His Creation Job 34:14-15
“If He should determine to do so,
If He should gather to Himself His spirit and His breath,
All flesh would perish together,
And man would return to dust.
His Hand in every event/situation in the world
Giving physical abilities Ex 4:11-12
The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
“Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.”
Giving great victory Joshua 11:6
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow at this time I will deliver all of them slain before Israel; you shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.”
Influence over the hearts of people Prov 21:1 and Ezra 6:22
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
And they observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had caused them to rejoice, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
Giving wealth Deut 8:18
“But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Disciplining His people Isa 10:5
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,
This is just a sample of texts where God is not just in heaven hoping that His people do well. No He is a God who is actively involved in His peoples lives. Phil 2:13.
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Also in Colossians 4:2-3
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;
praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned;
His Hand directing the things in the universe to His appointed end
Not only is God active in His peoples lives but everything that happens in the world is being accomplished for His appointed end. Dan 4:34-35
“But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever;
For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
But He does according to His will in the host of heaven
And among the inhabitants of earth;
And no one can ward off His hand
Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’
My purpose in showing these verses is the reality of God’s hand in scripture. Time would fail us to quote all of the scriptures where God is active in the lives of people whether ungodly or godly alike.
He is not a watchmaker God who wound up the clock and let it go.
He is intimately involved.
For fun some time with a highlighter or a pen whatever you like. Mark up every time in scripture God shows up in an intimate way in the lives of the people in scripture.
Transition: I hope that I have caused you to think about God’s involvement in the lives of those we read in scripture as well as our own lives.
The doctrine of God’s Providence is seen in story form in the book of Esther
Turn with me to the book of Esther
Esther is a book in which God’s name never appears
Esther is a book that though His name never appears He is involved in every aspect of the story
Characters
King Ahasuerus
King Esther 1:1
Wealthy Est 1:5-6
He is in charge what he says goes Est 1:12,4:11
King Ahasuerus is described as the supreme ruler in the story. He because angry if things do not go his way. If he does not invite you then you are not allowed in his presence.
Queen Vashti
Current Queen of Ahasuerus Est 1:9
Mordecai
Est 2:5-6
Esther
Est 2:7
Mordecai was took care of Esther because both her parents had died
she was young and beautiful in form and face
Haman
Est 3:1-2
High official to King Ahasuerus
an Agagite- this is important for later
Est 3:6- wicked man
He had a plot to kill all of the Jews
These are the main players of the story (review them once again)
Transition: Those are our characters now to the flow of the story which we will look at greater detail in the weeks ahead
Plot
God’s providence in delivering His people
God raises up Esther as the new queen of Ahasuerus
God put down wicked Haman
God replaces Haman with Mordecai
For the purpose of preserving His people.
Esther is a divine drama of God’s providence. Though He is never mentioned in the book God’s hand is clearly seen throughout.
Transition: The whole story is how it happened God the master puzzler putting every piece in its correct place.
Application
Greater Awareness
My prayer and desire as we study the book of Esther together is that we as a church will appreciate God’s invisible hand in our lives.
From the major life decisions which we face to the seemly insignificant.
I am sure that for some of you, that you are thinking of specific things looking back on your life where God was clearly orchestrating everything. There is just no way that it could have worked out any better. We sometimes call it a “God thing”. It is just clear God was working out the details. That’s what we are going to be talking about in story form in Esther. Since God is still the same and still is active in the lives of His people today I trust there will be many applications in our lives.
Thankfulness
That it would cause us to ponder and give praise to God for his providence in our lives up to this point.
How He has brought us all here in a variety of ways.
That we would praise Him and thank Him for His work in our lives.
Trust
That ultimately we would learn together to trust Him more.
To rely on His grace and provision in the moments when we can not see.
That we would by faith follow Him knowing that He is working everything out for His glory and our good.
Prayer