Never Give Up Praying for Your Loved One's Salvation - Don Johnson

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.