Bobby Chandler - Find Me a Way
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Summary
In this powerful message, the pastor declares that God always finds a way in every situation—whether it’s a job, marriage, forgiveness, or healing. He emphasizes that the Holy Spirit, living inside every believer, speaks clearly from the Father, bringing both conviction (to guide away from sin) and comfort (to provide peace in trials). The key is not to resist or insult the Holy Spirit through rebellion or deliberate sin, but to obey His voice, trust His leading, and walk in the path He reveals.
We’ve been in a new series titled «Communicating with God 2.0, ” and we have been asking the question, „Does God still communicate with us today?“ I’m going to do something I normally don’t do. If you know me and you know my preaching, usually I like to build up the title. Well, today I’m going to give it to you right away, so you’re welcome.
The title of today’s message is „Find Me a Way.“ Raise your hand if you’ve ever asked God to find a way. Come on, maybe it was, „God, please find me a way out of this job because I can’t stand it. I don’t like being here. Every time Sue comes into the room, she gives me that look, and I know she’s talking about me.“ All right, „God, please find me a way out of this place and into a new position.“
For some of us, it’s a little more real. We say, „God, please help me find a way to save my marriage or my relationship. Right now, I feel broken. I’ve given all that I have left, Father, and I feel like there’s nothing I can do. Will you please find a way to heal me, to save this?“
For many of us, there has been a time when we have prayed, „God, please help me to find a way to forgive. God, they did me wrong. I can’t believe they said that about me. I trusted them, I loved them, I helped them, but still, they went around behind my back and said such things.“ We’ve asked God to give us strength, „Help me to find a way to keep moving on with my life, to forgive, and let go of that bitterness.“
Sometimes we pray to God, „Help me to find a way to be happy again. It’s been a long time since I felt that peace, Lord, and I just don’t know if I can ever get it back. Help me, Lord, to find a way.“
Let me share some good news with you right now: God always finds a way. I’m going to say that again: God always finds a way. Will you say that with me? Actually, let’s believe it together: God always finds a way. God will always provide a way. God is in control of all the things that want to attack you and come your way that you don’t even know are coming. Why? Because God has a destiny for your life. And again, what does the term destiny mean? It means a desire for your life. He has a plan for you; you were created with a purpose.
In Romans chapter 8, verse 28, the New Living Translation states this: „We know that God causes everything to work together.“ Does it say that God causes only the good things to work for you, only the good days, only the people you like to be around? No! God causes everything to work together—the good and the bad—for those who do what? Who love God.
This is good news because this means your only job is to love God. It’s not up to you to change your situation; it is up to you to trust God through the process, no matter how it looks. But God wants a relationship with you.
I get it, though, because in church we come together, and we hear that, and we believe it. Yes, God finds a way, but when’s it going to happen? When is my way going to come? Because I’ve been praying for a long time, Pastor. I’ve been praying for some months now. When things are not looking better, I don’t know. I just want to be clear: How do I hear from God that this is the way that I need to go? Is it clear?
The simple answer to that is yes. Yes, God does speak clearly; He speaks to His children. He brings confirmation into your life. Have you ever had one of those moments where all of a sudden God just pulls upon your heart and you’re like, „That’s different“? And then you walk out of here or you walk out of wherever you’re at, and God just gives you another sign that goes right in line with what you just heard, and God gives you that confirmation over and over again?
Or maybe you’re struggling with something, and a friend comes out of nowhere and says, „Hey, I just felt something that’s going on in your life, and I’ve been praying for you, ” and you just give them that face like, „How did you know?“ It’s funny being a pastor because you just pray over people and allow the Spirit to speak, and sometimes people give me that look like, „Who are you, and how did you know I was going through that?“ I don’t know anything about what you’re going through, but God does because He always finds a way.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
We talked about this last week. This is very important for you to understand: God has given us a rare and special gift today that every believer in Jesus Christ has—the Spirit of God living inside of them. That is big news because I’m telling you right now that you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. You know what that means? God wants to speak to you. He wants to communicate with you, and as a loving Father, He also wants you to know His voice.
These were prophecies out of the Old Testament that gave people hope that one day all believers would have the Spirit of God living inside of them. Let me show you. We talked about this last week: Joel chapter 2, verse 29, New Living Translation: God says, „In those days—and the days that we’re living in now, also the end times—I will pour out my Spirit even on the servants, men and women alike.“ This is great news! You know why? It doesn’t matter your position. You don’t have to be in a special club to hear from God because sometimes we believe that lie the enemy has told us: „Oh, you don’t live like them. Oh, you struggle in this area. No other believer does. Something’s wrong with you. You’ll never be able to know the voice of God like everybody else.“
If you were here last week, we just proved that as long as your heart is ready to receive. I love the last worship song that we just sang: „God, yes! Yes! Whatever it is that you’re telling me to do, yes! No matter how hard it may look, yes! No matter how difficult it may be, yes! Because, God, I’m ready to walk into my destiny. I’m ready to desire what You desire.“ And God says, „I put my Spirit inside of you.“
Here’s what’s great: Jesus told the disciples also, „Here’s how it works. When the Holy Spirit speaks to you, He speaks to you directly from the Father.“ So when you hear that voice, that is the Father speaking to you through His Spirit. John chapter 16, verse 13, New Living Translation: Jesus was teaching His disciples. He said, „When the Holy Spirit comes, He will not speak on His own. But let me tell you, He’s going to speak to you of what He’s heard from who? The Father.“
Here’s some more good news: God also knows the future. Look at the rest of the passage. The Holy Spirit will also tell you about the future. He’s going to warn you about the things to come, or He’s going to put something inside your heart, and also you’re going to feel a little bit different, like, „I feel like God is pushing me in this way, but I don’t know.“ God knows the future. He knows when you’re about to have a good day or a bad day. So don’t you want to listen to His voice? Don’t you want to say, „Yes, God, whatever it is that you have for me, I will walk in it today“?
Let me make it clear: God speaks to us by His Spirit so that our lives represent Christ. Let me say that again: God speaks to us by His Spirit so that our lives represent Christ. This means the Spirit hears from the Father, and He speaks it to you, and when you say, „Yes, Lord, ” and you walk in obedience, you don’t look like the rest of the world, and your actions and who you are represent Christ. You become a true light in the darkness. You have something special that the world can never offer. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you know what that is? You have hope when the world doesn’t.
That’s a big deal! That no matter what, I don’t know what tomorrow brings, but I know God is in control of it. I know that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, is living inside of me, and He will speak to me when I feel afraid, when I don’t know what to do. I need to ask questions, but what do you do? Let me ask you this: It’s okay. The Spirit of God lives inside of us. The Holy Spirit wants to communicate with you, but what do you do when you start to hear His voice, and it seems to be uncomfortable, like God is telling you to go a direction that you normally don’t want to go?
No, no, no, no! See, a lot of us come in here and we’re like, „Yes, God, fire me away!“ Then God says, „Okay, do this, ” and you’re like, „God, no way! No way! Never mind, I’m not going to do that. You’re crazy! There’s no way that I’m going to go say that to them because you know what they said about me.“ Or, „There’s no way I’m going to go forgive them. God, why should I forgive them?“ Because it releases a burden, and you’ve been holding on to it for so long.
Just this week, God gave me an opportunity to speak into somebody’s life, and he told us with tears in his eyes, „You know what? I’m tired of being hurt. I’m tired of holding on to a burden. It’s heavy.“ I told him, „You’ve got to let it go.“ We hold on to pain because we want to be in control. I need you to understand the Holy Spirit—this Spirit of God—is speaking to you to let these things go. But here is a hard truth: You can still reject what the Holy Spirit is telling you to do. Did you know that? Because God has given you free will, you can still reject what the Holy Spirit is telling you to do.
Warnings: Resist & Insult the Holy Spirit
The Bible gives us two warnings: Do not do this; it will bring trouble to your life! If you experience pain, you will hold on to that pain if you do these two things. It says, „Do not resist the Holy Spirit“ and „Do not insult the Holy Spirit.“
Let me show you: first, let me show you this. Do not resist the Holy Spirit. If you know the story of the disciple Stephen, he was preaching to the Jews, and he’s pretty much telling them, „Hey, you all need to repent because Jesus, He’s the Messiah. He’s the true Son of God—the one that you go against, the one that you killed. He is the true Messiah God finally sent him.“ But yet you’ve rejected the word of God. In other words, Stephen is saying, „Hey, you rejected what the Holy Spirit was speaking to you. You chose this.“
Let’s look together at Acts chapter 7, verse 51. I’m going to read the Amplified verse: „But Stephen said, ‘You stiff-necked and stubborn people.’“ All right, can you imagine coming to church and hearing that for the first time? „Welcome to Authentic: Stiff-necked and Stubborn People.“ He was ruthless because sometimes it shows more love to be honest for somebody to be convicted and change. And he wasn’t afraid. That’s what I love about this man. You look at the disciples: when the Holy Spirit’s on them, they’re not afraid of anything. „You stiff-necked and stubborn people, ” he says, „uncircumcised in heart and ears.“ This means that your hearts are rebellious; your ears won’t listen to a thing God is trying to tell you. But then he says this: „You are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit.“
You’re always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. And he goes into it and says, „Just like your fathers.“ And he starts to tell them the story. Remember the Old Testament? Remember the prophets? They would hear from God, and they would speak a word from God, but what did your fathers do? They went against them. They resisted the Holy Spirit. They did not want to listen to the word of God, and instead, they tried to murder the prophets of God. And now you’ve done the same thing to the Son of God.
Here I am standing before you saying, „Repent! Don’t be this way anymore; change!“ Guess what happens? They stoned him to death. They still didn’t listen. Why? Because they did not want to hear from the Holy Spirit. They resisted what the Spirit of God was telling them that would actually set them free and bring salvation into their life.
Do not resist the Holy Spirit. Second is this: You can insult the Holy Spirit. What happens? How, Pastor? How do I insult the Holy Spirit? Let me show you Hebrews chapter 10, verse 29, New Living Translation. It says, „Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy.“
What does that mean? It means that there is a difference between repentance and deliberately living in sin. What is the definition of repentance? It means to change your mind. We all struggle in different areas of our lives, but true repentance means, „God, I need to change, and I need Your strength to get through this. I change my mind; this is no longer good for my life. I don’t want to be the same.“ Okay? God honors that heart, and He helps you through. But there are some people that deliberately walk in sin, and they say this: „I can do whatever I want to and just ask for forgiveness. I’m going to live this way; I’m going to go there; I’m going to say this; and then I’m just going to ask for forgiveness and keep doing what I do and not feel bad about it.“
In Hebrews, it says, „You know what you’re doing. You know the truth about Jesus. You know the truth that He died on that cross, that He shed His blood for you, and now you trample upon His blood. You step all over it, and you don’t care.“ And because of this, you have insulted the Spirit of God. It says this at the very end: „As if it were common and unholy, ” and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit, who brings God’s mercy to us.
So here is the real warning. Let me make it simple: when you reject what God is telling you to do, you insult His way of healing you. When you reject what God is telling you to do, you insult His way of healing you, of being able to walk you through the process. You’ve been praying for a way, but God is saying, „Here it is! There’s the way!“ But you’ve got to get walking; something has to change in your life. You can’t just stay still! All right, „God, give me a way.“ Well, move! The Spirit of God is speaking to you, but you’re resisting it.
Then you start living this life rejecting God, and now all of a sudden, you find yourself in a position where you’re trampling upon the blood of Christ, and it’s an insult. I said this last week: God wants a relationship with you, but the Bible also tells us that we can grieve the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? It means a loss of intimacy with Him. A loss of intimacy. See, God has a desire for your life, and it’s to show you the way. Isn’t that good news? His desire for your life is to show you the way, even when it’s hard.
Personal Testimony: The Adoption Story
I’m going to share a story with you. A while back, I remember being in a staff meeting at the church I worked at in Louisiana. I was sitting there, and we were praying. It was so clear that God spoke to me and said, „You are to adopt him and he will be your son, ” because I had been asking God, „Is this something we’re supposed to do?“ and I didn’t know how to do it. But all of a sudden in that moment, I just remember praying, and it just felt so clear: God was saying, „You are to adopt him; he is your son. I have a purpose for him.“
So I started to think because now I know what I’m supposed to do, but I don’t know how I’m going to get it done. Right? How am I going to get it done? If you don’t know our story, Titus is my middle son, and we adopted him. The process of it all was crazy; God was in control of it all. But here’s the story behind it all: his biological mother was caught shoplifting at the time, and she was arrested. When they brought her to jail, she found out some news. She found out she was pregnant, and she didn’t know! And so now she’s looking at her actions, and there were other things too that were involved in that. So she’s looking at some time, and for the first time, she was going to be in jail for about a year.
Now, she’s sitting in a prison, she’s pregnant, and she knows what her life is. She’s stuck in this place, but God was doing something special. Here’s what’s cool: for the first time, God was telling her, „Hey! Do not abort this baby. Do not abort this baby!“ Because previously she had, in fact, it was not going to be easy for her even in prison because the biological dad wanted her to get an abortion, and he was pressuring her all the time, „Hey, we need to do this! We need to get this done!“ In fact, she had a court date, and here’s what’s crazy: he showed up to the court date hoping that she would be able to leave after to take her straight to the abortion clinic.
But something inside of her is telling her, „Don’t do it!“ She’d been through pain before with her. Just think about her position where she was sitting in jail, feeling like she has nothing to give this baby; the biological dad is trying to pressure her into an abortion, and she just keeps hearing this voice at this time: „Don’t do it!“
Here’s what’s also powerful about the story: there’s a Bible in there, and she started reading the Bible every day, and He spoke to her because the Word of God is living and breathing. People say, „Well, how do I change? Read this Word.“ „But I don’t understand it!“ That’s okay because God is doing this inside of you by His Spirit, and it starts to come to life. So she felt this conviction.
Here’s our story: so me and my wife at this time, we had already had Micah, but we didn’t think we could have any more children, so we had been talking about fostering. „Let’s try this process.“ But because we knew her so well at that moment, God spoke to my wife first. It’s always the wife first, right?
She says, „You are to adopt; he’s going to be your child.“ And I think just as a man, you just think, „Okay, okay, all right. How’s this going to be taken care of?“ Okay? But I still remember being in that staff meeting, and I didn’t know how we were going to overcome all the obstacles. I didn’t know how we were going to pay for it. For a while, the biological dad would not even sign the paperwork.
„So how, God, are we going to get through this process? How is everything going to be okay?“ And here’s what God did: She was in jail for an entire year. It was her first pregnancy to have completely sober because she was in jail. Because of that, I’m telling you today, Titus enjoyed some prison food. Okay? He came out, and that was a chunky baby; like, he came out. He had been eating real good, but he was healthy! He was healthy! And this relationship began, and it was hard for her. I mean, giving up a child, and my wife was able to hold him right away. It was a powerful moment.
It’s cool to me to get to stand up on this stage and tell you that in our situation, through the ups and downs of that, God found a way. It’s not just something we say just to say, „No, really! God will always find a way!“ He provided the cost; He provided the lawyer. He got the dad to sign the paperwork; everything was provided! And on that day—let’s do the clap!
Come on, come on! I have the picture here. And that’s his biological mom right beside Christy. That’s Titus with the helmet; we had to do the helmet for a while. But on that day, it’s crazy; it almost brings me to tears now because even the judge was crying because of what God was doing. I’m telling you, I said it last week: when your heart is ready to receive, it does not matter the location. God will speak to you, whether it’s in church or even in prison. God will speak to you and do something powerful.
Isaiah chapter 30, verse 21, NIV states, „Whether you turn to the right or you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it! ’“ But notice, as God speaks, the very next line requires action: „This is the way; now you walk into it.“ God always finds a way.
Do not reject the Holy Spirit. Do not insult Him. And here’s what we’re going to do now: I have two points that I want to bring to your attention and help you as you communicate with God, and then afterward, Love Life is going to give a presentation about how we’re going to take action as a church and see these babies' lives saved and also these women healed to know that they are loved, and God is still there, He’s with you, and He will find a way.
Point 1: The Holy Spirit Convicts
Point number one is this: Here’s how the Holy Spirit ministers to you. Point number one: The Holy Spirit will convict you. The Holy Spirit will convict you. John chapter 16, verse 8, New Living Translation: „And when He comes, He will convict the world of its sin and of God’s righteousness and the coming judgment.“
Now, notice something important: every time Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit, He never says „it.“ Have you noticed that? He never says „it.“ I believe that sometimes we think of the Holy Spirit like this magical force around us. No! This is the Spirit of God. Jesus said He is with you; He is inside of you. God is guiding you and speaking to you because what the Spirit of God speaks comes directly from the Father, and He brings conviction.
And I thought about this because a lot of us would be like, „Well, Pastor, that’s great, but it’s conviction.“ It’s conviction. Conviction may not sound like the most amazing thing at first, but it’s because of conviction that we are offered life over death. That is God speaking to you, telling you, „Don’t go there! Don’t do that! I know you wouldn’t know the pain, but that’s not going to work. You’ve already learned the lesson. This is what I have for you.“
And it’s this conviction! Why? What does conviction bring? It brings repentance: „I’m changing my mind, Lord. I’m tired. I don’t want to trample upon Your blood. I don’t want to insult Your Spirit. I know that it’s a rare and special gift that I can communicate with You, but God, I believe You’ll find a way! Can You help me?“ God will say yes! „I convicted you to show you what can hurt you, but I’ve also allowed a conviction in your life to show you how much I love you and that I’ve saved you from that. And this is my mercy and my grace.“
The conviction of God will help us understand what is good for our life and what is bad. But the decision is yours; the decision is all yours.
Point 2: The Holy Spirit Comforts
My last point is this: The Holy Spirit will comfort you. Isn’t that good news? I believe we’ve all experienced this at some point. When you were hurting and you cried out to God, „Find a way.“ You feel broken right now; maybe you feel lost right now. But still, there’s something different when you’re in the presence of God. It’s like you still have this hope and this peace. That’s because Jesus told His disciples, „Listen, the Holy Spirit of God, He loves you. He wants such a close relationship with you that He will comfort you when nobody else is there.“
Isn’t that amazing? That God would do something like that? John chapter 14, verse 16, King James Version: This is what Jesus said: „I pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.“
Jesus was saying this because if you look in the book of Acts, He’s telling the disciples, „It is better that I go. I have to be at the right hand of the Father because if I’m at the right hand of the Father, guess what’s coming? Oh, you better get ready! You feel like you don’t know anything right now? It’s about to happen; the power of God is going to come upon you.“
But I love it because God is always teaching us patience, and so they’re probably like, „When’s it going to happen?“ „What time am I going to set it?“ And Jesus is like, „You just wait.“ You can imagine the disciples, like, „We’ve got to wait? We’ve been through all this; you’re going to make us wait?“
But it was on that special day, the Day of Pentecost, at the exact moment that a fulfillment of everything that was celebrated took place as the Spirit of God came upon the people of God who believed in Jesus Christ, and power changed everything about them—the goodness of God. Do you understand? This is why they weren’t afraid of people.
„I’m not afraid anymore because I understand that God is with me.“ Therefore, right now I feel the peace of God, even though it doesn’t make sense. Remember Stephen? I told you Stephen was telling them, „Hey, repent! Do not resist the Holy Spirit; do not reject the Holy Spirit.“ What did they do? They stoned him to death. And a lot of us would look at that story like, „Oh man.“ But the Holy Spirit was there, and at the moment he should have been tormented, he had complete comfort—something that I’m a little jealous of, actually.
Acts chapter 7, verses 54 and 55: „The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusations, and they shook their fists at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God and saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand.“
At the moment of his death, the Holy Spirit gave him peace and gave him a vision—a glimpse of where he was going. „This is not the end!“ And this is why we need to stand up, and when God speaks, we say yes because here’s something important for you: When you resist the Holy Spirit, you resist God’s comfort.
Because the Spirit of God is the Comforter. When you resist the Holy Spirit, you resist discomfort. So before we go into the presentation, I want to ask you right now because maybe you’ve been living a life where you feel like you’ve trampled upon the blood of Christ. You’ve just been living how you want to live; you’ve got all these influences around your life right now; you’re kind of doing your own thing. Maybe you seem numb; maybe you don’t even like this topic today; maybe it doesn’t make you feel comfortable right now. But maybe, just maybe, that’s God and that’s the Spirit of God reaching upon you, saying, „It’s time to wake up! Things are getting real! Things are getting very real! And it’s time; I need the church to wake up.“
This is not for show, but this is a moment for us to stand up and witness the glory of God change so many lives. This is what we’re a part of and what you’re a part of! But it’s knowing that a God who created all things wants to know you in such a way that He will speak to you by His Spirit.
So if you’ve been praying to God, „Find me a way, ” then let me ask you this: If God has given you the answer, what are you waiting for? What’s holding you back? What’s making you resist what the Holy Spirit is saying? Maybe it’s forgiveness—that’s a hard one. Maybe it’s to forgive and let go. Maybe it’s to get some things out of your life. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate; maybe it’s time to get uncomfortable and have some conversations and express some feelings because you feel a way but you haven’t been expressing it, and because of that, things aren’t what they used to be. God loves you. God loves you.