It's Going To Take More Than That

TITLE: IT’S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN THAT

SCRIPTURE: ACTS 27:1 / 27:9-11 / 27:14-19 / 27:27-31 / 27:37-44 / 28:1-6

It is important to understand that in all of our lives, God has an amazing assignment on us. With that assignment also comes anointing. It is an anointing that sustains us during our assignment. When we look at the Apostle Paul, we are mindful that this is the same Paul that persecuted Christians of the early church. After Paul was converted, he boldly proclaimed Jesus Christ. As a result began to be persecuted as he used to persecute Christians.

In this life, if you choose to follow God’s assignment and God’s call on your life, know that it won’t be easy. The reality is, there will come times in our lives, rather than complaining about how bad things are, you have to develop the resolve to square your shoulders and look the devil square in the face while telling him, “IT’S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN THAT.” The past 14-15 months have been challenging for many of us. Others have been going through stuff for quite some time now.

• If you wrote down everything you went through, it would take a whole notebook

• You could have lost your mind by now, but you are still here

• You could have thrown in the towel by now, but you are still here

• We know it’s not easy what you are dealing with

• Can I tell you, you are not the only one going through some stuff!

All of us that are doing God’s will are going through some stuff. What makes us who we are is our resolve to tell devil that we are not rookies at this thing.

• It is going to take more to break us than this!

• It is going to take more to make us walk away than this

• It is going to take more to uproot us than this

• We have been at this thing too long and we have seen God turn situations around and we believe in our spirit that God is able to sustain us

• We have chosen to look to the hills from which comes our help

• Knowing our help cometh from the Lord

Trails in this life are inevitable. It is interesting to know that when you are out of the will of God, we should expect trials. When you are in the will of God, these are the trails that should be hard for us. They are hard, because you wonder why God takes you through this when you are in his will and you have neighbors who are not in his will that are doing fine. We think because we are doing God’s will, he would give us some kind of reprieve from trials. The reason God takes us through (those that are in his will) is because God knows we will keep showing up. God knows, despite what we are going through, we declare in the face of the enemy, “IT’S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN THAT!”

Let’s run to our text this morning. I want to begin by telling you -- NO MATTER HOW THINGS MAY LOOK GOD IS STILL WITH US -- In the midst of TROUBLES – STORMS – TRIALS - of every sort we need to be aware that God is still with us and that He is still in control. In our text we find Paul and others coming out of the midst of a shipwreck. Paul had tried to warn the sailors and those in charge not to set sail because danger was head, he had been warned of an Angel.

• Paul you are a tentmaker

• We are sailors

• Not a cloud in the sky

• Waters are calm

Now they found themselves in the midst of a shipwreck. 276 on Board - Those who had made it to shore were wet and miserable, according to VS. 2 - “And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold.”

• The natives of the island quickly gathered at the shore to offer assistance to the passengers of the ship as they made it to shore

• I can imagine that some of these natives even went into the water helping those who were exhausted and the non-swimmers, to the beach

• Some were swimming and others were hanging on to broken pieces

Here they built a large fire to warm the shivering survivors. Not only were the passengers and crew chilled from the cold waters of the sea but it was raining as well.

• Perhaps Paul may have thought to himself, “Good grief things can’t get any worse”