Fighting, Staying, and Keeping: The Keys to Winning

I get these questions often. How is Beech Grove growing? What are yall doing? It is almost like some think you have to be doing something extra to get people saved. That you have to do something extra to get people to come to church to serve the One who saved them.

My answer is always the same.

God is blessing us and to Him be all the glory given. We have not employed a special program. We are relying on God and His Word. It is that simple.

It is the power of God’s Word that is the power behind salvation.

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

Growth in a church based upon anything other than God’s Word cannot be sustained, but I do want to give credit where credit is due. Our growth has been made possible by several factors, and I want you to understand how important you have been in the growth of Beech Grove Baptist Church.

1. “YOU” have fought the good fight. (2 Tim. 4:7)

2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”

Second Timothy is the last epistle written by Paul before he was martyred. Paul had been unwavering in his faith, and he had an unyielding love for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Paul had fought the good fight. His Christian life was a constant struggle. Earlier in Second Timothy, Paul reminded Timothy of the need to engage in that struggle, to fight the good fight.

2 Timothy 2:3 “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

The word fight that Paul used means literally to engage in conflict. The word was used in the context of competing in an athletic contest.

The struggle is constant, and Paul engaged in it and so should we. Paul had been shipwrecked, snake-bitten, thrown in jail, stoned, and beaten, but he still fought the good fight.

Yes, it was a struggle. Yes, it was emotional. Yes, it was physical. At times, he felt like giving up, but he did not.

2 Corinthians 1:8–10 “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;”

When it got as bad as it possibly could get for Paul, he was able to keep fighting the good fight because he trusted in God who raises the dead.

This church has been through many situations as described by Paul in Second Corinthians.

Beginning in 1994, when Joey Binkley was unexpectedly killed in an accident at Colonial Rubber. Joey had a strong faith. He was trusted by the church and had been placed in a position of leadership from which he was to serve this church for many years, but the Lord had other plans, and his death was devastating to this church, but you kept fighting because you had faith in God who is able to raise the dead.

Then we had an engineer tell us in 2004 that our building was unsafe, so we moved into our fellowship hall, and many used that as an excuse to stop coming, but not those of you kept fighting the good fight.

My dad, who been pastor since 1982, died from cancer in 2011, but many of you kept fighting the good fight. In 2018, my mother was tragically died in auto accident. We seemed to be at rock bottom, but we kept fighting, and it was Mitzie who stepped up to fill that vacancy that very Sunday morning. You just kept fighting.

Yes, it seemed “modern” churches were passing us by, but we kept fighting the good fight, and from the ashes of despair, new life has sprung forth because of your constant engagement in the struggle.

New leaders have emerged. New members are pouring in. Baptisms are increasing. A renewed desire for God’s Word has emerged. An unquenchable longing to share the gospel has been stirred within us, and it is because you 9 that were here the night Bro. Jerrell retired kept fighting the good fight because you had faith in God, the God who raises the dead.

2. “YOU” have stayed the course.

2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

Staying/finishing the course is a reference to a foot race, a race in which the course was set by God.

Now, I have not run any races in a while, so Anthony would have to verify this, but from what I understand, marathon runners, at the end of a long race, must stay the course, must keep their eyes on the path ahead in order to finish the race and claim the prize.

If that marathon runner is not single-minded in purpose, he or she will be distracted by fatigue, hunger, and thirst. Paul was telling us to persevere in the faith as he had persevered. We are to stay on course so we can finish the course.

Hebrews 10:36 “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”

The race set before us requires faith, stamina, commitment, and discipline in order to stay the course.

Philippians 3:12–13 “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,”

Philippians 3:14 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

You cannot reach the finish line if you are constantly looking back, and dear friend, that is what Billy Binkley, Vanessa Anderson, Donald Williams, Marge Kesterson, Sylvia Palmer, Mitzie Goff, Linda Williams, Anthony Parham, and many more of you have done. You have endured. You have stayed the course.

The race has been set before us; you and I did not select the course. It was God who selected the course. The course is a winding, uphill course, but the finish line is just ahead. It is a race we are running for Christ, and we are to stay the course regardless of trials, persecutions, roadblocks, and speed bumps, and that is what you have done, and your staying power is being rewarded.

But you are not finished running yet. You must keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1–2 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The Lord Jesus Christ finished His race perfectly. He is to be the focus of our lives.

If He is, the finish line will always be in focus. Jesus is already at the finish line. He is waiting on you to welcome you to the finish.

Acts 7:56 “And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”

Luke 16:22 “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;”

The race God has set before us is a marathon, we must commit ourselves to stay the course to the very end.

The length of the race does not matter; we just keep our eyes on Jesus. There is joy waiting. Many of you have waited. Many of you have stayed the course, and the prize is at the finish line waiting on you.

No matter ho dire things got, you kept your eyes on Jesus, and because you did, people are being drawn to Beech Grove Baptist Church. Every new person who comes remarks about how welcome you make them feel, and the reason you can make them feel welcome is because so many of you have kept your eyes on the course God has set.

3. “YOU” have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”

As used often in the New Testament, “kept” means to guard, to watch over, to protect.

What are we supposed to guard and protect? We are to guard the faith, a faith in Jesus Christ that is based upon God’s Word.

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Hebrews 1:1–2 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”

Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ was more solid on the day he died than it was on the day he was saved, and that should be the case with all of us. Paul grew in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ because his knowledge of God’s Word increased.

Paul was uncompromising on Jesus Christ. He had faithfully guarded the truth of the gospel.

Galatians 1:6–8 “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

In an age of compromise, many of you have not once compromised one God’s Word. I chuckle at how he says it, but Anthony always says if it is in God’s Word, I believe it.

That is guarding the faith. It does not mean you understand everything. It means that what you do know in God’s Word as the truth is to be defended, guarded, and protected against and from heresy and attacks.

I am not to guard the words of Max Lucado, Adrian Rogers, Billy Graham, Rick Warren, Ray Comfort, or Ken Hamm. I am and you are to guard the faith, a faith based upon what is written in God’s Word.

I am telling you that doing just that separates Beech Grove from many churches because many churches compromise what God’s Word says to be more accepting of lifestyles condemned by God’s Word.

Dear friends, you did just the opposite.

You have been uncompromising on God’s Word, and God’s Word has not returned void.

You have guarded, cherished, and protected God’s Word. You have preserved it for future generations. As a result, there will be a Beech Grove Baptist Church until the Lord returns for it. It might not be in this location because who knows what growth the Lord has in store for us if continue fighting, staying, and keeping.

I am telling you that we are only scratching the surface of where God wants to take us. Yes, God has blessed us tremendously, but you have fought the good fight, stayed the course, and kept the faith.