“Recharging Our Batteries”

Readings: Deuteronomy 30:9-14,Colossians 1:1-14,Luke 10:25-37, Psalm 73
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, July 10 2022

Have you ever had a car that didn’t like to start in the mornings? You get up, ready to go, outside, shut the door, put on the seat belt and ‘UR-UR-UR-UR - CLUNK”. Not a thing. The batteries dead. The only way you are going to move is if somebody gives you a push or rescues you with jump leads.

The battery is still good. The cells in the battery are not dead; it just doesn’t have the power to operate. There are days when we know exactly how that battery feels! According to a poll in the Readers Digest a few years back one of the most frequently asked questions of pastors was “How do I recharge my spiritual batteries?”

The writer of Psalm 73 faces a similar dilemma. In Verse 2 he writes “My feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well nigh slipped.” The old English word for ‘the feeling that God’s grace was getting you through’ was ‘unction’. The psalmist’s problem?  The ‘unction’ had ceased to function; their ‘Ford’ was no longer trucking for the Lord!

Let me offer three insights from the Psalmist on how we can recharge our spiritual selves.
1)    Acknowledge the need
2)    Share the load
3)    Activation

Acknowledge the Need.

The Psalmist begins by being clear about their situation. They were losing it. They were stumbling and were in danger of falling. Their relationship with God was slipping away from them.

Be honest with God about your spiritual state. It’s no good before God saying that everything is all right if it’s not. We can fool each other, but we can’t fool God. If we feel like a spiritual wash out then we have to take that situation to God.

Rev. Lloyd John Ogilvie, retired Chaplain for the United States Senate and for twenty years pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, CA, wrote a book called ‘Falling into Greatness.’ In it he tells of an unsophisticated wild-west preacher who during a funeral service pointed to the coffin and said, “I want you to know that this corpse has been a member of the church for thirty years.”

Scripture suggests that we can either be spiritually dead or spiritually alive. That it is possible to be a member of a religious community yet be a corpse when it comes to having a vital life changing relationship with God.

One way of gauging how our relationship with God is going is to monitor our cynicism levels.  When the psalmist looked to those who wanted to live in any which way but the way of God, he became bitter and cynical.

The New Living Translation has him saying between verses 4 and 13: “I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. They seem to live such painless lives; their bodies are so healthy and strong.  They don't have troubles like other people; they're not plagued with problems like everyone else…  These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for! …Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?”

Have you noticed how if you are feeling down or depressed or washed-out... how hard it is to keep a realistic perspective? Because you feel personally low, you paint the whole world gray. You make out things are worse than they really are, molehills become mountains, insignificant problems become tremendous causes for anxiety.

As the Psalmist struggles through he realizes that he needs to acknowledge his feelings.  Verse 16: “Though I tried to understand all this, it was too difficult for me,”
Verses 21-22; “Since my heart was embittered and my soul deeply wounded, I was stupid and could not understand; I was like a brute beast in Your presence.”

Before we can be spiritually recharged we need to stop pretending and acknowledge we are washed out. We need to realize that the power has gone and we need to be charged up. That’s the first step, acknowledge our need. Step two is:

Share the Load.

When I was in seminary over in Wales, Great Britain, I possessed one of those cars that didn’t like the mornings.  A 4 Cylinder Morris Marina Estate (as pictured above). Early one misty Sunday morning I needed to drive about two hours to preach in a church in another town. We got to the car park, turned the key and...”WURR-WURR-WURR – Click”.

Mr. Morris Marina’s 4 little cylinders were not playing ball. Now early on Sunday mornings in college towns in Wales you were not going to find a garage open to service your vehicle. Neither would anybody appreciate you knocking on their door asking if they could give you a push. “Lord” I said “Help!”

A short whilst later turning into the Car Park came a guy in a flashy Jaguar XJ6. He turned out to not only have jump leads in his boot – or rather trunk as you say in these parts – but was a good Samaritan prepared to lend a hand. He lifted up the bonnet – that is hood – of the XJ6 – his engine all shiny gleaming and purring – attached the jump leads to my little rather tired looking engine – I turned the key and I tell you – that Morris Marina – jumped to attention. ‘Yes Sir – let’s go! I am the Little Morris that can!’

Where do we go when we need spiritually recharging? The Psalmist tells us in verse 17:  “Though I tried to understand all this, it was too difficult for me, Until I entered the sanctuary of God”. As the Living Bible has it, “I went into Your temple… and then I understood!”

Where do we go when we want to be spiritually recharged? To the pastor? To our Sunday School Teacher? To the elders on call? To the liquor store? To the T.V and wait for Oprah or Dr. Phil to come on?  Do we Google ‘Help Needed’?

As Christians we have a direct line. Jesus Christ is our High Priest. He is the One who brings into our life the presence of God. He is our Sanctuary, our Holy place. He sends His Spirit to be the encourager, the Helper, the light, the guide. By-pass the middle man. When you need a recharge go direct to the source of power. When the Psalmist took his need to God, then He started to be charged up.

To meet spiritual need we need to connect with a spiritual source. When Mr. Morris Marina needed to be recharged, we connected him to a higher power, Mr. Jaguar. To meet our deepest needs, we should go to God, for only God can meet those needs! It was only then that the Psalmist started to regain his perspective.

Through verses 17 to 20 you find him saying things like, “I understand now what will happen to the wicked… They are like a bad dream that goes away in the morning… What goes around will come around, and their end is destruction’. As he reflected upon and contemplated God’s Word life stated to make sense again. He became less cynical, more willing to make a go of things, more aware that he was not alone, but that God was still walking right alongside.

Listen to verses 23-26   “I am always with You; You take hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You guide me, and at the end receive me with honor. Whom else have I in the heavens? None beside You delights me on earth.  Though my flesh and my heart fail, God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever.”

This is the same guy who early was saying, “Oh no, I’m losing it, I should just be wicked like everybody else’ Now he’s saying, “The wicked will get the welcome they should expect… as for me, I will serve the Lord. God is my Rock!” What happened? He realized his need and got serious with God about seeing that met.

If we take our need for recharge to God, I believe we will start to understand, something will happen, some word of encouragement, some Scripture will grab our attention, something that makes us sit up and take notice and regain the perspective of a child of God. But we shouldn’t leave it there. One final word.

Activation

There was a reason why the battery in my car that day had gone flat. I hardly ever used it. Everything I needed was in town, and the only time I left town was on those occasional Sundays when I needed to travel to a preaching engagement. So sometimes it would sit for weeks at a time in the Car Park or on the road. A car has an alternator, a dynamo that recharges the battery as you are driving along. If the alternator stops functioning the battery will go flat. The best way to prevent a battery from losing its charge is to keep it charged up.

The best way to prevent spiritual passion from sapping out of us is through staying fired up. Regular participation in spiritual things results in a life activated by the Holy Spirit. When we express our faith through regular habits, such as faithful attendance at worship, regular Bible Reading and corporate and private prayer, we have less opportunity to lose our focus.

Do something for someone else. Share your faith. Read a solid Christian book about some area of your faith that perplexes you. Take a greater role in a committee or mission of the church. Volunteer for something you haven’t tried before. Support financially a particular project you have not previously supported. What happens? Activation!

Hear how the Psalmist concludes his struggles. (Psalm 73:28)  “But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign LORD my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things God does”.

We all stumble on our spiritual journeys. But how can we relight the fire?

•    We acknowledge our need. We are honest with ourselves about our lack of spiritual vitality.
•    We share the load. We take our life to God, we ask God to renew our perspective, to help us through
•    We Activate. We seek to live in a disciplined and spiritual way that keeps our aim true and our hearts centered in the love of Jesus Christ. To take the Psalmists words ‘We make the sovereign Lord our shelter and tell others about the wonderful things Gods can do!”

May God renew each of our lives today, through Jesus Christ and in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.