hymns: roots and wings for the next generation (supporting slides)

Hymns: Roots and Wings for the Next Generation

Stand for the Gospel 2013 William Chong

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children:

One is roots. The other is wings.”

– Henry Ward Beecher

Which of the following are hymns?

• Amazing Grace

• Blessed Assurance

• Great Is Thy Faithfulness

• Just As I Am

• In Christ Alone

• Nothing But the Blood

• Rock of Ages

• To God Be The Glory

• The Solid Rock

• When I Survey

I. What is a hymn?

I. What is a hymn?

“… a poem, designed for group singing, and written as a sequence of identical units called stanzas.

Each stanza has the same line length, rhythms and rhyme scheme as its predecessor, so that the hymn can be sung, stanza by stanza, to the same tune.” – Brian Wren

Wren, Brian. Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000. pg. 100.

I. What is a hymn?

Holy Holy Holy

1. Holy holy holy

Lord God Almighty

Early in the morning

Our song shall rise to Thee

Holy holy holy

Merciful and mighty

God in three persons

Blessed Trinity

John Bacchus Dykes, Reginald Heber. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

3. Holy holy holy

Though the darkness hide Thee

Though the eye of sinful man

Thy glory may not see

Only Thou art holy

There is none beside Thee

Perfect in power

In love and purity

I. What is a hymn?

“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

He was manifested in the flesh,

vindicated by the Spirit,

seen by angels,

proclaimed among the nations,

believed on in the world,

taken up in glory.”

1 Timothy 3:16 (ESV)

I. What is a hymn?

Great Is The Gospel

2. Great is the mystery of godliness, (1 Tim 3:16) Great is the work of God’s own holiness, It moves my soul, and causes me to long For greater joys than to the earth belong

3. The Spirit vindicated Christ our Lord, And angels sang with joy and sweet accord; The nations heard, a dark world flamed with light – When Jesus rose in glory and in might

William Vernon Higham. © WV Higham Trust. CCLI License # 42775

A hymn is different to…

• Chorus – Come Now Is The Time To Worship

– Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

• Refrain / Gospel Song – Great Is Thy Faithfulness

– Nothing But the Blood

– Victory in Jesus

Which of the following are hymns?

• Amazing Grace

• Blessed Assurance

• Great Is Thy Faithfulness

• Just As I Am

• In Christ Alone

• Nothing But the Blood

• Rock of Ages

• To God Be The Glory

• The Solid Rock

• When I Survey

I. What is a hymn?

A Mighty Fortress (isorhythmic) – Martin Luther

I. What is a hymn?

Olney Hymns, page 331

I. What is a hymn?

II. Why do we need hymns today?

A. We need roots into a historic, credible faith.

“My grandmother saved it,

My mother threw it away,

And now I’m buying it back.”

– Kevin Twit



John Newton. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775


Anne Steele. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775


B. We need wings from the formative power of the gospel.

“Run, run, the law commands

But gives us neither feet nor hands.

Far better news the gospel brings

It bids us fly and gives us wings.”

– attr. John Bunyan


How often do these worldviews sneak into your heart?

• “I’m on the right track baby I was born this way”

• “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try”

• “Nothing really matters to me”

• “I faced it all and I stood tall and I did it my way”


Jesus I My Cross Have Taken

1. Jesus, I my cross have taken,

All to leave and follow Thee.

Destitute, despised, forsaken,

Thou from hence my all shall be.

Perish every fond ambition,

All I’ve sought or hoped or known.

Yet how rich is my condition!

God and heaven are still my own.

Henry Lyte. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775


Thou Lovely Source of True Delight

1. Thou lovely source of true delight

Whom I unseen adore

Unveil Thy beauties to my sight

That I might love Thee more.

Anne Steele. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775


Come Thou Fount

3. O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Robert Robinson. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775


C. We need to relearn the art of meditation on God’s Word.

“I will meditate on Your precepts,

And contemplate Your ways.

I will delight in Your statutes;

I will not forget Your word.”

– Psalm 119:15–16 (NKJV)


When I Survey

1. When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.

Isaac Watts. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” – Galatians 6:14 (ESV)

III. How can we pass on hymns to the next generation?

a. Find and choose good hymns.

b. Sing them to yourself.

c. Sing them with your family.

d. Sing them with your church community.

III. How can we pass on hymns to the next generation?

“… I say without qualification, after the Sacred Scriptures, the next best companion for the soul is a good hymnal.”

– AW Tozer

Tozer, Aiden Wilson. We Travel An Appointed Way. Christian Publications, 1988.

Questions/Reflection

When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.


Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God!

All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.


See from his head, his hands, his feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown!


[His dying crimson1, like a robe, Spreads o'er his body on the tree: Then am I dead to all the globe, And all the globe is dead to me.]


1. blood

Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.


“We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds

of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.”

– Psalm 78:4 (ESV)

hymns: roots and wings for the next generation (supporting slides)

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