Get Charged Up! - June 23rd, 2022

June 23, 2022

Pastor Ken Brown Jr

Hi, this is Pastor Ken and these are my thoughts on a Thursday…Get Charged Up! The other day I was working on a project in my back yard. As part of the job, I needed to install nearly 50 bolts with their complement of washers and nuts. I needed to drill holes for all of the bolts to be inserted in their respective places. In years gone by that task would have required getting a drill and because of the distance from the house I was working, several extension cords. It is times like this when I am especially glad for the invention of the cordless drill. In fact, because of their convenience, I have a multitude of cordless tools. I have cordless impact drivers as well as various styles of saws. All of these tools are wonderful improvements over the old corded type…most of the time. Knowing I was at the point in my project that I needed to begin drilling holes, I walked into my shop and grabbed the cordless drill. I walked back across the lawn and drilled about two of the holes I needed when the battery died and the drill no longer worked. Admittedly, with a little frustration, I walked back to the shop and grabbed a “fresh” battery off the charger and after releasing the expired one from the drill I inserted the fresh one, clicked the dead one into the charger and headed back across the yard. When I reached the jobsite, I placed the drill against the material where I needed the hole and squeezed the trigger…nothing. I pulled the battery pack out and reinserted it with more force knowing I must not have gotten it seated well when I installed it moments before. Again, I squeezed the trigger…still nothing. Now my frustration was beginning to rise. I headed across the yard toward the shop yet again. I looked at the charger where this supposedly “fresh” battery had come from and as you have guessed by now it was not charging. As I reached for the cord where it was plugged in, I found it dangling by the wall and remembered unplugging it days ago to plug in another tool. All of that before I put the still dead battery in my hand on the charger. I plugged the charger in to begin charging the battery I had placed there just moments before and set the dead one in my hand down next to it to be charged later. I grabbed another from the shelf and inserted it in the drill. This time when I squeezed the trigger, the drill spun to life and I was able to complete my project. This experience got me thinking about a scripture our pastor mentioned a few weeks ago that has been on my mind ever since. In Mark 12:24 Jesus is speaking to some Sadducees who were trying to ensnare Him with a question they thought to be especially crafty. His answer to their question was preceded with this remark. “Your mistake is that you don’t know the scriptures and you don’t know the power of God.” So what does this scripture have to do with dead batteries and a cordless drill? My cordless drill is no more or less a drill if it has a dead battery, no battery or a charged battery. In any of those conditions if I were were working with someone and asked them to hand me my drill, they would reach for that tool regardless of the battery’s condition or existence, because no matter the battery…the tool remains a drill. The usefulness of the drill however has everything to do with the condition of the battery! If the battery is dead, the drill is useless. If the battery has little charge as it did when I initially grabbed it from my shop, it will only do a little before quitting. If the battery is fully charged as was the final one I installed, it will do everything I need it to do, and then can be recharged to do even more. Jesus was indicating to the Sadducees He was conversing with that they had not been on the charger and therefore didn’t have any power in them. He said their mistake was, they did not know the scriptures, and did not know the power of God. If we do not know the scriptures, if we are not in the word regularly (and I mean more than at church on the weekend) we cannot know the power of God in our lives. The word “know” in this scripture comes from the Greek word [eidó] which literally means to see with your eyes. With that knowledge, what I am saying becomes all the more clear. Jesus was telling those men that their problem was that they did not see the entirety of the scriptures. They were only willing to look at a portion of the scripture, the first five books of the bible, not the entirety of scripture available to them at the time. As a result, they could not see the entirety of the power of God available to them either. Nothing has changed except that we have even more scripture available to us in the New Testament. In other words, we have a better, more updated charger. If God’s word is the charger, and we are the battery then Jesus’ point is easy to see. If we want to see the power of God in our lives (our battery) we have to spend regular time on the charger (His word). When I was trying to drill those holes, I couldn’t complete the task with a dead battery, I couldn’t even do all I wanted to with a slightly charged one. I needed a strong battery to do the job in front of me. I also want to be useful to my Lord, and I am guessing you do as well. If we are going to be successful we need to make sure we are charged up to do all that He desires us to do…and He does have stuff for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 in the New Century Version says God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. So let’s all get on the charger. If we empowered by Him and charged up we will be able to successfully complete any task He puts us to. We won’t have to worry if we will be found useful in His hands because we will have all we need for any job. 2 Corinthians 9:8 says; And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. The battery doesn’t make its own charge, the charger does that. The battery only accepts the charge to do the work. God’s word promises to empower us to make us sufficient for the job…our task is to be plugged into the charger (His word) The Apostle John wrote that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would remind us from His word the things we need for any task. (John 14:26) It is up to us to be plugged into His word so we can be reminded of it when we need it. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19) So now, making no mistake, plug into your charger by making certain you are regularly and securely connected to His word, be ready to useful to God for any task He has for you to do, and…Go Be Awesome!