• Go Back! You're Too Young

  Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 21, 2011 (message contributor)

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  Scripture:  Deuteronomy 6:4-9

  Tags:  Children

GO BACK! YOU'RE TOO YOUNG

Wilbur E. Nelson told the story of his father who was the senior elder in his church for many years. He said: "When I was a boy, eleven years of age, an evangelist held a series of meetings in our church. One night he asked every Christian to come forward and also asked those who desired to confess Christ to come with them. My father, of course, went up, and, as I felt the call of God, I followed after him. Just as he reached the front he turned around, and seeing me, said, "Johnnie, you go back; you are too young."

I obeyed him, as I had been taught to do, and at thirty-three I came again... lost (was) twenty-two years of service, while I lost twenty-two years of growth because my own father, an officer in the church, had said, "Go back."

[Wilbur E. Nelson as found in Tan, P. L. (1996)(626 Go Back! You're Too Young). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.) From a sermon by Matthew Kratz, A Father's Treasure, 6/18/2011]