MOVE 2026 Podcast | Wk 3

Hey, Pando family! Normally, each week we drop a Pando-exclusive podcast just for you, but over the next six weeks, you are going to be hearing and experiencing a podcast led by our senior pastor, Kyle Eidelman, going through the MOVE series that we're going through as a church family over the next six weeks. And so you're not only going to hear from Kyle, you're going to hear from Stephen Pericelli, who is on Pando every now and then, and a couple other folks on our staff. So, guys, I guarantee you, you're going to enjoy it. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this discussion. All right, everybody, it is week number three of kind of this podcast going through MOVE, looking at barriers to the things that get in the way of us being fully engaged, like that primary goal of MOVE is that we're 100% engaged at Southeast in the life of the church and what God's called us to do. And this week's barrier is the barrier of pride. Like, how does being proud block us from really serving God, being all in? And it really contrasts well with the word humility. You've got the word pride. So, Brian, I'm going to let you kind of lead us off. Where does this show up from us, whether it's you or the congregation, the people you pastor, how does that pride just sit there? Where do you first go with your thoughts? Yeah, you know what, it is interesting when you first told us we were going to talk about this topic, and I wish I had some super profound thing to say, right? And the reality is, for me, it's as simple as myself getting in the way. Like, if I'm the first thought, if my convenience or my desire or my preference, like, it just gets in the way so easily. Like, I hardly can see past the end of my nose, you know, type of thought that my first thought is so naturally drawn to myself. And I don't want to get up early to go to serve at the early service. I don't like the songs we sing. I don't... I like the songs we sing. I love serving. I'm just saying that those are my first thoughts, and it's not so much that I think even I'm too good for this thing. It's just that I think of myself first in a way that just is hard for me to get past sometimes. It just doesn't matter that much. Yeah, it's interesting, too, if you think about it, like, the way our Christian journey begins, it's marked by the most humble act you can do, which is getting baptized in front of your church congregation, church family. And it's fascinating how you really, from the very get-go, you have to remove pride, right? Like, that's a humble act to sit there. What about you guys? How do you see pride playing out, just kind of your initial thoughts? Yeah, I'll just say, like, when I do look past the end of my nose and I look at other people,

I judge them by their actions, you know? I'm like, well, they acted that way, or I felt like this, but for me, it's my intentions, you know? I'm like, well, I didn't mean it that way. This is how I meant it or whatever, but when I'm judging or looking at other people, I'm just going on their actions, so I judge either way. It's so hard because you can't judge the intent of the heart, you know? And when it comes to me, I deflect and kind of do that. Yeah, I think there's something really profound in what you just said, of that when we come to follow Jesus, baptism is an expression of humility, but all of following Jesus is humility. Pride is going to mess things up really fast, but then even the life of Jesus that he modeled is humility. There's no pride within it, so I think when you boil it down to its core, pride is so anti the ways of Jesus completely for us as followers of him, but then also when you look at his life, you'll never see him exalt himself. You'll never see him exhibit pride. It is always a denial of self. It is always about other people, so it's really laughable when we as followers of Jesus let pride get in the way. But isn't it so easy? I mean, I think about the story of the disciples, you know, following Jesus. I mean, again, we look at it and how absurd it is, right? They're talking along the road about who's the greatest. You know, I mean, Jesus is steps in front of him, and they're talking about who's the greatest, and all of the language, you know, I think about this when I cast a call for people to come and respond to an invitation. It's no accident to me that all of the language is dying to self, surrender. It's your life. Taking it for us. Yeah, your life is hidden. You put on new clothes. The old creation is gone, and a new man has come. I mean, it all has to do with getting rid of this object of my attention, you know, an object of my great affection is me. It all has that language of putting that to death, you know, so that we can experience God's best for us. You know, I can trace that all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, because when they were told not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Satan says, oh, you're not supposed to do that because you'll be like God. And he was giving them a shortcut to being like God. I mean, it's a temptation Satan did in the very beginning. We still fall to that today, you know. Created in the image of God.

Yes. And yet he still made them to believe that there was something missing, that they needed more of themselves. Exactly. And I think it's a lie that we tell ourself and people tell themselves about, you know, being connected to church or following Jesus fully or, you know, follow him partially or you can have this part of my life, God, but not this part and those kinds of things. Yeah, I think something that the scholar was saying that does make sense with this is that pride cannot coexist in the kingdom. And so I want us to join in with that. What do we do when we see pride showing up? Because I think it's tempting to think it can exist in areas, but there's no place for it in the kingdom. Yeah, and I think, I think pride, I think you just had this moment ago, that made me think of this. Pride is a way of grasping for some sort of security. And as we were, you know, preparing for this, I was thinking of John chapter 13, Jesus washing the disciples' feet. There's that verse, John 13, three, Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments,

taking a towel tied around his waist and washes the disciples' feet. And so culture would tell us that a position of authority means that you lord it over people, that you tell them what to do, that you, you know, instruct that you have this power. But Jesus shows us here that no, actually security is what leads you to humility. Security is what leads you to serving others. And I think that whenever pride creeps in, we're grasping for some sort of security that cannot exist in the kingdom. Because the kingdom is about ultimately a denial of self and serving other people. But that is so counter the kingdom of the world, the kingdom that the disciples wanted. When you sit at your right and your left, he says, no, the Gentiles, they lord it over. They lord authority over one another, not so with you. And so, yeah, in this kingdom, there is no room for pride. The great irony is the story you were just telling where they were arguing about the left and the right. Hours later, or days later, they're sitting now at that same table and Jesus is humbly going, I'll wash your left and your right foot now when they're arguing about this. And that's an irony where it sets up what it is. But I do love what you're saying is it's the security, the assurance of our salvations,

the security of it that allows us to go, I don't need anything out of this world because I've got everything I need for what's next. And I think that our security is really good. Well, and it is, I know that it's so easy to find that right here. Like there's a lot I can do for myself. And yes, the question, how do we kind of combat it? I guess the way I heard it, but what do we do when we see that showing up? And I think it's where so many of the spiritual disciplines are and hear me say, I don't do these well sometimes, oftentimes, but where they're so helpful in combating my own self, my own ego, my own self importance. And serving, I think is a great discipline for that. And I think serving is, we have a little joke at our campus every Monday afternoon, during group season, we have to reset our entire worship center. And nobody likes stacking chairs. Nobody, unstacking chairs. And there's nothing about us goes, yes, Monday afternoon, we can't wait to go stack chairs. And I will say to my team, I say, I love this and I hate it. Like, I hate stacking chairs, but I love that it's a discipline. I love that it fights against the very thing that would say, I'm too good for that. I don't need to be, I shouldn't be as a leader,

as a pastor, like I didn't sign up to stack chairs and unstack chairs. But the discipline of doing that makes me make a choice. I mean, it makes, it combats what comes so naturally to me with what doesn't come naturally to me. We can go two routes next, guys. Do you wanna go with the easy road or the hard road next? Which one do you want me to ask? I always like going the easy road. Okay, so we'll talk about other people first. And then we'll talk about you guys, okay? So I want you to think about- I always thought Michael was so full of pride. Let's talk about others. So when you think about your campus and you think about the types of volunteers and servants that you have, How like what is that quality when you think of those first few names that pop up as key volunteers of yours of that. What what is their relationship to pride in this idea of being fully engaged at Southeast when you think of your people that are fully engaged at Southeast at your campuses. What is that commonality and how do you see this word play out specifically. You know I would say for a lot of those core volunteers they've come from one two places one place is they have lived a prideful successful life and seeing the road is just a dead end and they have accepted Jesus and they come back and they go this is what really matters or their people who have are the opposite they're brand new to the faith and they're like I'll

do anything I'll stack chairs with you Brian Monday what time I'll be there you know and and I love both of those extreme because both of them the new Christians they really bring this energy and this fire into your ministry and the other ones are like they bring this maturity and wisdom of you know I've driven my life into that brick brick wall and it's not worth it and that's what I love and then getting to serve in between and between them is such a privilege I think. Yeah I think of a couple in our church who has been serving in the preschool room over the past year and are deeply passionate about missions have done a lot of work overseas and I don't think either of them would say that kids ministry is there is their unique passion or calling but they heard a very clear hey this is what our church needs right now this is our version of stacking chairs right now in this season as we need some preschool volunteers and they've been back there for over a year now and have fallen in love with it but I think for them it was certainly at the beginning this this practice this discipline of I don't really want to do this but I do at the same time because I know that it's going to you know form me into this person that's that's more like Jesus through yes they're doing this and through and through a tangible way of not actually washing feet but but washing feet you know yeah I think so. I think that's where I see it too is when you see somebody who for whatever reason could be doing something else or maybe in their real life you know they're they're doing something that we would all go and that's really significant there but it's a business owner I think about who comes early to sit with fourth graders on the floor you know in our elementary room because he he he can be doing a lot of things he could be

deleting he's a high capacity guy but he submits himself to serving every Sunday morning I think about that about the guy that is a successful guy who's in a parking lot and you know directing traffic I mean he could be doing a lot more high profile and the and to me I guess where I see it is so fun to watch is the the contrast between what kind of success or significance often looks like naturally to us and going here's a guy serving behind the scenes in a way that that matters you know it makes it easier for somebody else to come in and experience God in our place. I think about my friend Dale he's in his 70s and like I want to be like Dale when I grow up and mature seasoned former elder in the church and he comes and sits on our little prayer team on Monday nights going there's so much I don't know about the Bible there's so much I don't know about prayer there's I'm still not the person I want to be you know when I grow up and I think that takes a lot of humility to go you know none of us have arrived and God is still shaping and transforming us along the journey and this is the contrast to me that are helpful. Yeah you know I think the one of those beautiful things of the church that from its inception is it provided equal footing for all of society to sit together you know and my time leading online ministry one of the most interesting things I've seen play out with this is when you have a group that meets online you don't know what car they drive you don't have any reference points and I have had some groups of men who is what primarily where I was at there is no way if they saw each other in person they would form a group necessarily there would be some barriers to pop up but it's fascinating because they're

online and they don't really know the whole situation and all went off with them it created this like equal footing and you know and I've seen that play out time and time again and I think that humility it takes is what you know reformats our hearts now I'm gonna ask you guys the hard question you put it off but now this is like I think the one people really want to hear how does pride for each of you how does pride in its insidious nature you know if you're honest about that creep into the way you think about being engage with the church, because we work at the church, but that's very, very different than moving through the church, and it being our church. And how does pride creep in and block you from being fully engaged? Like, how does that show up in your life? I think, going back to what I said a moment ago, pride has a way of making us very insecure, even if it looks like security, deep down that is insecurity. And so I think one of the deepest ways that I think pride, I've seen it impact me, especially in my early 20s, was it would make me a very insecure pastor. And it didn't look like that on the outside, but it was there. What did it look like on the outside? I think it probably looked like maybe over-humility, maybe. Or it maybe looked like loving or interacting with a person within different churches I got to serve in, or students, but feasting spiritually on those compliments, or that student looking up to you far too much. And I look back on that season of life, specifically my early 20s, I'm like, wow, I was pastoring, shepherding, leading people for what I would say a pretty unhealthy place, because there was a lot of pride in it. And then I think growing older into late 20s, just really started to realize that the Lord wanted me to love others from a place that was much more free than that. And I think it, ultimately, if I were to boil that down, I think it came to a place for me where it just came, where I began to realize that that's a part of myself, my good things that I do, being a pastor or a leader, that is something that I am also called to die to. And I'm supposed to die to that title, die to that identity, and it's

Christ who's doing it through me. And I think pastoring, loving, leading others from that place is so much more free, is so much more secure. And I think that everyone within a church, not just pastors or leaders to people in congregation, but all of us together, we need each other to have that security. We need each other to not need anything from each other, you know, and to operate from that security that I think that Jesus operated from, that security that I think Paul writes about in Philippians, I can do all things through him who gives me strength. It's this deep contentedness that he has. And I think that that is what trumps pride in our lives, is that profound security. Yeah, I hear you saying it's kind of overindulging, kind of, in how that makes you feel. I would say for me, I was raised, my dad was a pastor, and I can remember times when our family would be on the way to church, and we'd be in some sort of argument or disagreement in the car, and you know, whatever it was, and because I did not like Sunday night church, you know. I never got to watch Wizard of Oz or Sunday Night Football or anything like that, you know, on TV, and I was always arguing with them. You didn't date yourself at all. I know, I'm sorry. So you're not in your late 20s. I am not. Skyler, I'm not in my late 20s. You remember your late 20s. I have children in my late 20s that are in their late 20s. That's right. But we'd get, we'd pull in the church parking lot, and my mom or dad would always say, okay guys, we're going to church, this is family, let's keep it here. And you'd lock it down, and you'd walk in, you'd be like, hey everybody, and you had to pretend that everything was okay. When I got into ministry early on, I mean, this place grows exponentially, and so you're trying to get everything done and everything ready, and you realize you can't, and so you've heard the illustration of the duck. We're above the water, it's looking around like this underneath its pattern, like that was me, and I'm going crazy and trying to get everything going. If it's not going right, I'm, you know, and I finally just had to realize, I can't do this, and I literally just said, God, it's your ministry. I'm stepping back, and it was like a weight was lifted off of me, because I realized it was not my ministry. It's not my church. It still wasn't my group. It was God's, and it was such a relief. Was there a

moment that that happened, or was it over a time period? Yeah, it actually was. I was on a mission trip in Dilkan, Arizona, and we were at a tent revival on the Navajo Indian Reservation, and we had 16 things that we had to do, and this tent revival was supposed to go two hours, and it went five, and I was in charge of this work project, and I just realized, and God just said, it's okay. That's all I heard in my heart, and I broke, and that trip and coming back, the re-entry here just helped me, just to release. Now, I still have those tendencies. I have a lot of Pharisee blood in my veins, because I want to look good, and I want it to go well. I think God does want our best, but it is not all dependent on me. It depends on Him, and I've gotta do the hard work. So you took pride in an unhealthy sense at how it looked, and it was just rotting you out on the inside. It was, it was killing me. I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't, you know, it was just bad. I love when God shows up in a moment. I just think He does that so many times, and I love that you shared that. I love it more when it's in other people. Were you in your late 20s when all that happened? I was Skyler's age. Yeah, you know, I think where I, where this rears its insidious, I like that word, ugly head in my life the most is, and the older I get, the more I can sense it in me as it's coming, as opposed to getting in the middle of it, is when I have not, the language I use now is when I'm not dug a very deep well

in my, just in my identity with the Lord, and when I have not done that, when I don't do that, I am so tempted to rely on my own ability, my own charisma, my own scheme or plan or strategy, and honestly, it's not bad. You know, I mean, you could plan a good service. You could plan an effective, and people would leave and go, man, that was a great service day. Good job. And that would haunt me. You know, it would haunt me when I knew I had not, that I had, and I'm not saying the Lord, praise God, He works in spite of that, but when I knew that I had not been, yes, yeah, that's a good way to say it. When I knew that it was something I had crafted or done just out of my own very shallow pool of spiritual resources and I was, how many times have you, we've all done this, we've prepared a talk and we've researched the scripture and done word studies and gotten illustrations and a really good hook and a really good conclusion, and then we're almost ready to present, and we go, oh, I haven't prayed about this one time. This is all Michael, and you're like, holy spirit, bless what I've got here, you know? You're kind of like throwing it up there. And it's not even that your preparation's bad. No, but it's missing something. It's just not holy. It's just not sacred.

It's just not spirit-filled, and that's the hard part, I think, is it's so easy to do that. We've been around here for a while. We've got a big can of lessons and things that work, and that's what convicts me, and so I actually change my prep for my home group and for when I teach to include at the very beginning that first prayer time before I do anything else, and it's not easy, but man, it's so much better. How do you dig those wells that you were talking about, having that deep well next to the right places? What are the habits that you have in place that might encourage us to think through that when you're clicking on all cylinders? Just humbly share that with people. Yeah, I think it's helpful. I mean, I think you can take pride in it. I'm racking my brain right now, but you know, I will say I think that that is sort of supernatural work that the Lord has to do, and I think I've heard Kyle use this language, probably other preachers, being humbled is very different than being humble. Or been showing humility, or how he words it much better than I just did, but I think the Lord has used his loving corrective discipline at times, whether through another leader or through something that, in spite of my preparation, didn't go well and I had to eat crow with it.

Carissa, she'll tell you. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you that. Your wife is not fooled. My wife isn't. My wife isn't. She's never fooled. Yeah, yeah. And I think that, you know, I wish I could say, God is, you know, I seek the Lord on that, and often it's through other brothers and sisters who go, you know, that, your well wasn't deep. Yeah. And man, and it's not, God gifted you, and you, and you, and powerful, and gifts our church family, and there is so much I think we could do. Gosh, what sets us apart from a good show, or a good presentation, or a nice talk, or a nice service is that it is the spirit of God that's alive and active in us. And yeah, it's, it is seek. I love that practice of seeking Him first. You have to, you have to. Yeah. So if I were to direct our conversation, you know, it's interesting where, returning to this move initiative, right, the primary goal is, you know, just kind of asking, what do you wanna do in us? How do you wanna move through us?

And I think you can't have God work through you with pride still sitting there. But one of the things I find interesting in scripture is what it says God feels about pride. It says that God is not indifferent of it. I mean, it's a very strong language. It says God opposes pride, right? He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. which is really fascinating with it, because I think the more we add pride up, at some point, pride will lose. And you can do it through the works of people humbling you in life, humbling you, or you could actively choose to humble yourself with that. But let's talk a little bit about how does God, what's that mean that God opposes the proud? It makes me think back to what we just said a few moments ago, how the kingdom works, you know? The pride is so anti the kingdom. And you think about us and our relationships with creator God of the universe, who put on flesh, humbled himself, even to death on a cross, the most humiliating experience that anyone could have at that time, to approach him or to live our lives and claim to be his followers with any, honestly, any ounce of pride is almost like treason, you know?

It's just anti the kingdom. And so I think that when you pair that thought with a scripture like that from James, that he opposes the proud, it's like, yeah, of course he does, because one, he's God of all creation, so how could we stand proud before him? Two, he put on flesh and modeled perfect humility for us. And so those two things, it's like, how silly and convicting for us to, in our relationship with him, we're in our lives with one another, especially in his church, how silly for us to have pride, you know? It just falls apart so fast when you really put scripture. But yet how natural it is for us to do that. And, you know, we like to think of God as this loving God. We don't like to think of him as a just God. First John says that he is light and there is no darkness in him at all. So I can imagine God walking through that door and saying, I'm opposing you because you're proud. I'd be like, I'm sorry. I mean, you should be a little nervous to be in opposition with God. Yes, that's never a good place to be. Essentially the first place that my mind went

when you asked that question, what is it like for God to oppose? There's part of me that just wonders if we just miss out on his way of opposing us. And we might not ever know it, you know? We could go through a whole life and having spoken well and planned good things and had a church that had a polished service and whatever in our own power. And what have we missed out on that God would have done had we said, you know, God, what songs do you want to hear from your people today? God, what do you want to say to your people as I speak today? God, who do you want me to encourage or do you want to encourage? Because I served a cup of coffee, you know, or held the door open or watched somebody's kids. And we could do, we could live a fine Christian life. Air quotes. Yeah. And just miss out on what would have happened had we humbled ourselves and put ourselves in a position to watch what only God could do. A lot of people could plan those things and do those things. But I just wonder if sometimes God's opposition to us is that we just don't get to see the how much more He would have done

had we just looked to Him first. Yeah, and I think, you know, if we see this creeping up in our lives and we look around at our church family and we see some phenomenal people, what you're probably not gonna see is this blocking them. And, you know, I was trying to think of an illustration that would drive this home. Prides, to me, it's sort of like if I compare it to maintaining your car, you know, if you skip the oil change, pride and humility in receiving the grace of God through the church is one of those things that will keep the engine of your heart in relationships and makes you like what you're saying, completely secure. It's the oil in your life. But man, if you, it'll start drying your engine up and it'll grind the gears of life to halt if you have a security that comes somewhere, you know, apart from God. And so I would just invite our church family to think about this and to discuss it and look for ways to actively root it out. And I appreciate you guys joining this conversation. Skyler, will you pray for our church family on this, on pride, and that God will do an incredible work through our church? I would love to. Let's pray. Father, we, Father, we repent.

Oh, we repent of our pride. And God, I thank you for even conversations like this within our church community, where we edify and sharpen each other. God, they just bring to the surface your word and your scripture that remind us how silly our pride is before. You creator God of all creation who the elders are on their face before you And we just humble ourselves before you humble ourselves knowing God of your deep love for us your profound peace that you extend to us The position that you seed us in and heavenly places and the security that that brings To our lives God. I pray over our entire church family that we would be people rooted in you and therefore rooted in humility And God as we journey through the rest of the book of Philippians together Let me just pray that spirit that Paul had that spirit of deep contentedness Of I can do all things through him who strengthens me that spirit of contentedness Where he where he had everything that he needed because of Jesus that it would permeate Each person of our church because that's the gift that you extend and the security that you extend to each one of us in Christ Jesus and we thank you for that today. It's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen