First Baptist Church of Highland Park

Rev. Dr. Henry P. Davis III: Hi, I'm Henry Davis, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Landover, Maryland. A Bible-believing, Christ-centered, and spirit-led congregation. I want to welcome you to our radio broadcast and remember, there's power at the Park.

But in this service, I want to look at First Corinthians 15:58, which is a passage that we are familiar with on so many levels. We read it many times, even in funerals and the like. But I want to even make it alive in this service.

New Living Translation, First Corinthians 15:58: "So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord, nothing you ever do for the Lord is ever useless." You may go to your seats around the building.

So good to see Brother Bobby Henry. Bobby and my brother served in the military together and they were stationed together as second lieutenants and the like. Bobby, so good to see you. You've always been such a blessing, and I know the great work you've done at City of Praise, and you've been such a vital part of our community. So we thank God for you.

Nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. I want to talk in this service: "Hold your ground." Hold your ground. Matter of fact, we sing that song: "I Shall Not Be Moved." Hold your ground. But make sure you're holding the right ground, because some folk are holding the wrong ground and you're trying to get them to move off from where they are, and Brother Pinkney, getting them to move into where God potentially wants to take them.

There are moments in life when movement is necessary. Necessary movement. Matter of fact, we've heard that saying, "If you don't use it, you can lose it." So you've got to keep moving. An old deacon in my dad's church used to say, "I'm not going to rust out. I'm going to wear out." Rust comes from inactivity, but you want to make sure you keep moving.

And so there are moments in life when movement is necessary. But then there are moments when the real assignment is to stand still and hold your ground. Things are swirling, things are going on around you, but here's the assignment: I've got to hold my ground. Because everything that looks like progress is not always about moving forward.

Sometimes progress is not quitting. Progress is not giving up. Progress, for some, is not walking away. You've dealt with it, you've dealt with frustration, you've felt like walking away. But progress was staying there. Progress for some is not letting go. You've got to let go, let God.

And if we're honest this morning, some of the hardest seasons in life are not when you're fighting, but when you're standing. Standing when nothing is changing. I had a friend who pastored in the Bronx, New York, and he was going through a very frustrating time in terms of his church. He come and he says, "They just don't want to get on board. They just don't." And he says, "So I'm not going to have any more revivals. I'm just going to just do the basics."

And I said to him, I said, "God did not call you to a crowd. You've got to be faithful. And if they don't show up, you show up." You're not worried about them. You are making sure, and I talked last night, and I shared yesterday because our leaders know we met yesterday, and I know some of our leaders came in and said, "Reverend's preaching on a Saturday morning." You got that right.

We need to make sure, and that's why I'm pouring into folk because we need to make sure that we are aligned with our assignments. It's not by accident. Standing when nobody's clapping, nobody's waving at you, nobody's patting you on the back, nobody's telling you good job. But I'm still going to stand. Standing when it feels like heaven is silent.

But the question becomes: how do you stay faithful when nothing seems to be moving? Paul writes to the church at Corinth in a powerful chapter about the word that we spent a lot of time with last week: Resurrection. First Corinthians 15 is not just about what happens after death; it's about what gives meaning to your life right now.

Because if Christ got up, then what you're doing down here matters more than you think. There might not be any spotlight on you, might not be anybody talking about you, nobody's posting about you. But if Christ got up, then what you're doing down here matters more than you think.

So Paul closes chapter 15, Dr. Hackett, closes it with instruction. And here's the instruction: Be strong and immovable. Then it goes on to say, "Always work enthusiastically for the Lord." You can't have a draggy faith. You've got to have a faith that is enthusiastic. You've got to be fired up.

If that weren't important, athletics would not need cheerleaders. And the cheerleaders have the assignment to cheer even if the team is losing by forty points. And so the cheerleader is not dependent on the score. The cheerleader is dependent on the assignment. Why are you going to come in here dragging when the Lord woke you up this morning? When the Lord opened doors for your life that you know?

Wait a minute, I forgot one thing. There's somebody who's got a silver SUV and you were so excited about church that you ran in here and left your car running. Now, I'm not going to tell you your license plate because most of y'all don't know your license plates anyway. If you drove a silver SUV, your car's running. I know you were enthusiastic, you was excited, Pastor's getting ready to preach this morning, you just jumped out the car and ran in here. But go and run out there and turn it off, okay?

Scripture says, "Because nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless." Nothing. Here's the relevant question: How do you hold your ground when you don't see results? If you're going to be unshakeable when it matters most, you've got to learn how to hold your ground in three ways.

One: you've got to stay steady when life feels uncertain. I can't figure it out, I don't know, but I'm still going to hold on to God. Secondly, you've got to keep serving when it feels silent. I'm still going to serve the Lord because there's something going on. There's still a peace that God can give me that is beyond understanding.

And then we look at the reality that, if all of that, your labor thirdly is anchored in something eternal. Not just in my right now, but in the not yet. I'm trusting God as I'm in the process. And sometimes you've got to trust the process. And you've got to trust that God knows better than you do. I know you think you're smart, but I need you to know God is omniscient, which means He knows all things. He knows more than just the right now. He knows about the not yet.

And so we look at this. Stay steady when life feels uncertain. Security says it's a black Silverado, that's what it is. Black Silverado. If that's what you drove, SUV, go check your car. And that's the last message y'all going to send me today, okay? Don't be sending me when I'm flowing. Amen. That's it. They just run out of gas. Amen. I'm flowing now. Don't be messing with me.

All right, here we go. Stay steady when life feels uncertain. Be strong and immovable. The word "immovable" means to be firm, fixed, and not easily shifted. Life will try to move you. Emotions will try to move you. Pressure will try to move you.

Here's another one: opinions will try to move you. You see people, they giving you their opinion and you didn't even ask for it. "If it was me, I'd..." I didn't ask you. If I asked you, that's one thing. But if you just going to offer it for free, I didn't ask for that.

Paul says don't let what's happening around you move what God has established in you. No matter what's going on around me, I'm going to hold on to what God has established, KK, in me. You need a scripture for that? Ephesians 6:13, "Stand your ground." Psalm 125, verse one, "Those who trust in the Lord cannot be shaken."

Not going to let you. Like a tree planted in deep, planted deep by the water. Storms can bend it, winds can push it, but the roots are too deep to be uprooted. The palm tree, Kelvin, is built to bend. And every time the palm tree bends, it gets stronger.

Some of you have been bent by the challenges of this life. But here you are. Got up this morning with your mind stayed on Jesus. I've got a joy and you can't steal it because the joy I have, Sister Dixon, the world didn't give it to me and the world can't take it away. You might be bending, but you're not breaking. Oh no.

Yeah, you might be taking a few punches right now, but I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to give out. I'm going to show up tomorrow for work. I know y'all acted ignorant all last week, but I'm going to show up and love the hell out of you. I'm trusting in God.

Secondly, keep serving when it feels silent. Oh, they can roll their eyes, suck their teeth, go to sleep on you. But the scripture says, "Always work enthusiastically for the Lord." This is where it gets real, because it's easy to serve when you're seen. "I see you. I see you."

How do you serve when you're not seen? It's easy to serve when you're celebrated. Yeah, that's easy. It's easy to serve when you are affirmed. Yeah, but can you still serve when nobody says thank you? Nobody notices your sacrifice. Nobody acknowledges your consistency. You don't see all of that.

I've had some people who try to trail me for the week, and they try to trail me because they want to find out what is my week inclusive of. They make it to about Wednesday and then they'll throw in the towel because they have no idea. A young man in our church interviewed me one time. He said, "I thought all you did on Sunday was preach. I had no idea what your weeks consisted of."

Silence is not absence. God can be quiet and still be working. Yeah. I'm on one this morning. I'm like the Head & Shoulders commercial and you see what's that guy used to play for your team? Yeah, the one with all that long hair and now he's doing these commercials and he said Head & Shoulders is always working. God can be quiet and still be working.

You need a scripture for that? Go to Galatians 6:9, "Don't get tired of doing good." Hebrews 6:10 says, "God is not unjust, He will not forget." Like a seed planted underground, it looks like nothing is happening. I've been talking about that last few weeks. You don't plant a seed on Saturday and on Sunday dig it up, see how it's doing.

You plant it, you water it, you wait. Watch what's going to happen. As some of y'all cook, you put that food in the oven, you don't keep opening up the door. You just wait and eventually the aroma will let you know that something's going on. Yeah.

I have a few of my late mother's cast iron skillets and pots. I love cast iron. Yeah, you put a little oil on them, I mean the food just comes real nice with a cast iron. But you've got to be careful with it because sometimes it can burn fast and then the alarms can go off. Come on, somebody. Y'all been there.

So you've got to keep your eye on cast iron. It's not like that other stuff. You've got to watch it. Because when you look at God, it looks like nothing's happening, but beneath the surface, something is growing that can't be seen yet. Many times on Wednesday nights I leave here after teaching my Bible study. A few people know it, but I hit the gym after I leave Bible study. I change clothes and then I hit the gym.

I like doing that sometimes because then sometimes somebody will catch me and they might grab a part of me and they'll say, "Oh." And then I say, "The workout is working." Come on, somebody. You've got to work faith even when people don't see you working it. You working it, you praying, you believing.

I'm going to come right on over here to y'all. Don't normally come this close to y'all, but God can work with us right where we are. And everybody is not going to see this process. It's a work. Okay, okay, I know y'all on the other side, y'all say, "Reverend, we want the same thing." Okay, I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you.

See, Marcellus, you teach us on Monday nights because you teach about all this exercise thing. But sometimes we don't know if the brothers are doing everything you told us to do. We don't know it. But the ones who are will see certain results. And once you see the results, the results will help you. You say maybe McKnight knew what he was talking about when he told me to drink more water and do fifty pushups a day. I got twenty-five down already. Amen.

I'm not going to show y'all my pushups. I'm not going to show it to you, but I did twenty-five already. Some of y'all seen some of my pushups and it's not the regular. But I'm saying to you that beneath the surface, something can be growing but not seen. Just because it's quiet doesn't mean it's empty.

God knows what He's doing. He's an on-time God. He's working things out. He's moving things along. He's opening up doors, He's shutting doors, He's answering prayers, He's doing miracles even when you think, Sandra, He's quiet. He's moving. He's building me up. He's shoring me up. He's giving me a scripture here, a scripture there. Dr. Yvonne, He's depositing something in my spirit. And every time He deposits something, it starts to grow. And I put no limit on what God can do.

Here's my third one: your labor is anchored in something eternal. Nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. That word "useless" means empty, without purpose, without return. Paul says that will never be the case for what you do for God. Every prayer matters. Every act of service counts. Every sacrifice is recorded, even if nobody else sees it.

We're not doing it for them. We're doing it for God. Stacy, they're not going to see your work. A whole lot of us, we do a whole lot of things that nobody sees, nobody appreciates. But God is watching. He sits high, but He looks low. He never slumbers, He never sleeps. He's able to walk with us every step of the way. I wish I had a witness in here. I know it's early in the morning, but I've got a praise.

Matthew 6:4 says what is done in secret, God rewards. Revelation 14:13, their works follow them. It's like making deposits into an account you can't see yet. But one day, one day, you're going to see the full return. You're not wasting time. You're making, Brother Jones, an investment on eternity. Do I have a witness?

I need about thirty seconds of real church right here. You can look at somebody, tell them I'm still standing. I didn't quit, I didn't give up, I didn't walk away. And I may not see everything yet, but one thing I do know: what I've been doing for God is not in vain. If you've been holding your ground, you can say yes.

If you've kept going when it was hard, say yes. If you didn't quit when you felt like it, you can shout, "I'm still here." Hallelujah. I'm holding my ground because what God started in me is stronger than what's trying to stop me.

And if you've been feeling like giving up, this is your moment to stand again. Stand because your strength is not in you. It's in the God who raised up Jesus from the dead. Do you love Him this morning? I've got clapping in my hands, I've got running in my feet, I've got joy in my heart. Can't nobody—do I have a witness in here?—can't nobody do me like the Lord. Won't He do it?

He's the fairest of ten thousand. He's a bright and morning star. He's able. He's able to put wind underneath my wings. He's able to throw out a lifeline. He's able to turn my life around, because every time I turn around, He keeps on and on blessing me.

Hold your ground. Hold your ground. No matter how hard it gets, I'm going to hold on to God's unchanging hand. Who's that message for? I don't know what you've been thinking about letting go of, but I want you to know that God can give you the strength to hold on. I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to give in, but I'm going to put my trust in the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hey, hey, hey.

You've been listening to the radio broadcast of the First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Landover, Maryland. If you want to receive a CD or DVD of what you have just heard, please call 301-773-6655, or visit us on the world wide web: fbhp.org. And remember, there's power at the Park.