You Can't Build Both | Allen & Stacy Jo

Kingdom legacy, Christian leadership, and biblical stewardship take center stage as Faithfully Invested kicks off Season 7 with a powerful question:

Are you building what actually matters?

In this episode, Allen and Stacy Jo unpack the difference between worldly legacy and Kingdom legacy, and why so many believers unintentionally spend years building things that will not last into eternity.

This is not about bad intentions.
 It’s about misplaced priorities.

Using Scripture including Matthew 6:33, Psalm 37, Philippians 4, Proverbs 3, and 1 Corinthians 3, they challenge listeners to examine what they are truly seeking first and how that shapes what they leave behind. 

In this episode, they discuss:

•  What defines a true Kingdom legacy 
•  How “drift” pulls us toward comfort, recognition, and control 
•  Why fear leads to building the wrong things 
•  Why good things become wrong when they replace first things 
•  How to measure success through a biblical lens 
•  Why not everything that looks successful will last 

Key takeaway:
Worldly legacy says, “Remember me.”
Kingdom legacy says, “Follow Him.”

Reflection question:
Will what you are building today matter in eternity?

When we stay faithfully invested, God brings the increase.

Reviving Recovery: Unbound is now online! 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.

www.revivingrecovery.com

See you in the room!

Transcript

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (00:00.214)
Faithfully invested we're grateful to be here and thank you for deciding to join us today I am Allen and I'm Stacy Jo and like Allen said we are so glad you joined us today as We are leading into season 7 which I have to say seems a little wild to say it loud Yeah, really does seven seasons. Yeah That means first the Lord is faithful, right? Regardless of our circumstances He is faithful and second

Y'all have decided to keep listening. So thank you for tuning in. We hope that you're enjoying our teachable moments. And today we're kicking off this season with a question that sounds simple, but the more you consider it, the deeper it gets. You know, what does a kingdom legacy actually look like? Yeah, that's not just a legacy. It's legacy is not just about being.

Remember not about building something impressive, but but we're talking about a kingdom legacy. What does a kingdom legacy look like? How well do we live and love like Jesus called us to? How well do we have? How well have we shared his work through us? How well do others see him in and through us? And will you be remembered with how well you followed him? That's what we're talking about. That's kingdom legacy.

Yeah, know, a whole lot of people are building a name or building a platform, building a brand, maybe a business or a ministry, maybe even just a family system or financial security. And then one day they look around and they realize that I built a lot, but did I build what matters most to God? So are we doing good things or are we doing God things?

That's a pretty sobering question. And it goes right to the heart of what Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 seek first.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (02:02.03)
the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. And we've spoken extensively on this pretty common verse. we believe it's worth reiterating here today. I'll say that we appreciate Jesus' statement as it echoes through Scripture. For example, David presents the same. David...

God first, you know, from cover to cover really it's about God first. But in Psalm 37 David presents the same God first declaration when he says, trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways to the Lord, trust him and he will act. He will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Yes, I mean both Jesus and David are teaching about priorities, trust, focus, eternal alignment. They're teaching people not to be consumed by temporary stuff or by life.

like what we'll eat or what we'll wear, how we'll make it, how we'll be seen, but instead to seek God's will, His way and His righteousness. Sure. And when we sit down with these verses, when we sit with these verses and we dig into them, we'll see that based on the context that these things are not all about daily provision, they're about legacy formation. whatever you seek first will eventually shape

what we leave behind. That's right, because all of us are leaving something behind.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (03:54.466)
The question is whether we are leaving behind what we're leaving behind points us to people or does it point us to Jesus? That's the difference right there. Worldly legacy says, remember me. Kingdom legacy says, follow Him and here's how. And that's what we want to focus on. A lot of believers get caught up in, you know, I've said this before and I'm positive I'll say it again. We're preaching to ourselves, you know, and

We as well as others, we get caught up in pursuing success, influence, security, recognition, or even good goals only to realize later that we spent years or at least months building something temporary instead of eternal.

And that can happen without somebody ever intending to be selfish or prideful. That is what makes it so tricky. Because most people do not wake up one day and say, you know what, I would really like to spend the next 20 years building a legacy that has no eternal value. Yeah, that's exactly right. Nobody says that. At least nobody I know. it happens all the time because drift happens. What's drift?

explain that. That's a great question. What is drift? Drift is when we start with a heart for God, but we might lose focus and sway toward worldly patterns. Drift is that we'll start wanting to obey and then we'll start wanting to be admired. Drift is like, we'll start wanting to serve, but then we'll start protecting our own comfort. know, it's really, we'll start

here, but you know, we drift over to the mirror, right? And sometimes, you know, that can even get baptized in what we'll call Christian ease, right? Christian language, you know, we call it favor or impact, influence, maybe next level, or, or even being blessed, right? You know, but

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (06:05.414)
what we're doing is just polishing up our own little shiny trinkets that at the end of the day, don't mound up to a hill of beans. Yeah, as my grandma would have said, yeah, that's, that's something my mom said often. Allen Layne, that don't amount to a hill of beans. But, but I agree. And we got to watch out for that sort of drift. Quite frankly, my dear, the best way to avoid drift is

to stay in His Word and get connected in a focus forward, forward-minded community. Connected in the Word and connected with a like-minded people, like-minded community. Concerning His Word, we could stay in Matthew 6, but I think the point is made clear by discussing how this truth, the seek first, the kingdom truth echoes

through the whole text. We already mentioned David's perspective and of course Jesus's anchor passage in Matthew 6:33. But the extended echo from Matthew 6 comes through not so surprisingly, it lands in something Paul wrote in Philippians 4. As Paul's winding down his letter to the Philippian church, he shares on how God has been faithful through his travels.

He emphasized and boy was God faithful through his travels, right? So he emphasizes that through the thick and thin God provides

for those who believe. God provides for those who trust. Paul used his experience as an example to tell the church, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Paul's experience confirms Jesus' all these things being provided as he sought God's kingdom first. And Paul sought...

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (08:11.82)
God's kingdom first. And so he saw that these things were provided as he trusted, as he kept following the direction the Spirit guided him toward. He's saying that God's provision is sufficient. So anxious concerns about the stuff that waste time that's better spent on kingdom advancement. So the point being is that Paul lived

Paul lived it. He lived his experiential life for God's kingdom. And I'd say

that he left quite a legacy. yeah, I would definitely agree with you there. But he exposed the challenge. know, legacy is not just about what your hands are building. It's about how we allow Jesus and the Holy Spirit to transform us and guide us through the world to fulfill our creator God's plan. Yeah, but we get caught up in the things sometimes, don't we? yeah. I get caught up in the things sometimes. We get caught up in the things.

And you know, you know you get caught up into things too. You know, I think money could be the biggest distraction of seeking him first. Not to say, not to...

stay on that too long. Last season was all about different aspects of finances. But it's worth mentioning that Jesus clearly tells us back in Matthew 6 that we cannot serve two masters. Right, He does. And even if money is not the opposing master to God, the principle still applies, whether it's you can't serve God and self-promotion, or you cannot serve God and ego, or God

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (10:00.588)
and control or God and image management. I mean, it doesn't matter. It all means the same. It still applies. Yeah, that's absolutely correct because the human heart is always tempted to build around whatever makes it feel secure. Yeah. Even if it's fake temporary security. mean, really, from cover to cover.

Our Bible is a big story about placing God first in our lives, regardless of our circumstances. It is. But, you know, we see time and time again, people through history have faced down failed at placing Him first. know, humanity can sit right. Me too. mean, consistently humanity finds security everywhere but God. But what's cool is that God is even more consistent in His grace opportunities, His opportunity

He's his that he gives us to decide for him and find our soul security in him. So Yeah, I mean security is a big one and in all fairness though many people don't build misplaced legacies because they are evil they Build it wrong out of fear. Yeah They're afraid to fail. They're afraid to be overloaded. They're afraid to not to matter They're afraid to not have enough. They're afraid to

seen for who they truly are. Right, right. Or afraid their life will not count. so fear really distracts so many people from their kingdom purpose. does. It really does. And notice that Jesus drops the seek first the kingdom in the context of anxiety and misplaced priorities. He knows because he knows our tendency is to to chase the world's

so-called urgencies instead of trusting and building toward eternity. but seriously, mean, people settle. I mean, don't we? mean, seek first the kingdom sounds beautiful on a coffee mug or, you know, on a plaque above your desk. Right. But it gets real. It gets really real when it collides with our calendar, our budget, our ambitions, our relationship.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (12:25.328)
our leadership decisions, or maybe the long-term plans that we've made. But it's in that collision that we're called to release and trust Him the most. So mind you, again, going back to what Allen said earlier, we are preaching to ourselves here because we're progressing, but also... I bruises on my toes.

from, from stepping on your own toes. Right. But, know, we are progressing, but we are there. There is definitely no perfection here. We are certainly preaching to ourselves because we are still works in progress. I would say, boy, howdy ain't that the truth. It is one thing to quote it. It's one thing to have the coffee mug. It's one thing to say it, but it's another thing to organize our life around it.

like David, Jesus, and Paul did. And they encourage us toward their experiential examples. If only, they say, they say you don't learn from other people's mistakes, but you know, men like David, Jesus, and the apostle Paul, I mean.

We learn from their experience. Jesus didn't make any mistakes, but David and Paul, plenty of mistakes. Can we learn from those? I think we can if we buckle down, pay attention and say, spirit, what do you got to show me here? What's the teachable moment here in your word? Right. So so we'd like to throw out some clarity. Are you down with some clarity there, honey? Let's throw down some clarity. Throw down some clarity and.

to dig into what the difference is between worldly and kingdom legacy. Yeah. you know, I would say a worldly legacy is built around visibility, accumulation, you know, what can we accumulate? What's my reputation? What am I controlling? And what have I achieved? Personal achievement.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (14:35.56)
And it asks questions like, how far can I go and how high can I build? Or how many people will know my name and how do I make sure I'm remembered? Right. In vast contrast, the kingdom legacy, that's different kind of questions, doesn't it? It does. If we're building a kingdom legacy, we want to know what matters for eternity. Was God honored and did I point others toward Christ? Were people loved well?

where people loved well. I think it really comes down to love. really does. Love and forgiveness are the commandments.

Was the truth lived out well? Did I live out His truth well? And did I faithfully steward His provision? These are some good questions. That is so important because worldly legacy is only obsessed with the seemingly impressive, while kingdom legacy is committed to being wholeheartedly faithful. And I'd say being wholeheartedly faithful in the end is impressive. I would agree.

agree with that. Scripture shows us the vast difference here and and in Genesis 11 the people of Babel say and somebody's going to correct me there is Babel. We're going to say Babel Babel Babel anyway in Genesis 11 it says come and let us build a build ourselves a city and a tower and let us make a name for ourselves but then right away in Genesis 12 you know they

There's a contrast there when God calls Abraham to leave everything that's familiar to trust him fully and God tells Abraham, I will make you a great nation. I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. You will be a blessing because of what I do with you, for you and through you. Yeah. And what a profound difference. mean, one legacy is built from human striving. I'm going to elevate myself. Yeah. And that didn't work

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (16:45.198)
out so well and it never really does work out so well but the other is built

on a full-on generational legacy that is born from obedience where God says, I will elevate you. You don't need to elevate yourself. That's absolutely right, baby. And we see it's the human condition. say this, we see the say and see the same conditions, the same challenges, and right here in the 21st century. We may not be building a literal tower, but we still stack bricks.

for our own shiny yummies. Our own shiny yummies? Shiny yummies. know, the career, the applause, the comfort, the control, those kind of We still try to stack those bricks. Yeah, you're right. I mean, same bricks, different age. Yeah. And our human condition hasn't changed. And we got to be prayerfully aware that even good things can become wrong things when they take...

place of first things. Want me to say that again? I think I want to say that again. Okay, you say it. good. That's that's worth a blammo. Did you get it? That's a that's a blammo. Oh, I got it. And if you're not driving,

Write that down and here we go again, cause that's so good. That's so nice. We got to say it twice. What the lady said is that even good things can become wrong things when they take the place of first things. Yeah, that's, that is so true. think my, my, my buddy, Mark Turner would say, out. Nice job, young lady. Mark listens to this.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (18:32.173)
But yeah, it's so true. Even good things can become wrong things when they take the place of first things. They're like, work and family are good. Leadership and excellence are good. Planning and building are good, but when those things try to outshine obedience to God, they stop serving the kingdom and they start competing with it.

So, you know, do we think that's why so many believers unintentionally build the wrong thing? I mean, not because they hate God, obviously, but because they slowly stop evaluating their life through an eternal biblical perspective. Right. I don't know. Yeah.

I mean, I just I'd take it back to the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 And I'll paraphrase here mostly first Corinthians 3 11 through 15. Paul writes for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, each one's work will become manifest.

Do you want Jesus's work to become manifest? Do you want your work to become manifest? The fire will test what sort of work each one has done. Fire tested. Yikes.

Yeah, that passage is pretty sobering. I it tells us that not everything that looks successful will survive eternity's fire. I mean, some God things stand the test through eternity, and some other things are just those shiny lies that we talk about, you know? And we want the all things will be added part of Matthew 6.33 without the seeking first part of

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (20:34.104)
scripture and that just doesn't work like that. Right and it kind of reminds me of something and I haven't said the words, Joby Martin says this in a while, so he says everybody wants to be strong no one wants to be sore. know you got it you got you don't get one without the other. You got to have the seek first part before you get all these things will be out of part.

So, yeah. So how does, how do we know if our leadership in our life is whole and truly kingdom centered? How can we gauge that, babe? Well, first, I think we have to evaluate it by God's priorities, not by our preferences. We have to ask better questions like what or even better, who am I seeking first? it?

me or is it him? Is it what I want? Or is it what he wants? Because Jesus did not say seek the kingdom eventually. He said seek it first. is not just chronological, it's positional. Yeah, that's good. It means highest priority. means greatest allegiance, greatest allegiance, you know, foundational life looking up, rising up and pressing on. Righty-o, sweetums.

I like it. Righty-O sweet. Are we in London now? We're not.

That was a very poor English accent on my Well, you know, I'm not English, so it was kind of funny. Righy-O Righty-O I like the looking up, rising up and pressing on. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, that's something I've heard you say numerous times. Rise up, look up, press on. Look up, rise up, press and I've used it on numerous occasions. Yeah. He gave me those three commands in prayer before unbound.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (22:30.026)
in the conference room, face down. Anyone? Yeah, good. Yeah, good stuff. but another question.

that we can ask is what defines success for me because if success means applause, expansion, income, influence, comfort, and control, then we're obviously, measuring, by the, world's, measuring stick. So you need a new stick, right? but if success means obedience, faithfulness, truth, love, and, and pointing people to Jesus Christ, then then we're getting close.

closer to kingdom measurement. The measurements stick. And Micah 6:8 says, has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

So there it is. Legacy is not built by celebrity Christianity. No, it's not. It's built by humbly walking with our God. Humbly. And it's also seeking him before strategy. Of course, strategy and planning, you know, those matter. But wouldn't strategy be so much better if we sought his wisdom first through the process? Absolutely. But in the kingdom, prayer isn't

our last resort, it's our first response. And we don't want to be the people who build the plan, then ask God to endorse it. You know, here it is, God. I've never done that.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (24:18.144)
Me either. Me either. But here it is, God. OK, bless it. You know, we can reference Solomon's simple wisdom in Proverbs three, five through six. says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Yeah, make our paths right? But all your ways, all your ways. Yeah. But don't get us wrong, folks.

it might sound this way, but we're not endorsing passivity. We're advocating dependency. Jesus, I mean, seriously, Jesus said in John chapter 5 verse 19, that the son can do nothing on his own accord, but he only does what he sees his father doing. If Jesus modeled, I mean,

Think about this. Sit with this. If Jesus modeled dependence on the Father, and He did constantly, 33 years of dependence on the Father to the cross and out of the grave dependence on the Father, it was all the Father's plan. If He modeled dependence on the Father, then we definitely don't graduate from it. No. Because just because we learned how to use a planner and a color code and how to color code our goals

you know, we don't get to graduate from depending on our Creator, Father God. know? No. And if we think we have, we're in bigger trouble than what we thought. Right. Highlighters don't matter in the kingdom of heaven. No. As we start to wind down here, we would be remiss if we didn't mention the fruit. How do people around us experience our lives in leadership?

That's a great question. That is a great question because Kingdom Legacy isn't isn't just about what we accomplish. It's about what kind of spiritual fruit grows in and around our lives. Jesus said in Matthew 7 that every tree this is buckle up. He said every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (26:40.942)
Oh, he said you will recognize them by their fruits. Yeah.

Galatians 5:22-23 recognizes that the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control and if a person's legacy has the big stuff But the fruit is rotten then something is something is way off. Yeah, and If you build a respected life, but you trample others on the way that's not Kingdom legacy if you build in

Influence in business and ministry, but neglect your family. That's not kingdom legacy Because in the kingdom who you're becoming matters as much as what you are doing That's correct, he's he always has to have first place And I just you know so many times and I'm just gonna say it, you know in ministry It's easy to get wrapped up in What you're doing and neglect your family. I've seen it time and time again

But the order is God first, marriage, children, then ministry. Yeah, that's the order. She said it.

She said she was just going to say it. She said it. I am because it's so important to remember that because it's very easy to get those out of alignment. It's easy to get those out of alignment and then throw other stuff between them. Right. So but Kingdom Legacy actually looks like a life where where God's priorities become our own priorities. It looks like seeking him for wisdom and strategy.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (28:28.67)
You know, the strategy is not ours. We sure sure do try to do that, though. Really? Really? It looks like faithful obedience over fame.

It looks like eternal fruit over temporary applause. Yeah, it looks like it looks like laying down the obsession with building your own name and choosing instead to make known the name of Jesus Christ our Lord or Leading in such a way that people are not more impressed with you. They're more drawn to Jesus

And kingdom like as like I said, we're winding down here. It looks like kingdom legacy looks like making decisions through this question. Will this matter for eternity? Not just will it work? Will this grow? Will people like it? But that's a big one. It's a good people like it. Will people do it? Yeah.

But the question is, does this align with the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Yeah. And I love, will this matter for eternity? If we just take a minute and we step back when we are doing something that is, that may be within our own strength, within our own strategy and say, will this matter in eternity? You know?

It's so important.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (30:04.008)
And, for some of us, this conversation may be an invitation to pause and reevaluate. You know, maybe you've been building hard, but not building first around God's agenda. And I know because I've done that. Maybe your priorities have drifted. But here is his beautiful part. It is never, ever too late to realign. As your foundation is Jesus Christ, then today is a good day to let him

inspect the structure. Allen inspects structures everywhere we go, if they're concrete. I inspect job sites, not necessarily the structures, but sometimes, know, the shoring. Parking garages. We won't get into that. I'm just inspecting the safety of the job site that our guys work on to make sure that it's solid.

You know, it's safe and that everyone goes home at the end of the day. Again, I'm talking more about when we walk into a parking garage and you're yeah, you're talking about what? Yeah, like when we go to the movies and get all caught up in that. You get that scaffold is way off. Thanks, Mark Turner. But back to our point, ask him just in your quiet time, ask the Lord, Lord, am I building what matters to you? Am I doing good things or am I doing God things?

Am I seeking you first or am I just looking for results? Am I measuring success your way, Yahweh?

and then have the patience and the courage just to sit and listen to his spontaneous creativity for you. Because at the end of the day, the goal is not that people would say, wow, what a successful person you are. The goal is that our lives echo toward the throne and we hear well done.

Allen & Stacy Jo Thorne (31:59.11)
Good and faithful servant. That's the goal. Not flashy, not famous, not endlessly busy servant, but faithful servant. Yeah, amen to that. Well, we have ended, we are to the end of our.

Episode and so we would just want to thank you for being with us today on faithfully invested and if this episode encouraged you challenged you or gave you something to pray through Share it with someone who may benefit from it as well. And as always let's keep faithfully Investing in our homes our leadership our stewardship our witness Yeah, and every place God has entrusted to us. until next time friends again. Thanks for tuning in keep seeking his kingdom first

because when you do, he brings the increase. God bless you and your families. God bless.