Ep 014 || Hope for the New Year: Finding God in My Past and in My Future

Well happy new year, Pando family! Can you believe it is 2026 already? We are excited for another year of this, of what God's gonna do in and through your life, actually more excited about that than anything else. And so thank you, if you've joined us from last year, thanks for coming back. We're pumped to be with you again, and we're praying that this will continue to be a blessing in your life, because we would not do it if we were not hopeful and prayerful that what we're talking about here would apply to your life, trying to follow Jesus the best that you can, just like we are. But my name's Derek, this is Brandon, we're excited to be with you today, and today we're going to deviate a little bit from what we normally do, Brandon. Normally we discuss the sermon from the previous weekend, but what we're going to do today is kind of the very last weekend of the year here at Southeast, we do something where we kind of call it a one-at-a-time weekend, where at all of our campus locations, including what you would have seen online, we kind of talk about what God has done in and through the people of our church over the past year. And Brandon, as you look at that, is this something, looking back, is this something you do well? Personally, do you do this well? Do you not do this well? What do you think? No, 100% not. I don't do this well at all. But you do make me think, you said it's 2026, I feel like it was just 1986, so I don't know what's going on around here. That was a little bit ago. That was a while, a while ago. But yeah, it's very difficult, I think, to always look back and see, and even remember how God has moved in the past year, even in the past year. Because I think so often, we just get distracted, right? And we get busy, and days kind of spill into one another, and we start to forget, like, oh, this is what God has done, this is how He has worked. And I think that's why, throughout Scripture, we get all of these commands to remember so many things. In the Old Testament, one of the very first things the Israelites are told to remember is the Sabbath day, to remember the Sabbath day, take this one day out of seven to just stop and remember God, because you're going to forget, you're going to get busy, it's going to get crowded out, you're just not going to remember. Later on, they're told to remember the Passover, that every year to have this kind of yearly rhythm of, we have to stop, and we have to remember not only what God has done for us in this past year, but to remember the stories of our ancestors, to remember, like, this is what God has done for us as a people historically. And even when we get

into the New Testament, Jesus institutes what we call communion or the Lord's Supper as this, hey, every time you do this, every time we eat the bread, every time we drink this cup, stop and remember, like, stop and think about, oh, this is what Jesus has done for me, this is how I've seen Him live and move and work in my life. And I think God gives us those rhythms because He knows that we are prone to forget. Like, we will remember all sorts... Yes, so easily, yeah. Like, we'll remember all sorts of weird, trivial knowledge and things like that, but when it comes to things that really matter, like, for whatever reason, our brains don't always connect with that. And so God wants to give us these very tangible reminders of, hey, stop, remember, don't let this pass you by, don't let this year, don't let this week, don't let this day go by without you stopping to remember these things. That's really good. Yeah, I had taken a trip just a little over a year ago, and it was kind of the furthest away I'd ever been from home. And my parents had sent me a message and was like, hey, before you leave, can you stop by and see us? We bought you something. And they had got me like a water bottle and something like that, but they also got me this bracelet. And I didn't really think anything about it at the time, but a couple days later, I looked at it, and there was an actual message on it, and it's from Matthew 28, verse 20, and it says, I am with you always. And obviously, that's Jesus talking to His disciples, but my parents were so intentional about giving me something like that because it was helping me remember that as I step into something that was going to be stressful for me, that God was with me, right? It was that reminder that, hey, wherever I'm going to be, God is going to be there. And I think it relates to this because there are times when we have something in front of us that seems... daunting, right? So in those moments, right, we want to have courage, but we ask that question, like, okay, well, where does courage come from? For a Christian, like, where does courage come from? But I think it comes from when you're able to stop and think back on how God has come through and how God has worked before. Let's say, like, you're not going out into battle, right, because of your own strength and your own experience. No, you're going out, right, in knowing what God has already done and knowing that, like, hey, God is with me in the midst of this, and so I can have the confidence to step in in the middle of all of that. Yeah, yeah, and oddly enough, this kind of fits into something that I'm working on for one of our studies to come later on this year, is the

idea that when we look at God's Word, we're able to anchor ourselves, like, in two moments in history, really, that we can anchor ourselves in the past, that we can remember, like, this is a God who comes through. This is a God who has done these things for me. This is a God who has a proven track record. So we can anchor ourselves in the past, but we can also anchor ourselves in the future. Basically, we anchor ourselves at Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. We anchor ourselves on the day of His return, that we know, like, these are the things that God is going to do. These are the things that He has promised us in Christ, that no matter what happens to me in this life, that I have that day, that I know is coming. So we get this ability to anchor ourselves in the past, to trust in a God who is trustworthy, and we get to anchor ourselves in the future knowing that there is a security there, that nothing can take away, that nothing can uproot from our lives. And I think that's what helps us in those moments, like you're saying, to be like, well, you know, this God who has done this, this God who has promised this, He's also said He's with me right now in the mess. And if I can trust Him, if He could be trusted then, if I can trust Him in the future, then I can trust Him today. That's really good. That's really good. Yeah, and so I think one of the things that I love that we get to do every year as a church is we get to look back on all the things that God accomplished, right? All of the things that we've seen Him doing. And I think that as a church, that is a fantastic thing to do. And I think we see, like you had just mentioned, we see examples of that in Scripture, right? Whether it's with the Sabbath or even different feasts or things like that that God instituted in the Old Testament times to help Israel remember what God had done, even Passover, right? Delivering them out of Pharaoh's hand in Egypt, it was so important to, especially the nation of Israel, to remember not only what God did, but who God is, right? And as we're remembering who God is, that gives us more confidence to step forward. But I think when we apply this personally in our lives, it's just as important. And so I think there... Honestly, I think there are several ways that we can do this type of thing, right? Where we can sit down and kind of think about like, okay, like, here's what happened this last year that I'm grateful for, and here are some things that I'm praying for this next year. And so, Brandon, do you have any kind of like tips for people of like, hey, like if I were you, right, this is what I would do, kind of taking this talk today. Yeah, yeah. So I think one of the things we struggle with here is that we don't have a

good guidepost to help us gauge how we've grown, right? Like I can... And if you were to walk into my house, you would see there in the lobby way, there's one of those big yardstick things where you can measure the kids on them and see like how they've grown. And it's easy for us to gauge physical growth, right? We can track our weight, we can track our height, we can track all of these things. But it's hard spiritually for us to find that, to think about, well, this is how I've grown, this is how I've seen God move, these are the things I've done. But I think, you know, what I would challenge you all with is, you know, there are some barometers of what it looks like in Scripture to be living according to the Spirit, to see how God is moving and working in your life. And one of those ways is through what we call the fruit of the Spirit, right? Galatians 5, 22 through 23, which says, you know, the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. And you read those qualities and I'm suddenly blanking out on how many of them there are. You know, we can count them out, but you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self control, all of these things that Paul talks about. And I think those qualities give us a good barometer, not only to think about ourselves and how we've grown, but to think about how we've seen God move in this past year. I mean, think about it this way, you can look at that quality of love, is how have I seen God's love this year? How have I experienced that? What are some very tangible ways that I have known and felt his love? And then turn that on yourself. Well, how have I grown in that? How have I grown in sharing his love? How have I grown in becoming a more loving person to those around me? You think of a quality like patience, how have I experienced God's patience in this year? We fall short every day. It's not hard to think about how God has been patient with us. But then how have I grown in patience? How have I become more like who he is through his work in me?

And I think to me what's so significant about that is it roots who I'm becoming in who God already is. You know, it's how is the way I have experienced God changing me to become more like him? And I think that at the end of the year, at the beginning of the year, those are good characteristics, good qualities to look at, to think about, hey, how have I grown in these things in this past year? And how do I want to commit myself to grow in them this next year? I mean, you can look at what are some practical, what are, I mean, for each one of those, what is a practical way you want to grow in gentleness this year? Is it with the way you speak? Is it with the way you treat others? Is it with the way, you know, you are generous towards others? I think you can look at each of those qualities and say, you know, what's one tangible, practical way that I can allow God to grow me in that as we head into 2026? I absolutely love that. And so, you know, kind of here's the challenge, you know, as we enter into the new year. Brandon just spoke about, what was that again? Galatians? Galatians 5, 22 through 23. Galatians 5, chapter 5, verses 22, verse 23. If you've never read Galatians before, it's in kind of the back section of your Bible. It's in what we call the New Testament. And so we would encourage you to look at those fruit of the Spirit, like Brandon just said. And maybe it's just take one of those a day for the next several days and look at, hey, like, how have I seen God work through my life in terms of gentleness this past year? Maybe just start there, spend some time there. And then step into, okay, well, how is it that I want God to work in my life in this way over the next year, right? Write some of those things down. And then maybe the last thing that you do is to write out a prayer and say, God, this

is how, here's kind of my thoughts on what I would like to see you do, God, but please work through my life in this way so I can be gentle to this person and this conversation and this relationship. And as you do those each day, kind of just save. Save those pieces of paper, save that in a notebook. Open them back up beginning of next year, because I think you'll be surprised at what God will do through you. Because again, following Jesus is not about accumulating things in our life, right? It's not about getting richer, it's not about becoming better looking or having more success or more influence, it's not about that, right? Following Jesus is about allowing Him to transform the inside of who we are, right? And as Brandon just said, the way we're transformed, right, we want to be embodied, we want to be characterized by those fruit of the Spirit of God. And so Brandon, great piece of advice, love that. And for y'all that are watching, again, we're so excited for what this year has ahead of us. We saw thousands of you subscribe to our Southeast Christian Church channel over this past year. And know that no matter where you are at, you're a part of our church family, right? Because you've subscribed and you watch these and our services every single week. And know that we have a church waiting for you. That if once you are out of prison, if you have that opportunity one day, we have online groups that exist that you can jump on the computer and be a part of each week. But we have 14, 15, something like that, different church locations that would love for you to be a part of their in-person community. Y'all, but Happy New Year. Yeah, Happy New Year. Thanks for being with us. Looking forward to it.