Frankie Mazzapica - How God Redeems Our Pain
The title of today’s message is «How God Redeems Our Pain.» This is the start of a new series, so this is part one. We’ll have part two next week and then part three. If this topic resonates with you, I want to encourage you to prioritize the next two weeks. If you are breathing air, you know what pain is. I read a long time ago—I can’t remember if I read it or if someone taught it to me—that when babies are screaming because you took their pacifier away, it is the equivalent of someone taking your car away. When the baby is screaming, there is a level of emotional pain that the baby is experiencing.
So if you’ve ever breathed air, you know what pain is. My wife, my family, and I were on vacation last week, and every time we go on vacation, someone says, «Hey, Frankie!» I turn around, thinking, «You’ve got to be kidding me!» But we were in Mexico, and sure enough, I heard, «Hey, Frankie!» I thought, «No way!» However, I was happy to see them, so I’m not complaining. Their son is off to college, and he broke up with his girlfriend. He was just down; he couldn’t stop thinking about it. When you’re that age, as an adult, you look back on the people who broke up with you and think, «Thank God!» But when you’re in the middle of it, it’s a type of pain. So why the pain? How does God redeem that pain? God does not waste pain—He didn’t send the pain, but He doesn’t allow it to go to waste.
Let me build a foundation on this. In John 12:24, it explains why pain or what happens when there’s pain and why it’s necessary. It says this: «I’m telling you the truth"—this is Jesus talking—"that unless a kernel of wheat dies in the ground, it dies alone. Unless it is planted in the ground, it dies alone. However, when it does die, that kernel of wheat multiplies and causes a plentiful harvest by changing lives.» In other words, unless there are parts of you that die—particularly starting with your heart and your old self—unless that dies, then you die alone. But when you die, God is able to multiply the changes He’s made in you. You can die without having any impact at all— you were born, you died, nobody cares. You did nothing here; nobody remembers you. You showed up, you ate, you drank, you worked, and you made no impact at all. However, if your old self dies—your attitudes and mindset die—now God says, «Okay, I can use you.»
I’ve got three major points for you that I’m going to unpack. The first one is how our flesh hates pain and how our flesh can’t stand dying, how we fight it. The next thing I’m going to talk about is the four types of pain, and then I’m going to discuss four things that are happening in God’s purpose regarding what He does. Let’s talk about it.
Point number one, and if you’re looking at your app, the way it reads is that our flesh wants nothing to do with pain. We want nothing to do with it. In Galatians 5:17, it states that our sinful nature wants to do evil. Your flesh wants to do it; when you’re tempted to do something, you want to do it. You know it’s sinful in your mind; you know it. In Hebrews 10:16, it states that God has written His laws on your mind and placed them in your heart. You know it’s sinful, but your whole body, your flesh, wants to do evil. You want the words out of your mouth to manipulate a person to start behaving the way you want them to behave. You want to have a private life that is different from the life you’re living in this sanctuary right now. You want to have addictions; you want to have certain attitudes. Even those of you who don’t want addictions still want attitudes. There is an old cross and a new cross in today’s world; in fact, it goes all the way back to when Jesus lived. There’s a battle, there’s a wrestle.
See, the old cross is that you sacrifice your life—your attitudes, you sacrifice it, the pride of going up to somebody and saying, «I was wrong, and I’m sorry.» This is sacrificial. There are people who can’t say «I’m sorry,» people who can’t raise their hand, people who can’t pursue the Lord, and people who refuse to watch their mouths because people deserve it. Have you ever thought, «I told them off, God, because I can see clearly they are being stupid»? You can see clearly, and if you don’t tell them off, they are going to continue being stupid for the rest of their lives. «I’m doing you a favor.» I used to think I had a partnership with the teachers in high school. «You’re the ones who teach, and I’m the one who brings the humor.» I told my dad, «Don’t worry about it; my teachers love me. Don’t worry about my grades; they love me.» He said, «This is what your teachers are going to do: 'Man, I love that kid.' F!» Yeah, sure enough, that’s what they did.
But this mindset of having a partnership is all about telling people off—letting them know who they are. A sacrificial life requires that all your addictions, everything compelling you, be sacrificed before God. This is the old cross in a sacrificial life, saying, «God, I stumbled here; will You please forgive me?» There’s a difference between wickedness and weakness. Wickedness is when you refuse to ask for forgiveness because you see no issue with it. That’s wickedness. Weakness is when you look back and say, «Lord, I’m sorry, and I need You to help me.» In Hebrews 4:16, it states that we should come boldly before the Lord to receive mercy and grace. Mercy forgives you; grace gives you the strength to not be bound by that anymore. So the under point number one is that we want—the old cross—but there’s also the new cross. The old cross requires surrender, but the new cross is saying, «God, I want comfort. I believe in You, but I want comfort at the same time.» A sacrificial life is not comfortable. A sacrificial life is painful. A sacrificial life is something that none of us want. Unless we sacrifice our lives, we can just put our hands up and play around with God. It’s a sacrificial life.
Our flesh wants nothing to do with pain. There are four types of pain—point number two. The first type is bodily pain, physical pain. You have acute or major, strong pain in your body; sickness in your body. I want you to listen to me very carefully, and I want you to believe this: If you are healthy, you have a phenomenal life! Hallelujah! You have a phenomenal life! If your children are healthy, amen, you have a phenomenal life! If you ever find out illness suddenly comes upon you, that trumps every problem you have. I remember when my wife was sick for four months; no doctor could help her. So, I sacrificed a moment—I can’t even remember what it was—and I was talking to my dad.
Oh, it was probably about forgiveness; that’s always a thing I need to address. But I went up to somebody and said, «Hey, I’m really sorry.» I called my dad and said, «I did it again.» The most painful thing is to ask for forgiveness. I remember my dad saying, «The Lord’s going to bless you for that.» I told him, «The only thing I want is for my wife to be healthy again.» If you have your health, you have an awesome life! If you don’t have health, I want you to know that God is in the healing business, and don’t ever doubt it! Don’t ever doubt it! He does it all the time! I’ve seen over a thousand physical healings—deaf ears, blind eyes. I felt bones move under my hands. Prayer partners down here report more healings that have taken place after services than when I’ve prayed for people. But there’s physical pain, and then there’s heart pain, where you have a broken heart.
I don’t have time to go into it, but there’s also mental pain—distress, anxiety, depression—and spiritual pain, where you’re really wrestling with faith, faith versus doubt. It’s hard for you to believe that God’s going to come through for you when you’re in pain. I’m telling you, I’ve been there more times than I can count. I’ve said, «God, I’m too young to live like this for the rest of my life.» When you’re in the middle of one of those kinds of pain—physical pain, heart pain, mental pain, spiritual pain—the devil always tells you «never» lies. I’m going to try to remember to say «never» lies over and over again in this church: never lies are lies that Satan tells you that start off with the word «never.» You’re never going to be out of debt; your marriage is never going to be better; you’re never going to be healed; you’re never going to be whole; you’re never going to get married; your kids are never going to come around; you’re never going to be out of this pain. When you’re in that pain in any one of those categories, you think you’re never going to get out.
I’ve been there. Has anyone ever heard the «never» lies? Come on, just wave at me; wave at me. Let’s support this thought. Are you with it? Put your hands together; this is about «never» lies. But four things are happening during pain. Four things are going on. Starting with numbers two, three, and four, you can see how God redeems it. The first thing happening during pain is that Satan is trying to kill you. Yes, he is! I want you to know that he is trying to kill you! Whether it’s physical pain, heart pain, emotional pain, or doubt and faith, he’s trying to kill you. I have a friend who was a satanic warlock. He told a story in his book—his name is John Ramirez; you can find his book—but he wrote several of them. I can’t remember which book this story is in, but there were sacrifices being made in his grandmother’s basement—seances and things like that would happen to people.
Eyes and faces would get distorted, and they would spin around and get lost. He remembers walking down there when somebody brought in a six- or seven-year-old kid. That six- or seven-year-old child was sitting there, and his face was getting distorted. This was just a little kid. He learned at that moment that Satan doesn’t care whether it’s a little boy or girl; he doesn’t care if it’s an adult. We think, «Leave the kids alone!» He doesn’t care! He has that much hate that he’s trying to kill children and babies! He’s trying to kill you! He’s trying to kill the children; he’s trying to kill them all! So when you’re in this pain, he’s trying to break every ounce of faith you are trying to hold on to. If you’ve been in faith, you’re in pain; you’re just reaching for hope. You’re trying to hang on to hope.
He’s trying to kill you! This is what’s taking place during pain. There are four things happening during pain: he’s trying to kill you. But how does God redeem it? Here’s the second thing: Pain is the primary sign that you’re in transition. This is an old illustration, but let me just use it again. The caterpillar inside of the cocoon that comes out is a butterfly—there’s so much heat, so much pain; the entire caterpillar is dying. When you are in pain—physical, heart, emotional—you are in transition. There are parts of you that are dying. Every once in a while, I see a pastor friend of mine; I haven’t seen him in a long time. There was this one particular worship leader who was as arrogant as anyone could be.
I mean, the dude could sing well, and he knew that he was good-looking, and he knew it! I’m like, «You don’t need to give this guy a compliment; he gives himself a compliment every single day.» He was so arrogant that I thought, «I don’t want to see this guy; if I never saw him again, it would be too soon.» A couple of years went by, and I bumped into him again. I saw him at a distance and thought, «Oh my gosh! I do not want to see this guy!» But he looked at me, and I’m like, «Okay, can’t run now!» So here comes the most plastic Christian smile you’ve ever seen in your life. «Hey, how are you doing?» I shook his hand and looked into his eyes. He was the most humble guy I’ve ever talked to. I thought, «What in the world just happened to you?» I had to ask around. I didn’t want to; I was like, «What happened to him? The guy’s amazing; he used to be a complete jerk!»
They said, «Man, that dude almost lost his life!» You are in transition, and sometimes that pain lasts a while. What is it in 2 Timothy 4:7? Paul says, «I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.» Sometimes the good fight is a long fight. Sir, are you with me? Yes, it’s a long fight. I have a really good friend whose son is going through crazy emotional and mental battles. He was checked into institutions and tried to kill himself. This happened for years. Then I saw him at a wedding, and he came over to me and said hi. It was a big wedding—there were a couple of hundred people—and I got to tell you, he was the nicest guy at the wedding! He was the most humble guy, the most encouraging guy. I thought to myself, «How did you get from here to here? How did you get to be this wonderful guy, this encouraging guy that God is using to impact me and others?» It wasn’t free. Influence is not free. We love to talk about the United States of America, where we say freedom is not free. I want to tell you, spiritual influence is not free. Unless a kernel dies inside the ground, it dies alone. But if it does die, it changes lives.
So what’s happening? Number one, Satan is trying to kill you. Number two: You’re in transition. Number three: In transition, the Lord is beginning to redeem you because Satan has tried to kill you, and sometimes he’s done a really good job. Then you’re in transition, and I want you to know that His spirit is surrounding you. Those of you holding onto your new cross—not the old cross, but the new cross—I’m going to keep living this way. I just want to tell you, you haven’t paid the price yet. You will pay that price; you’ll get away with it for a little while, hanging onto that new cross—comfort over sacrifice. You will pay that price, and I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but you will pay that price. But if you’re saying, «I’m grasping the old cross,» every one of us has had seasons where you hang onto the new cross—comfort over sacrifice. Every one of us can raise our hand and say, «Let me tell you about a season in my life.» Suddenly, you started clinging to another cross. «I’m willing to sacrifice anything.»
So God has you in transition. This is how He redeems you from your pain. He redeems you from your pain because you begin to experience the presence of the Lord like you never have. I remember the day I realized that any second I can become aware of His presence just as I am in the sanctuary. That was a massive price—the presence of God. Number four: You’re in the middle of expansion. The Bible says in Isaiah 54:2, «Begin to enlarge your tent. I can trust you now; I am enlarging your sphere of influence.» I’m reaching you; you have gone through tremendous pain. You’ve gotten on your knees and lifted your chin. Now, I am going to redeem it by giving you more influence than you’ve ever had before. You’ve gotten on your knees and you’ve died; I’m going to redeem it.
I’m going to show you a testimony on the screen. If you haven’t watched The Chosen, I want to encourage you to go home. I don’t even know how to find The Chosen; do you go on Netflix or something? What do you do? Oh, an app? I don’t know. Just go to ChatGPT and ask how to do it. But anyway, you need to watch it. There’s a guy—I forgot his real name, but the actor who plays Jesus was on a show called The View, which I’m not a fan of. They were interviewing him, and I didn’t watch the show to see it because the show drives me nuts. But I saw a clip, and I was like, «I need that clip,» because God redeemed his pain. I want you to take a look at this.
«I worked here in New York City after college in production. I was a location scout, and that was how I made a decent living. I had started working on MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch; it was the first acting job I ever had. From that point, I always had a curiosity. I wondered what this would look like if it went further. Fast forward to the housing market collapsing in 2008: I’d booked a few other jobs and started booking television. I thought, 'Okay, well this is an opportunity to see if I can actually make this work, ' so I moved to LA. For eight years, I didn’t have the safety of the job that I left in New York. There were different unions and all sorts of complications to do the same thing in LA, but that’s not what I was going to LA for. I had to do all these other side jobs—I drove rideshare, I worked in catering—things I’d never done before, and it got to the point where I was broke.
I was out of money; I was out of food; I even ran out of government assistance for food. The only thing I hadn’t done at that point was the thing left to do: to get on my knees and surrender my entire life and my career and everything I had up to that point over to God because I realized I couldn’t do anything on my own. Were you a believer before that? Yeah, I was raised with faith from a child, but it really wasn’t until after that moment—it’s been almost six years now—where I just said, 'Jesus, I surrender myself to You. Take care of everything.' That day, I received this incomprehensible financial miracle that changed my life. Three months later, I booked The Chosen.»
My hope for you in this season, or in this series—again, this is part one—my hope, my prayer for you, is that for those of you who have come through a painful season that almost killed you, you’re on the other side of it now. Amen! But you keep looking back at that season, and you wonder, «Am I going to pay the price for that season for the rest of my life?» This series is to say, «No, God does not punish His children who come broken before Him.» What He does is redeem the pain. He didn’t lead you into those decisions; it was your flesh, as we talked about in John 12:24—your flesh longs for this. But the Lord backs up and says, «I’m not going to leave you this way. I’m going to redeem your pain.» If you need to, I want you to study the life of David; he redeemed his pain. The Bible says that the Lord will restore what the cankerworm has stolen. Sometimes, he steals an entire season of your life, and the Lord backs up and says, «I’m going to restore that. I’m going to redeem that.»
This series is for those of you who have gone through a difficult season. I want to encourage you for the next couple of weeks. The Lord’s going to redeem it. It’s also for the people who are in a painful season right now. A lot of times, we can endure anything if we know it’s not going to last forever. If we know God is going to redeem us, we can almost endure anything. Painful seasons have an expiration date. The Lord will redeem you; however, we have to do what the character, Jonathan, that we just watched did. I need to learn his name before the second service! Even if I forget it, I’ll be good to remember, remember Jonathan. There has to be a moment where you come before the Lord and say, «Here’s my life.» Every time I come before Him, I always hold my hands out like this and say, «Here’s my life; here are every hope, every dream I’ve ever had. You can kill it or bring it back to life, but here it is.» In most cases, I get on my knees, put my face on the carpet, and try to be as humble as possible.
So what I’m going to ask you to do is exactly that. If you’ve experienced pain that you need to be redeemed from, or if you’re in the middle of pain, I want you to come out of your seat and hold your whole life like this. Just say, «Lord, I’m giving it to You.» Some of you come from a church background where you never get out of your seat, and I understand that. But if I can compel you to remember what people did in the Bible—there was always an altar, something made of wood, steel, or stone, that things died on. The Bible says that if you’re ashamed of Him in front of people, He’ll be ashamed of you in front of the Father. So with all the humility you can reach for, I want you to come out of your seat and just put your hands out like this. There’s going to be no official dismissal; you can leave whenever you get ready. But let’s sing this song at least once through before anyone leaves. May the Lord bless you, may He keep you, may His face shine down upon you, and be gracious to you. May His countenance be lifted upon you and bring you peace. In Jesus' name, Amen.