S4 Ep.7: Unity in a Divided World: Kingdom Above Culture

When the world is louder, angrier, and more divided than ever, how do believers rise above cultural chaos and stand united with Christ? In this powerful episode, Allen and Stacy Jo unpack what it truly means to live Kingdom over culture—and how unity in Christ becomes our greatest witness to a world desperate for truth.

Together, they explore:
 • why division is the enemy’s oldest trick
 • how John 17 reveals Jesus’ prayer for your unity
• the danger of letting culture define what only Christ can name
• how pride fuels disunity—and humility breaks it
• why kingdom identity is stronger than cultural labels
• practical steps to build unity in your home, marriage, ministry, and community

This episode is both convicting and encouraging, calling you back to what matters most:
 Keeping Jesus at the center.
 Loving people deeply.
 Standing united in truth, identity, and purpose.

Key Scriptures

• John 17:20–23 — Jesus’ prayer for unity
• 1 Peter 5:8 — the enemy seeks to devour
• James 1:19 — quick to listen, slow to speak
• Matthew 5:14–16 — we are the light of the world

If this message strengthens you, share it with someone who needs hope, clarity, and unity today.

Download, subscribe, and stay faithfully invested—because when we invest in His Kingdom, He brings the increase.

The Kingdom LeadHERship Conference 2026 is happening January 31st in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. This one-day, Spirit-led experience is for Christian women in business and leadership who are ready to step boldly into their God-given calling.

🎟️ Tickets are limited. Sponsorships are available.

👉 Get your ticket now:   www.acbw.org

Reviving Recovery: Unbound starts online Monday, February 2nd at 7:00 PM We worship, we learn, we break out into gender specific groups and we journal with. Each other and with the Holy Spirit. If your heart is stirring listening to this, pay attention Healing begins here. Click the link below to join us at Reviving Recovery Unbound starting February 2nd.

www.revivingrecovery.com

See you in the room!

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. Great day friends, and welcome back to Faithfully Invested. I am Allen. And I'm Stacy Jo, and we are so thankful you're here with us today. So today's episode is all about living with kingdom over culture. That's it. And standing united with Jesus so that we may stand united with all the others around us. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, maybe you've noticed that the world has over four gazillion ways to divide God's creation, uh, from politics, social media, subjective truth, opinions on life and gender. It is a mess out there currently. Mm-hmm. Uh, we could say that the enemy of our souls is doing a great job at dividing and conquering right now, but, uh, on a lighter note. Don't even get me started on who's right. Pineapple on pizza. Oh, Allen, don't even start that debate on this show. We are not losing listeners over pizza toppings today. All right, well, I don't think there, we don't need cancel culture here. As you, as you already know, you and I do. You and I see eye to eye on many things, but. With regards to pineapple on pizza, that is not one of them. Well, don't make me call Ronni Hope out here. Our daughter loves the Hawaiian pizza. She does. Pineapple adds the sweet to the savory. Yummy. Well, I said yummy. I heard you. I heard you. I do not think it's yummy. And I wanna know, are you team Allen? Or are you team Stacy Jo? I mean, Allen is, as you just heard, pro pineapple on pizza. I love pineapple. Not on pizza. There. Go. And so I would love, we would love for you to message us and let us know. I wanna know if you're team Allen or Team Stacy Jo. Wow. And it will be interesting to see what you all think on that subject, right? Anyway. It will, it'll be, and, and I have another question. How many zeros does gazillion have? I don't know. I don't know. Okay. I don't even think it's a, is that really a number? I don't think so. Okay. But it's a lot. All right. It's a lot. Or as our friend Brenda would say, a lot. A lot. Yes. Yes. Uh, so moving on. You okay? Moving on. The, the truth is that a division's become the default setting in this world. Yeah. Geez. Uh. Yeah, sadly. Sad. Sad, but true. Mm-hmm. Uh, it seems as though no one wants to have an intelligent conversation anymore without childish name calling or nonsensical cancel culture. What's that about? Uh, yeah. And yet Jesus consistently calls us to hire places. Yeah. Uh, in John's gospel, Jesus prayed that, that we would be one, just as he and the Father are one. Uh, it's written in John 17:20-23, that he, he says to the Father, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me. Through their word that they may all be one. Just as you father are in me and I in you, that they would also, that they also may be in us, so that the world will believe that you've sent me the glory that you have given me. I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. I in them, and you and me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you've sent me. And love them even as you loved me. Wow. But that's a, a lot of love. Yeah. A lot of unity and, and a lot of glory. Yeah. So that unity, uh, not o Yeah. So we're called, Jesus is praying on our behalf, and it's, it is, it's said in the world that, that he's in the, in the heavenly place, is sitting at the right hand of God, uh, interceding for us. Yeah. That's beyond powerful. This is a prayer worthy of his God man status. Yeah. I mean, Jesus didn't pray for our comfort, our popularity, or our stuff. Yeah. He didn't pray for us to have stuff. He's not interested in our stuff. He prayed that we would be united with him. Mm-hmm. The father and each other because our unity is our witness to the world. Yeah. And when the spirit of offense runs. Rough shot over, over culture. We in Christ have got to stand firm. We have to stand united on our relationship with our creator. Yeah. And that is the key standing on our relationship, not religion. Yeah, exactly. Not religion. Religion. I got a little something to say about that image. Uh, you, you do. Yeah. Usually have quite a bit to say about that, you know? It's not about religion, it's about relation. I mentioned this in, in reviving recovery, Unbound. Um, and, uh, I, I write that I believe that Satan uses religion to, to frustrate us and discourage us, uh, so that he and his menus can creep in and keep us from believing their, and keep us believing their lies. Right? And if we're believing their lies, then we're distracted from, uh, being. Effective for the kingdom. Mm-hmm. You know, if Satan can keep us worn down. And discouraged and we're not beneficial for helping others or advancing God's kingdom. Right? Uh, also when we read scripture, we, when we dig into it, we don't see anywhere that religion is not what Jesus ever had in mind. He wasn't advocating religion. He actually stood adamantly against religious, the religious authorities, right? Uh, he always spoke relationally. He taught predominantly on love and relationship, and mostly he spoke on God's kingdom as well as living by faith and trusting the father, trusting himself as the son, and, uh, trusting the spirit for all that we might need to align our lives with theirs. And when we decide to stand together with Christ, the world sees him more clearly. Uh, when we slip and forget. And, and yeah, it happens man. Mm-hmm. Distractions happen. Sure. When, and even the best of us, the best Christian, the, the best Christ follower, you know, can slip and, and forget. And, uh, if we forget whose we are, uh, we'll start acting like we belong to the society, uh, and, and, and be a part of that, uh. Societal culture instead of uh, being one with the kingdom, right? So we gotta come to believe and know whose we are, so that we may discover who we are. Well that's good. It is challenging to stay united when everyone around you is yelling their opinions. You know, everybody has an opinion and we see it in families and churches. In friend groups. We especially see it in online threads in social media where believers, you know, I've seen it so much recently with politics where believers are turning on each other like it's a spiritual wrestling match. Right. You know, it's, it's either religion or its politics on social media that is just. Tearing, tearing people apart. Yeah. It's, it's division. It's meant to be division. It's, and I had a, we, we refer to it and we believe in God's word as absolute truth. Mm-hmm. It's, it's objective truth. Uh, it. I mean, obviously it can be argued, but people say, how do you know it's true? How do you know? I, I was like, how do I, that's a great question and I got a great, I got a quick and a great answer. How do I know that the word of God's true? How do I know that Jesus Christ is who he says he is? Because of the evidence in my life, right? Because. I wa I know who I was before and I know who he's brought me to be. Now I know who he's transformed me from the inside out to be my. The evidence that God is, God is real and that Christ is alive. Sitting in his right hand is the evidence of a transformed life. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And so yeah, it's, but it's sometimes like we forgot, we have an enemy that wants to rob, kill and destroy us all. He does. Peter, Peter refers to him as a roaring lion. Yeah. Uh, seeking for someone to devour and we, we've talked about this mm-hmm. This verse before this p uh, but it's, it's worth re mentioning because we can't forget, uh, that we have an enemy and he seeks to devour. He's constantly on the proud to eliminate us from, from being any, any. To being effective for God's kingdom. So we can't, we can't take him lightly. The enemy of our souls is the enemy. Everything that, everything that we see out there, the, the stuff that we don't agree with, the stuff that we do agree with, it's, it's all a battle between dark and light. It's all a battle between good and evil. Mm-hmm. Before there was physical and spiritual there. There physical and mental, there was spiritual. Mm-hmm. Everything we see out there. Is a battle between Yeah. Good and evil. And we have to understand that the, the enemy is the enemy. Right? And, and it looks like he's in control, right? Mm-hmm. Sometimes does it look like he's in control, folks? Yeah. But he's not. No. Believe this God is still in control. That's right. And, and the enemy was stripped of all authority. When, when Christ was on the cross and more so when he walked out of that tomb three days later. That's right. And and I, yes, I've said it before and I will say it again because that is absolute truth. That is absolute truth right there. And, and you know, yes, he's a roaring lion and yes, he's, you know, we can't take the enemy lightly, uh, understand this. Also, he's been using the same tactics since the garden divide, distract and destroy. Yeah, he, he's got nothing new, divide, distract and destroy. Uh, and this is just one reason that we must be united under and in the authority of Jesus Christ that was given to him by the Father. Amen. But you know, the challenge to this is when we let cultural opinion shape our identity more than the word of God. And when that happens, we lose sight of who we really are. Yeah. We lose vision of our God created identity. Yeah. And the world wants us divided. I mean, think about it. The world wants us divided as Republicans and Democrats, boomers and millennials and Gen Z. You know, whether it's the low middle or upper class societal classes, the world wants us divided. Right. And what's the difference between. Affluence and addiction. The difference is what we believe. Yeah. The difference is the voice that we listen to and who we're following. Yeah. And when it comes down to it, whether we decide to believe it or not, the fact of the matter is that we are all created sons and daughters of the one. True in living God. Yeah. We're children of God, right. We're not children of this world. We are children of God. And how much different would things look? If everyone around us identified as a child of God, how much different would it look? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't even imagine how much different that would look. I love it. I love, I love that point. Uh, thank you for raising that. It's, uh. That's brilliant babe. So along the same lines, our, our kingdom identity or who our, we refer to our kingdom identity or our truth identity. Our who God says we are, is way stronger than cultural division, right? As long as we are, we're it's who, it's who we follow. You know, we're. He is always in control. He is on the throne. He and, and any, and as we identify as children of God, as his children, as his beloved, uh, John's, uh, epistles say, beloved, you know, be loved as a. As we identify that, that is so much stronger than, than the cultural division. That's the truth. We must stand on. We, we, we just have to unite around the truth instead of the plethora of lies that society's currently choking down and currently throwing our ways. What are you gonna treat? You go, are we choosing the capital T truth? We choosing all these ridiculously farfetched. Subjective lies. Yeah. Subjective truth, which in the end are lies. Um, when we decide to embrace, uh, our kingdom identity or, or what we like to call a reviving recovery, unbound, our truth, identity, uh, walls. Between us come down. Yeah. Uh, but in contrast, when we decide to go our own way instead of Yahweh, you know, we tend to build fences. And those fences is, it's not what Jesus ever intended. Right. So, yeah, I, you know, I think back to when I first mentioned that I thought reviving recovery should go unbound, should go online. It should shift to an online platform. And let's just say that you and I didn't stand united. Yeah, I didn't on that initially. I think it was a good idea. Yeah. And, and so just as a. Precursor to that, or, you know, to give you a heads up, uh, reviving Recovery Unbound is getting ready to go online. Yeah. Um, and we're pretty excited about that. We are, but it wasn't, it took, it took a bit to get us United. Yeah. I recall that. I, I didn't think it was a good idea because all my past experience and, and current experience in recovery has been live in person communities. Uh, that, that part's important and we're. We're, we will incorporate that, uh, live in person, uh, into, but mo it's going, we're the, the, the word of the Lord says online community is, is to increase our, uh, what's the, the reach. Yeah. Increase our reach. Yeah. Adv or widen our footprint. And to get out there, stand the territory, the, the, the, uh,'cause the vision is that. That, that he would, mm-hmm. That the Lord would empty the streets and fill the seats and heal the hearts of his people. And, and we believe, because this is what he said to us mm-hmm. Is that reviving recovery is, is recovery for the revival that's here, that's currently building. And if you haven't seen, uh, revival in your area, uh, it's here, it's building and do you want to be a part of that? So. Mm-hmm. But, but what I didn't consider, and, and, and because I'm, I'm a guy. I am adverse to change. Right. And uh, and you were pretty adverse to it. You were pretty adamantly against it. What I didn't consider is that times and preferences change. Yeah. And, uh, I also didn't consider that just because I didn't think it was a good idea. It doesn't mean that it wasn't a God idea. Right. You know, the and, and. I've revealed it to, I revealed it to our pastor yesterday and I thought, I thought I'd come up against some opposition, but he's like, great idea. Yeah. Uh, I, I, and so, yeah. You know, we, but the thing about it is we weren't arguing about faith. We were arguing about format. Yeah. And I don't even wanna say we arguing. It wasn't much of an argument. Yeah, it wasn't much of an argument. I, I kind of let it go and then just prayed it, prayed it through. She knows my patterns, you knows, because I, because when she mentions it, I don't agree with it. And then, then I'm thinking about it. Right. And then ever, if I'm thinking about it, I'm, I'm praying about it and, right. And lo and behold, you know, she did get that from the Lord. Right. And, but you know, isn't that what most of us do? We argue, um. Not about faith, but about format. Yeah. I mean, if you think about religion, you know religion is different formats. Mm-hmm. And we get used to the way that things are or how we think things should be. And we slip into disunity when changes shift or. Or shift our comfortable mindsets because who likes to be discomfort? Who likes to be uncomfortable? I mean, we have to be to grow. Sometimes. It's essential to be to be. If we're gonna grow, we're gonna get pulled out of our comfort zones. Absolutely. But what do you think might happen if we stop letting small differences disrupt. The bigger mission, like this is a bigger mission. Yeah. And our differences, I mean, he could have very well planted his feet and said, we are not doing that. And you know, but the Lord spoke to him just like he spoke to me. And as believers, aren't we doing what we're doing to glorify Jesus together? Yeah. I mean, his will and his way is all about unity in community. That's why there is. Unity in community. That's it. In the word. Yeah. Absolutely. And we had to learn that unity isn't always about uniformity, right? It's about embracing diversity. Mm-hmm. So truth be told, that this lovely lady and I are quite diverse from each other, we're very different. Uh, we don't always see eye to eye and that's okay. Uh,'cause when you think about it, if, if we always thought and said the same things, uh, I doubt that we would be as effective in our home or in our community as he empowers us to be. He, he created us differently. Yeah. Obviously, you know, uh, but, uh, as he created us differently, he created us in, in. To embrace our differences for his purposeful plan. He's brought us to this point. Uh, that's the, that's the transformation I'm talking about. Yeah. We are the church, we are the body of Christ, and we are designed with different parts, different gifts and different ideas and, and all that. We're called to unite by one spirit, right? The Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of truth. Who brings us all the truth. And yes, I say that a lot because he's the spirit of truth who brings us all the truth. And if, and if you didn't catch it the first time or if you didn't catch it the fourth time, uh, here's a fifth. He's the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit who's come to bring us all the truth. And we would all do well to, to recognize that truth and, and believe that truth, and come to live by that truth. You know, though, all too often we see that disunity comes from pride a lot of times. So we gotta recognize that. Not, not this unity, but disunity. Disunity, right? Yeah, that's what I said, disunity, right, comes from pride. So we have to recognize that and we have to move past that swiftly, you know, getting back to the humility and as we do. We lay down our right to be right, which is hard sometimes. It can be challenging to surrender our right to be right and recall how he brought us together for his purpose. So we embrace humility that calls us to pick up love. Yeah. And as we know, love changes everything It does. Love changed this world. Love changed my life and his life. And not the love that we have for one another, but the love that the savior has for us, that God had for us, that he would send his son to die a brutal death. Yeah, because he loved us. Yeah. Love changes everything. When that, when that sunk into my heart, when I come to understand or, or come to believe,'cause really, I, I don't understand it. Right. Uh, but when the, I'll say this, when, when the words came off the page and, and, uh, became a part of my life and that wrecked me Yeah. And transformed me, man. And when, when you come to understand, uh, or, or. Come to believe that, that he loves you that much. Mm-hmm. And, uh, yeah. So, you know, he didn't say, uh, Hey, if, if you're, they will know that you're my Jesus. He never said, they'll know you're my disciples by your finite need to be right on social media. Yeah. He, he clearly said that. They will know that you are my disciples by how you love one another. Mm-hmm. Um, when it, when it all comes down, we're called to love each other as he loves us. Mm-hmm. So unity doesn't mean that we agree on everything, but it does mean that we decide to love through the challenges. Right. So how, how are you loving those around you? That's good. So as we're we're, uh, winding down here, we, we always wind down with some solutions. We do. Uh, today we got a few solutions and we're gonna talk about how we, how we might live the kingdom over culture. How we might live kingdom over culture on a daily basis. Today we got three, uh, three ways that have helped us personally and professionally and yeah, the first one is keeping Jesus at the center. What do you got to say about that lady? Well, you know, it sounds simple, but it's the foundation because he is the foundation. It's not always simple to keep him at the center. What we need to do. Yeah. But it's not always what we do, right? Mm-hmm. But it is foundational again, because he is the foundation. So if Jesus isn't the center, something else is going to be, and whatever sits at the center decides our direction. Yeah. That's why we start. We have to start our day asking, Lord, what's your heart for today? Right. Not what does the news say today? That's not a good place to start. Yeah. Not the news. Right. Good Lord, don't do that. Don't do the news. Right. Uh, friends, are you distracted, strongly encourage you to turn off that television. Right. They don't call it, uh, I mean they actually do, they do call it programming for a reason, right? Uh, not a We got a big fat TV over there, man. We don't ever watch it, man. No, there's, there's a, anyway, any who. Any who moving on. Yeah. When we, when really it, when we filter our, instead of the TV instead of the news, why don't we filter our beliefs, our thoughts, and our actions through God's word. Um, and as we do that, we'll see people, we'll see everyone around us as God's image bearers instead of enemies. Right. You know, we start to recognize that every person. Is someone that Jesus died for, and that's a game changer whether they've accepted it or not. Yeah. That's the hard part. If you know it's, it's easy to love the person who thinks like you or believes like you. Right. But when you're called to love the person who doesn't even know Yeah. That Jesus loves them. Right. And they're operating from that, that, uh, so they just need, uh, so that's why we're here, right? Yeah. I mean, that's it. That, that's evangelism, that's uh, right. And, uh, that's sharing the gospel, right? And, and who he is, and. What he's done and what he continues to do. And I, I, I say this to because my life has been radically transformed. Mm-hmm. And, and I share that often. And I, and I, I, uh, the disclaimer is that I, I'm, I'm no one special, but, but he says I am. Mm-hmm. So that's, so that's kind of cool. That's right. He says, I'm chosen. Mm-hmm. And yeah. Yeah. And it's important to share that with people.'cause who's, some, some people, some people I know are never gonna step inside a church, or at least right now, they don't think they're going to. Right. They believe that they're not coming to church. She goes, oh, the, it'll burst into flames if they do. Mm-hmm. But that's, that's the silly one that I, I mean, I said that and, uh, but we're the, we're the ones, we're the church. It's not, the church isn't the for what we're the church, we're, we're the ones called to carry his name. He said, go and make disciples of all nations, is what he said. Right? Yeah. Right. So we gotta, we are the ones What if you are the one who's gonna, is gonna share Christ and change a life. Yeah. Again and again and again. Right. Preaching to myself. Mm. Yeah. And to me. Yeah. Um. But number two is, listen, well before you speak. So James 1:19 says that everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. So what would happen if we all followed that? Mm. I mean, social media might go outta business. I might go outta business. Social media taking a hit tonight. Right, right. Yeah. And we're not against social media by any stretch of the imagination. We, we use it. We use it every day. We use it as a platform. For we do. It has, its to spread the word and it, it has its purpose. Yes, man. But don't, don't let that nasty negativity sink into you. Right. Yeah. Because you are, you are created in his image. That's right. You are an image bearer of, of your creator God, our creator God. So don't let the enemy get a foothold. Yeah. All right. So. Listening requires discipline. Yeah. You were talking about listening and mm-hmm. That's, it requires discipline. And when we, when we listen to understand, instead of just, uh, waiting on our turn, our turn to to speak, waiting on our turn to respond, uh, then when we're actually listening. To what people are actually saying, then we're modeling Jesus's kindness, his faithfulness, and his self-control, uh, among several other fruits of the spirit. Uh, Jesus most often listened to people's hearts before he healed their hurts. Oh, yeah, yeah. So maybe the next time someone shares something that rubs you the wrong way on social media or. In person or however it might be, you know, pause and ask, Lord, how do you see them? And I've had to do this. And sometimes I just keep on going, just keep on going. You know, I don't make a comment. I don't put anything in there that's gonna like stir the pot, but I just say, Lord, how do you see them? And that simple question can actually shift an argument into an opportunity for grace. Grace, grace that is, uh, that question. What was that question again? That question's, Lord, how do you see them? How do you see them? Um, I got a, a challenge with someone very dear to me. Uh, and the what helped me see in a different light was when, uh, actually an elder at the church, he was, he was leading a group, uh, in her healing and, and. I'm, I'm somewhat wrecked in the moment. And he, as he was facilitating that session, he said, Lord, how do you see them? Mm-hmm. And man, the spirit gave me a vision of this person and that that empowered compassion and my, this person isn't kind, uh, but. The vision and, and the, and the, the holiness of the spirit to share how he sees that person. Uh, and showed me the why. Mm. And, uh, and, uh. That, that why empowers compassion, which empowers co, which empowers forgiveness, authentic forgiveness. Mm-hmm. And you're able to give that person to the Lord and lay that in forgiven before the Lord. And, and it doesn't mean the hair on the neck doesn't come up, but it means that he's forgiven in the moment and. I mean this, no, this doesn't mean we're, we're human. We have emotions, right? I know I'm kind of in the weeds here, but we're, we're emo, we were created with emotions and sometimes emotions can show us where our challenges are. Yeah. And, and emotions are a good thing. They can be, uh, challenging, but emotions, uh, will show us where we need to improve. Right? And, and, and one of the fruits of the spirit. It's last for a reason. I, I somewhat joke about this, but maybe not joking. Self-control is, is is the last on the list of, of the nine fruits of the spirits in Galatians five, uh, for a reason, you know, and self-control as, as the hair comes up and, and, and it start and, and, and you're experiencing anger. It's the spirit's fruit. Mm-hmm. That that allows that to say, Hey, let it go. I got this. Yeah. The spirit says, I got this. The Lord says I got this, and that's all the reassurance I need. Yeah. Right. That's good. That's good. I hope all that makes sense, Lord. How do you see them? How do you see them? How do you see them? That's a great question to ask. How do you see them? So why don't you share number the third, the third one with us? Yeah. We got a model unity that points the world to Christ, right? When in doubt point to to Christ. When in doubt point in God in doubt. That's good. That's good. That, um, as unity is a belief that's rooted in love, a love that transforms us from the inside out. Did you know? That the world is watching, the world is watching how we treat each other. Mm-hmm. Uh, and when they see believers loving through the differences, they see a love that doesn't make sense apart from Jesus Christ. So let us decide. Join us in deciding to reflect the sun. Yes. When you were SSON, we, you're right. Should reflect the sun. He is the light of the world. He says, he says in John 9, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Mm-hmm. And then I believe it's in Matthew's gospel. He calls us the light of the world. That you are the light of the war, you are the city on the hill. And uh, and we're not meant to be or put a basket over that, that light. That's right. So you know, when you refuse to gossip, when you pray, instead of post. You know when you build bridges instead of walls, that's kingdom living. Yeah, that's true. Kingdom living. And the beauty of that is unity starts small and works outward from our homes, from our marriages, from our teams, and it's such a beautiful thing. So don't gossip, pray instead of post. Yeah. And build bridges instead of walls. Absolutely. Absolutely. When we, uh, if we want a unified society, it starts at a unified home. Yeah. It starts here. And um, and that always starts with humility. Mm-hmm. Forgiveness and a willingness to keep Jesus first in everything. Yeah. So, you know, we always like to give you challenges. So today we challenge you to take a Kingdom inventory, ask yourself. Where have I let culture define me more than Christ? Yeah. Where have I let culture define me more than Christ, and then invite the Holy Spirit to realign your heart. And understand this as we're, as we issue these challenges to you, we're challenging ourselves as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah.'cause it's not always easy. It's not, and this is not a do as I say, not as I do thing. Right. Right. This is a, this is what's worked for us, uh, and this is what we could probably do better sometimes as well. Absolutely. So, preach preaching to ourselves. Mm-hmm. So our, our, our call to actions are a call to action to ourselves as well as you. So join us. Yeah. All right. Because Unity. And remember, unity is our witness to the world of how he's transformed our hearts and minds from the inside out. When we stand united with Christ, others see him more clearly, and that, that, that others see him more clearly through us, that we reflect the son. That's what truly matters. The world is desperate for Jesus right now. Let them see him through you. Yeah. It's time we stop echoing the division of the world and start reflecting the oneness of heaven. Let's be the answer to Jesus's prayer that we talked about in John 17. Right on. Yeah. John 17. Look it up. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, there's, there's, uh, there's another action item for the week. Check out John 17. Yeah. And as we're winding down, we got, we got three takeaways for today. Uh, start recap as we recap. Uh, number one is our unity is our witness to the world. Number two. Uh, kingdom identity is stronger than cultural division all day, every day. And number three, when we stand united in Christ, the world will see him more clearly through us. Yeah, so go live that out this week. Love big, listen deep and keep Jesus at the center of it all. Yeah. Please know that we love you guys. Yeah. Thank you for joining us here on Faithfully Invested, where we believe that you were created in God's image to be a faithful steward with all that he's entrusted you with. Yes. So until next time, stay grateful. Stay united and keep your eye on the Kingdom. And if you've enjoyed this episode, please. Subscribe and share it with someone else. Download it if you're on Apple or Spotify. And remember that when you decide to live faithfully invested, God brings the increase. We love you every time. We'll see you next time. Take care. God bless. 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.