Songs Of Our Faith Part 6 Series

Songs Of Our Faith Part 6

Take Me Back

By: Andrae Crouch

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12:1; 2 Peter 1:10; Revelations 2:1-5

Introduction:

This morning I will be focusing on a song that was recorded when I was fourteen years old. The song is by the Rev. Andrae Crouch and is titled “Take Me Back.” Unlike the songs I have reviewed to date, this song was recorded at a time when I was active in our Church choir and a new community choir that had been formed in our city. I first learned the song while at Church camp one summer. While I did not reflect on what the song was saying at the time, I liked the song because of how it flowed. I could relate to the song on some level as a teenager. The song contains a very simple request; for Christ to take us back to that place (spiritually and emotionally) where we first received Him. The song is not talking about when we were first baptized (in some cases baptism occurred prior to the person having a full understanding of what it meant to accept Christ), but when we came into the full knowledge of Him and made the decision to accept Him. Let me share with you some background information on the author.

I. About The Author

Andrae Crouch was born July 1, 1942 in San Francisco, CA where his parents managed a dry cleaners. His father, Benjamin Crouch also had a street ministry; ministered in hospitals; and in prisons. When Andrae was eleven years old, his father was invited to preach at a small church in a farming community. This church did not have a pastor and his father was asked to take over as pastor of the Church. That first Sunday his father asked Andrae to come down front and he asked him, “Andrae, if God gave you the gift of music to sing and play for Him, would you do it for His glory all your life?” Andrae answered, “Yeah Daddy.” A couple of weeks later while the congregation was singing he asked Andrae to come down. He told him, “If you’re gonna play, play.” Andrae found the key and began to play the piano. As he got a little older he began to write songs and lead a choir.

Crouch first group, the Church of God in Christ Singers, was formed in 1960 and included Billy Preston. This group was the first to record the song “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.” Between 1993 and 1994, his father, mother and older brother all died. After his father’s death, Crouch took over as Senior Pastor Senior Pastor at Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ in Pacoima, California, the church founded by his parents. He serves alongside his twin sister, Sandra. He was nominated for an Oscar for his song “God’s Trying To tell Me Something” from the movie “The Color Purple.”

He recorded the song “Take Me Back” in 1975 and won a Grammy for the song as the Best Soul Gospel Performance the same year. I do not have any specific circumstances for why he wrote this song so I will be giving you my interpretation of it based on why this song speaks to me. Let’s begin with the chorus which opens the song.

II. Chorus

The chorus to the says: “Take me back, take me back dear Lord, to the place where I first received you. Take me back, take me back dear Lord where I first believed.”

When I hear this song I think about when I first received the Lord. My mind does not go back to August of 1968 when I attended a revival meeting at our Church. I told you how my cousin Robbie and I were the only two who were not “saved” so we had to sit on the mourners’ bench so the evangelist could “preach to us and get us saved.” I was seven years old and Robbie was probably five or six at the time. When he opened the doors to the Church (an opportunity for those who are not saved to accept Christ and get saved), I looked at Robbie and told her I would go if she went, so we both went up to get saved from our sins. We were baptized a few weeks later. This was the moment from the Church’s viewpoint that I got “saved” but at seven years old there was a lot that I did not understand about being “saved.” When I came to understand what it really meant to accept Christ in my heart, I did it privately. I did not go back before the Church to get “re-baptized” as I knew I was saved. I do not recall the month or the day that I accepted Christ, but what I do remember is the decision that I made that if I was going to follow Him, I would do it to the best of my ability. This is what I reflect on when I hear the course of this song – when I first believed.