Happy Birthday, John Newton!

Thanks to JT for reminding us that today is John Newton's birthday.

Here are a couple sermons that David Ward and I have preached through Newton hymn texts:

• A Sermon on the Hymn “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder” (David)
• Amazing Grace: Faith's Review and Expectation (Eric)

Sermon (and Catechism) on "Amazing Grace - Faith's Review and Expectation"

On February 8, I preached a sermon on the topic of God's grace (mainly from Ephesians 2), using John Newton's hymn "Amazing Grace" as my outline. I haven't heard much feedback from the congregation. But, I was greatly encouraged as I meditated on "Faith's Review and Expectation" (Newton's original title for the hymn).

You can listen to the audio here.

Why did I do this? As a congregation, we are following Covenant Life Church's lead in memorizing one great hymn a month.

To help our congregation learn and understand these great hymns, I'm doing a sermon on the theme of the hymn-o'-the-month each month, expositing relevant portions of Scripture.

My associate pastor and I put together a Study and Discussion Guide on the hymn (something like a catechism), to help members learn the theology we are singing and teach it to their children.

As the months progress, you can find the sermons and study/discussion guides on our website, here.