NONE OF THESE THINGS MOVE ME

Acts 20:22-24 (KJV)

22 And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
23 Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with
joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

“I am going to finish my race with joy. None of these things move me”
These are the words from a man named Paul, who was so determine to do what God calls him to do.

According to Webster,

Determination means:
- having reached a decision about something
- to have one’s mind made up
- to become unwavering in one’s actions and attitude

I have determination. I will not waver in my actions or attitude!

“DESPERATION produces DESIRE. DESIRE produces DETERMINATION and DETERMINATION produces DESTINY”

In 2 Samuel 21, there was a woman named Rizpah, the concubine of King Saul, whose sons were killed and hanged by
the Gibeonites. What she did was she spread a sathcloth for herself to keep watch on the dead bodies of her sons for 3
weeks. She was protecting the dead bodies from the vultures, from the wild animals.

Now look at this story. If she was so determine to save her family and her sons were dead, how much more are we to
our family, our loves ones, our parents, our siblings, our kids to protect them and bring them to the feet of the Cross
and see them doing the will of God.

She had so much determination for her family that it reaches the king!
If you are full of determination, it will reach the attention king.
It will reach to the very presence of the King when you have the determination to live for God, determine to do what
God has called you to do. That even if you are going through with something, problem, challenges, or trials, you
determination is set!

Most men failed not because of the lack of opportunity, not because of lack education or lack of talent. But because of
the lack of DETERMINATION

Napoleon said, “DETERMINATION makes you INVINCIBLE”

Determination meaning to say you keep on trying and trying and trying again and again and again makes you
UNCONQUERABLE

Babe Ruth, the famous baseball player, said that “IT’S VERY HARD TO DEFEAT A PERSON WHO REFUSES TO GIVE UP”

That’s why you dream one more time.

That’s why you pray one more time.
That’s why you try one more time.
That’s why you ask one more time.
Ludwig Beethoven
At 5 years old, he played the violin.
By the age of 13, he was an accomplished pianist
By the age of 20, he studied under Mozart and Hadyn. Have written 9 symphonies already. However, he started losing
his hearing
By the age of 50, he’s already stone-dead and can hear nothing. He was determine that he shave off his piano legs and
lay it down to the floor so he can feel the vibration of his music.

He came to a point of too much desperation that he was pounding his first and heard him scream these words,
“I WILL TAKE LIFE BY THE THROAT!”
“I WILL NOT LET LIFE DEFEAT ME”
“I WILL WIN!”

This is the same with life. We will face problems, trials, persecutions but I want you to understand that:
“YOU ONLY GET STRENGTH IN STRUGGLES”
“YOU ONLY GET ADVANCE FROM ADVERSITY:

“Then when you change the level of your determination and you were hit by rough times, you will tend to give up and
walk away from what God intend you to do.”

You have to a time take life by the throat! You are gonna talk to sick and tell them that we are taking life by the
throat! Whatever that is that you are going through, you gotta take life by the throat. Whatever comes at me, NONE
OF THESE THINGS MOVE ME TO DO WHAT GOD HAS CALLED ME TO DO.

David lost his family, his love ones, his home, his resources at the place called Ziklag.

Read 1 Samuel 30: 1-8

1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded
the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
2 And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away,
and went on their way.
3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their
daughters, were taken captives.
4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
5 And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved,
every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought
thither the ephod to David.
8 And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him,
Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

This must be very difficult for David. As matter of fact, history says that he entrusted the king of Moab for the safety
of his family but they killed them.

David was asking God and this is what He told him to pursue, pursue the supernatural, pursue restoration, pursue the
miraculous.

“If God ask you to go after, he plans on you getting it.”

“God doesn’t tell you to go after and pursue, if he doesn’t plan on you making it and just wanted to tease you with
failure”

I believe that some of you of here, God has told you to pursue dream, pursue supernatural, to pursue restoration, to
pursue a breakthrough of your life, pursue things which are greater which you are thinking you are not capable of doing
it!

“We all need divine determination so we can tell the devil and our situation that we are taking life by the throat. That
none of my job, my career, my business, my finances, my trials and weaknesses, can stop me from pursing the call of
God for my life”

Jacob had that determination.

We remember that he was wanting for a blessing.
He wasn’t the most qualified, not the most talented, not the best good-looking YET HE WAS THE MOST DETERMINED
THAT HE WRESTLED WITH AN ANGEL!

Now listen to this determination, he wrestled with an Angel until the breaking of the day!
This is what happened. The Angel, from the beginning of the wrestling match, the Angel reaching out and touch the
hollow of the thigh. That is the socket where your leg is connected to your heap bone and He disconnected his leg
from his hip bone.

Can you imagine the pain? And that’s where most of us quit and give up!
But the thing that I want you to see is that Jacob wrestled with his pain! Added to it, he was fighting in that condition
the rest of the night!
He was so determined that he went from fighting to clinging!
Because he couldn’t fight anymore, he started clinging hold of that Angel. And the angel might have told him, “Get off of
me freak. What’s wrong with you? Finally, the Angel looks at him and said would you relax in a bit? I thought you are
gonna stop and quit because I hurt you!” But what did Jacob said, “I WOULDN’T LET YOU GO UNTIL YOU BLESS ME!”

Now listen to this! You might not be the most talented or the sharpest knife in the drawer but if you have that
determination, you’re gonna bring it and stand for it and say, THIS IS WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE! Because NONE OF
THESE THINGS MOVE ME!

Jacob had a broken hip. He was in pain but he was determined and was hanging on. What about you?
Whenever you are in pain, where do you hang on?

If you are being challenges with new problems and trials, you need to develop a new level of determination by
grabbing hold of Jesus and clinging to him and say, I WON’T LET YOU GO UNTIL YOU BLESS ME!

Failure shall not overtake you as long as you are determined to succeed!

Luke 18:1-5
It talks about the determined WIDOW who keeps on bugging the injustice judge until it was finally given to her.

Let me tell you something, our God is not an unjust judge. He is not stingy with his blessing. He just wanted to see
your determination in regard to the things of God. He doesn’t hold back any of them.

I love Caleb.
He was with Joshua when Moses sent out 12 spies. 10 of them said that they can’t proceed because of the giants but
Joshua and Caleb where so determined. Because of the disobedience of Israel, God promised that they won’t enter the
Promised land. So for 40 years they were wondering in the wilderness until the next generation came in. Caleb on their
journey saw how many people died everyday and another the next day moving forward. And when he was 85 years old,
he came to Joshua so determined to get the mountain he’s been longing to have.

Look at what he said in Joshua 14:12 NIV

Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there
and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said."

Try to imagine that they were roughly half a million of Israelites who died because they were not determined to
pursue! But not Caleb!

Lastly, in Matthew 15:27

We can see the story The Faith of the Canaanite Woman

And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27But she said, "Yes,
Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." 28Then Jesus said to her, "O woman,
your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once.

Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing your enthusiasm”
Thomas Edison said, “I didn’t fail. I learned 10,000 ways that don’t work”

We are not gonna let our failures still our determination to live for God!
TRY ONE MORE TIME! GET UP ONE MORE TIME! BE DETERMINED

It marvelled me to see who people can easily fold and give up their dreams, their destiny just because they were
rejected or they were not included in the team or they didn’t get their scholarship or they are left out. Or something
happened or they got fired or they didn’t make up with something and easy enough we throw to the trash everything
you got. HEY, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT TAKES FOR GOD TO GET YOU ON THAT CALLING! You gotta need to have
that LIFE BY THE THROAT KIND OF DETERMINATION!

He was crippled and totally paralyze from his waist down but became the President of the US, Franklin D. Roosevelt

At 19 months she was deaf, dumb and blind but it didn’t stop her, Helen Keller

He so severely burn that doctors said that he will never walk but in 1934, a new set of running was set by Glen
Cunningham

They told him that he was slow and somewhat retarded, Albert Einstein

“Don’t you let the devil tell you that you can’t make it and you can’t do it!”

“NONE OF THESE THINGS MOVE ME”

If you are determined to be where God wants you to be and do what God wants you to do, NO TEMPTATION, NO
DEVIL, NO PROBLEM CAN EVER, EVER TAKE YOU AWAY FROM GOD.

…because NONE OF THESE THINGS MOVE ME!!!

Life is a constant battle. So it demands much of our determination to pursue.