What’s Left When You Let Go?
Priceless Lessons • Barry's Bureau • VBS 2026
What's Left When You Let Go?
Preacher Stacy Jones • June 23, 2026
"I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… so that I may gain Christ."
Philippians 3:8 (NASB)
When you release your résumé, your reputation, and your religious performance — what remains?
3 Core Truths from Philippians 3
Recalculate What's Valuable
Paul moved his credentials — tribe, law, zeal — from the profit column to the loss column. Not because they were bad, but because knowing Christ infinitely outweighs them all.
Abide, Don't Just Perform
Religious busyness is not spiritual intimacy. One moment truly abiding with Jesus outweighs a week of activity done to prove yourself. Your righteousness is imputed — not earned.
Let Go of the Grip
What title, fear, or image has become too heavy to carry? God is not taking something from you — He is removing what obscures your view of Him so you can see what truly remains.
"When you let go and you think you have nothing — what you really have is everything."
— Stacy Jones | Schrader Lane VBS 2026
What Remains When You Let Go
4 Steps to Begin Your Recalculation
Barry's Bureau | Inspired by Stacy Jones' VBS sermon at Schrader Lane Church of Christ — June 23, 2026
In this powerful VBS message, preacher Stacy Jones takes us deep into Philippians 3 to ask one of the most important questions a believer can face: What is left when you release everything you thought defined you? The answer, he proclaims, is not nothing — it is everything that truly matters.
What's Left When You Let Go?
Imagine you have spent years building your reputation. You have the degrees, the title, the track record, and the respect of your peers. Your resume is polished and your calendar is full. Now imagine someone asks you to set all of it aside — to count it as rubbish, worthless, refuse — not because you failed, but because you found something so much more valuable that everything else simply pales in comparison.
That is not a thought experiment. That is precisely what the Apostle Paul describes in his letter to the Philippians. And that is the heart of what preacher Stacy Jones brought to Schrader Lane Church of Christ during Vacation Bible School 2026 — a message that cuts through the noise of our achievement-obsessed culture and asks us directly: What do you actually have when you let go?
The Text That Changes the Calculation
The central passage for this message is Philippians 3:7–11. Paul has just recited an impressive spiritual résumé — circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee blameless in the law, a zealous persecutor of the church. By every religious metric of his day, Paul was at the top of the leaderboard. Then comes the pivot that shakes everything:
"But whatever things were gained to me, those I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ." (***Philippians 3:7–8, NASB***)
The central truth Jones draws from this text is direct and uncompromising: there is surpassing, incomparable, incalculable worth in knowing Jesus Christ — a worth so great that everything else, no matter how impressive, must be moved from the profit column to the loss column by comparison.
Stop Trusting Your Résumé More Than Your Redeemer
Jones opened the sermon by addressing a challenge that cuts across generations and backgrounds: the human tendency to place ultimate confidence in what we can show, prove, or achieve. Whether it is an advanced degree, a thriving career, a financial portfolio, or a spotless religious record, we quietly build our identity on what we possess rather than on Whom we belong to.
Paul's critique of the Judaizers — those who were infiltrating the Gentile church at Philippi, insisting that Jesus plus circumcision plus religious observance was the path to God — is a warning that remains relevant today. As Jones pointed out, we do the same thing when we attach things of our own heritage or tradition to the gospel as though Jesus were not quite enough on His own.
"The ground is level at the foot of the cross," Jones declared. "The educated and the uneducated stand on equal footing in the shadow of the cross. The haves and the have-nots are on equal ground." No credential elevates you. No achievement closes the gap. Christ alone is the measure, and the moment our accomplishments begin to obscure our ability to see Him clearly, we must be willing to do what Paul did — pick them up and move them to the loss column.
This is not self-deprecation. It is recalibration. It is seeing things accurately for the first time.
The Difference Between Knowing About Him and Knowing Him
One of the most penetrating moments in Jones' message came when he drew a distinction that many churchgoers need to sit with: some of us know about Christ, but we do not truly know Him. We know the doctrines, we attend the services, we serve on the committees — but there is no intimacy in the relationship.
Jones used a disarmingly honest illustration. He described how a husband might fill his wife's schedule with dates and outings, constantly doing things for her — while missing the one thing she actually desires: to be truly seen and heard. "One meaningful conversation," Jones said, "can far outweigh a date every night of the week of just doing stuff to be doing stuff."
The same dynamic plays out in our spiritual lives. We become busy in religious activity — signing up for every ministry, attending every program — and mistake the busyness for devotion. But Jones was clear: "Leaning into your belief and reliance upon Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior has exponentially more weight in your spiritual growth than the busyness of church stuff." His theme for his congregation this year is simply abide — not doing less, but doing everything from a place of genuine relationship with Christ rather than performing for an audience.
The righteousness Paul describes is not earned through activity. It is imputed — a righteousness that belongs to Jesus and is placed on us through faith. This takes the power out of our hands and puts it exactly where it belongs.
Let Go — and Watch What Remains
Jones closed his message with a set of searing, personal questions designed to surface what each of us might be holding too tightly. What have you started trusting in besides Christ? Where are you still trying to prove yourself? What are you afraid to lose? What confidence, title, record, or image has become too heavy to carry?
He told the story of businessman Chuck Feeney, who built a vast fortune through duty-free shops and then quietly gave nearly all of it away — not from loss, but from recalculation. Feeney stopped asking "How much can I keep?" and started asking "Where can what I have received be of its greatest value?" Jones used this to illustrate Paul's principle: wealth, influence, and achievement are not the source. God is the source. These things are only resources — useful when they support our relationship with Christ, dangerous when they replace it.
The sermon's climax arrived in these final words: "When you let go, Christ is left. His righteousness is left. His resurrection power is left. Fellowship with Him is left. And hope beyond the grave is left. When you let go of those things and you think that you have nothing, what you really have is everything."
"When you let go and you think that you have nothing, what you really have is everything — because Christ is left, and He is the surpassing worth." — Stacy Jones, Schrader Lane VBS 2026
4 Ways to Begin Your Own Recalculation
- Audit what you trust. Ask yourself honestly: Do I trust my savings, my status, or my reputation more than I trust Christ? Name it. Then deliberately practice releasing it to God in prayer.
- Trade busyness for abiding. This week, replace one activity on your spiritual calendar with unscheduled time simply sitting with Jesus — reading, praying, listening. Let relationship precede service.
- Recategorize your resources. Whatever God has given you — education, finances, influence, platform — reframe it. It is not what defines you; it is what you have been entrusted to steward for His glory.
- Let go of what God is prying loose. Is there a loss in your life right now — a job, a relationship, a plan — that God may be using to remove something that was obscuring your view of Him? Ask Him what He is trying to show you on the other side of that surrender.
🎥 Watch the Full Sermon | 📚 Study Deeper
Watch Stacy Jones deliver this full VBS message at Schrader Lane Church of Christ: Watch on YouTube →
Ready to test your understanding? Take the Priceless Lessons Interactive Quiz and play the Study Game — both available right here at BarrysBureau.org.
💬 Your Turn
Here is the question Stacy Jones left ringing in the room — and the one I want to leave with you: What is God asking you to let go of right now, and what has your grip on it been costing you?
Take a moment this week to sit quietly and honestly answer that. Write it down. Bring it to God. Then trust that what remains when you open your hand is not emptiness — it is Him. And He is more than enough.
I would love to hear your reflection. Drop a comment below, share this post with someone who needs it, or reach out at BarrysBureau.org. Let's grow together.
Join us for worship at Schrader Lane Church of Christ or visit BarrysBureau.org for more resources to help you move from spiritual milk to meat.
Priceless Lessons Quiz
Barry's Bureau • Schrader Lane Church of Christ • VBS 2026
Test your understanding of this powerful VBS message on Philippians 3. Seven questions — from recall to real-life application. Are you ready to recalculate?
Question 1 of 7
🎯 Fill-in-the-Blank Study Game
Barry's Bureau • "What's Left When You Let Go?" • VBS 2026
Each round shows a key statement from Stacy Jones' message on Philippians 3. A word or phrase is missing. Click the correct word from the Word Bank to fill in the blank. You get one try per round — choose carefully! Track your score across all 8 rounds.
📖 Based on Philippians 3:7–11 • 8 Rounds • Schrader Lane VBS 2026
Click the correct word from the Word Bank below to complete the statement:
Word Bank — choose one:
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