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.

Let's look at Lamentations chapter 3, verses 22 and 23. Last night I talked about love that builds what hate tried to break. But this morning we want to look at Lamentations 3, two verses, 22 and 23. The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness. His mercies begin afresh each morning. Amen. You may go to your seats around the building.

In this worship service, we want to look at and tag this message, Love That Carried Us Through. Love that carried us through. Lamentations is not written from a mountaintop. It is essentially written from the rubble. Jerusalem has been destroyed. The temple burned. The people displaced. Dreams shattered.

And yet right in the middle of grief, that word "lamentations" to lament, Jeremiah says, "The faithful love of the Lord never ends." The word faithful love in the Hebrew is a word called hesest, covenant love, which in essence talks about love that is not casual. It is not emotional love nor is it seasonal love.

But it is binding love, committed love, promise-keeping love. And this is not love that shows up when things are good. This is love that shows up when everything falls apart. And at 8:00 this morning and this 8:00 worship experience, many of us and many in this worship setting can testify. We've lived long enough to see some things fall apart, but we're still here.

And the only explanation is the reality of covenant love. And we talk in this worship service. Number one, covenant love outlasts a crisis. We'll have to deal with crises in life, but covenant love will outlast it. Secondly, covenant love produces stability. And then thirdly, we look in this worship experience that the reality of it is that covenant love is still carrying us.

I'm carried. I'm in the arms of God. So no matter how difficult, how challenging, what winds potentially might blow, we serve a God where covenant love is still carrying us. And that which we said that we understand that covenant love is going to produce stability. But before we get to that, we have to look at the reality of what brings us to this moment.

Covenant love outlasts crisis. Jeremiah is standing in crisis. The nation is in a spiritual, political, and economic collapse. But he declares in as strong a way as you can, he declares God's love never ends. When the flowers are no longer, the air goes out of the balloons, you've eaten all the chocolates and all of that, you have to understand that God's love never ends.

Notice the order. The crisis ended. The temple burned. The city fell. But His love did not. When enslaved Africans were chained in the belly of ships, and it is Black History Month, during the middle passage they lost homeland, language, and visible freedom, but they did not lose covenant love.

That is why they sang, "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen." And we realize that they had no building, they had no choir robes, they had no Hammond organ, but they had covenant love. Crisis did not cancel the covenant. And some of us can testify. Cancer did not cancel the covenant. Layoffs.

And no matter, even though we are now in another partial government shutdown, it does not cancel the covenant. Pandemic didn't cancel our covenant. You buried loved ones. You cried real sincere tears. You sat in empty rooms but you're still here. Why? Because covenant love outlasts the crisis.

The crisis can come. The diagnosis can come. The door can be closed. The challenges can surround us but we can depend on God's covenant love. Romans 8 says it this way, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Crisis is loud, but covenant is louder. No matter what the world might say, if God be for you, He's more than the world against you.

We come into this worship experience and yes, we do know about life's challenges. We do know about doors that can be shut and prayers unanswered. But we also know that God has perfect timing. He knows how to show up, show out and in all of our situations. Nothing is too hard for God. It's too hard for us but it's not too hard for God.

He can roll stones away. He can bring giants down. He can calm down a lion in the lion's den. He can deal with the temperature of a furnace being heated seven times hot. They might have controlled one thing but God controls the heat. And God can step into any and every situation where we have the full understanding. You don't have to deal with it because God says I'll fight your battle.

Somebody's here today because you turned it over to God. You said I cast my cares upon Him because He cares for me. And so we do not come today by accident, but we are in this place by God's divine providence. The second thing is that covenant love produces stability. Verse 23 says, "Great is His faithfulness. His mercies begin afresh each morning."

Jeremiah shifts from devastation to declaration. Come on somebody. That means the night did not win. That means every sunrise is proof of covenant renewal. Covenant love produces stability because it is not rooted in circumstances. It is rooted in God's character. There are so many people who are rooted only in circumstance.

As long as I got money in my pocket, as long as I'm feeling pretty good, I can act in a certain way. But when your character is the kind of character that I'm talking about, when you go through a challenge, you lean and depend on the word of God. God doesn't wake up moody. God doesn't change policies. God doesn't revise His promises.

God does not adjust where the goalpost is. God is faithful. Think about the elders in our congregation. They survived segregation. They survived redlining. They survived discrimination in education and employment. Yet they built churches, they built businesses, they built their families. How? Because covenant love stabilized them when systems tried to destabilize them.

Matter of fact, those systems that were back then are trying to show up right now. That's why Harvard University is having to deal with their policies because there's a nut who's trying to deal with everything and only trying to make things into his liking. When bank said no, God said still mine.

When society said less than, God said you are beloved. Covenant love keeps you steady when everything else is shaking. And that is my shout at 8:00 this morning. Some of you are stable not because life is easy. You are stable because God is faithful. Come on somebody. We serve a faithful God.

You didn't break because His love didn't bend. I'm thankful to God that the love of God can last through difficult situations. Life is not always going to be easy. You are going to have to go through some turbulence in this life. You can't just go through happy days and always smiling. We're going to find out how much faith do you really have.

Praising God when things are going well, but how much faith do you really have when you're dealing with a diagnosis that was not to your liking, when you're dealing with things that are challenging you? But I'm here to say that if God is before you, he is more than the world against you. And I can come into this place. I don't need a rock crying out for me. I can cry out for myself.

Thankful for that covenant love. We will gather tonight in the 6:00 hour and do some reflective time of looking at music and words and how we transition through the challenges of life. And I'm grateful for our social justice ministry and our worship and arts ministry coming together. But I've got to let us understand that the living word of God, that's why you got to hide the word in your heart because you're going to deal with some challenges.

But I've come with some good news this morning. And my good news is that God loves you. He said, "Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It might be too hard for you, but it's not too hard for God. God is still rolling stones away. God is still answering our prayer.

God is still giving us the ability to climb mountains and come out of the valley. And no matter how low you might go, God's hand can go even lower and God's hand can pick you up. And we can come here today with a praise on our lips and thanksgiving in our heart. You didn't break because His love didn't bend.

Thank God we got a whole lot of folks who've got bending love. They love you as long as you doing nice things for them. But then when the faucet shuts off, all of a sudden they will go in another direction. But I'm grateful today that we can come into this holy place and we can lift up our hands, we can give God praise, we can give God the glory and the honor.

We can let the world know that Jesus is alive and Jesus is the best thing that could have ever happened in my life. And somebody's sitting in worship right now and you're thinking about how far the Lord has brought you. You're thinking about every door that God has had to open. You're thinking about every enemy that he's had to deal with.

The devil is a liar. You not going to steal my joy because I wake up this morning because the joy that I have is not a joy that is dependent on you because the joy I have, the world didn't give it to me and the world can't take it away. I'm thankful for unbending love. And thirdly, covenant love is still carrying us.

Verse 22, "His mercies never cease, never." That's present tense. Not just carried us, but still carrying us. Jeremiah writes in the middle of loss, not after restoration. Matter of fact, many of us can write our stories when we get to the other side. But what do you do when you're in the middle of it? You're going through it.

Oh yeah, we can pull ourselves together once we get the good news. But what do you do when you're in the middle of it? This means covenant love carries you before circumstances improve. The circumstance has not shifted but I'm still leaning on covenant love. I haven't gotten my breakthrough answer yet but I'm still going to come to church.

I'm still going to serve. I'm still going to worship. I'm still going to be faithful even though I haven't seen the light yet. Okay, okay. Our ancestors didn't wait for freedom to know God loved them. They still kept praying. Hush harbors, they whispered scripture in cotton fields. They passed faith down through coded songs.

Love carried them through lynching trees. Love carried them through Jim Crow. Love carried them through fire hoses, dogs, and jail cells. That same covenant love is still carrying us through inflation, through political tension, through social division, through personal battles nobody sees. Matter of fact, some of us are going through personal battles that nobody sees.

They don't know how difficult it is for you to go through every day and every challenge and every difficulty and every time a door is closed, every time a resume is not received in a positive way. They don't know what you go through. But you have to lean on God's covenant love. I wish I had a witness in here.

I'm still going to give God praise. I'm still going to give God the glory. I'm still going to say Jesus is the best thing that could have ever happened in my life. Here we are and someone needs to hear this. You're not holding yourself together. Love is carrying you. Oh yeah. You thought it was your strength.

You thought it was your discipline. You thought it was your resume. No, it was covenant love. That word that I mentioned, the Hebrew hesest, covenant love is loyal love. It's love God swore to Abraham. It's love that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It's love that nailed Jesus to the cross and kept Him there.

And the resurrection proves covenant love doesn't just survive death, it defeats death. I wish I had a witness here. So what does that mean to us? You've got to, number one, you've got to stop measuring God's love by your current situation. No matter what your current situation is, that is not the measuring point of how much God loves you.

Stop doubting covenant because of crisis. I don't know why that guy's in the White House. I didn't vote for him. Come on somebody. But I'm not going to give up on God. I wish I had a witness here. Thirdly, stop resting in the fact that love is still working. Stop resting in it. If it carried you through this far, it will carry you further.

In other words, God is not through with you yet. You are a part of process and process develops us. And the prayer is that I'm stronger today than I was yesterday, last month, last year, last decade. I ought to be stronger because of daily walking with God. Dean Johnson, you in the gym this morning.

I know you in the gym because you answered my text too early. And so if you answered my text that early, you were in the gym. And I would say to you that your body is different today than it was before you started going to the gym. It is process. God has us in process. He's moving now I need you to know I wasn't up with him this morning.

I do stay up late but I was not... I stay up late, I don't get up as early as he gets up. But what I am saying is that no matter what the time is, God is an on-time God. Oh, somebody ought to know that today. God can show up and God can show out. God can deal with no other power could do. He is the greatest. He is the GOAT.

They can talk about LeBron all they want. He had a triple-double the other day, oldest man to have a triple-double and all that and he picked the Dallas Mavericks to do it. He did not do it against the San Antonio Spurs because he skipped that game. But I'm not going to go into that. But he did show up to do it against the Mavericks.

But what I am saying that God is the greatest of all time. He can show up and he can show out. God can make a way out of nowhere. Here it is. Look at your life. You've survived things you don't even talk about. You got testimonies that you're not even sharing. Matter of because you understand that sometimes you got to come through a fire.

And then when you come through that fire being a testifier. Oh come on somebody. You survived it. Some of you have survived broken marriages. Some of you have survived broken dreams. Some of you have survived broken health reports, but you are not broken. Come on somebody.

My health report might have been broken, but I'm not broken because God's covenant love can carry you through. Even when that negro walked out the door, God's covenant love carries you through. Even when promises are not met. And if it carried you through slavery, it will carry you through stress. If it carried you through Jim Crow, it will carry you through January bills.

Come on somebody. I say January bills, it's February but some folks have not even dealt with January bills. I can't even face February bill because I'm still trying to figure out how can I deal with my January bills. If it carried us through pandemic shutdowns, it will carry us through whatever 2026 brings.

Yeah, it was love. It was love. It was love. It was covenant love. The faithful love of the Lord never ends. But when the money gets funny and the change gets strange, God is still showing up. Not when the body gets weak, not when the world gets loud. Love carries us through. And here's your shout this morning.

If it carried me through yesterday, it will carry me through tomorrow. So since that's the case, I'm not going to panic. I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to collapse. I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to collapse. I'm not going to panic. If you flying and the pilot starts screaming. Now I've never flown certain airlines.

I'm not going to name airlines but some airlines I just when I see the congestion and I see how I said that's not the airline for me. I don't know how they passed I hope all their pilots have passed all the courses. They didn't do it in night school or something. But you know what airline I'm talking about and but I'm not going to name the airline.

And but my one of my friends asked, "Have you ever flown?" No I said no, no, no. I said I'm not interested. I'm not trying to say which one is better and all that. I said I'm not getting on that. It just looks too confusing. It looks too cluttered. They seem like they got too much luggage they're taking on and it's just a different atmosphere.

I'm not knocking if that's your airline. But what I am saying, I want to know that God's love is what carries me. Covenant love carries it. You got to understand that no matter how difficult things can potentially get, you have to realize that God can make a way out of nowhere. You got to realize that God can put clapping in your hands, joy in your heart.

You got to realize that God can do it over and over again. Love carried us through. Carried us through 2025. Carried us through 2024. And the same love that carried us then is the same love carrying us right now. I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus and I don't mind giving God praise.

I don't mind lifting up holy hands and giving God the glory. Because when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he's done for me. Won't he do it? He is a mighty God. He is the fairest of 10,000, a bright and a morning star. He put clapping in my hands, he put joy in my heart and I believe I'll run on a little while longer.

Thank you God for carrying us through. Thank you God for throwing out the lifeline. Thank you God for picking us up, turning us around, putting our feet on a solid ground. And I don't know how you feel about it, but I woke up this morning with my mind, with my mind stayed on Jesus. Do you love him this morning?

And since I love the Lord, I will praise His name. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. I'll lift up my hands, I'll open up my mouth and I'll give God the praise. Thank you God for carrying us through. We have been in some hard times. We have been in some dark days.

But thank you Lord that he will hear your prayer like he heard the prayer of Paul and Silas at their midnight. And you might be at your midnight but God can God will answer your prayer. You might as well praise Him right now while I have a chance. Get that praise ready. Get that dance ready. Get that shout ready.

Thank you God because you're able to make a way out of nowhere and can't nobody, nobody do me like the Lord. Say yes! Say yes! Say yes! Love that carried us through. You don't have to get to the other side to realize it. God can be with you in the middle. And that's why when Moses was leading the people across the Red Sea, they didn't get to the other side to have the party.

They said we going to stand still. They said right here Moses? The water might... uh-uh Moses. Uh-uh. We going to stand still, see the salvation of God. We see the water holding. We see Pharaoh coming, but he's not here yet. But we going to pause right here and praise God. Pharaoh was still coming.

I want y'all to get this. Pharaoh was still coming. The sea was open up, which meant that Pharaoh could come right to where they were. But Moses said to them, we got here not because we so smart, but we got here because God is so great. And it's like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they said one thing we do know, we not bowing to you.

Moses said we going to stand still, see the salvation of God and praise God in the middle. Some of us need to learn how to praise God in the middle. In the middle. In the middle. In the middle. All is the slate is not clear. You still dealing with this and that but I'm still going to praise God in the middle.

I said it last night. God's love is not seasonal love. It's not casual. It's not shaky but it's consistent. And we've got to know that as I come through this life, I come through it with the understanding that I'm leaning and depending on Him. And He's the best thing. I said he's the best thing. He's the best thing that could ever happen in our lives.

Today can be your day for you to wrap your arms around God's love. Wrap your arms around it. 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.