Unshackled Moments ~ May 7 ~ Keep The Mic Charged

Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship graciously opened a door for me to preach some time back. When Unshackled Life Ministries first began, it literally was an open door. I went in to an empty building during the week, preached to an empty sanctuary while recording and then posted the sermons online. In attempt to be obedient to God and heedful of the counsel I had been given, which was if you believe you're called to preach, start preaching, I learned to preach without ever seeing who I was speaking to. Over time I stepped into the pulpit there on Wednesday nights and have been recording the weekly sermon before a live audience for a couple of years.

Part of the church's equipment that I use is a wireless microphone, The church has two sets of rechargeable batteries for it. One set charges as the other is used . I used to run and install professional sound systems for a company that served a lot of Texas and West Louisiana, and one of the things I learned on that job, and apply to the system at NCF, is that it didn't matter how fresh you knew or thought you knew the batteries in a microphone were they were replaced with new ones before each day of concerts, preaching or whatever live event we were running sound for. Every Wednesday night before service starts, I take the batteries out of the mic, put the charged ones in and put the others back on the charger.

They are likely fine. They haven't been used much. They shouldn't have lost much charge sitting for such a short period of time without anything drawing on their power. But there's no reason to take the chance of having the mic cut off in the middle of a message and losing the recording. It wouldn't be the end of the world to leave the same batteries in for however many weeks it takes to run the batteries down, stop preaching when the mic begins to lose power, switch the batteries out and continue preaching. It would work. It would also disrupt the flow of the message, interfere with my ability to preach without losing my train of thought, and take those there out of listening mode. I would have to get their attention again. It's easier to maintain someone's attention than to get it back. It would also mean having to edit the recording or else suffer the probability of losing the online audience as well. No, it's much better to take a few easy steps to make sure there's always enough power than to wait until the charge has run low.

We are a lot like that wireless mic, but we don't have batteries to switch out. We have to take a little time and plug in to our Power Source in order to charge our spiritual battery. We can do this regularly, taking a short amount of time every day, in which case our battery stays charged and we can go into every situation confident the power is available. We can neglect a regular charge and take the chance of running out of power before we get around to charging up. This option has the potential of having devastating consequences. We may realize the power is getting low before it's gone, but this can still cause problems as the more power has been drained the more time it takes to recharge. But we just might find ourselves in a spot where we find ourselves out of power before we realize it.

If the sound cuts out in the middle of a sermon or a concert, it may be embarrassing or someone may not be able to hear what they came to hear. But when we're talking about the power needed to walk with God, to walk free of the bondage that has destroyed our life, it is downright dangerous. For the alcoholic and addict in can mean the difference between staying free and picking up again. For all of us it means the difference between access to the grace we need to stay in the will of God and falling into self and slipping into anger, fear, selfishness and or many other attitudes that can hurt us, our families, and our living demonstration of God's love, power and way of life.

Today and every day, let us not neglect to charge up before we begin. A little daily charge is the easiest and best way to make sure we don't malfunction in a critical moment. Lord, I thank You have made Your power available to all of us. We do not have the power on our own to overcome self and walk with You. Help us to develop and continue on the practice of regularly spending time with You so that we never have to fear running out of power when we need it most. Amen.

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