August 23, 2020 – West Bridgewater Community Church

Here is the worship guide for Sunday, August 23, 2020.

PDF version of the worship guide to download or print.

The livestream will begin at 10:30 a.m. on our Facebook page.

Welcome and Announcements

Opening Prayer

Hymn: “10,000 Reasons”

Words and music by Jonas Myrin and Matt Redman

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul; Worship His holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul; I’ll worship Your holy name.

The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning,
it’s time to sing Your song again.
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me,
let me be singing when the evening comes.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul; Worship His holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul; I’ll worship Your holy name.

You’re rich in love and You’re slow to anger.
Your name is great and Your heart is kind.
For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing;
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul; Worship His holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul; I’ll worship Your holy name.

And on that day, when my strength is failing,
the end draws near, and my time has come;
Still, my soul will sing Your praise unending
ten thousand years, and then forevermore!

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul; Worship His holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul; I’ll worship Your holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul; Worship His holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul; I’ll worship Your holy name,
Worship Your holy name, Lord, I’ll worship Your holy name.

Hymn: “Good Shepherd of My Soul”

Words and music by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Stuart Townend, and Fionán de Barra

Good Shepherd of my soul, come dwell within me;
take all I am and mold Your likeness in me.
Before the cross of Christ, this is my sacrifice:
A life laid down and ready to follow.

The troubled find their peace in true surrender;
the prisoners their release from chains of anger.
In springs of living grace, I find a resting place
to rise refreshed, determined to follow.

I’ll walk this narrow road with Christ before me,
where thorns and thistles grow and cords ensnare me.
Though doubted and denied, He never leaves my side,
but lifts my head and calls me to follow.

And when my days are gone, my strength is failing,
He’ll carry me along through death’s unveiling.
Earth’s struggles overcome, heav’n’s journey just begun,
to search Christ’s depths and ever to follow.

Scripture Reading and Prayer:

Psalm 147 (ESV)

¹ Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
² The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
⁵ Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
⁶ The Lord lifts up the humble;
he casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre!
⁸ He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
¹⁰ His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
¹¹ but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.

¹² Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
¹³ For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
¹⁴ He makes peace in your borders;
he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
¹⁵ He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
¹⁶ He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
¹⁷ He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?
¹⁸ He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
¹⁹ He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and rules to Israel.
²⁰ He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his rules.
Praise the Lord!

Sermon: “Anger”

We will look at several Proverbs, and other passages, including some of the following:

Proverbs 10:12 (ESV)

Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offenses.

Proverbs 12:16 (ESV)

The vexation of a fool is known at once,
but the prudent ignores an insult.

Proverbs 14:17 (ESV)

A man of quick temper acts foolishly,
and a man of evil devices is hated.

Proverbs 15:18 (ESV)

A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,
but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.

Proverbs 17:14 (ESV)

The beginning of strife is like letting out water,
so quit before the quarrel breaks out.

Proverbs 17:19 (ESV)

Whoever loves transgression loves strife;
he who makes his door high seeks destruction.

Proverbs 17:27 (ESV)

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,
and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

Proverbs 18:19 (ESV)

A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city,
and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.

Proverbs 19:19 (ESV)

A man of great wrath will pay the penalty,

for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.

Proverbs 20:3 (ESV)

It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife,
but every fool will be quarreling.

Proverbs 22:24–25 (ESV)

²⁴ Make no friendship with a man given to anger
nor go with a wrathful man,
²⁵ lest you learn his ways
and entangle yourself in a snare.

Proverbs 24:17–18 (ESV)

¹⁷ Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,
¹⁸ lest the Lord see it and be displeased,
and turn away his anger from him.

Proverbs 29:22 (ESV)

A man of wrath stirs up strife,
and one given to anger causes much transgression.

Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)

⁶The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, ⁷keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Psalm 7:6–11 (ESV)

⁶ Arise, O Lord, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
⁷ Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.

⁸ The Lord judges the peoples;
judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
⁹ Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!
¹⁰ My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
¹¹ God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.

Psalm 37:8 (ESV)

Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

Ephesians 4:25–32 (ESV)

²⁵Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. ²⁶Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and give no opportunity to the devil. ²⁸Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. ²⁹Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³²Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

James 1:19–20 (ESV)

¹⁹Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Hymn: “My Savior’s Love”

Word and music by Charles H. Gabriel

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene,
and wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean.