Faith for Whatever Comes Next | Nick Bodine

Well, welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for being with us this weekend. I just personally want to say a big thank you to the many, many volunteers who served throughout our Christmas experiences across our location. So many people gave their time and effort and energy to impact many, many lives and to bring hope to our community. And I cannot thank you enough. And I'm so glad you're with us this weekend. I want to welcome not only our online community, I want to welcome those who are joining us in our partnership with God Behind Bars on the Pando app and in different prison locations. Thank you guys for being with us today. We're in for a great weekend this weekend. Next weekend, I'm starting a series called Not Afraid. And we're going to look at one of the most famous passages in the entire Bible, Psalm 23. We're going to be inspired by a line in Psalm 23 where David says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear. We're going to talk about the power of faith over fear. It's going to be a fantastic series. It starts next weekend. So make sure to join us then. But this weekend, Pastor Nick is going to be bringing an incredible message, and I'm so grateful for him. So let's give a huge, warm welcome to Pastor Nick. Welcome. You made it. You made it through the holidays. Give it up big for yourself there. You're here today, our last weekend of 2025. Can you believe that this year has flown by? Have you ever noticed how much pressure we put on the new year? Like December 31st, it's 1159. We're ready. We're excited. New Year's almost here. Yeah, things last year might have been messy, complicated, stressful. Maybe they were really hard, but that's all going to change at midnight, right? It's all going to change in 2026. New year, new me, fresh start. This is the year everything settles down. This is the year where all the crazy goes away. Then January 3rd happens and your car won't start. Your kid gets sick. Your email inbox blows up. It just all starts becoming a mess. You're like, cool, that was all a lie. This whole new year thing did nothing. And if you think about it, the new year, it doesn't really reset anything. It's just a date on a calendar. Like there's no spiritual power when that ball drops, no angels going to show up at midnight. Like, don't be afraid. Your problems have now expired. But here's what is true. Even though the calendar doesn't change much, I believe in a God who can. God has the power to change. And that's why I want to talk to you today about a faith for whatever comes next, especially as we enter a new year that we can't necessarily control. And if I'm honest with you, 2025 was an incredibly hard year for me personally. It might not have been like the hardest year, but it's up there in like top five. And I don't want it all to sound bad because there was a lot of great blessings, a lot to be grateful for in 2025. But I can admit that I wasn't prepared for the surprises 2025 was going to bring. Now I started in January confident, like I could take on anything. I was feeling healthy. I was feeling strong. Had this attitude of, yeah, bring it 2025. I've got you. And 2025, it brought it. Like, I felt like I kept getting hit with unfortunate surprise after unfortunate surprise. And by June, I'm thinking I'm just ready to be out of 2025. Like I want it to be over. I saw this post today. It kind of like is what I'm talking about. It says 2025 basically said, but did you die? Like, yeah, I did everything but die this last year is what it felt like. And maybe some of you feel that way too. Like you're walking into this next week with a hope that the new year means things are going to be different. And so if you're here today wondering, like, how do I make 2026 a better year than last year? I want to give you a different question. This is a question I'm asking myself now, which is how do I prepare myself to walk with faith through 2026 when I don't know what the year is going to bring. And to do so, there's a story in the Bible I want to look at. And it's the story of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets, if not the great prophet in the Bible. And Elijah has always been fascinating to me because God used him in such powerful ways. In fact, Elijah was one of only two people in the Bible who never died. The Bible tells us a chariot came up with horses of fire and basically Elijah went up into heaven and just a whirlwind.

So that alone tells us something important, that this wasn't just a good man, that this was someone who walked closely with God, who listened to his voice, who was incredibly obedient. And I love how Elijah's story begins, because it's not how we think great stories should start. One of the greatest prophets in the whole Bible, in our first introduction of him, is basically him stepping straight into a confrontation. If you're following along in your Bibles today, we're gonna be in 1 Kings chapter 17. And when we get to the red word, say it out loud with us, but we're gonna start in the very first verse. And it says, now Elijah, who was from Tishbi in Gilead, told King Ahab, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, the God I what? The God I serve. So we know Elijah was a man of God. There will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word. That's it, that's his whole introduction. Like no warmup, no explanation, no backstory. He walks straight into the presence of a king, the first we hear about him, and he says, God says the rain is done, and it's not gonna rain again until I give the word. And here's why this matters. It's because this was King Ahab, who wasn't just any king, he was one of the Bible's most evil kings. The most evil king Israel had ever seen.

He rejected God, he led the nation into idol worship, he married this queen named Jezebel, who was openly opposed to God. This king tried to push God as far out of his country, as far out of his nation that he could. So Elijah, he doesn't show up to this spiritually healthy environment. No, he shows up to resistance and tension and uncertainty. When you're coming before a king and making this kind of announcement, he could have lost his life. And what stands out to me is that Elijah didn't hesitate. God gave him the words, God gave him the direction, the instructions, and Elijah was obedient. And from the very first verse, what we know about Elijah is he was willing to obey God, even when it put him in uncomfortable and unpredictable positions. And that leads us to the first truth we need. If we're gonna have a faith for a year that we can't control, the first thing we need to know is we need to learn to stay where God places us. Stay where God places us. There's a member of our household that I don't talk about very often, and that is our dog Olive. She's an Australian Labradoodle. She's small, she's cute, she looks innocent, she looks sweet, she looks like this little angel pup, but she's none of those things.

She is deeply loved, but she is also deeply spoiled. And she just marches to the beat of her own drum. She does what she wants, when she wants, and no one can convince her otherwise. Talk her out of it. You can't even punish her out of it. Now, we've done the responsible things with her. We've taken her to dog training, and we've got great dog trainers. This is not their fault. It's probably our fault for not following through with the consistency of the training. But Olive knows every command. She can sit, she can heal, she can go to her place if she wants to, if she's in the mood. But the one command she absolutely refuses to obey is the command, stay. I've tried to work with her so much. I've given her all the treats, like treats in my hand, like, stay, stay. And the second I take a few steps away from her, Olive breaks, stay. Or someone will be coming to the front door, and this is only like a 20 pound dog, but I know some people are scared of dogs. So I'll tell Olive, stay. But the second I head towards that front door, she just comes running, jumps all over the person, trying to give them kisses, trying to give them love. Or if the girls are home and they're leaving

and they open the front door, they'll tell her, stay. But the second they turn their backs, Olive will just dart out the door. She wants to leave with them or she wants to go on her own adventure. And just a couple of weeks ago, she went on one of these adventures and she darted out the front door. And we have a neighborhood group chat. And one of our HOA board members posted a Ring Cam video and said, does anybody know whose dog this is? And I started to watch the video, and that's Olive on the HOA doors front. And I think I'm gonna stop the video right here because I don't think I need to finish. I think you can get the point of what Olive did on the HOA board member's front porch that I had to admit to, I had to fess up to. But the girl will not stay when she's told to stay. And here's my point with all of this, is that Olive doesn't break stay. because she's untrained. She breaks stay because she's convinced moving is better than waiting. And that's not just a dog problem, that's a human problem. When God says, stay right where you are, remain here, be patient, wait. I don't think our instinct is normally to be like rebellious it's not rebellion, it's not like we're saying like, no God, I'm not gonna listen to you, I won't wait.

But I think our instinct is most of the time restlessness. Like we start thinking like there has to be more. Like God surely doesn't mean wait here, not in this, this is hard, this is difficult, or this is boring. Surely God wants me to be somewhere else by now. I can't stay and wait anymore. And sometimes God is telling us you need to wait, you need to stay. And that's exactly where Elijah finds himself in this story. After he boldly obeys God, he confronts King Ahab. He has this massive amount of faith moment. God, we're gonna see, doesn't send him forward. This doesn't necessarily propel him into his next. He actually sends him away. Look at verse two of 1 Kings 17. It says, then the Lord said to Elijah, go to the east and what? Hide. Hide by Kareth Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River. Now the word hide here matters. Because what God doesn't say is like, okay, you obeyed me, now go build. You obeyed me, now go expand or go grow your influence. No, he says, go and hide and stay there. And Elijah obeys him, which tells us something powerful that staying isn't passive, staying is obedience. Elijah, he wasn't gonna miss God's will by staying at this Brook. He was gonna find God's will there.

Because sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is not keep moving or move on, but just stay faithful where God has placed you right now. And that's a word for some of us today. Because some of us are walking into 2026 thinking, this is the year I finally get out of all this. This is the year I finally move on. This is the year where everything changes. And honestly, not to be depressing, but what if it's not? What if it's not? What if God's saying, no, not yet, stay. Let me work right here first. What if he's telling us to stay in that relationship, even though it's bringing you so much drama, or stay in that job that's frustrating you. Stay committed, stay put, stay planted, stay obedient. What we have to understand is God is less concerned with where we're going next, and more concerned with who we're becoming right now. He's not concerned where we're going next, he already knows. He's concerned who we're becoming right now. But what does that actually look like? Because staying, it doesn't mean just sitting around and doing nothing, it's not laziness. It's actually the opposite of laziness. Spiritually speaking, what staying means is doing the right things consistently, even if it doesn't feel exciting, or it doesn't feel inspiring. Sometimes staying means just keeping good spiritual habits.

I have them up here on the screen for you. You don't need a new plan, you just need to keep showing up. Like keep showing up to church, even when you feel tired, when you don't wanna go out of the house. Keep reading your Bible when it feels dry. Keep praying, even if it just feels like silence on the other end, like you're not hearing God's voice, or keep worshiping, even when you don't feel emotionally moved or inspired to worship. What feels ordinary today is shaping something powerful tomorrow. Sometimes staying means not making a rash decision just because you're uncomfortable. We love to do that when we're uncomfortable, right? Just jump to the next. But staying means not bailing on that relationship just because it starts to get tense, or not quitting that job just because it's frustrating, or not jumping to the next thing just because waiting is boring. Discomfort doesn't mean it's time to move. Sometimes it just means God's gonna do a deep work in you that you can't see yet. Sometimes staying means resisting comparison. You watch other people move ahead. Oftentimes we watch other people get opportunities we wish we would have gotten, or people get these breakthroughs that are unfamiliar to us, and then we start thinking, like, did I miss something? Is God just never gonna bless me like that?

No, that's not the case. You're just in a different season. and different seasons require different obedience. And then sometimes staying means trusting that the hidden seasons, that they still matter. Elijah wasn't gonna be wasting time in the hiding. He wasn't gonna be on pause. God was gonna shape him while he was at that brook. God was building endurance, dependency, a faith that could survive the drought that was ahead. And the truth is, if we don't learn to stay, we're never gonna be ready to move. Because movement without maturity, it always costs more later. We gotta allow God to grow us, to mature us, so that we're ready to move when he's ready to move. So if you're in a season that feels quiet, or repetitive, or unseen, if you're in a season where it just feels difficult, or maybe you just feel stuck right now, you feel trapped, you might not be stuck. What you might be is planted. And planted seasons aren't about speed. They're about putting down roots. It's what's happening underneath the surface to prepare us for what's next. And that brings us to the next question Elijah had to learn by the brook. And that is, can I trust God while I stay here? Because staying is hard unless you believe

that God's gonna show up and provide, right? So the second truth we need to, for a year that we can't control, is to trust how God provides. I saw this post the other day. This little girl was a huge Disney fan. She was a big Elsa and Anna fan. And the caption, it said this here. It said, she wanted frozen stuff for Christmas. And then her parents got her a bag of frozen peas. I don't think that's exactly what she had in mind. Now, technically correct, healthier for her, but she's never gonna trust her parents again. And although this is funny, this also hits something real because a lot of us, we trust God until his provision looks like that frozen bag of peas. Like when it's not exactly what we were asking for. It's not exactly what we expected. Like we'll pray for relief, but then God, what he ends up doing is he gives us endurance. Or we'll pray for answers, but God gives us just enough to get through the day. Or we'll pray for patience, and God gives us the Las Vegas Raiders. Or another handful of just difficult opportunities for us to practice patience. And we get to these moments and we're like, ah, God, this isn't what I had in mind. This wasn't what I was asking you for. And this is exactly what Elijah's learning by this brook.

After God tells him to stay there, God makes him a promise. And let's pick up in verse four, look at what it says. It says, God tells him this. He says, drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you. For I have commanded them to bring you food. So Elijah, what? He did as the Lord told him. Elijah did what God told him to do. And think about that for just a moment. Elijah had just put his life on the line to be obedient to God. And God tells him, go and hide and trust me. And when Elijah gets to this brook, it's not like God just gave him a pantry full of food or just hid resources behind a bush. No, he gives him a brook and he tells him there's gonna be birds. Which means every single day, Elijah had to wake up and ask the same question. God, are you gonna do it again today? Are you gonna show up, God? Are you gonna provide? And every morning, God did. He showed up, he provided. Every evening, God showed up, he provided. And notice that God never provided extra. He always provided just enough. Just enough for that day. Just enough for obedience

or just enough to keep Elijah dependent. And here's what Elijah is learning. I think it's a lesson for us too. God rarely gives us everything we want all at once. He gives us what we need when we need it. Now we might want total clarity about our future, but what God knows we need is obedience. We might want security, but God knows we need to learn to trust. We might want answers, but God knows we need faith. And God promises us that we can trust him, that he will provide just enough for the day. And that's not a lack of provision, that's a different kind of provision. You see, daily provision, it doesn't feel like abundance, it doesn't feel like. Strong, but what it does is it builds our faith. And I think so much of our anxiety comes from focusing on tomorrow and missing what God is actually doing today. We are always thinking, like, how is all this gonna work out? How do all these dots connect? Will there be enough? What if I can't handle what's coming? What if this next year looks worse than this last year? And God might be saying, you don't need everything right now. I'm just gonna give you enough for today. And then what we're to do is we're to respond in obedience.

And when we choose obedience, even though we don't have the full picture, that's where we realize the provision is already there. So when it comes to your finances, just pay the bills that you can pay today. Stop worrying about the future. In your relationships, start loving, even though nothing feels resolved, start loving today. In your health, in your family members' health, start praying for a miracle today, even when you can't see your prayers being answered. In your work, in your job, do it with integrity today. Pray for your boss today, even if you don't feel like they deserve it. Just keep getting through the day. Trusting God is a daily decision, choosing to obey, leaving tomorrow to Him. We stay and we trust because today's provision is enough. It's enough for today's obedience. And here's the truth. If God gave you everything today, then you wouldn't need Him tomorrow. If He gave us everything we wanted today, if He gave us all the answers, if He gave us all the clarity, then we wouldn't need Him tomorrow. And our tendency would just be to move on and forget that He's even there. But the brook was teaching Elijah something he would need for the rest of his life.

And that's that God can be trusted even when provision feels fragile. But then in Elijah's story, everything starts to shift. He starts to break in to a brand new chapter, which leads us to a new question that Elijah had to answer. And that is, what do you do when the very thing that God used to provide just goes away? When it stops showing up? And the answer is in our last point, which is if we're gonna have faith for a year we can't control, we have to move when God speaks. Here's how Elijah's story continues. He stays by the brook. He trusts God's provision. And for a while that kept working. He drank from the brook. The birds kept showing up with food. The water kept flowing. Every day looked about the same until one day it didn't. Look what 1 Kings 17, seven tells us. It says, after a while, the brook, what? It dried up for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land. I love how the Bible says this, like it's a surprise. Like there's no rainfall anywhere in the land. Elijah just prophesied that to the king. He said, there's gonna be a drought. Of course the brook dried up. That shouldn't be a surprise.

And I love how simple the Bible makes this. It's like the brook dried up, the raven stopped coming, the water was gone. The provision that once sustained Elijah, it wasn't there anymore. And then look at what verse eight tells us. It says, then the Lord said to Elijah, what? Tells him, go, live in the village of Zarephath. The dried up brook, it didn't mean God had left Elijah. What it meant is that God was moving Elijah into a new chapter. God was telling Elijah, hey, it's time to move. This season has done what it's meant to do. You're ready now. You're ready for my next assignment. And this is where the story of Elijah's journey gets incredible. Because what happens after the brook is where Elijah steps into some of the most powerful moments of his ministry. He goes to Zarephath. Then God provides for Elijah through a widow who has nothing, but he multiplies flour, he multiplies oil. In the middle of this famine, just God showing Elijah once again that he was gonna provide daily. The widow got to be witness to this. Then the widow's son dies and Elijah raises that son from the dead. He didn't even know that was possible.

That had never been done before. But with God's show that he could work through him to raise this son from the dead. Later, Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Fire falls from heaven. A nation turns back to God. Rain returns to the land. God does some incredibly powerful stuff through Elijah. But don't miss this. None of that happens without his start at that brook. And what God taught me through Elijah's story is that miracles, sometimes, most of the time, they come after the wilderness season. They come after the staying and the waiting. His power working through Elijah came after that hidden season. The bold faith came from staying and trusting, even when it probably didn't make sense. And if Elijah would have gotten anxious or bored, if he would have gotten discontent and just rushed past that whole brook, then he wouldn't have been ready for all that God was getting ready to do through him, for what was coming next. I think some of us are walking into 2026 asking, like, God, is it time to move? And the answer, it might be yes, but only after the staying has shaped you. Only after the trusting, it's stretched you. Only after the brook has done its work in you.

And you might be asking yourself, well, how do I know the difference? Because I think a lot of times, like, the question is, like, did God dry this brook up, this provision up in my life, or am I just tired of the brook? Am I not seeing that as provision in my life? And here's how you know the difference. If you're restless, if you're anxious, if you're panicked, well, that's usually you. But if you're clear, if you're peaceful, if you're obedient, that's God. That's the Holy Spirit doing a work inside of you. If the decision is driven by control or the fear of losing control, well, that's you. But if it requires trust and surrender, that's God. If it feels like I have to decide right now, I need a decision, I need answers, well, that's you. But if it comes with clarity, even without all the details filled in, that's God. If it creates mental chaos for you or emotional chaos, that's usually you. But if it aligns with scripture and prayer and godly counsel, that's God. If you're obsessed with the outcome, it's most likely you. But if you're focused on being faithful, regardless of the outcome, well, that's God. God doesn't rush you out of the seasons. He leads you out of the seasons. And so if you feel,

if you feel rushed, if you feel hurried, if you're not happy with the season you're in, if you're thinking, Thursday cannot get here quickly enough, I need 2025 to be over, well, that's most likely you. God, unfortunately, won't rush you out of the season, but He promises to lead you out in His timing. And so when He speaks, you move, not because you're desperate or anxious, but because you're ready. And as I think about this past year, and I know the past year isn't the same for everyone, but in my life, I watch people I love walk through some of the most impossible situations. I watch families lose people they love dearly that they never imagined losing. I've seen sickness show up out of nowhere, a diagnosis that just changed everything. I've watched marriages carry financial pressure that just felt suffocating. I've seen calling shift, jobs end, plans fall apart. But at the same time, as I look back over this last year, I've seen breakthrough. I've seen healing when the doctor said that it wasn't even possible. I've seen provision show up for friends who are struggling at just the right time. I've seen people step into higher callings on their life, deeper faith, renewed purpose. I've seen people turn their life over to Jesus,

make the decision to get baptized. And that's just the reality of life. One year, it doesn't hit everyone the same way. And one story can't be compared to another. I think some of us are entering this new year carrying grief, while some of us are carrying extreme gratitude. I think some of us are carrying questions and some of us are carrying hope. I think some of us are carrying disappointment, while others of us are carrying expectation. Maybe you're entering this new year carrying answered prayers, or maybe you're entering this new year still waiting for some prayers to be answered. But here's what's the same for all of us. Is no matter what 2025 held, God was faithful. And no matter what comes ahead in 2026, I know God will be faithful. He's faithful and he's not done. So no matter where this year finds you, God is always faithful. already there. Stay where God has you. Slow down. Be patient. Trust Him in the waiting. And then when He makes it clear that it's time to move, move. Go. Not because you're panicking, not because you're rushed, but because you're listening. You're staying in tune to Him. Faith for a year that you can't control is about trusting the God who's already in that year. He's already ahead of you. Now, I also want to acknowledge that you may be here today and you're listening to all of this and you realize that you've been trying to do life on your own without God. You've been managing, you've been surviving, you've been pushing through. But I think deep down you know you need more than just a new year because you're tired. It might be time for new life. Elijah, he didn't survive the drought because he was strong. He survived because he

stayed connected to the source. And the same can be true for you. Jesus came. He died on a cross. He rose from the grave for you. Not to give you a better calendar, not to give you a fresh start with the turning of the year, but He came to give you a new heart, a new beginning, a new foundation, a new life. So before you step into anything else this next week, before you talk about plans or goals or resolutions, I want to give you an opportunity to put your faith where it belongs. Not in a year that you can't control, but in a Savior who already holds it. What if you started this next year with a new life in Jesus? I'm going to give you that opportunity. If you bow your heads, if you close your eyes. I'm going to ask that you pray this prayer after me, but don't just repeat my words. That's not where the power is. The words are words. The power is you praying them to God, you meaning them to God. Pray them with your own heart. Just pray, God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know you sent Jesus to forgive me of that sin. I believe He died on the cross, and I believe He rose from the grave. God, I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I named Jesus my personal Lord and Savior. With every head bowed, every eye closed, this is what I'm going to ask you to do. Just out of a moment of courage and boldness, I'm going to ask you just to slip your hand up in the air. If you prayed that prayer for the first time, just reach out to Jesus right now, just declaring you're giving Him your life. Thank you for those hands. If you're online, if you're inside a prison facility, you can reach your hand out too. God sees it. God, for every hand reaching out to you right now, God, don't just give them a new year. Give them that new life. Draw incredibly close to them. Show them anything is possible with you. Show them anything is possible with you. For all of us, God, let us not get impatient in the waiting. We know that we can trust you. We know that you have so much for us. Let's just keep looking to you, keep leaning on you.

2026 is nothing if you're not in it, God, and we know you're already there. So as we move ahead into a new year, let us fix our eyes on you. Let's fix our eyes on Jesus. The one who has the power to change everything. We give it all to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.