Storyside Church

Judges

Prophets 

Kings 

Ruth 1 

7 With her two daughters-in-law she set out from the place where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah.

14 And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. 

15 “Look,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.”

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 

17 Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” 

18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.

1 Samuel 3:19-20 — As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him, and everything Samuel said proved to be reliable. And all Israel, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. 

1 Samuel 8

4 Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. 

5 “Look,” they told him, “you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.” 

6 Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. 

7 “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. 

8 Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. 

1 Samuel 9:2 — Kish had a son named Saul, who was a handsome young man. There was no one more handsome than Saul. He stood a head taller than any other man in Israel.

1 Samuel 15:11 — I regret that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and he has not carried out my words.” Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night.

1 Samuel 16:7 — But the Lord told him, “Samuel, don't think Eliab is the one just because he's tall and handsome. He isn't the one I've chosen. People judge others by what they look like, but I judge people by what is in their hearts.

2 Samuel 5:3-4 — So there at Hebron, King David made a covenant before the Lord with all the elders of Israel. And they anointed him king of Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in all.

1 Kings 11:4 — In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God. 

2 Kings 18

2 Hezekiah was 25 years old when he began to rule. He ruled 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.

3 Hezekiah did what the Lord said was right, just as David his ancestor had done.

5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like Hezekiah among all the kings of Judah before him or after him.

6 He was very faithful to the Lord and did not stop following him. He obeyed the commands that the Lord had given to Moses.

7 The Lord was with Hezekiah, so he was successful in everything he did. Hezekiah broke away from the king of Assyria and stopped serving him.

2 Kings 21:1-2 — Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother was Hephzibah. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.

ABUNDANCE

When riches increase, the essence of religion decreases in the same proportion. 

— John Wesley

DISOBEDIENCE / PARTIAL OBEDIENCE 

2 Kings 17

13 Again and again the Lord had sent his prophets and seers to warn both Israel and Judah: “Turn from all your evil ways. Obey my commands and decrees—the entire law that I commanded your ancestors to obey, and that I gave you through my servants the prophets.”

14 But the Israelites would not listen. They were as stubborn as their ancestors who had refused to believe in the Lord their God. 

15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and they despised all his warnings. 

ALLEGIANCE / ALIGNMENT 

Psalm 20:7 — Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. 

FORGETFULNESS 

Deuteronomy 5:15 — Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Deuteronomy 6:12 — But be careful! Don’t forget the Lord. You were slaves in Egypt, but he brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 8:11 — Be careful. Don’t forget the Lord your God! Be careful to obey the commands, laws, and rules that I give you today.

Deuteronomy 8:18 — Remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

Judges 2:10 — After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.

Judges 8:33-35 — No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.

1 Chronicles 16:12 — Remember the wonders he has done, his signs and his spoken judgments.

Luke 22:19 — Do this in remembrance of Me.

Does your family and friends know your salvation story? 

Have you explained to them why __________________________?

#MySalvationStory 

Psalm 103:2 — Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. 

Exodus 3

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 

8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 

TITLE: Rescued For A Reason

1. To Fulfill His Promise

Exodus 6

8 “I will bring you to the land I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will give it to you for your own. I am the Lord.”

God loves people who leave a legacy.

Genesis 19

29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. 

2. To Reveal His Power

Exodus 9

16 But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. 

Noah

Rahab

Moses

Jochebed

David

3. To Kneel With Praise

Exodus 3

11 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” 

12 God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.” 

Praise was proof that they had been rescued.

With God

Without God 

Isaiah 41:8 — The Lord says, “You, Israel, are my servant. Jacob, I chose you. You are from the family of my friend, Abraham.

James 2:23 — And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God.

Matthew 1:1 — The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Genesis 12 

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 

Faith-filled families can still have failures and flaws.

Hebrews 11:8 — Abraham trusted God, and when God told him to leave home and go far away to another land that he promised to give him, Abraham obeyed. Away he went, not even knowing where he was going.

Have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful to you, and adequate for you. You will never need more than He can supply, and what He supplies, both materially and spiritually, will always be enough for the present. 

— J.I. Packer 

God is faithful and true. Confess your inability and His ability, and keep your eyes on Him. 

— David Jeremiah 

The Altar Of Appearance (Presence) 

Genesis 12:6-7 — The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” Abram built an altar to honor the Lord who appeared to him there.

The Altar Of Prayer 

Genesis 12:8 — From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

The Altar Of Procession And Progression 

Genesis 13:17-18 — Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.

The Altar Of Obedience 

Genesis 22:1 — After these things God decided to test Abraham’s faith. God said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Yes!”

Genesis 22:9 — When they came to the place where God told them to go, Abraham built an altar. He carefully laid the wood on the altar. Then he tied up his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Genesis 21:5 — Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

How do I handle not always getting what I want, when I want it?

Genesis 21:1-2 — The Lord came back to visit Sarah as he said he would, and he kept his promise to her. At exactly the time God said it would happen, Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age.

Romans 4

18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

All God's giants have been weak men and women who have gotten hold of God's faithfulness.

— Missionary Hudson Taylor 

Romans 15:4 — Everything that people wrote in the Bible in past times is there to teach us something. Those words help us to be patient and strong. As a result, we can trust God to do what he has promised

Acts 6

1 In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. 

2 The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. 

3 Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. 

4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” This proposal pleased the whole company. 

5 So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit….

Acts 6

8 Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. 

9 Opposition arose, however, from some members of the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, and they began to argue with Stephen. 

10 But they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

Stephen wasn’t famous, but he was full.

Wisdom always wins! 

Luke 21

15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

What are you full of?

Opposition Arose

When you are a faithful follower of Jesus, you will have opposition. 

“You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something, sometime in your life.” - Winston Churchill

John 15

18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. 

19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.”

John 16

33 Jesus said…”In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Acts 6 

11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 

12 They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came, seized him, and took him to the Sanhedrin. 

13 They also presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and the law. 

14 For we heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” 

15 And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”

While everyone was losing their minds, Stephen was glowing with peace.

Acts 7

51 “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also.”

Acts 7

54 When they heard these things, they were enraged and gnashed their teeth at him. 

55 Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 

56 He said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 

57 They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. 

58 They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 

59 While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 

60 He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he fell asleep.

Stephen didn’t focus on the stones, He focused on the Savior. 

When stones fly, will your faith stand?