Have you ever wondered why there are so many references to warfare in the Bible? As believers, we are engaged in battle with the one who opposes our efforts to live a godly lifestyle—Satan. Dr. Stanley explains how we can be strong and stand firm against the attacks of the enemy. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to intouch.org/tv.

didn’t just make up his own mind do that

that he was called to be a preacher

and you could come by some of the

people’s houses and there would be Dr

Stanley sitting talking to the different

people I can remember he had a little

map kind of of the community and the

people’s name on it and he would go

visit everybody and talk to him there

was that kind of sense that you know God

has really blessed us here

when he came here they asked him to

teach at the Fruitland Baptist College

which is across the street from the

church and he taught over there and they

loved him over there too

he was a young man who had just

graduated from Seminary that was asked

to come and teach at a school for new

pastors

there were some people from the church

who were having a get-together with the

stanleys in the parsonage

and when they came in they noticed that

there was a small stocking hanging from

the mantle and that was the Stanley’s

way of announcing that they were

expecting a child and of course that was

Andy

Fruitland was the first of many firsts

for Charles his first appointment first

new home and the birth of their first

child Charles Andy Stanley

I didn’t understand it at the time but I

remember one of our of our deacons

making a comment one Sunday after church

this man won’t be with us long

[Music]

there was a sense of knowing that his

ministry was going to grow and move on

from here

well to be a pastor and know that God is

calling you somewhere or moving you

somewhere

is pretty traumatic

if God brought him here for two years

and that’s just long enough to kind of

begin to settle in and get comfortable

and then you get called to Ohio had to

be something where you would say no God

I don’t want to go but if God’s calling

you have no choice

if you really have surrendered your life

to Christ and you’re his then you have

no alternative but to go

in the fall of 1959 Charles answered

God’s call to be the pastor at Fairborn

Baptist Church in Fairborn Ohio

we’re a military Church

the main employer of course was

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base because

of the base and transferring people in

there were people who were coming from

all over the country Dr Stanley was a

very tall and commanding kind of

personality you know and Stern that was

okay because our military were used to

that and that’s what they expected out

of a leader

he had a very Dynamic way of of doing

his preaching he didn’t yell at us it

was a conversational kind of delivery

and it was just like he was speaking the

words of God it was easy to listen to

you couldn’t go to sleep in these

sermons

occasionally he would want to make a

real point I think it was just saying

now listen listen

our church body

was growing we were bursting at the

seams we had it packed out most every

Sunday we outgrew our first Sanctuary

very quickly when Dr Stanley was here

classes were having to meet in the

kitchen classes met in the stairwells

downstairs in the children’s area where

the nursery was they actually divided

off one room with cinder blocks because

we were really growing getting a lot of

young folks in we grew by 300 in

membership and to a 350 and I think 200

of those were by baptism a lot of them

were military families and I remember Dr

Stanley saying that we’re really a

mission launching point

I I think the reason that so many people

can relate to him is because they need

to have that hope and that he can bring

to them through obedience

as the church continued to grow so did

the Stanley family Charles and Anna

welcomed their second child a daughter

Rebecca Louise

the following year while traveling to

Haiti for a mission trip Charles was

invited to preach at First Baptist

Church of Miami

the church needed a new pastor and asked

Charles to consider the position

the more Charles prayed about it the

more certain he was that God was calling

his family to Miami

the Sunday that uh

he read his resignation

he and Annie sang a song

his way mine

as his way of announcing to us that God

has a place for him

that he is going to follow

a prayer for us to say that that God’s

will become our will and that we follow

that also he was such a loved man and uh

and endeared himself to the people they

were very sorry that him going but they

understood that he was called and he had

to follow God’s will I mean that’s what

he was always teaching us that whatever

God tells you to do that’s what you’re

going to do

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