This Don't Make Sense

A missing Clark Atlanta University student was found dead Friday, November 8. The body of Alexis Crawford, 21 years old, was found in Dekalb County off Columbia Drive one week after she was reported missing. Days before she was reported missing, she went to the police, filed a report describing “unwanted kissing and touching from Barron Brantley”. Barron wasn’t her boyfriend. He was her roommate, Jordyn’s boyfriend. At some point, it was alleged that Alexis was drugged and sexually assaulted. She went to the clinic, completed a rape kit and it was discovered she was pregnant. This evidence would have nailed Barron for sexual assault and possibly Jordyn for being an accomplice. They had to get rid of the evidence so she couldn’t speak or tell on them. So they suffocated her to silence her. Stuffed her body in a car. Drove to Dekalb County and dumped her. But one of the murderers couldn’t rest. Questions from police. Questions from news media. Questions from Alexis’ parents. God used questions to create space for the Holy Spirit to agitate them. One of them called the police and told them where they could find Alexi’s body. That don’t make sense. Why Pastor O? She went to college to have a better life and live out her dreams. {shake head} She didn’t go to college to be harassed by a sleazy guy. She didn’t go to college to be drugged and raped. She didn’t go to college to be suffocated to death. She didn’t go to college to come up missing. She didn’t go to college to be murdered. That don’t make sense. Instead of planning a graduation party in a few years, her parents have to plan a funeral. That don’t make sense.

I admit, I was troubled. I got real quiet when I heard this news. I was arguing with myself. I kept saying, “This don’t make no sense!” I turned the situation. Jordyn is going to jail. It still didn’t make sense. I turned it again. Barron is going to jail. Nobody won. Nobody got away with anything. I was all out of turns and it still didn’t make sense. What I didn’t know was God was eavesdropping on my private conversation. I didn’t have sense enough to ask Him to make sense of it, so He did. Olen. You don’t know how many other young ladies may have been victims of this young man. This doesn’t seem like his first time doing something like this. He knew what to do. Had he gotten away with it, there would have been other victimized beautiful young ladies. {Pause} Listen to what God had the nerve to tell me. I exposed him. I exposed his crimes. I exposed his sickness. I exposed how the enemy has been working on college campuses. Sometimes, God will allow things to happen that don’t make sense to you to save others. We don’t know how many people’s lives were saved because God stopped Barron. In order to stop him, I had to use someone who wouldn’t be silent. But would speak up for what’s right!

Paul, in Philippians 1, was saying the same thing. I know how God used Alexis’ life to save other people. She had to suffer and sacrifice so that others could be saved. Paul suffered and sacrificed so that the Gospel could go forth. If the Gospel went forth, lives would be saved! God will allow things to happen that don’t make sense to you to save others.

According to A. T. Robertson in Paul’s Joy in Christ, Paul suffered many things. He was at the center of riots. He was imprisoned in Caesarea for two-years. He was shipwrecked on his way to Rome. He was snake bitten on the shores of Malta. He was on house arrest. He survived several attempts to take his life. And at the time of our text, he was in prison again. How could so much suffering and opposition happen to Paul? It don’t make sense to the brothers Paul was writing to. How could someone saved by God, filled with the Holy Spirit and inspired by Jesus suffer so much opposition? How could someone on a mission commissioned by God suffer like this? It don’t make sense. Paul said, “I know it don’t make sense.” But despite all that I have suffered through, I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Because of what happened to Paul, the good news of Jesus became known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Paul suffered but the Gospel spread! Paul said, “don’t worry about me, look at how the Gospel was spreading.” God has a way of bringing something good out of suffering. He can bring joy out of pain. He can bring peace out of chaos. He can bring health out of sickness. He can bring wealth out of poverty. He can bring hope out of despair. He can bring love out of heartbreak. He can bring life out of death. He can bring Good News out of suffering!

Shout, “There’s something good coming out of my suffering!” Tell someone around you, “There’s something good coming out of your suffering!” Tell someone around you, “There’s something good coming out of our suffering!”

Two things you need to know about suffering through. One. It’s not in vain. God will never let you suffer in vain. You’re not suffering for nothing. Your suffering is strategic. God is going to use it to advance His kingdom. Two. It’s all for gain. All things work together for the good of those who love God. Your suffering is going to point someone to God. Somebody is going to see God through your situation and get saved.

It’s starting to make some sense now. My suffering is not in vain. It’s all for gain. Everything I’ve been through. Everything I’m going to go through. It’s all for gain. Say it with me. What I’m going through is not in vain, it’s all for gain!

Paul suffered. The Gospel spread. It advanced. It grew. It broadened. It mushroomed. It stretched. This is a beautiful term in the Greek. It means to blaze new trails before an army. Trailblazers would go before the army. They would take torches and set fire to brush and trees and bushes to clear a path for the army to pass through. That’s what the Gospel does. It goes before people and clears the path forward. Paul said, the Gospel was blazing new trails so that people who had never heard the gospel could be saved.

Notice. God is going to save those close to you and far from you. He’s going to save the imperial guard – the close. And He’s going to save the far away, all the rest. He’s going to save your family – the close. And He’s going to save your coworker’s sibling – the far away. How? How does God save the close and far? By saving everyone in between. First, He saved the imperial guard. Nine of them. They were the people closest to Paul while he was imprisoned. They heard him talking about God. They saw how he suffered because He loved Christ. When you come into contact with people who are on fire for God you will feel the fire too. God is going to bless somebody close to you. He’s going to warm somebody close to you. He’s going to heal somebody close to you. He’s going to encourage somebody close to you. He’s going to save somebody close to you. He saved the imperial guard and all the rest.

17 year old Shayla Winn. Can I tell you about Shayla Winn? She was escorted onto the American Idol stage during season 17. Lionel Richie, Katie Perry and Luke Bryan sat at the judges table ready to hear her sing. Before she sang, she shared how a year prior, she suddenly went legally blind. She had hydrocephalus, too much water in the brain. It put pressure on her optic nerves. Causing blindness. This don’t make sense. As doctors were investigating what was causing her to go blind, they made a gruesome discovery. She had a brain tumor. It had been growing in her brain all her life. Now, it makes sense! Had she not gone blind, doctors wouldn’t not have been working on her. If they hadn’t been working on her, they would not have found the tumor. She lost her sight, but they found her tumor. It saved her life! God has a way of bring beauty out of a bad situation. Shayla she sang Rise Up by Andra Day.

You’re broken down and tired of living life on a merry go round. And you can’t find the fighter, but I see it in you so we gonna walk it out. And move mountains. We gonna walk it out. And move mountains. And I’ll rise up. I’ll rise like the day. I’ll rise up. I’ll rise up unafraid. I’ll rise up. And I’ll do it a thousand times again. Lionel Richie lost it. Shayla reminds all of us to rise up and do it a thousand times again. People all around the world heard her sing. She got a trip to Hollywood and Hawaii. God’s going to bring something beautiful out of your situation. Something beautiful is going to come out of this!

It’s starting to make sense. Paul suffered. But not in vain. The Gospel spread. People near and far were saved. It was all for gain.

And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. The brothers led a Gospel campaign. They became confident in the Lord. Confident. They actively put their trust in the Lord. They relied on the Lord and not themselves. Paul was confident in the Lord when things didn’t make sense. There’s a nugget. When things don’t make sense in your life, put your confidence in the Lord. He can make sense out of non-sense! Paul was confident. Look at Philippians 1:6. Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Confidence is contagious. Watch it spread. Most of the brothers were confident in the Lord because they were close to Paul. When people are around you, they ought to catch your confidence in the Lord. Confidence is contagious. Moses standing at the helm of the Israelite nation. Having led them through the wilderness paused to remind them to put their confidence in the Lord. Deut 31:6. Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them (your enemy): for the Lord your God, he it is that does go with you; He will not fail you, nor forsake you. Confidence is contagious. 1 Chron 28:20. Solomon was ready to build the temple for God. David said to him, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. Confidence is contagious. 1 Tim 1:7. Paul was talking to young Timothy. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and a sound mind. Confidence is contagious. Ps 27:1. The Lord is my light and salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of who shall I be afraid?

I’m done. Paul suffered. Watch beauty come out of his suffering. The Gospel spread. People were saved. Witnessing got stronger. Now, what didn’t make sense in the beginning makes sense in the end. All along, God was strengthening the people around Paul with his testimony; He was strengthening them with his faith in God.

I’m done done. When things don’t make sense, stick with God until they do. It didn’t make sense on Friday, why Jesus had to die on an old rugged cross. But stick with God until Sunday morning. It made sense then. He took the sting out of death. He took the victory out of the grave. He got up with all power in His hand!

When things in your life don’t make sense, stick with God! He knows why you had to go through your situation. Stick with God until your decisions make sense. Stick with God until your sacrifices make sense. Stick with God until your pain makes sense. Stick with God until your walk makes sense. Stick with God until your relationships make sense. Stick with God until your struggle makes sense. Stick with God until your loss makes sense. I don’t know everything, but this one thing I know. Stick with God until!

Paul suffered. The Gospel spread. People were saved. Witnessing got stronger!