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