S2 Ep. 6: The Joy of Secret Service – Impact Without Applause

In a world obsessed with likes, shares, and recognition, Allen and Stacy Jo dive into the power of serving in secret. What happens when no one sees your good works but God? How do we embrace unseen obedience without craving applause? In this episode, you’ll discover why the most meaningful acts of service are often the ones that never make it onto a stage or a social media feed.

✅ In This Episode You’ll Discover:
✅ Why Jesus teaches us to serve quietly and trust that the Father sees (Matthew 6:1–4)
✅ How to let go of recognition without losing motivation
✅ The tension between flesh and Spirit, and why dying to self leads to freedom (Romans 8:6)
✅ Why celebrating others (even when they get the credit) builds humility and love
✅ Practical ways to nurture a secret servant’s heart in today’s spotlight-driven culture

📖 Key Scriptures: Matthew 6:1–4 • Romans 8:6 • Colossians 3:23 • Matthew 16:24

✨ Practical Takeaways:
✨ Remind yourself who you are serving—God, not man
✨ Choose anonymity on purpose: bless others without being seen
✨ Celebrate others without needing the spotlight
✨ Keep an eternal mindset—your reward in heaven is secure

The message is simple yet life-changing: God sees every unseen act of love, and nothing done in His name is wasted.

Transcript

0:01

Are you ready to build a life, business and legacy that truly lasts? Welcome to Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne, where Faith meets real talk. Biblical wisdom meets everyday life and leadership meets laughter. Together we will uncover God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission, helping faith-driven leaders invest in what matters most. Each episode, we explore biblical wisdom, have real conversations, and of course, have some fun along the way because let's be real. Walking in faith is an adventure. It sure is. So pull up a seat, grab your coffee or your sweet tea, and join us as we steward our callings with intention, because when we invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase. Hey friends. Welcome back to Faithfully Invested, where we explore God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission, one Kingdom principle at a time. I'm Stacy Jo, and I'm not. I I'm Allen. No, you're not. I, I'm a And today we're discussing some, uh, something that's very close to both of our hearts. Uh, secret service. Hmm. Not that secret service. We're talking about serving others without needing or getting a standing ovation. Mm-hmm. Uh, the kind that we're talking about, the service that, uh. Um, other people just don't know about, but God knows and that's really what matters. Yeah, that's right. You know, we're calling this one the joy of Secret Service. Right. Impact without applause. You know, it's all about those quiet unseen acts of obedience that may never get a stage, but make it into the heart of God. So it doesn't matter if they ever make it onto a stage. Right. And I think that, uh. That these times that go unrecognized. Mm-hmm. Um, I think that, that it's those times that, uh, or these times that find us drawing, uh, that leaning in and drawing closer to to God. Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, we live in a world that thrives on visibility. Would y'all agree? I mean, yeah. Yeah. With an eye roll. I would agree. Yes. Yeah. Y'all better flash some pics and get it up on social media or it just didn't happen. Right? Right. Wrong, wrong. But we've gotten so accustomed to seeing so many of our lives being played out on social media. Yeah. And typically it's all the good stuff. Yeah. We never really see much of the, the negativity. It's always the good stuff, but. Some May. Oh, there, there's a lot of negativity. Well, okay. Yes, but, but people who put their lives out there, yeah. They're only putting the good stuff out there. The good stuff. The shiny stuff. The shiny stuff, yeah. Right. You know, look at what I did or, or you know, look at what I'm doing. Right. And I'm not saying, again, I'm not saying there's anything necessarily wrong with that. Right. Except when it becomes obsessive and not what Right. God has called you to do. Sure. But I digress. But. Some may wonder that if it's not posted, if it's not praised or if it's not platform, you know, is it even counted? Yeah. You know, is it counted? Yeah. Well, God sees our hearts. It's most certainly counted. He does. Um, kingdom work doesn't work like that. No. That the, it just doesn't work like that. Mm-hmm. You know? Jesus gives us a warning in Matthew six, I think it's verses one through four, uh, where he presents a solid paradigm shift. He's, he Jesus is good at the whole paradigm shift thing. So he presents his paradigm shift for, for all of us to respectfully consider, he says, be careful. Do not practice your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise, you will have no reward from your father who's in heaven. So. When you give to the poor, don't sound the trumpet before you, like the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so that they might be honored by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received the reward in full, but when you give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what the right hand is doing so that your giving will be in secret and your father who sees what is done will reward you. Bla. Yeah. Blammo. Yeah. Jesus has a, that sounds a long life of blammo moments. All right there. Yeah. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Right. Don't make it all public. So I say blammo, right? The kids might say that slaps, but I don't even know if that's like a thing anymore. But anyhow, I'm gonna ask you not to say that again. That slaps Blammo. Yes. That slaps? No. All right. No more of that slaps. But anyway, you know, my point is that that's really good because it is so easy, even in ministry to serve in ways that we still want credit, right? And Jesus invites us to serve in secret. He does to. So where no one sees. And to trust that the father does see. Yeah, the father does see, you know, he sees everything and he's the one, he alone rewards us. Right. And it's not about getting a reward from God. No, we don't serve. For the re it, it, it's understood. It's written in the word that mm-hmm. You know, we serve and, and, and the Lord or who sees us will reward us. Mm-hmm. But it's not about getting the reward, it's about, it's about serving for the sake of serving. Right. You know, we serve because we're able, we serve because we can, uh, on a personal level, I serve because God and other, so, uh, they've served me well and they've seen me through, uh, uh, um. A lot of dark times. Mm-hmm. They see me and, uh, they've, uh, they've brought me the Lord and, and others, how he's worked through others have brought me a long way from where I used to be. Yeah. And it's, it's all about, for me, it's all about giving back. Yeah. Yeah. Being grateful. Being Grateful Heart. Absolutely. Yeah. Leading from a grateful heart. Mm-hmm. Certainly. Yeah. So. You know, there've, uh, there've been times through my faith walk when, when I've been assisting here and there and, uh, with no flash for the effort. Right. You know, but, uh, some, it's nice to be recognized, but you know. It's not, there was a time when, when I, when I wanted the flash, I wanted the, uh, the recognition. But, you know, just learned, uh, uh, as I've matured in my walk that it's, it's not necessary. But I, but I would say the. Uh, you know, I, I dig on words of affirmation. That's, yeah. That's my, my love language in That's one of your love languages. And I, I think, uh, this guy, I mean, I don't think, I know this goes back to when I was a kid, I, I'd bust my tail to get stuff done around the house mm-hmm. Before mom got home. Uh, in hopes that she would recognize all that I've done and give me a big fat attaboy, you know, and, uh, sometimes I gotta some attaboy, attaboy, you know, always I was, uh, yeah, I was, I was operating from insecurity, operating from a broken place back then. And, and mom was always assuring, and sometimes I got the attaboy and sometimes I didn't. And honestly, in the moments that I didn't, I'd think, Hey. Oh, what the heck? After all that, didn't you see what I did? Right. Does anyone even notice? Right. However, um, as I look back on that, in hindsight, uh, it's, uh, it's nice to get noticed. Mm-hmm. Uh, but for me. Uh, you know, it, it, it taught me, you know, that when you see something that needs done, get it done. Mm. If it's within, if it's within my power to do it, if it's within my ability to do it, just get it done. Mm-hmm. Again, it's nice to be noticed, but, you know, for me it's, it's more fulfilling a as as I've grown up, uh, and as I've, uh, as I've blossomed as a disciple, uh, and as a follower of Christ, I, uh. It's more fulfilling for me just knowing that anything that I've decided to do has, has been helpful to someone else. Mm. Yeah. But I, uh, but I get what, I get what you're saying because I, I can remember, you know, about wanting the, wanting the spotlight and, you know, even several years ago. I was, you know, working with an organization and I was involved and, and they were publicly thanking those that had contributed and helped them with their event on social media. And I kept watching to see when my name and my picture was gonna come up.'cause I was gonna share it on social media. Right. You know. Um. But somehow they skipped right over me. Huh. You know? And I didn't say anything. I didn't make a big deal about it, but I can tell you that my flesh flared up initially. Like, hello? Yeah. Um, what about me? What about me? I was there, I helped, I did this, I did that. And then the Holy Spirit whispered, but I saw you. Yeah. And he put me right in my place. And excuse me, I, and I believe that was meant to be a lesson. To me. Oh, it was meant to be a lesson. Oh yeah. It was meant to be a lesson. I, I have a dear sister, Dene De and Elaine, and she says, die already. That was a good, that was die already. That was a good de, but I needed to die to self. I mean, it was never about me to begin with. It was about. Him and it was about the organization. Yeah. It was not about me. Yeah. It's about allowing the spirit to kill the flesh. Yes. Our core verse at Unbound is, uh mm-hmm. Romans eight, six to, yeah. To live by the flesh is, uh, death. Mm-hmm. Uh, to live by The spirit is life and peace. So, so what do you want? Yeah. You want death. Which is biblically defined as separation from God. Um, or do you want life in peace? Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna go with life in peace. Amen. Me too. Uh, so you, I love the, that was a great dn thanks by, by the way. I gotta make sure I tag her on this episode, so. Yeah, absolutely. So she hears it and, but, but I, I love, I love her, you know, contemporary. Yeah. How she conveys that, uh, contemporarily. Mm-hmm. The, uh, Jesus saying, you know. Yeah. Uh, if you all are gonna follow me. Yeah. Um, that's, uh, if Jesus is from the South. Yeah. Uh, and, and he's not. But, uh, if you're gonna follow me. Uh, whoever would be my followers must deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow me. Mm-hmm. You know, if you're gonna do it, you're gonna Yeah. You gotta let that flesh go and, um, yeah. Anyway, and if you don't know de Elaine, she's de Elaine the musical comedian. Yeah. Check her out on social media. Seriously. You, you will not regret it. She's amazing. She, she's the general of joy. She is the general of joy. Right on. And not only is she that, but she has such a heart. Yeah. And she. Is such a good, good pastor. Yeah, a good evangelist. Yeah. Like I think she's got the full, the, the total full fivefold. Yeah. The total package. Yeah. She's the total package. She's rocking it. She's prophetic. Yeah, right. Yeah. Check her out. Reeling it in. Yes. Reel it in, babe. I know. But when I start to talk about people that I love, you know. Yeah. It's, uh, we, we can get, uh. That, that's not necessarily in the weeds, but just a tad off topic. But we do, we do love, uh, we do love Deanne, so, you know, yes. All right. Um, so the, back to the big clash. Yeah. The big clashes between, you know, like we said in Romans eight, six mm-hmm. The clashes between flesh and, and spirit. Yeah. So we want to be humble, but we also want to be appreciated. And I've, I've learned along the way that, uh, all the while God invites us into something deeper. Mm-hmm. He invites us into an obedience that. Trust his perspective more than man's applause. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good. Trust his perspective. Good. There's, there's a paradigm shift for you trusting the Lord's perspective over over men's affirmation, right? Even as the world tells us that, that we gotta go get that gold star recognition. Jesus says that the first will be last and the last will be first, which is to say that. I'm okay over here serving behind the scenes. I'm okay serving anonymously'cause I don't require status. Uh, I don't require a title. I don't require this recognition. Mm-hmm. I got all the satisfaction I need from the audience who matters. Yeah. Uh, not, not that people don't matter. I, um, please don't misunderstand me. But when it comes down to it between, uh, the affirmation of mankind. Humanity, if I'm gonna choose between the two, I'm gonna take the affirmation of my creator, father God. Amen. Yeah, for sure. So let's, let's talk about how we can live this out practically. Practical, practical, practical solutions. Yeah. How do we nurture that secret servant's heart when. We're in a world that pushes us to be seen, to be seen, to be heard. I think that it comes back to, I kind of touched on this already, but you know, it, it definitely deserves repeating, you know, we, we gotta remind ourselves who we're serving. Right. You know? Mm-hmm. And, and, uh, we could men. Mix identity into there as well. Mm-hmm. Because when we discover whose we are, we'll discover who we are. Yes. Right. And, uh, write that one down. When we discover whose we are, we'll discover who we are. And in turn we gotta remind ourselves who we're serving. You know, we serving God or men. I, it just reminded me of Peter's, uh, his, uh, speech in the Sanhedrin. I won't get into that, but he is like, Hey, yeah. If, if it's between us, you know, uh, if it's between serving you or serving the Lord, you know, you might as well start beating us now. Mm-hmm. You know, and that's not verbatim. Uh, but that was his point. He goes, he goes, y'all got nothing to say.'cause you know, Jesus said it all. Yeah. And, and we're gonna do what he said. Yeah. Because that's what he entrusted us with. So we gotta remind ourselves who we're serving. Uh, Paul, um. And, uh, Colossians 3 23. Uh, he says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if you're serving, as if you're working for the Lord, uh, and not for men. So whether we're doing the dishes for our spouse or, or our family, uh, or we're helping someone financially, a selfless acts in the name of Jesus never get wasted. They never go unnoticed. So. Do it. But thank you for doing the dishes, babe. Well, you know, sometimes people need help. They do. Right. And you know, Ronnie Ronnie's the one who usually does them, but Yeah. You know, you will selflessly do them. There's a little selfish in there'cause I don't like dirty dishes in my sink. Our sink. But anyway, uh, yeah. You know. Alright, moving on. Moving on. Well, secondly. We choose anonymity on purpose. Yeah. You wanna break your flesh Die already. Right. Again, for you Dan. Yes, please. But, but yes please. I want to break my flesh. Yeah. Daily. Actually, you're not gonna break your flesh but the spirit, well the spirit will do for you what you can't do for yourself. Well, right. But you know what I mean? I wanna die to my flesh. Yes. I wanna die to my flesh daily. Right? Sure. You, you know, blessing someone anonymously. Write that card. Yeah. Give that gift, maybe pay that bill and don't say a word about it. Right. Um, that kind of discipline grows your heart in a way that platforms never could. Yeah. There's no platform that is going to grow your heart like that. And. I've actually been on the receiving end of that. I've experienced that in a restaurant where someone bought my family dinner. Yeah. And it was at a time when I needed it. Yeah. And to this day, I have no idea who it was. And it doesn't matter because they know who they are and they probably know who they are in Christ too. Right, right. It's really easy to do it in drive-throughs. So if the Holy Spirit prompts you to pay for the person behind you online, and I'm not advocating drive-throughs, I'm not advocating fast food. We don't eat very little fast food. Maybe a Chick-fil-A, I might eat a Chick-fil-A on occasion, Allen, probably not, but on occasion, maybe it's in the Starbucks line, you know? But wherever. If the Holy Spirit prompts you to pay for the person behind you, there is probably a reason for that. Yeah. So, so don't ignore it. Right. Um, and the beauty of that is that they will never know who you are. Unless they run your license plate. But the odds of them doing that is no running your license plate between slum and slum and none. Right, right. No one's gonna run your license plate. They're not gonna take time to chase you down. They're just gonna be grateful. Grateful, hopefully grateful, right? Yeah. Yeah. And they probably needed it. If the Holy Spirit is like urging you to do that, it's probably because they need that. Yeah, absolutely. So moving on third point, yeah. You gotta celebrate others without needing to be celebrated yourself. Yes. That's a big deal, man. Mm-hmm. When, when someone else is, uh, gets the thank you or the spotlight, cheer them on mm-hmm. As you would like to be cheered on, but cheer support the team. It's, it's about the team. Mm-hmm. And, and, uh, so remember it's imp so important to remember that our service isn't about us. Right. You know, as followers of Christ, you know, that's what, what, how, how you say die already. Um, our service isn't about us. Right. It's not about getting the credit, it's not about getting the spotlight. It's about advancing his kingdom. And it's important to, to gain and maintain focus on that. Yeah. Advancing the Lord's kingdom. Yeah. And I just wanna say. Even if someone gets the credit that you deserved, celebrate them. There's a tough one. It's a tough one. That is a true die to self. That is a die to self. But celebrate them. We're not called to be walked on, but you know. True. Well, no, but no, absolutely not. But if, but if someone gets, if you did something and someone else receives the credit for it, celebrate that. That's interesting. Celebrate that because right. Then it really is in secret how much you know, you and the father know, right, that you did it. Nobody else does. That's good. How mature are you now? Right. Right. Have you had that happen? Right. Drop us a line if you have. Right. We'd be interested to know. I, I can say that I've had that happen. Yeah. Um, and I probably did not celebrate it. Right. If I'm gonna be quite honest. But that was like a really, really long time ago from that. Right, right, right. But finally, you know, kind of going along with that, we wanna keep an eternal mindset. God is building a reward that no man can give. Yeah. And no thief can steal. Yeah. And there are crowns. You have a crown, Allen, you have a crown that is being stored in heaven. I do. For every small, I got unsee. I got a cool hat too. Well, yes, you have a hat, but, but we all have crowns that are being stored in heaven for every small unseen act of obedience. And Jesus will reward you. Again, we don't do it for the reward, we do it because we get to. Yeah. Not because we got to, but because we get to. That's it, man. And in fact, I'm, I'm gonna bet, as you would say, I am gonna bet dollars to donuts that some of the biggest heroes in heaven. Might be the ones that nobody here on Earth ever heard about or knew about. Right, right. Don't you think? I, I think you probably have, we'll know when we get there. We'll know when we get there. That's right. So, so action item for the week. Who, what's, what's the one, what's the one unseen act that, uh. Of loving kindness that, that the Lord wants you to do this week. Mm. What can you do this week out of love, out of kindness for someone else? Mm-hmm. Uh, selflessly. Anonymously. Ask him, ask the Lord, where do you want me to serve in secret with you? Because he is always with you. Yeah. And maybe today is your invitation to lay down your need to be seen and die already. We're wearing that one. We're wearing it out. But you know, and trust the God who sees you completely, you know, your reward is not being withheld. It's being reserved. I love that. That's so good. And it's going to blow your mind. Yeah. It's good. So we'd love to hear how the Lord's stirring your heart in this area. Mm-hmm. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone. Who needs encouragement to keep serving even when it's hard? Mm. And hey, if you're enjoying this. Season on nurturing a servant's heart. Would you just take 30 seconds to leave us a five star review? Five star review, five star. It really does help more people find the message that you just enjoyed so that we can continue to spread God's word and grow his kingdom. Right. And on another note, how can we pray for you this week? Yeah, drop us a line. Let us know how the Lord's working, uh, in your life and how you would like the Lord to be working in your life and keep sowing in secret because our creator, father God, sees every seed that you're sowing. Yeah, we love you guys and we do wanna pray for you. Whatever your needs are, we wanna be lifting them up in prayer. And remember that when you decide to be faithfully invested. God brings the increase. He sure does. God bless. We'll see you next week. Bye-bye. Thanks for joining us on Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy Jo, if today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or helped you see your calling more clearly, don't keep it to yourself. That's right. Share it with a friend. Leave a five star review and keep leaning into God's blueprint for your life, your leadership, and your legacy. So until next time, remember, when you invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase.