I want to share about
how the Lord answered our prayer
for our oldest son.
Many of you've heard this with James,
my oldest son.
My oldest son,
he was a model child
until he turned 17.
We thought he was a true Christian.
He had made a profession of faith when he was young.
He was a very obedient child,
a very good child.
He was the kind of boy that if we had
any visiting preacher or evangelist come over,
he would wash their car
and try to serve them every way he could.
We thought he was the real deal.
But when 17 came,
it was like all hell broke loose
and he decided he wanted the world.
And it became quickly manifest to us
that he had just been pretending,
playing at this business.
There may be some of you that have been doing the same thing.
You've just been pretending.
Oh, we can be real good pretenders.
We can play at this thing
and really fool even the closest people to us.
It became manifest in James' rebellion.
He began more and more his rebellion
and disobedience and stubbornness
was growing in manifestation.
And our hearts were breaking.
It came to the place where we finally
had to say, "James, if you're going to
not live by our rules and do what we say
and submit yourself to our authority,
you're going to have to move out."
He said, "I'm moving out."
It was a heartbreaking thing,
but sometimes you've got to let go of folks.
You've got to let go of your own family.
In fact, God was teaching you let go of people.
We let him go.
He moved out.
Things went from bad to worse in his life.
I mean, he plummeted the depths, folks.
He went off into a life of sin and rebellion.
Drinking.
Went through a bad marriage early.
All of this totally contrary, and our hearts were breaking.
And we were thinking at the time,
and many parents are tempted to think
when you've got a son or a daughter
that's out in rebellion,
what have I done wrong?
Where did I mess up?
What kind of inconsistency was there
that may have triggered this?
So we had all this burden of thinking,
not only the burden of our son
being out in sin,
but the burden of thinking,
well, we haven't done things right
because we saw other families
that their children were walking in obedience
and good and faithful and loving God.
It was so heartbreaking to us
that our oldest son, whom we had so much
expectation and hope that he was
going in the right direction.
He proved to be just an absolute rebel.
My wife and I, I can't tell you
how many hours that we spent
for several years praying for him.
Praying, fasting.
My wife would spend whole nights up
while James was off in Tennessee
working on pipeline, living like hell.
She would be so burdened and moved upon
because of particular dangers
that James was in at the time.
She would be praying for his deliverance
and that the Lord would protect him
and watch over him and save him
and bring him home.
This rocked on for several years.
He was in mid-Tennessee.
This was about '96.
One Sunday evening,
I was sitting in the living room,
and I told Mae, I said,
"Mae, I'm going to go out on the front porch
and pray once more for James."
I can remember it so well.
I walked out on the front porch
and I got on the right side of the porch
where I could see the heavens,
and I got down on my knees before God,
and I said, "Father, God, You are Lord over all,
and You do as You please
and no man can command You or tell You what to do.
Lord, if You kill my own son
and put him in hell tonight,
You would be just in doing so.
You have that right, but Lord, if You would,
would You save him?
You could save him. Would You save him?"
And the Lord spoke to my heart
as clear as I've ever heard anything.
"I've heard your prayer."
I came back in. I said, "Mama,
God's going to save James."
You remember it, Mae?
You remember it?
God's going to save James.
I don't know when and I don't know how.
But the Lord's going to work.
The next day at noon, the phone rang.
At noon. We were both home,
in the living room.
Guess who was on the other end of the line?
James.
"Daddy, would you pray for me?
I've got to get right with God."
The next day!
"I've got to get right with God.
Would you pray for me?
I went out today and bought me a Bible.
And I've started reading it.
My life's falling apart.
I need the Lord.
Would you pray for me?"
I said, "Sure, James. I'll pray for you."
He called me back the next day.
He said, "Daddy, the Lord hasn't saved me,
but I'm reading the Scriptures."
And he had met a girl over in Tennessee
which invited him to a charismatic-type church,
and he went to church.
In fact, he'd gone to church
that particular past Sunday.
When the Lord started putting him under conviction,
he told her, he said,
"I don't need this hooping and hollering,
I need to go to a church
where somebody will tell me something I need to hear."
See, he had been raised under
the preaching of the truth
and he could discern the difference
between what was being preached
in this other group.
I said, "James, surely there's some place over there
that preaches the Gospel;
some place over there that you can hear the truth."
He said, "Yeah, that's what I told Shelly."
He said, "We've got to find a church that preaches something."
Sad thing, again, it's a burden.
So, he said, "would you have the people,
Wednesday night, would you have
a special prayer meeting for me
that the Lord would save me?
I want you to ask the people in the church
to pray for me."
I said, "Sure, James, we'll pray for you.
You just keep reading your Bible and seeking the Lord."
Because we both knew that this thing of being saved
was not just saying a little prayer
and it was not going through an A-B-C solution,
that God had to save you;
that God had to do a work in your life and change you.
He'd gone through the little routine
and knew that that didn't work, as it were.
He had to have God save him.
He said, "Pray for me."
That Wednesday night in our prayer meeting
our flock had gathered.
Here's what's so unusual, that day,
we were in a study -
something pertaining to Christian life
and Christian living.
That particular day, the Lord moved upon me
and gave me a message from 1 John 1:8-9
and I couldn't understand why.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
And the Lord just put upon me heavily
a message on the forgiveness of sins,
and how that if we'd be honest and faithful
to confess our sins,
God was faithful to His Word
and would cleanse us
regardless of what our sins were,
regardless of how deeply wicked they were,
He'd just cleanse us for the sake of His Son,
the Lord Jesus.
And I had that and I said I don't know why...
but I'm going to preach it
because that was what was on my heart.
Well, I had just finished telling the people
that Wednesday afternoon,
"Folks, James called and is under conviction.
The Lord's dealing with him.
And he wanted you to pray for him.
Praise the Lord!"
And they said, "James?"
People said, "James?"
"You've got to be kidding! James?"
"Wants us to pray for him?"
I said yeah, James.
And I just no sooner shared
the fact that he was under conviction
and that he was trying to find a church.
I was still standing there.
We had had prayer.
And in the front door walked James.
He had driven 6 or 7 hours straight
to be in church with us that Wednesday night.
He came in the church.
He had long hair.
Looked rough.
Had been living a rough life.
He came in and sat down by his mama
and put his arm around her.
My heart just swelled with praise.
It expanded with worship.
My heart was overjoyed. I couldn't hardly talk.
But I poured out the message
that God had given me on the forgiveness of sins.
Just a simple message.
How God could forgive the deepest
and darkest and ugliest of sins
because He loved us so much
that He offered His own Son in our place.
And He was so pleased with the sacrifice
and the suffering of His own dear Son
that He could cleanse any sinner
who would be honest and would come
and lay his life before Him.
And James just looked
and I'll never forget the look on his face.
He was like a starving man
wanting a piece of bread.
He was like a thirsty man
wanting a drink with all desperation.
He just drank in every word.
When the message was over,
he got up and began to hug everyone in the church
and say, "pray for me."
"Pray for me."
He kept me up that night
to the wee hours of the morning
wanting to talk about how you could
know if you were forgiven,
how you could know if you're saved.
He wore me out. I was just exhausted.
I was so tired.
We finally went to bed.
We got up the next morning,
he had to go back to Tennessee -
it was a job-related thing.
And he said the Lord hadn't saved him.
We had prayer and he said,
"Dad, keep on praying for me." I said, "I will."
He said, "I'll keep on seeking the Lord."
A few hours later, he called me.
He said, "Daddy, somewhere around Memphis, Tennessee,
the Lord saved me."
And he said when the Lord came into his life
and saved him and gave him peace and forgiveness,
he had a stack of CD's on his dash -
worldly, wicked, rock & roll,
hellish, rebellious music.
He grabbed that whole stack
and flung it out the window.
Now that's not what saved him, folks.
That's what he did because God saved him.
The real proof in the pudding
was a few months later,
we had opportunity and time
to go over and visit with him in Tennessee.
He wasn't the same James.
He was nothing like he had been before.
Old things have passed away.
All things have become new.
The life of God shown in his soul.
The countenance of peace was in his brow.
The joy of the Lord was in his heart.
The high praises of God were upon his lips.
Mama and Daddy, don't ever tire
of praying for your children.
The last chapter's not written yet.
Keep calling.
Keep hoping.
Keep pleading.
One day, you may have the fortune
to hear the word, "I've heard your prayer."
Praise God.
I praise God for you people.
I praise God for you, Bob and Clint.
I thank the Lord for knowing you.
We may never meet again.
This may be my last time at Sedalia.
I may go home and fall over from a heart attack,
or you may too.
We've got a great day coming.
We'll be together again.
Let me recommend to you if you're not a Christian,
get in on this.
Don't miss this.
Don't miss this great joy.
Salvation can be yours today too.
Believe it.
You can be forgiven this very day.
You can leave this house today
a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Bow your heart before Him.
Give yourself up to Him.
Ask Him for what you need most.
See what He'll do.
Let's pray.