The Power of Release

Tom Shrader continues his Power Broker series by examining the crucial principle of release - freeing people to realize their God-given destiny. He contrasts natural power (getting and keeping control) with supernatural power (serving others until they're ready to leave), using examples from parenting, management, and ministry. Shrader illustrates this through Barnabas's relationship with Paul, showing how true success comes when those we influence exceed us rather than remain dependent on us.

“People are empowered when they are free to realize their own destiny.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Power Broker

Recorded: May 11, 2006

Duration: 44 min

Themes: leadership, mentoring, release, authority, empowerment, service, stewardship, discipleship, mentor, parent, manager, pastor, elder, team leader, struggling with control, new to leadership

Scripture: Acts 9:26, Acts 11, Acts 13, Acts 15, James

Theological Themes: spiritual authority, biblical leadership, servant leadership, discipleship, spiritual gifts, calling, stewardship, spiritual maturity

Full Transcript

The Capstone Lesson: Release

Session six of this ten-part series called "Power Broker." This series is about power, but not power as we naturally think of it. Naturally, here's how we think about power: get it, keep it, put people around you, use them, abuse them, and when you're done with them, throw them back. Supernaturally, God is the source of all power. He transmits this power to us at different places that we find ourselves in four institutions: government, family, church, and work. He transmits power to us for us to use and to pass on. The idea of passing on is really important.

Today's lesson is kind of the summary of the first six sessions. When I say summary, it's the capstone. We've talked about four other topics, and let's see if we can name them: encouragement, ownership, work, and proficiency. Take them and put them in order: proficiency, ownership, work, encouragement, and release. Power.

Release is the summary of all that. I can do these first four things really well, but if I don't pull off the release part, it's a waste.

Proficiency: Right Person, Right Place

Proficiency means the right person in the right place doing the right job. You're made to do it. You're operating in the zone. What you can do, what you want to do, what you're paid to do or charged to do—those are the things that you get to do.

I found it easier to do this as you get older. When you're younger, it's difficult. If you have ten tasks to do and you do three of them really well, you don't need to take a bunch of seminars on the other seven. You don't need to spend the rest of your life getting better at something you'll never be good at. You focus on those three things you do well. You may have to do those other things and might need a certain level of proficiency in them, but the best you can, you're delegating them out. You're letting somebody who's gifted in that area do it.

Ownership: Stewards of God's Resources

Ownership means you're a steward. When Rush Limbaugh says "with talent on loan from God," he's exactly right. That's all of us. Everything we have is on loan from God in the sense that He transfers possession to us, but not ownership.

Your time, your energy, your effort, your money, your assets, your relationships, your kids, your grandkids, your car, your house—all of that, the possession is yours. You might even say "my house" or "my car," and we certainly understand it in that dialogue, but in reality, God retains ownership on everything.

Work: Understanding Your Meaningful Assignment

Work means having a meaningful assignment. By that, we don't mean we're all working on the cure for cancer necessarily. What we mean is we understand why we're doing what we're doing. We understand where we fit. We understand the team process.

Coach Wooden talked about the championship game in 1973. He said, "That's the last game I taught." I asked if he realized he didn't use the word "coach," and he said, "Really?" Keith Erickson was with me, and Keith said, "Coach, you said that twice. You did. You said taught." They're just interchangeable with him.

That's you. You're that teacher, that person who says, "Here's why you go to that spot. Here's that pass and why that pass has to be there. Here's why the timing has to be right. Here's why your job's important, because shipping is over here and they're ready, and manufacturing's here, and you're key in the middle." It may not look like much to you, but you're key in this whole process of what you do.

Encouragement: The Power to Lift Others Up

Encouragement is just the power to lift somebody up with some words. The power of the tongue. The power for construction or destruction. It's something that you can use, and you can use it today. Yet I had a guy yesterday say, "I've been working all week on encouragement. I can't believe how hard it is, especially at home."

For whatever reason, we're better encouragers to a server in a restaurant than we are to the people in our own house. Don't know why, but we are.

Release: Letting Go for Empowerment

Here's the last thing, and that's today: release. Now you've got everybody all fired up. You've got the right person in the right place. They understand their role. They understand that they don't own it—they're stewards of it. They're encouraged. They're fired up and ready to go. Now here's what you've got to do: let them go. You've got to let them go. Release them.

What's the power of release? Here it is: people are empowered when they are free to realize their own destiny.

Some grandiose terms to it. Own destiny. It could even, especially those of you, and I am one of those. I'm a Bible guy. So a lesson like today, our principles clearly flow from scripture, but we're going to have very little time in the scripture. A lot of time in tying this stuff together. And when I read something like people are empowered when they are free to realize their own destiny, it sounds like kind of grandiose new age stuff.

I don't think so at all. God has made you unique and different from everybody else on the planet. Remember we talked about it last week. He's given you a background. Some of you have very sinful backgrounds. Some of you have great home, great family, no problems to speak of in that area. Some of you have experienced extraordinary tragedies in your life. Others of you, not really. Some of you have had death all around you. Maybe it's been a brother or a parent or a spouse. My parents are still alive. My brothers are still alive. My grandparents are all dead now, but I haven't had a lot of that loss. You've got a unique background.

God's Sovereignty in Your Life

And then God's, and this is really cool, God's sovereign. And we all go, amen, God's sovereign. Yes, yes, yes, yes, He is, yeah, He's God. And by the way, that's what makes Him God, right? If He can't, He either causes or allows everything in your life. If He doesn't, He isn't God.

So He's sovereign, but here's what I want you to see. He's sovereign in a lot of stuff. He's not just sovereign in your salvation. He's sovereign in where you work, in your neighborhood, in the people He's brought around you, and He's given you a mission. Now, our missions are pretty common. It's to encourage believers and to share the gospel with lost people and glorify God in all we do. That's your mission. Don't care who you are.

So think about that. God has uniquely created you. He's sovereignly placed you where you are. He's sovereignly and uniquely given you this background, and He's called you to this mission. That's an extraordinary truth. When you realize that, you understand that you're there for that, and now not just you but the people around you, your mission is to help them realize that destiny.

Helping Others Discover Their Destiny

A lot of time I'm talking about kids today and family, but that's what it's trying to do with my kids. My kids, I'm trying to find out who they are, how they're ticked, how they're wired. I see so many kids who are running off to law school or to be an architect or to be an engineer because that's what the dad did or the dad wanted them to do. The mom, you need a job. You need something reliable. Well, hey, they're always going to need cab drivers. I mean, they're always going to need something. Go into that field.

Figure out what it is, and then let that kid be this. You don't need to waste a billion dollars sending a kid away to go to Harvard or Yale or Brown or Westmont just to send a kid away to go to school and come back and run a shirt shop. If he wants to run a shirt shop, maybe he could own a shirt shop. Maybe he'll have a whole franchise of shirt shops. I don't know. Rather than get your ego in the way, let the kid be the kid.

Dictators vs. Liberators

Here's the second thing. Here's a record of history. What do you call a person who denies freedom? It's a dictator. What do you call a person who enables freedom? That's a liberator.

So if I look at history, I will see, here you go, a dictator like Hitler and a liberator come along like Eisenhower or Churchill. I would see a dictator and say, you can name them. There's been these really heinous guys over history. And then the liberators, at least here in our country, we name streets after those guys, right? Washington, Lincoln, Fillmore, Polk. I never understood how they got in there, but I added Fillmore and Polk anyway. But you see that?

Well, here's the deal. When we think history, we're thinking in those grandiose terms. Here's what I'm saying. You have the same thing that's true in your life. You have people around you, maybe a manager in business, who just drives you, drives you, drives you. His whole desire is to just work you, work you, work you. He's a dictator. Or a parent. Or a pastor. Or a government official.

The Great Emancipator

One of the greatest compliments I've ever had in my entire life. And it started on a very ordinary day. I'm sitting at my desk at church, and in came one of my staff guys, and he said, I want to give you this. And it was a framed picture of Abraham Lincoln. And to be honest, it wasn't a very good picture. And I have pictures of Lincoln. It was a framed, not very good picture of Abraham Lincoln. Which I found hard to be excited about, really.

And then I read, he said, read what I wrote on the back. And I turned it over, and he said, Tom, in my ministry life, you have been my great emancipator. It's the best thing I've ever, one of the best gifts I've ever received. I said, this is incredible. He said, tell me about it.

He said, Tom, I'm a ministry, I've got this box, here's how you do it, everybody does the same. Everything's repressive, it's this way or no way. And you've just given me the freedom within boundaries to do what I want to do. And then even when I want to redirect the boundaries, you'll allow me to come in and talk about it, even if you say no, at least there's a, you have been my great emancipator. It ain't going to get any better than that.

And the same thing when you start to see that and hear it from your kids. I remember, we never, I would never say raise your kids like I did. Never say it. But we ended up with really good kids and did a good job. So you might get some lessons, but I'm not saying you shouldn't do it.

Freedom Within Family

But we never had our kids get jobs. So I know some of you want to teach your kids work ethics, so that's okay. And that's fine. I wouldn't say you're wrong and I wouldn't expect you to say I'm wrong. But we just never had them get jobs. And I was always talking to people, why do you have your kid working in

a restaurant? Well, he needs to learn to work. Well, he's learning how to do crack in the back is what he's learning. He isn't learning how to work. But then I'd say, well, push it a little harder. Well, we want to teach him responsibility. And I always felt our girls were responsible. They weren't making any money. And so we came along and that's how we worked with them. That's how we raised them.

But there came a time when it was time for Haley to get a job and I wanted to make sure she was in the right area. And so she's working at the hospital. She came home the first day. Right person, right place. She's made for this. She said, "Dad, I'm so excited." She was in nursing school at the time. "I am so excited. I am so glad I'm going to be a nurse. I had an opportunity today to talk to two or three people about Christ, to minister to them, to love them. I don't want to be a doctor. Those guys are in and out. I want to be there with the people." It was incredible. Right person, right place. I said, "Wow."

She said, "And I want to tell you something else." Now she's a nurse's aide. She just started. She said, "I made $56 today." I said, "That's pretty incredible." I said, "No, you know, they'll take taxes out." She said, "Oh, well, I made $54." I said, "Here's the deal. You have not yet, miss, you have not yet met Mr. FICA, because he's going to come along and get his share." But you saw that, and it was a great moment. I'm going, "There it is, man. Fly. You're done. Ready to go."

Two Competing Philosophies of Power

So when I'm talking about dictator and liberator, it's not just in historical terms. It's in relational terms, in your family, in your church. Here you go. Two competing philosophies. A wrong use of power and a right use of power.

Here's the wrong use of power: You exist to serve me until I'm ready to leave. So here you go. You're in my sphere of influence here. You're here to serve me until I'm ready to go.

The right use of power is: I exist to serve you until you're ready to leave. Jesus is obviously the role model here. Jesus said, "I didn't come to be served, but to serve." That's why you're there. If you're a manager, if you're a parent, if you're an authority, if you're a pastor, if you're a leader, any sort of leadership position, you're there to serve people. You're there to serve people and prepare them to be able to do whatever God's called them to do, whether it's within that organization or maybe outside of that organization.

The Supernatural Way of Life

Now, here's where we need to stop and take a couple of minutes. You'll never use power that way unless you're acting supernaturally because naturally you're going to want to use it the wrong way. Get power, have people serve you. The supernatural way of life is available only to those of us who are followers of Christ. That means a Christian.

What does it mean to be a Christian? I'm not sure we've talked about it in here in a while. It doesn't mean a behavior. I hear that all the time. "Bob's a great Christian." Really? Tell me about it. "Good father, good husband, good guy, good friend." Well, what's that? I got Buddhists that are good husbands, good fathers, good guys, good friends. That's not what makes you a Christian. Being a good guy, doing good works, feeding the hungry, all those things. That's not what makes you a Christian. You're a Christian based on what you believe. It's a belief, not an ethic.

A Coffee Shop Encounter

I'm going in to get a new set of tires. And I say to the boy, "Here's the deal. I want four tires. I want those tires right there." "Well, we have a special." I said, "Good for you. I want these four tires. I don't need to buy insurance. I'm going to pay cash for them. I want those four tires. Now, here's the deal. You got the business. Can you get them on in 30 minutes?" "Yes, sir." I said, "Listen, don't lie to me, little fella, because here's the deal. I'll pay you now. I'll pay you in advance for these. I want you to know you have the business. But I got to be out of here in 30 minutes." "We can do it, Mr. Schroeder." See, whenever they don't know your name, I always get a little nervous too. I said, "All right, I'm going over to the coffee shop."

So I walk over to the coffee shop, and it's one of those great moments. For me it may mean nothing, but it's just perfect for me. You'll walk in, and the place has all the tables, and there's only one table occupied. It's like 10:40 in the morning. And at the table is a guy and a gal at 10:40 in the morning. So the possibilities are endless. I mean, they could be having an affair. They're anything but a couple, you know this. They could be having an affair. They got problems, whatever.

So I have to decide, do I want to go over there and read and be by myself, or do I want to go over by them and eavesdrop and listen? So I said, "Do you mind if I sit by you?" I sat down, just as I come up. And I leave a table between us, because I can't stand it when I'm in there and somebody sits next to me. So I want to be somewhat sensitive.

Just as I get there, the girl said, "That's why I broke up with my last boyfriend." I thought, "Oh, I missed the punchline. I got to know what this is. I got to know why you broke up with him," because you know what's going on. Now at that point, you got all the pieces together. He's going to say, "Oh, that dirty dog. I don't know why he treated you like that. Come with me over to this hotel, and everything will be okay." So you know what's going on. You don't have to figure this. I don't need to be Dr. Phil to unpack this.

"That's why I broke up with my last boyfriend." And I'm thinking, "Oh, I need to know what that is." And I wanted to say, "Hey, I missed that part. Could you fill me in?" But I didn't. But I didn't need to, because the guy then said, "Well, I believe in God, too." I said, "Okay. Now I'm back. I'm back. I'm in the conversation."

And she said, "Well, I do a little more than believe in God." I'm thinking, "All right, buddy, got to go now. You got to understand. You're going to have to go." He said, "Me, too." She

She said, "Well, I'm a Christian." He said, "Yeah, me too. What do you mean by that?" Because he doesn't want to give the wrong answer, because this is a key thing. Remember, he's still got the hotel room he's got to get to, and you don't want to screw it up over something like this.

She said, "Well, I'm a Christian. But not one of those fundamentalist kind. I believe that there are a lot of ways to God. I've chosen the Christian route, though there are other ways." Which means, frankly, she isn't a Christian at all.

What Makes Someone a Christian

Here's what we've got to get at. Christianity is a set of doctrinal beliefs, not behavior. Now, let me finish the sentence. But because those beliefs are in place, the behavior follows. I'm not separating the behavior. That's what the whole book of James is about.

James is chastising people, saying, "I believe, I believe, I believe." James comes along and says, "Well, even the demons believe," meaning they have intellectual mental assent, but there's no life change that takes place. If you're a follower of Christ, your life has to change. It must change. If it hasn't changed, you have no biblical assurance of your salvation.

Questions About Response

I do a thing once a month where I meet with new people in the church, and they get an hour to ask any question they want. A lot of times I'll stay longer, because I love it. Sunday they asked, "Who are your role models?" I said, "Shania Twain. I love Shania Twain." They're going, "Whoa," because they were looking for a Chuck Swindoll answer. I said, "No, Shania Twain is my role model." Some of them are wound a little tight at that point. I said, "I'm just kidding. We're having fun."

One of the questions was, "Why don't you do altar calls?" I said, "Because we don't do altar calls." That may not be an overpowering argument for you, but we don't do it. An altar call is one way to generate a response. Here's what we want to say to people: You need to respond to what you just heard. But an altar call has the potential of getting in the way.

Obviously, thousands and thousands and thousands of people walked an aisle and will be in hell. Even the Graham Organization would say that. They'd say if 4,000 people walked an aisle, about 400 would truly be converted.

The Transaction with God

Here's what we would say. It's a transaction between you and God. Don't need a priest. Don't need an intermediary. Don't need to walk an aisle. Don't need to check a box. You need to do business with God.

What does that mean? That means I acknowledge that I'm a sinner. I acknowledge that Jesus Christ lived and died. When He died, He died for the sin of those who would believe in Him. If I believe in Him, trust in Him, I'm trusting Him and Him alone for my salvation.

If God would just say to me—it won't happen this way—"Why should I let you into heaven?" It's very simple. You shouldn't. Except that Christ died and I'm coming in as part of Christ's team, family, body, the church. That's a Christian.

Once I'm a Christian, all of a sudden, now I see things different. So when I start talking about power and using it differently, I can begin to do this because I wouldn't do it otherwise. If you're not a follower of Christ, I don't know why you'd take power and give it away other than even then your business will work better. Even then things work better.

Two Definitions of Success

If you have outlines, you're following along, it's D. Two definitions of success.

If you are freed from me and you exceed, I'm a failure. In other words, I just want to keep building, building, building this team. If I let you go and you somehow exceed me, I'm a failure. Therefore, I'm not going to release you.

Here's the other one, the right one. If you are freed from me and you exceed me, I succeed. I'm a success. A great teacher is known for the number of students that surpass him.

Learning from Those Who Influenced You

Who are the people that influence you? That's what I've learned from watching Larry and listening to Larry. I would hear him talk about people and I'd want to go back and say, "Well, who influenced you?" I'm one of those weird guys when I read a book, I actually read footnotes and stuff. All of a sudden, I see he's quoted this same book three times. Maybe I ought to read that book. Maybe that book's a better source than this book.

Coach Wooden was talking about one of the first jobs he had at South Bend High School. A couple years ago he went back. I think he coached basketball, baseball, and tennis there. They had 24 of the kids who played for him there. The youngest was 80, the oldest was 88. I just think that's the coolest thing. To hear them talk, and even Coach Wooden, the players that played for him, to hear him talk not so much about how he taught me how to cut or shoot a jump shot, but how he taught me to live life. That kind of stuff.

Success in Parenting

Is this success or failure? You're going to have to fill in the blank. My kids don't need me anymore. They get along fine today without me. See, here's what I'm saying to you. You're really successful at that point.

The parenting thing can be hard. I'm watching Haley go through it with Brayden, and she's really just bonded with this kid. I told Tyler the other day, and obviously, hopefully this isn't prophetic, but I said, "If something happened to this kid, it would be a real tough deal for Haley. She's really into this kid." You know how I understand that? I was really into my kids. Here's what I used to do with them. Susan and I—

I would take my kids to Disneyland every year, but we were the kind that didn't want to go in the summer when school was out. We'd take them out of school. I always saw school as that thing you had to get through to go get a job. It was never anything to be really given a lot of attention to.

We'd go every year. I liked America West—never had any problems with them. The kids would pick the airline when we went to Disneyland, and they always wanted to fly Southwest. Why? The seats that are backwards. It's like a rocket ship to them.

The Splash Mountain Moment

So we're getting ready to land in Ontario, and Haley comes over to me. She said, "Dad, this is my favorite day of the whole year. This is better than Christmas. It's better than my birthday. And today I'm going down Splash Mountain." I said, "All right, it's going to be a great day."

Haley's a little bit of a wimp on rides. So we get in and I said, "Should we go to Splash Mountain?" "Not yet. Not yet. I'm not ready yet." We're kind of working our way around—it's the whole elephant in the room. Everywhere we looked was Splash Mountain, but we'd look away real quickly.

Finally she said, "I'm ready for Splash Mountain." We go over and get in line. I could just feel her grip my hand. We get in the log and you hear "Zippity Doo Dah." We're going around, and there's that one little dip. She goes, "Was that it?" I said, "No, there's a little more than that."

Now we're coming around and you can see through the tunnel—you can see the daylight. In the distance, I'm thinking, "Oh." We're sitting in that log, and she's saying, "Dad, hold me tight. Don't let me go. Hold me tight, daddy." Then we go down—"Let's do it again!"

Hold Me Tight, Daddy

When I did her wedding, there's that awkward time when communion's over and the song is not quite done. We're standing there and I'm looking at her, thinking, "Hold me tight, daddy. Hold me tight, daddy." That's really cute if you're seven. But when you're 23, it's not so cute.

That's your whole mission as a parent, as a boss, as a teacher, as a pastor. It's to let them go. And if you haven't done that, you've failed.

Here's what I've observed: as you release them, they can't come back enough. Haley calls seven times a day. She called the other day and I said, "Haley, you're driving me nuts." "I'm trying to make chicken. This doesn't look right. Put Mom on the phone. I don't know this chicken. This chicken needs help. Put Mom on the phone." It's amazing. That's the whole point.

The Wrong Definition of Success

What the world says is success—accumulate, hold, control—is exactly wrong. What we say is success is to let them go.

People are going to attain freedom in one of two ways: freedom by design, which is what we just spent six weeks talking about—proficiency, ownership, work, encouragement, release—or freedom by default. You're going to push them down, push them down, push them down, push them down. They'll rebel and out the door they go. Whether it's work or whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

You can apply this in every organization. Sometimes you're going to have to leave to be released. Sometimes there are not enough spots on the org chart. People are going to get this freedom one way or the other.

A High School Lesson

I'll give you a great illustration. I'm a junior in high school. First girl I ever really dated, and she was unbelievable. She was really pretty. She was a musician. She was a great student. She was the sweetest, kindest. She was perfect in many ways.

Except for one liability, one drawback. Her dad.

Here was the problem. I'd go to pick her up and say, "What time would you like her home, sir?" He'd say, "Well, how about 10 o'clock?" I'd say, "But it's 9:45." This isn't working. Some of that could have been based on me—I'm all right with that.

In the Midwest, homecoming is bigger than prom, at least when I was a kid. We're at homecoming dinner after the game. I had to shower, pick her up—we had to go. She's got to be home by 11:30. We're at the restaurant at 11:10. I said, "What are you going to order?" She said, "I don't know." I said, "Order this." She said, "I don't like it." I said, "But I know I'm going to get to eat it, because I got to take you home."

I take her home. The next day I said something to her that I subsequently have heard from many girls but never said to one: "This isn't working." I've never been on the giving end of that, except for that moment.

The Predictable Result

I can't emphasize this enough—think sweet, kind, gentle. At our 25-year high school reunion, I wasn't there. I asked, "Was she there?" They said, "She just got out of drug and alcohol rehab. Went to college, got pregnant..."

Let me tell you something: you could have written that script. I was a junior in high school and could see that problem coming.

Now, is that her fault? Sure. It's her fault. It's her responsibility. But I'm telling you, that dad screwed up that girl. I knew that girl really well. We stayed buddies. She was a wonderful person.

The Biblical Command to Multiply

You're going to get freedom either by design or by default. Here's the recurring command that we see in scripture. God says it to Adam. God says it to Noah. God says it to the apostles: Be fruitful and multiply. That's your mission. Be fruitful and multiply.

We think of it obviously biologically, but it works in a whole bunch of different ways. I'm to create functional equivalents who create functional equivalents. In other words, I'm creating people who are doing what they're designed to do.

Barnabas: The Biblical Model of Release

Here's a biblical model of this. It's the son of encouragement. His name is Barnabas. In Acts chapter 9, Paul is on his way to Damascus to destroy the church there and the Christians that are there. Paul hates the church and everything in the church.

Now, this has nothing to do with this part of the lesson, though I do want to drop it in here by way of application. It has to do more with salvation than Paul's mission. Paul's not looking for God on the way to Damascus. He thinks he's already got God. He's not wondering about, "Am I on the right team?" He's convinced he's God's guy. He's convinced he's who he needs to be, and God saves him in the midst of that. It's a wonderful picture of the sovereignty of God and salvation.

Well, Paul, who was the chief persecutor of the church, now comes back, and now he wants to operate within the church. Acts 9, verse 26: "When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple." This is a Trojan horse. He's playing a game. We're not buying this, but Barnabas comes along.

Discipleship: Proving His Position in the Faith

Here's what Barnabas did. Barnabas offered Saul discipleship. He comes alongside him to prove that his position in the faith, to prove that he's a follower of Christ. Barnabas comes along, and Barnabas says, "You know what? People change."

We're not good at that, by the way. It's funny. I've observed that in my life. I know I've changed a lot, but I have a hard time imagining anyone else has. I know I've changed a ton, but when I meet somebody else that I knew from a prior life, I put them right back in that same position.

I've seen families do this. You were always lumpy, and you were always the big, dumb, goofy one, and now you go back home, and you're lumpy again. Forget the fact you're 6'4", 212, and chiseled out of stone. You revert to lumpy again, because everybody treats you like lumpy, because you were always lumpy. Well, people change. Barnabas comes alongside Saul and disciples him. Why? To prove his faith.

Mentorship: Proving Effectiveness in the Church

Barnabas isn't done. In Acts chapter 11, Barnabas comes alongside Saul and mentors him and says, "No, it's bigger than just being in the faith. This guy can be effective in the church." The news reached the ears of the church of Jerusalem. Here's what they heard about Paul and his teaching and what was going on. And they sent Barnabas to Antioch, and when he arrived, he saw the evidence of God's grace. He was glad. He encouraged him. He remained with him.

So for a whole year, Barnabas and Paul met with the church and taught a great number of people, and the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. Along comes Barnabas, and he mentors him to show the effectiveness to the church. Look what happens. Paul grows. We end up with an apostle, and the church grows. It's a whole idea of release.

Partnership: Proving Effectiveness to the World

Watch this now. Barnabas, in Acts chapter 13, Barnabas offers Saul partnership to prove his effectiveness to the world. The church at Antioch is saying, "Listen, there's other things to do." So here's what they do. They say, "Set aside Barnabas and Saul for the work with which they've been called," and off they go into ministry. He's not just in the faith. He's not just in the church. He's now effective throughout the world. Something special is taking place.

By the way, look what the church there at Antioch did. It sent out two of its best and brightest. What we tend to do as a church is say, "All right, here's our layer of leadership. Here's our best and brightest, and then we'll send out everything else down in here." It's kind of interesting how we do that, and I understand it. It's natural.

Release: Proving Independence

Look at the fourth thing here. Barnabas offered Saul release to prove his independence. It didn't happen in a very pretty way. They fought over John Mark. Many of you know the story. If not, you ought to go back to Acts chapter 15 and read it. They go on a missionary journey. Barnabas takes Mark with him. He blows out. Now it's time for the second journey. Barnabas wants to bring Mark. Paul says no. They fight. They disagree.

The fight's not the point here. Here's what I want you to see. As you track through your scripture, and I'm going to get rid of the name Saul just for the sake of this discussion so we understand it's Paul. As I'm working through the book of Acts, it goes like this. It goes Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Paul, Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Barnabas. There's a shift there that takes place, and this guy who the church didn't want hanging around becomes arguably, other than Christ, the most important figure in the history of Christianity. This is release.

The Difficulty of Release

Now let me tell you something. That doesn't happen easily. I'm going to give you a great example from my life. God saves me. God saves me through the work of Larry Wright. You know Larry Wright. Three years later, Larry says you ought to teach. I start teaching.

I'm reaching a point. I'm still doing real estate stuff. I'm reaching a point where if I get two calls, one from a client, one from somebody I don't know from a study, I'll return the study call first. I'm saying well that's not right. That's not fair. That's not fair to my partner. I'm clearly not pulling my end of the bar. It's just not right. So I decided to leave.

I'm going to leave. "What are you going to do?" Don't really know. I'm talking to Larry. I said "I'm leaving." He said "What are you going to do?" I said "I don't really know." He said "I want you to come

to work with me. I said all right. What's that look like? He said you just do your thing, man. You just teach your studies. You do your thing. And so I do that for three years.

For whatever reason, and it's unimportant, for whatever reason, I called Larry one day and I said I want to talk to you. I went out to see him and I had one of the most difficult conversations I've ever had in my life. I sat down and I said to him Larry, and I can't put my finger on it exactly, but I need to go do my own thing.

Now I don't know how you would have responded at that moment. Here's what Larry said. Sit down. Sit down and tell me your dreams. What are your dreams? What do you see? What is it you need to do? What do you want to do? Not for the purpose of talking me out of it, but for the purpose of understanding it. And what only a handful of people even know is that the first check that Priority Living ever received was from Larry and Abundant Life.

When Ego Gets in the Way

Now that's not natural. See, here's what I would be doing. What? You want a what? Do you remember that God used me to lead you to Christ? Do you remember that nobody gave a rip about you and you were absolutely sub-nothing when I met you? And look at what you are. There are some gifts there, but I'm the one that was used. Isn't that how you do that? What do you mean you're leaving to join the competition? I poured my life into you.

Yeah, whatever. You know what? That's your job, to pour your life into them. And Larry taught me an extraordinary lesson in that moment. And that cannot happen. Here's the key. That whole process of release cannot happen until your ego's out of the way.

If your ego's in the way, you're never going to release. If having these kids and having your picture taken and doing the white background with the white shirts and the jeans and doing the whole thing and looking like this happy family, arguing like mad to get everybody in the right place, punching each other, and then hitting each other again. If that picture is what you're all about, that ego, that moment, if that's what's driving that, then you're never going to release these kids.

Or if they start to be their own, that's really going to bug you. Because you want them to be, I don't care, pick it. You want them to be a lawyer. You want them to be a lawyer because we're three generations of lawyers. Well, first of all, you owe the world an apology if you're a third generation of lawyers. But aside from that, we're three generations of lawyers. I mean, after all, he's Hamilton, Stanton, Johnson, the fifth.

The Cost of Not Releasing

Well, I don't care. This is what he wants to do. If you're not letting him be what he wants to be because you have an ego involved, see what I'm saying? I'm all right with it. Hey, I'm human. If the kid came in and said, you know what, Dad, I want to do this. And in our economy of thought, it's not a job that's very prestigious, very hard to go to the club and sit and say, well, you know, he's in waste management now. Oh, he's running, he's picking it up. What'd you do wrong?

He didn't do anything wrong. He raised a heck of a kid who wants to be in waste management. That's all. And if you can't deal with that as a parent, you're never going to release that kid to be the kid. So they're going to find freedom by design. You screwed that up. Now they're going to find freedom by default.

If you don't release people for things, number one, if you don't disciple, you'll produce insecurity. They're not discipled. They're not prepared. They're insecure. They're still calling you, but they're calling you to say, I'm trying to figure out whether to buy a shirt or not, Dad. Well, son, you're 35.

I understand. Hey, as Sarah built her first house, this is our daughter Sarah, when she was 23 and never once called me, the only thing she called me out, she says, I need a loan for this. I said, she said, can you help me? I said, I can help you. I can direct you to the right place, but the loan's origin will not share your last name. I can tell you that. But she said, I'm not looking for money from you. Just tell me where I go. I don't know where to get a loan, build their own house. That's pretty big.

The Consequences of Poor Leadership

If you don't mentor them, you'll produce immaturity. So you go into the office to go today, what kind of idiot would have done that? I'll tell you the kind of idiot, the one you produced, the one you managed, the one you trained. Well, they've been with me 20 years. They have 20 years of experience. No, because you're so tight-fisted, so selfish, so egotistical, they've had one year of experience 20 times. They don't have 20 years of experience.

If you don't partner, you'll produce indifference. If they don't feel like this is significant, if they don't feel there's something in this, they don't care. If you don't release people, you'll produce insurrection.

William Hazlitt wrote this, the love of liberty is the love of others. The love of power is the love of ourselves. Again, that does not flow from the scripture, though the principle surely does. If you really love liberty, you will love others. Here, love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Number one obstacle to this, ego.

Moving Forward

Now, a lot of theory. Hopefully, there's been some practical stuff in here. Hopefully, the illustrations are helpful, but we've talked about power and ownership and work and release. Theoretically, now, how does it flesh itself out in four key structures? Government, family, work, and church. Those are the next four weeks.

Father, help us see this as we look at this in our lives. Me and mine, I look at this and see how real and true this stuff is, how powerful these principles are. God, I know that I can use this today. Help me be the man that You have called me to be. Help us be the people You've called us to be, people who

Father, we pray that You would empower us to be the type of people who are empowered by You as Your Spirit lives in us, who infect all of the people around us with a love for You, and then allow them to be the people You've called them to be. Father, we pray that to You here this morning in Christ's name. Amen.

Have a great week. We'll see you next week.