MOVE 2026 Podcast Wk 5 | MOVE without Worry

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, guys, it's week five of our MOVE podcast. We've been on a journey through different barriers. The things that get us away, Kyle, from the primary goal of MOVE is just be engaged, be fully engaged, 100% engaged in what God's calling us as a church. And so today's barrier is probably the one that a lot of us probably think of right away, and that's the barrier of worry showing up that holds us back in all sorts of ways with MOVE. I'll hand it to you, Kyle, to kind of kick us off. Where does worry begin? When you hear worry, you think of Southeast and pastoring our people. How does that show up? I feel like, especially in this context, it comes to control, like recognizing there's all these things that could happen that I have no control over, and then I become preoccupied with what I can't control. And the way that might look for some people, worry might be kind of this preoccupational thinking, always focused on what might happen. But for others of us, and I think I probably fall into this category a little bit more, if I am worried about something, it doesn't necessarily show up as emotional turmoil. It shows up more as I'm going to control the situation, and I'm going to fix this problem. I'm going to prepare for this uncertainty. So in terms of finances, if I feel worried about money, my instinct is not going to be to, oh, I'm not going to open up the bills, and I'm just going to sit over here and worry about it. It will be to say, okay, I need to make sure I'm prepared and to think that I can somehow control things enough to make the worry go away. But I think for many of us, the worry gets at our fear of not being able to control the things that might happen. Or it also exposes, I was just thinking exactly what you were saying, worry exposes what we are afraid to lose. So it's also that idea of control, and I think today worry is so normal that we call it healthy responsibility, but in reality, it's just something that we need to give over to the Lord. So in this culture of today, how do we discern where is the healthy responsibility and where is actually worry, when we should actually give it over to the Lord?

What's that dividing line? What's the boundary where? Healthy responsibility or worry? Well, you're a mom, so I would think that tension that you're describing is as a mom is very real. Okay, I want to have a healthy responsibility for my child, but there's a lot of things that I can't control for my child. How do you do it? You know, my, that's great. She tracks them on her phone. No, I actually, I will bring my mother-in-law in this. She's very wise and she told me once, all my kids are not my kids, we just get to borrow them. So I treat them as I could just got to borrow them for this time. So when I pray for them, I just put them in the hands where I know he loves them more than I do. And so that always convicted me because I always think I love them more than anyone, but then I forget he loves them more than I do. So it's that idea that I, you know, he knows best. And truly, when I say you can have them, even though sometimes I want to do this, but that's the posture of the heart. You can do whatever you want with them. I think that's such a good picture though, because the, the way maybe the world would tell us to deal with worry would be to say, you know, just let it go. Just let it go. You know, don't hang on to that. Let it go. And, and yet the way, as you were talking, Peter's words came to my mind of cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. You're not just letting it go. You're saying, Hey, this is real and this is heavy. And God, I I'm giving this to you to carry for me, which is a lot different than just saying, I'm not going to hang on to this. You're, you're saying this really is heavy, but I recognize he can carry what I can't. Yeah. Yeah. The lie of worry is if I'm not in control, it's out of control. And faith says, if I'm not in control, I can trust God. It still is. Yeah. There's this passage. It's been like the thing that God's been teaching me all year. Isaiah 64, it says since before the foundations of the world, no eye has seen, and no ear has heard. The God like you who works for those who wait for Him. Oh, that's good. And when I'm worrying, He's waiting for me to wait for Him so that He can do a work. And I think worry makes me feel like if I'm not in this meeting or at this thing or a part of this conversation or managing this thing or having this healthy responsibility over this, that it's going to be out of control and therefore it's going to spiral into, you know, destructive or whatever. And what I have to choose to do is to say, I'm going to choose to wait

because God is the God who works for those who wait for Him. And, but that is a hard thing to do. So how do you, how do you pull back from the worry and enter into a posture of waiting? Have you found like ways to help yourself do that? Well, I mean, to me, there's no substitute for worship. You know, I just find that, I mean, somebody has said this before, but I think that worship and worry have a hard time coexisting, that worship has a way of driving out worry. And so if I'm feeling a little anxious or overwhelmed, I love to listen to worship music. I have, you know, kind of a routine of when I drive to work, I'm usually listening to some kind of podcast or maybe a sermon or something like that. When I'm on my way home from work, I'm usually listening to worship because there's a lot on my mind. You know, a lot of that, I wouldn't call it worry, but that's probably what it is because I'm thinking about things that I don't get to control. And so having a regular discipline of worship, I think, helps drive out worry or helps keep that in check. Yeah. Yeah. How, as a parent for you, I know you've dealt with this because there's no way, you've raised four kids, that you haven't seen worry show up, right? They're consumed with something. I'm assuming your adult kids call you or your wife up, consumed with a worry of the world. What is it you do in that routine to kind of help guide them away from it? Yeah, well, I'm not great at this even. I, a few minutes ago, you know, I just got a text from one of my daughters about, you know, this, an issue she was having with her home, a home repair issue. And, and... They text you about this? Well, she would text, didn't text me to fix it. She just texted me because she was stressed out about it. My, my wrong way as a dad to respond to that is typically, oh, you shouldn't feel that way. Because from my perspective, I know that what they're, whatever they have, isn't that big of a deal. Like, it's going to be fine.

And my, the history of my life tells me that... This will not set you back. Yeah, you're okay. Like, this is just part of living life. But when someone is dealing with a worry and anxiety, it's not very helpful to say, don't worry about it. And yet, I know that that tends to be my, you know, my instinct is to either try to fix it for them, or to try, you know, to tell them not to feel that way. I think the right thing to do is to encourage them not to be trite about this, but to encourage them to pray about it. Like, I want them to meet God in those moments, you know, when they feel, when they're aware of things that they don't get to control and things that aren't going the way they hope they would. Yeah, I want those to be not moments where they look to me to fix it, but moments where they, you know, that they walk with God. And so for me, the best way to encourage that is to have a posture of the Heavenly Father, someone who listens and tries to speak scripture to them, and tries to give them a different perspective other than the one that's right in front of them. And, you know, is it Philippians 4 that talks about, you know, whatever's lovely, whatever's pure, whatever's praiseworthy, you know, think about those things. And helping steer their thoughts in that way without telling them, hey, don't feel the way you're feeling to me is the trick, and I'm not saying I figured that out. I don't think I figured it out. So don't do that. Don't say, don't worry about it. You know, I want to shift our conversation because part of MOVE is exploring our finances and recognizing that our finances are this interesting way of both reflecting and revealing what is inside our hearts, but it's also this way of steering and shaping all sorts of things on our heart. One of the things I've said many times is if you want to show someone you care about them, involve money. That's why I spent all the money I had on the engagement ring for my wife at that time, right? Like, I spent way more than I should have because I wanted to show my affection for her. And we see that in shaping us. Kyle, if you could speak to worry, finances, MOVE, generosity, and shaping our heart, help us really understand the dynamic that's at play specific to worry. Well, I was just thinking how, you know, on our money, it says

in the irony of our money is it says in God we trust. But you know, for many of us, we put our trust in money, you know, in money, we trust because we think that that's going to solve our worries. I mean, if I made this much more money, I wouldn't have to worry about this, this and this like it. It seems to be a math problem for a lot of us. I just if I could just have more money, but but what do you hear from people who have a lot of money, the more you have, the more you have to worry about like, it doesn't go away. But that's the lie of money is that it can be the it can be a foundation that you can put your trust in. And, you know, I think that's one of the reasons you know, where Jesus says you can't serve two masters. And when he applies that principle, and there's a lot of things he could apply that to, but he applies that value that principle to money, because that tends to be God's chief competition that tends to be, you know, where we look to to put our trust in more than anything else. The only way that I know of to to break that is to give it away. I have a friend in church who is really well off. And and he's he loves to give he loves to give. And one of the things that he'll say, he'll say is when I give, it's me telling my money, I care so little about you, I'll just give you away. And I love that. Like he's he's wanting he's using generosity to remind his heart that I'm not putting my trust in you. I'm putting my trust in in God. Reed, how do you wrestle with this? Oh, you got to be honest. Yeah, I mean, move for Andrea and I, my wife was like this. Joshua draws this line in the sand. And he says, you know, today, you got to choose who you will serve. And Jesus tried to do that, right? Like he said, you cannot serve both God and money, you'll love one hate the other. And I think like move

challenges to say, okay, like, who are we going to serve as for me and my house, we're trying to declare we're going to serve the Lord and it is a constant battle. I say if there's one like consistent vice, or idol I've had in my life since I was even a little kid, was the love of money, to give a facade of safety, facade of I can do what I want when I want to like a level of independence from my parents when I was a young kid. Now as a dad, and as a husband of like, feel like there's a safety net and refuge of like protection over our home. And I worry a lot about the amount that's in my bank account, because I, it gives me some sense of security or comfort or feel like I have power to do what I might want to do at some point. And I think move drew a line in the sand for Andrea and I to say like, who are we going to serve and make a decision like, are we going to serve mammon, right money as Jesus talks about it, or are we going to serve the Lord. And it was not an easy decision. Like we had made a decision that we were sitting at the YUM Center on that move commitment night. And we both looked at each other like, we didn't, we didn't really kill the idol. Like, we've got to, we've got to up it. And, and then it's the decision. Okay, we've made a commitment. Will we follow through and actually put our money where our mouth is to say, Jesus, you are F, we trust you. What about you guys? So I have a embarrassing, really raw story of actually disobedience from our side that learned us, taught us how to be obedient in that area. And that was years ago, God was calling David and I'm in our whole family out of Denmark, where we were missionaries at that time, to a full time ministry in Germany. And it was in with with us not having like any way

to provide for ourselves, like knowing that he will take care of us. And I remember praying through that for months. And it was more of actually my decision is that I'm not ready, we can't do this. So instead of digging our, taking our roots up and going where he leads, we dug our roots deeper, we bought a house in Denmark, we got like full time jobs that you know, and we start earning money and I'll start serving at a church and another church and outside for two years, it looked like we had it all just together. But inside I was most miserable that I've ever been because I disobeyed, I knew that Lord was calling us out trust and trust that he will provide because if he calls, he will make a way and we disobeyed. So I remember clearly that night where David and I sat down and we've lived in it for two years, knowing that we disobeyed, he called and we just we said no. And we prayed that truly, here we are, wherever, whatever, everything we have is yours. And that's when he called us to the US full time ministry, where David wasn't able to work for three years. And we were never in need, never in need. He provided every step of the way. And it's just, I always look back and I see his hand and how he led, how he provided and that, I know that's the same hand that's going to continue to carry us forward. But it was through disobedience. So I have a question for you. Have you ever had what ifs delay your disobedience? Or yeah, has it ever caused disobedience? What ifs delay my obedience? Obedience, yes. Has it ever delayed your obedience? All the time. Yeah.

I mean, there's so many different times and sometimes it's the large things and sometimes it's like, will you go speak to your neighbor Joe today? Or will you stay in the comfort of your house and avoid the conversation? And the what ifs of, oh, what if it's going to make it awkward? Or what if I get over there and he doesn't want to talk? Or I mean, there's so many different worries, the what ifs that can enter and that keep me from taking the step of obedience and just trusting. Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, Kyle, I think you see this all the time where there's the what if worry of knowing they need to respond in some way. In baptism, a lot of times we see folks sit back all the time because they're consumed with worry of a public declaration of their faith. As we interact with all the different ways that people could step out and we're just going to keep them chained to their seat. It's going to keep them online and not in person. It's going to keep them from taking to the, they know the next step. What I've realized a lot as a pastor is a lot of times people know the next step. They're just too concerned and too worried to take it. Yeah. How have you seen that show up? Typically in procrastination. So it's like, well, I'm going to let myself off the hook for this fear that I'm dealing with now by telling myself I'll just do it later. I think that's a little bit what you were getting at with the what if delaying obedience. But you talk about this financially, in some ways it's the easiest way to frame this up where if I remember my first real job, I was making $400 a week and I couldn't afford to give. I just couldn't afford to do it. And I remember having a conversation with the pastor or mentor friend of mine who kind

of laughed at me and said, oh, it'll never be easier to give. And I'm like, what are you talking about? I make $400 a week. And he's like, yeah, but if you can't give, you know, $40, then it's going to be a lot harder when you make more money. And but in my mind, it was later, I was, I would felt okay about not being generous then because you know, later I'll make more. And when I make this much, I'll be this generous. And then you make that much. When I make this much, I'll be this generous. When my kids are out of high school, and we have an empty nest, I'll be a little more generous. But now they're in college. But so when they're out of college, we'll, you know, be generous. Well, when they get married, and I've paid for these weddings, and you just keep delaying it, but you feel okay about it, because you're someday, you're not saying no, you're just saying someday. And you know that and so I'm going to deal with that, we're dealing with my worry through procrastination. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna put it off. So I'm not saying no, I'm just saying someday, I think that's a really common way that we deal with it. Yeah, you know, I think worry does it holds a lot of people back from taking the bold risks that they need to take, I think about when we stepped out and became missionaries for four years, we had to fully fundraise everything. And I think that holds a lot of people back. But what I'll say is the journey of going through that has so many more blessings along the way and blew our minds on how people generously show up, that you would never experienced. And it was super surprising. And I would say, overwhelmingly, worry has produced no good fruit in my life.

Trusting God has produced a lot. And so when we're confronted against that, you know, God does not have hidden blessings behind the cloak of worry, you're not going to worry yourself and go, I found the blessing of God underneath the banner of worry. And so I think move is an opportunity for whatever it is for us to find that place that you're withholding from God, and to break through that right to push through that barrier. And so I think looking at what are the things I'm holding back, because I'm super concerned about whatever it is, yeah, and then we need to break through. Yeah, you know, it's interesting, you know, in Malachi, where God says, test me in this, when he went in reference to generosity, like, to test me. And I think, you know, this idea that when we test God, and we see that he's faithful, then it takes away worry going, I mean, both of you guys just did this, when you talked about the journey that you went on, how you look back now, and you see the way God provided, and you talk about when you guys were having to raise all your own support, and when you're in Haiti, and you see how God provided. What's that do? Well, you don't worry in this. same way because you have seen his faithfulness and you recount his faithfulness and recounting his faithfulness as a way to address the worry in your life where you stop and you're like, okay, let me think about this. God provided here. He provided here. He showed up here. I'm going through this situation right now. Who he has been is who he still is, who he will be. And that confidence that cancels out worry came from seeing God's faithfulness demonstrated in your life and noticing it. And so I think, you know, for us, I don't know if you guys do anything like this. My wife's great at it. I do okay at it. But she keeps a gratitude journal she has for years where she just writes down things that she's grateful for. And there's something about gratitude that cancels out worry, where you just, you look around, you see, okay, I can be thankful for this, thankful for this, thankful for this. And taking the time to be grateful for God's faithfulness makes it hard to have room for worry. Yeah. I mean, it's what Israel did in the Old Testament. They set up all these altars to remember, we've come across a body of water before and God's split it apart. We're going to walk through it. It's going to be okay, right?

They set up all these altars to try and remind them because they knew how quick they'd be to forget. And I think when God tries to introduce himself as provider, he did it in this way that tested daily faith, not yearly faith, but he did it with manna in the wilderness, right? So he said, every morning you go out, you pick it up, there'll be enough for today. And then the next morning go out and there'll be enough for today. And so now Jesus teaches us to pray, give me today daily bread, just for today, enough for today so that it teaches me dependence. Cause every day I need to fight worry. Every day I need to fight giving up control. Every day I need to go to him and say, okay, God, I'm going to trust you with enough that you'll provide enough to get me through today. And then the next morning go to him again. And it builds like this faith in trusting him as provider to do what you both have testified to him doing for you in moments where he had to release and trust. I think we're scared of discomfort. I think I'm yet to encounter the Lord's call that has anything to do with comfort. It really calls to very uncomfortable things. And I think that goes exactly along with what you're saying. Yeah. He calls us into uncomfortable things and yet in the midst of it, he provides a unique comfort from himself that we can't get anywhere else. You find in those moments that, uh, you're, you depend on God in a really beautiful way that you just don't get any other way. Like when, when he, when he's there and you don't want to go through it, you're not asking for it. It'd be great not to feel like you're living in that daily dependence. And yet when you're in it, there's something really beautiful about it. There's a closeness that comes when you're like, okay, I'm depending on him for, you know, the daily bread. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's interesting. I think if I were to ask, uh, our church, do you want the miraculous hand of God in your life? And like, yeah, I want to see a miracle happen in my life. And when I look back at those moments where I'm like, wow, God showed up, um, it never was a product of me worrying. And then God appeared. It was a product of me risking and trusting and taking the first couple of steps. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out with whatever it is. Um, I don't know. And I've got plenty of things in my life right now where I'm going, I don't know how it's going to turn out and I don't have an option, but to trust God in that. Yeah. And that's when I see him. And so I think most of us want to see that, but we're too worried. Yeah. To experience it. Yeah. You know, if you think about it as the sin of unbelief, I, you know, that worry is the sin of unbelief, that what God looks for, I think in ways that maybe I've underestimated much of my life is he

looks for faith. Like he wants me to have faith in who he is and, you know, how he cares and, you know, in his power, in his presence, like he wants me to have faith. And so, you know, asking God, God help me grow in faith. You know, I do believe help my unbelief, uh, but, but understanding like the, the unbelief as an expression of worry, unbelief as a sin, I'm going to repent of this unbelief and I'm going to ask God, God, give me, I want to believe. So give me the faith that I'm, I'm missing. It's so interesting. I love that because I think it goes along with that. God doesn't care about our money. He doesn't need our money. Um, he doesn't care where we are, what we're doing. I think he always cares about who we're becoming through it. Are we becoming more like him? And I think generosity and just letting go of something that you hold so closely and tightly, it transforms you because you. Becoming you, allowing the Lord to transform you, you're looking more and more like him through that. Yeah, you look more like him because the start of the gospel is generosity. God loved the world and he gave. Yeah, yeah, that's good. You know, one of the most humbling things is, you know, I mean, you spend time in Haiti and I've been to Haiti many times and it was when you're around someone who has almost nothing and they're not worried about you. And, you know, you recognize, okay, somehow they've learned to live without worry, even though they don't know how they're gonna provide for themselves a basic meal the next day. But I live with more worry than they do and I've got a full pantry and a refrigerator. And it just is a humbling thing because it teaches you that I think I'll stop worrying

if my circumstances change in a certain way. And then you see somebody who doesn't worry and you're like, okay, maybe that's not it. You know, maybe there's something else that is, you know, the foundation for their worry-free life. And give you a preacher joke if you need one. I don't know, you're making me nervous. You could have one. You could always ask the crowd, hey, I want you to think of how much money, if it was in your checking account right now, you guys could do this. I'll do this exercise right now. What number would be in there where you're like, that's it? You know the hook, right? So when you think of a number right now, and I can guess it. I'll guess it right now. If you have a number of like, man, if that just appeared right now, I would be like, no worries. But not too much, right? And are you ready? Thinking of a number right now? It's just more than you have right now. The answer is always, if I just have, yeah. You could borrow. You don't even need to quote me on that.

But it's true. Like at the end of the day, I'm just convinced more is better if I had more of a car, if I had more of a house. And the end of that rainbow is not what you want. The answer is actually right now, I have everything I need. If I know Christ, I have all that I need. And the church is the place where I'm gonna find this and the fullest expression of it. And so Kyle, as you close us out here and pray for us, what's your hope through MOVE? And how would you encourage your church right now that's listening and watching this, that's consumed with worry from whatever it is, whether it's the financial side of MOVE or whether it's the engagement side or serving or whatever it is, how would you encourage them? And I want you to pray for our church to leave worry behind. Yeah. You know, I see MOVE as, it's kind of shifted as we've, yeah, the more I've talked about it, the more I've kind of grown to understand the discipleship side of this. Yeah, it's easy to look at MOVE

as just a generosity initiative, you know, that we're just focusing on money that is given. But truly it is a discipleship opportunity. Like I am so excited and happy for so many people in our church who are learning and discovering what it looks like to put their faith in God and then to join Him on mission, like to see people like get it. They're like, oh, like this is what we're talking about. And so my prayer is that it would really be a discipleship journey for us, that it would draw our hearts closer to Jesus, that it would allow us to more fully live with His purpose and His mission. And I see that happening and I'm really excited. I would be really disappointed if MOVE was a fundraiser. I would be, I wouldn't, I mean, I just wouldn't be very passionate about it if we were just trying to raise a bunch of money for, you know, a building or whatever it is. But I've loved the emphasis that we've put on MOVE where it is a discipleship journey of saying, God, what do you wanna do in me? And what do you wanna do through me? And then watching people discover that they've got a part to play in that is a beautiful thing. That's awesome. We pray for us? Yeah, let me pray for us.

God, thank you that you so love the world that you gave. Thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus. Thank you for your generosity towards us. It does not matter how generous we are. We will never get close to just the grace that you have given to us so freely. And God, I'm amazed by it. I pray that your generosity towards us would fill our hearts with gratitude and out of that gratitude that we would wanna live generous lives, that we would want our lives and our decisions to just reflect what we've received from you. So help us to live in that. Help us to receive that from you. And God, would you teach us what it looks like? This is a dangerous prayer, but would you teach us what it looks like to depend on you? It's dangerous because usually the way that we learn that is by having other things we've depended on. taken out from under us. And so I know it's dangerous, but it's the only way to live. And so I pray God that instead of worry, and instead of anxiety, that you would grow us in faith and independence on who you are as a loving father who has provided so much. God, as you tell us in Romans, you're the one who gave us your only son. If you've given us your only son, won't you also give us everything else we need? So help us to see that and to believe it, to take away the worry and anxiety that we have and that we carry, and fill our hearts with faith. It's in Jesus' name. Amen.