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Part 1 of 9
There Is More series through the Book of Acts
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A pastor once asked his audience three times, "What do you want?" The first two times, people called out their desires. The third time, he almost screamed: "Do you want to be used greatly by God?" The room erupted in standing ovation. But when the applause died, he delivered the sobering truth: "Then you must be wounded deeply, because those God uses greatly are first wounded deeply." The room fell silent.
This is what the Apostle Paul demonstrates in Acts 28. His pain became his platform. His trial became his testimony. Paul's greatest ministry came from his deepest misery.
If the Apostle Paul—the greatest disciple who ever lived—was constantly subjected to pain, opposition, and suffering, you can expect the same if you follow Jesus. Everyone everywhere experiences pain. But here's the crucial difference: most people squander their suffering. They never learn to profit from their problems or harvest their hurts.
True disciples of Jesus Christ—not mere fans who cheer him on, but those committed to becoming like him—learn from their losses. They gain from every pain in their life. Because of this, they spend their entire lives constantly improving, being transformed into the glory of Christ from one degree to another, growing better instead of bitter.
Acts 28 represents the fulfillment of a promise Jesus made decades earlier in Acts 18. Jesus told his disciples: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." These were concentric circles through which the gospel would spread.
Now, decades later in Acts 28, Paul has been converted, filled with the Spirit, and has planted house churches across two or three continents. At this point in the narrative, Paul is approximately 2,997 miles from where Jesus made that promise—quite literally at the ends of the earth.
Once safely ashore after the shipwreck, Paul and his companions discovered they were on an island called Malta. The local people—described in the original Greek as barbaroi (barbarians)—showed them unusual kindness. This was remarkable because shipwreck survivors typically expected to be either killed or enslaved.
As Paul gathered brushwood for a fire, a viper—driven out by the heat—fastened itself to his hand. When the islanders saw the snake dangling from his arm, they concluded: "This man must be a murderer. Although he escaped the sea, the goddess justice has not allowed him to live." Their logic was that anything bad happening to you means you must have done something equally bad to someone else.
But Paul simply shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead. Instead, after waiting and seeing nothing unusual happen, they changed their minds: "He was a god."
God used this miracle to confirm supernatural power on Paul's life to these islanders who didn't yet know Jesus. The people brought Paul to Publius, the chief of the island, whose father was dying of fever and dysentery. After prayer, Paul placed his hands on the man and healed him. When this happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.
Jesus heals people. He told every disciple: "You will receive supernatural power when the Holy Spirit comes on you in order to be my witnesses." That wasn't just for the apostles—it's for you. There is more. No matter how much of God you've experienced, no matter how much of his power you've seen, no matter how much of his character you've known, there is more.
God heals every Christian in one of three ways: immediately through miracle, gradually through medicine, or eventually in glory. He still performs miracles. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If he healed people then, he still does it now.
Because of Paul's ministry, there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and many people on Malta came to faith. Today, Malta remains more than 80% Christian, and the churches trace their spiritual lineage back to Paul's shipwreck. Every February 10th, the island celebrates St. Paul's Shipwreck Day, commemorating when the gospel touched their shores.
The final recorded acts of Paul in the book of Acts show us how his story concludes: "When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him for two whole years. Paul stayed and welcomed all who came to see him."
This chapter demonstrates three essential truths: there are three different causes for all the pain in your life, and you must have the wisdom to know which one might apply so you can respond appropriately. Understanding these causes determines how we handle the pain God allows.
The first cause of pain is what theologians call general sin—the corruption of creation itself. In Romans 5, Paul writes: "Sin entered the world through one man...and death came through sin...In this way, death came to all people because all sinned."
Adam was the federal head of mankind—a theological term meaning that his decision had ramifications for everyone under his leadership. Just as a president's decisions affect the nation, Adam's rebellion against God had consequences for all creation and all his descendants. When sin entered, death entered with it.
This is critical to understand: You do not live in a perfect world where everything works as God wants it. You live in a fallen world where nothing works as God designed it. God made everything good and gave life, but sin corrupted everything and brought death.
Many people bitterly ask: "Why would God create a world where kids get cancer, mental illness ravages people, parents die, hurricanes happen, and shipwrecks occur?" The answer is direct: He didn't create that kind of world. God created a world where everything was good and wonderful. Sin corrupted it. The world as you experience it now is not as God created it—it's as sin has corrupted it.
Consider Paul's journey in the chapters leading to Acts 28. He survived a mob that wanted to kill him, a group of assassins who made a blood oath against him, a death sentence before a homicidal maniac, a hurricane, a shipwreck, and hostile islanders.
Finally, after at least two weeks, Paul sits warming his hands by a fire for the first time. Then—the second he tries to warm himself—a viper attaches to his hand. Most people would cry out in frustration. Not Paul. He simply shakes it off and keeps telling people about Jesus.
Here's the secret to Paul's resilience: he understood the difference between happiness and joy—and he chose joy.
Paul wrote: "I have learned to be content...I know what it is to have need and what it is to have plenty. I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength." This passage is often misunderstood as being about physical strength, but it's actually about contentment.
Happiness is based on happenings. When what you want to happen actually happens, you're happy. When what you don't want to happen occurs, you can't be happy. But here's the problem: what you want to happen usually doesn't happen. If you base your joy on happenings, it rises and falls with the stock market, with your children's moods, with others' applause. One day you're a hero; the next day you're a zero. In a fallen world, this is a losing strategy.
Joy, however, is based on Jesus. Happiness fluctuates with circumstances, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. "On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand."
So Paul could say: "If I'm shipwrecked, I'm good. If I'm in prison, I'm good. If I'm free, I'm good. If I'm warming by a fire, I'm good. If there's a viper on my hand, I'm good. I'm going to be okay."
As disciples of Jesus Christ, you must fight for your heart to be rooted not in the happenings of this world, but in Christ on high. Here's what one pastor does: when circumstances aren't going well, he gets out in the country and takes a walk. He has hymn lyrics on his phone—not contemporary worship songs, but substantial hymns like "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," "The Old Rugged Cross," "Amazing Grace," and "Come Thou Fount."
He walks where nobody can hear him and sings these songs of worship. And something happens: his problems feel big and his God feels small. But as he worships—worship, worship, worship—by the time he finishes, his God feels big and his problems feel small.
This is why gathering to sing and pray and worship together matters. You're rooting your heart in Christ on high.
There's a second reason you'll experience pain in this life. Paul says: "Although I've done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans."
Paul was innocent. Yet the people replied: "We know that people everywhere are talking against this sect."
Worship is not merely a service element—it's a spiritual weapon. When circumstances aren't going well and your problems feel big while your God feels small, worship changes your perspective. As you worship, worship, worship, something shifts. By the time you finish, your God feels big and your problems feel small.
This is why gathering together to sing, pray, and worship matters so deeply. You're rooting your heart in Christ on high. This is not a game; it's spiritual warfare for the affections of your soul.
The Reality of Innocent Suffering
Paul declared his innocence: "Although I've done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans." Yet the people replied: "We know that people everywhere are talking against this sect."
For the first hundred years of Christianity, people viewed Christianity not as a separate religion but as a sect of Judaism—a denomination of Judaism, if you will. The point is this: they were throwing shade at this movement.
Sometimes You Suffer for Doing What's Right
Here's a hard truth: sometimes you're not suffering because you did something wrong. You're suffering because you did something right. You had a backbone. You had courage. You stood for righteousness. You didn't come off your convictions. You didn't flinch when the moment came.
When you are firm in your faith and you're reverse-engineering your life from the only thing that matters, you will have moments where the world will hate you. They will hate you.
Do Not Be Surprised When the World Hates You
"Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, that the world hates you."
There's literally a verse that says this. Think about it: if you worship a guy who got crucified by the world, but you expect that same world to applaud and commend you, you're deluding yourself. If you're going to follow Jesus, you need to understand that opposition comes with the territory.
Pain Caused by Your Own Sin
Now, sometimes the pain isn't coming from other people's sin or persecution. Sometimes it's because of your own sin. You screwed yourself over. Let me be direct: sometimes you are the problem.
People will come and say, "Pastor, the devil's attacking my relationships," but when you ask what's happening, they admit: "Well, I'm going to the club every night, dating three guys, hooked up with one of them, got pregnant, don't know who the dad is, and the other ones are mad at me." The devil didn't attack your relationships—you did. As Taylor Swift said, "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me."
The World's Discipleship vs. God's Truth
Here's what this world will disciple you into: "Do you. Affirm every desire you have, every inclination, every emotion. You need everyone cheering on every little feeling you have. If they don't, they're bad for you."
But the Word says the opposite:
"Your heart is deceitful above all things. Who can know it?"
Listen to this: nobody has ever hurt you more than you. Nobody has ever lied to you more than you. Nobody has ever let you down more than you. Nobody has ever broken more promises to you than you.
You Need a Band of Brothers and Sisters
This is why you need a band of brothers or sisters around you—people who love Jesus and love you, people with actual beliefs and convictions whom you've deputized in your life. You give them permission and authority to speak into your life.
You need someone who can say, "Hey, man, something's off. You're drinking too much and you need to quit." You need someone who can say, "The way you're talking to your wife isn't good. It's going to hurt you and your kids." You need people in your life with a badge of authority who can call you out when the worst comes out.
And when they do it, if you get defensive, remember: "Check yourself before you wreck yourself," because that's exactly what you're going to do.
A Third Category Most Don't Consider
There's a third reason people experience pain in their lives that most don't think about. When Paul gathers brushwood for a fire, a poisonous viper is driven out by the heat and fastens on his hand.
Almost every Bible scholar recognizes this is not coincidence. Right before Paul testifies to Christ in Rome, a serpent attacks Paul. But Paul is unharmed. He shakes off the serpent into the fire. This is a preview of what Jesus will do to the serpent in Revelation—the serpent attacks, Jesus is unharmed, He shakes it off into the lake of fire, and it burns forever.
The third reason you may experience pain: demonic sin.
The Book of Job and Demonic Attack
Read the book of Job. Satan has to ask God for permission to attack Job. God grants permission for a greater purpose. Satan then takes everything from Job except his wife—and notably, she's the one who says, "Curse God and die."
For 40 chapters, Job's three friends sit with him. But they only understood two categories of suffering: general sin and human sin. They didn't understand demonic attack. So for 40 chapters they insist: "If you're suffering, it must be because you did something wrong. That's the only reason."
Finally, Job speaks up and shakes his fist at heaven: "God, I got some questions."
As soon as Job asks, God steps forward and says:
"Who is this who darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man and sit down, because I'm going to demand some answers of you."
In modern terms: "Hey man, strap on your jock strap. You're fighting with your maker today."
God asks Job questions: "Where were you when I scooped out the Pacific Ocean? Where were you when I pulled the Himalayas out of the ground? Where were you when I twisted a double helix and created a language more complex than any computer programmer has ever made?"
Essentially: "Hey, Job, if I'm as big as the Pacific Ocean and you're the size of a coke can, you better expect there to be some things that don't fit, brother. You can't even lick your own elbow and you think you're going to understand everything going on?"
The Presence of God Is Better Than Answers
Job never gets an answer to why he suffered. But he gets the presence of God. And the presence of God was better than an answer to his question.
The key insight: it was never revealed to Job that he didn't suffer because of his sin or anybody else's. The only reason Job suffered was demonic attack and sin against him, not from him.
How You Frame Pain Matters
It really matters how you frame pain in your mind when it comes into your life. If when pain comes, you think, "God must be punishing me," you'll blame God and run from Him. But if when pain comes, you think, "Satan must be attacking me," you'll trust your heavenly Father and run to Him.
For Those Outside of Christ
If you're not a Christian, if you haven't bent your knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ, I love you enough to tell you the truth: you live in a world where Satan is the little-g god of this world, the prince of the powers of the air. If you're outside of Christ, not full of the Spirit, not adopted by the Father, you need to know that Satan is indescribably more powerful than you. He's unimaginably more intelligent than you. He's been studying you like an NFL offensive coordinator studies defense for thousands of years.
He is more full of malice and hatred than you will ever understand. The Bible says the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He looks at you every day and the only thing he wants is for you to be dead. He wants everything good in your life gone. He wants you, your life, and your lineage destroyed.
He's coming after your faith—or trying to keep you from ever coming to faith in Jesus Christ. The thought of you and your children and your children's children burning in hell for eternity is a gleeful thought to him that he rejoices in.
If you're not in Jesus, you should be scared. You should be terrified. The reality is that he that is in the world, Satan, is greater than you. He's greater than you.
For Those in Christ
But—and that's a big but—if you've bent your knee to Jesus, if you've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, adopted by the heavenly Father, sealed by the Holy Spirit, then the Bible says: yes, the one that's in the world is greater than you, but He is now in you. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
You got nothing to fear, man. Nothing to fear.
Reframe Your Pain Into Purpose
Here's what Paul did: he reframed every pain he experienced into serving the purpose of his life.
The happiest people you'll ever meet aren't people with fewer problems. Everybody's got problems. The happiest people you'll ever meet are people who have a purpose in their life that's greater than their problems—a purpose that makes all their problems worth it.
This is what Paul says:
"In all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Paul transforms all his pains into purposes.
God Always Uses Your Pain
There's a theological debate: Does God cause pain or does God allow pain? You can debate that all day. But here's what no Christian can debate: God always uses your pain. He uses it.
Paul's Pain Became His Platform
While Paul was imprisoned in Rome for two years, soldiers from Caesar's household guarded him. What did he do? He proclaimed Christ with boldness, without hindrance. Nobody was going to stop him.
And here's the Easter egg of Acts 28: while Paul was in prison, he wrote four books of your New Testament—Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians.
In Philippians 4, Paul writes this little line: "All God's people here where I'm at send greetings, especially those that belong to Caesar's household."
Think about it. Those soldiers were chained to Paul, guarding him. Paul was like, "Uh-uh, bro. You're chained to me. You've got to listen to me tell you about Jesus Christ every second you're chained to me." So many of those soldiers got saved that when he wrote Philippians, he said, "There's a whole bunch of Christians over here in Caesar's household, and they want me to tell you: keep going. Good job. We're on team Jesus with you."
Paul's testimony: His pain became his platform. His trial became his testimony. His greatest ministry came from his deepest misery. God will do that for you.
Paul's pain became his platform. His trial became his testimony, and his greatest ministry came from his deepest misery. God will do that for you.
About five years ago, one of the church members named Kelly Gudro came to me and Jana in the lobby and asked us to pray for him. He had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was told he only had a few months to live. Nearly every time we saw him over the next five years, he asked the same thing: "Will you pray for me that I'd have faith through it to share Christ with everybody that I can?"
A few years ago, Kelly asked himself a transformative question: "I wonder if God put me in this spot so that I could turn it into ministry." That question changed everything.
Kelly started a ministry called Hope Bags. He took his personal Bible—one he read every single day—and gathered all the verses that had encouraged him during his cancer fight. There were hundreds of them, all highlighted. He brought together a group of Lakepointe members, and together they highlighted verses from multiple Bibles that had encouraged Kelly in his fight with cancer. They placed these Bibles along with supplies that people fighting cancer need into bags branded with the word "Hope," and began mailing them to people fighting terminal cancer across the DFW area.
This ministry has grown beyond imagination. Over the last few years, they have mailed 6,000 Hope Bags to people in 40 states, 8 countries, and 2 languages. Just last week, they started mailing their first pediatric Hope Bags, sharing the love of Jesus with children fighting cancer.
One oncologist in Dallas recently told a patient who mentioned he went to Lakepointe: "I don't know a lot about your church, but I know a lot about one guy from your church." When asked to guess, the patient said, "Was it Kelly Gudro?" The oncologist confirmed it and said: No one in history has had more effect on the patients in this department than Kelly Gudro. No one has had a bigger impact on my nursing staff ever because of his faith, his steadfastness, and his joy through the midst of his fight.
I don't know what you're going through. I don't know which pain or trial you're facing. But what I do know is this: God wants to turn your pain into a platform, your trial into a testimony, and your misery into ministry.
Your greatest pain might be your greatest purpose. Don't waste it. Don't see it as the end of your story. God is looking to redeem it and use it for His kingdom and the expansion of His love to a lost and hurting world.
