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.

Ruth chapter two, verse number 14 in the New Living Translation says, "At mealtime, Boaz called to her: Come over here and help yourself to some food. You can dip your bread in sour wine." So she sat with his harvesters, and Boaz gave her some roasted grain to eat. She ate all she wanted and even had some leftover. Amen. You may go to your seats around the building. I want to talk in this service from the subject: Positioned to be blessed. Positioned to be blessed. Every now and then, God will take a gleaner and turn them into a guest.

Ruth walked into that field simply hoping to survive. But by the time the day was done, she was invited to the table. That's how favor works. It finds you in the ordinary and elevates you into the extraordinary. Somebody here today knows what it feels like to start at the back and end up at the table, and realizing that everybody at the table might not be cheering for you. But even at the table, you know that everybody is your color but not your kind.

It might be hometown this and hometown that, but many of us in this room are clear when people can shift. Matter of fact, there was even a song written, and it said "Backstabbers." Again, I know it's a new era and you're not dealing with that, but these are our realities. You didn't pull strings, but grace pulled you forward. You did not orchestrate; you did not try to line things up. But it's something that happened because of God's divine will. They might have meant it for evil, but God turned it around for good.

They might have closed one door, but God opened a better door. And once I came through that better door, I'm not thinking about that other door. 25 years ago, God opened up the door for us to come to First Baptist Church of Highland Park. But you must know that before this door opened, there were other doors that closed. And of course, I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful for every door that got closed. Matter of fact, we know something about disappointment and being sick to the stomach and not feeling well.

I remember one time I thought I was going to a particular church; it didn't work out. And my father-in-law called me and said, "Come meet me. I'm speaking at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and then we're going to go shopping, we're going to go eating." I was like, "I don't want to shop nor eat." But he said, "Meet me." And I needed that pickup. I didn't know I needed it. I wobbled out to the train station and that was about what it was, it was a wobble. I wobbled to the train station and I came to D.C.

We went over to Catholic University. He spoke that day; we went out, we went eating and shopping, and he put me back on the train. What started as a day with the wobble ended up with a day of being able to walk with confidence. You don't ever know what God is preparing you for. The other thing about the journey of pastoring you need to know: everything is not always going to be the way you want it. And I ran into some rough individuals. I ran into some rough ones.

But I can tell you this: they got me ready. They built up a thickness so I wouldn't be able to run into a challenge and then be fearful. And the reason why I wouldn't have to be fearful is because I've seen God do it before and I know God can do it again. Some of you are in that same way. You've seen Him do it before. And since you've seen Him do it before, you know He can do it again. Positioned to be blessed. Positioned. Like an employee who starts in the mailroom but gets called into the boardroom.

God has a way of repositioning those who remain faithful where He placed them. The Bible tells us: be faithful over few things, and then I can elevate you. My first church—you have to follow me, camera people—my first church would have probably been this group over here. This was my church. Everybody in this section, this was my church. But I can tell you then that as hard as I preach today, I preached back then. I gave it my all every single Sunday.

Matter of fact, I was preaching and I had a hernia issue. I had walked away from my job at IBM and I had a hernia issue but I didn't have the economics to deal with the hernia condition. So I just had to work with it. But I would preach on Sunday and no one ever had an idea that I had a hernia issue. My wife knew it. And I would go into the office after service and many times I would have to lay flat to allow the pain to subside. But I didn't allow that to stop me.

And that's what I'm trying to tell somebody. You've got to be faithful as you go along in your journey because you don't know where or when God is going to meet you. He's going to show up. And not only is God going to show up, He's going to show out. He's positioning you. Not for the ordinary, but for the extraordinary. Not for the regular. God is positioning you that you can elevate and thank God that you can be thankful every step of the way. He's positioning us to be blessed.

And again, one of the great positions is on your knees. Because starting on my knees, I understand that prayer—God can meet me right there. That God can lift me from a low place. That God can give me an answer even in a dark situation. He's positioning us. Now, I'm sorry because I didn't preach earlier today, so you all get a little more today because I've got a whole lot of gas in the tank. Amen. I'm not going to keep you; the game doesn't start until four, so I'm not going to keep you that long.

But I need to tell you: God wants to position you to do extraordinary things. Here it is. First thing you need to know: God uses ordinary places for extraordinary blessings. I can take you in an ordinary place and I can do extraordinary things. Don't ever limit what God can do in your life. Don't ever limit that God can't do it in your life. God can take ordinary and do extraordinary. All I have to do is put my all in His arms, in His hands. He's not going to fumble. He's not going to drop us. He's not going to make an error.

Ruth was not in a palace; she was in a field. Yet the field became the platform for her future. In other words, God can take you where you are. You know, many times some of us in this room are from some towns nobody's ever heard of. And somebody says, "Where are you from?" and then you've got to tell them where you're from and then you've got to tell them what city you're near because they have no idea what little town you just mentioned. I'm from such-and-such. Where is that? And it's about 45 minutes outside of Charlotte.

It's a stone's throw from Columbia. Whatever the case is, but what I'm telling you is that God can take you wherever you are. God doesn't need fancy conditions to show you His favor. He specializes. Matter of fact, we used to sing a song and I used to love singing in the choir; the song was "God Specializes." And we used to love: God specializes, God specializes. Now, I know some folks don't know that song. But there are some of you who remember "God Specializes."

And God can specialize in ordinary things. He can bring destiny out of dirt. You do realize when we die, we all go into dirt. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Now you can accelerate that process by cremation. You all didn't get it. You can accelerate. Cremation is a lot cheaper and then they can turn you into an ornament. You could be a holiday ornament on your tree. They could turn you into a ring or they could turn you into a necklace and I could wear you around. I've got Mama right here. Mama's close.

But I'm telling you that God can bring destiny out of dirt. He can take the dusty and the dirty and do the miraculous. I wish I had a witness in here. We haven't always been clean. And matter of fact, right now, we're not 100%. We're better than we used to be. Come on somebody. I mean, you might be smelling good, looking good, but you ain't that good. You have to understand Jesus had to die on Calvary's cross for us. He had to lay His life down so we could get up.

And I thank God that we're still getting up. We're still glorifying God. We're still celebrating the reality. Boaz's field represents divine opportunity, which is disguised as daily responsibility. Daily, you have the opportunity of drawing closer to God. Daily you make a decision to read your Bible. Daily you make a decision to pray. And every week you make a decision to worship. It's a decision. Those of you who made it to church today or those of you watching online, you are here because of a decision.

And once you made that decision, sometimes obstacles come. Now, this service is a tough one because you all come to church and all of you get an extra feather in your cap, another star in your crown. Because when you come here in this service, we've got early service people who haven't left. And so many of you have parked in all kind of crazy spots. I mean, you walked a long way. But you said, "I'm going to worship." I could have gone the easy route like these folks watching me online right now.

And you need to give extra offering time too, you really do. You're sitting there with your coffee, your slippers, didn't even have to brush your teeth, didn't have to do anything. I'm in Bedside Baptist. You need to give. God wants to position you to be blessed. And you have to make a positioning decision. The song says, "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus." Here it is. If you stay faithful in the field, God will find you. Charles Barkley says, "I guarantee, I guarantee you that if you stay faithful, God's going to find you."

It does not matter what people say. It doesn't matter what your manager says. It doesn't matter what your family says. God will find you. Because you have to realize this: He's not lost, we are. We're the ones trying to figure out our next step. Let me go old school birthday parties. Old school birthday parties when they played bobbing for apples. Musical chairs. Listen, we've got to play musical chairs again. I was the king of musical chairs. I mean, I could play some musical chairs.

I was a master of musical chairs. And I'm telling you all now, we want to go old school, get some old school, play musical chairs, put me in that game. Now, I'm not going to be nice; I'm playing to win. "How could you take that chair from that little kid?" That little kid is going to learn how to win. That's what I'm going to teach that little kid: how to win. But one of the games they would play was Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

And Pin the Tail on the Donkey was you'd come—I've got to explain that because some of our young people never heard of that. You ever play Pin the Tail on the Donkey? You played it? Really? Okay. Pin the Tail on the Donkey: blindfold, spin you around, then go with the tail. And what Satan is always trying to do—Satan is trying to spin you around. You've got a blessing in your hand but you don't know where you're going to take it.

I've already placed within you gifts that I want to bring out of you. But the only way you're going to get those gifts out of you, I've got to go back to the one who made me in the first place. See, I like YouTube. YouTube now, if you can't figure stuff out, you can just ask YouTube. And YouTube can tell you how to put a bike together. YouTube can tell you how to do plumbing in your house. YouTube can tell you all a bunch—I'm not trying all of it.

I mean, I'd still rather pay somebody because I still got drawers that don't close right. I mean, you would go to IKEA and they give you—you go down to the checkout at IKEA and you bring all that stuff home and then you've got to put it together. And my wife is sitting over there now, we still got drawers that don't close right. And I read the instructions four and five times. You try to figure it out, then you just say, "Oh, forget it. It's just going to have to be this way."

But what I'm trying to tell you, when you have confusion, I've got to go back to the one who has every answer. Do I have a witness in here? No matter what is going on in your life, I can equip you to overcome. I'm positioning you to be blessed. And so I understand the reality that God can use ordinary places for extraordinary blessings. He knows where I'm working. He knows where I'm waiting. He knows where I'm worshipping. And the second thing is: the right position.