Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 46 results

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

When Sadie and Bessie, the famed "Delany Sisters," were in the early years of their second centuries (103 and 105, respectively) they told interviewers, "God only gave you one body, so you better be nice to it. Exercise, because if you don't, by the time you're our age, you'll be pushing up daisies." Fitness gymnasiums ought to put the Delany Sisters on their billboards and quote them into larger ...

2. A Cry in the Dark

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

"Screw your courage to the sticking-place," says Lady Macbeth to her doomed husband in Shakespeare's tragedy, "and we'll not fail." But fail they do and no amount of courage in the world can save them or turn them into heroes. Courage is a funny thing. It's a bit like happiness: the more you seek it, the more you demand it, the more you try to call it up, the less it shows its face. Words can sti...

3. A Dance in the Desert

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Even though we like laughter and enjoy praise and celebration, especially at this time of year, it doesn't always come easily. One fellow tells of his work as a hospital volunteer. He couldn't believe the pain and suffering he saw there: burn victims, deformities, terminal cancer. He watched the little ones cry. Some children were so lonely. Their parents couldn't take the trauma, so they never ca...

4. A Date With Destiny

Hebrews 10:19-39

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Some years ago an English journal ran a contest. A prize was offered for the best definition of a "friend." A friend. How would you define a friend? Thousands of replies poured in: A friend is someone "who multiplies joys, and divides grief!" said one. No, thought another; a friend is someone "who understands our silence." A third person suggested: "A friend is a volume of sympathy bound in cloth....

5. A New Vantage Point

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Whenever people visit a beautiful, impressive church building, invariably there are two things they want to do: they want to go up to the pulpit and see how things look from this perspective; and then they want to go up in the balcony, if there is one, and look down on everything. And isn't that typical? There's something inside of us that needs to climb to the top and get the view from above. W...

6. A Portion of Thyself

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

At a graduation ceremony, the president of a Christian college stood at the podium and looked out over the huge crowd of people. He shook his head and said to himself (right into the microphone, of course!): “All these Christians in one place, and no one’s taking an offering!” We take offerings a lot, don’t we? Every Sunday at worship services, the money plates are passed. In fact, we can hardly t...

7. A Shocking Revelation

Revelation 1:9-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Why did you come here today? Have you given it any thought? Why did you come here today, to church? There are all the usual reasons, I suppose: It’s our habit! It’s what we do on Sunday mornings! That’s probably as good a reason as any! Thank God for good habits! But maybe it’s more than that for you. Maybe you’ve had a rough week, a strange week, a tiring week. Maybe things aren’t working out in...

8. Building a New Team

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

When Vince Lombardi was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1958, the team was in dismal shape. A single win in season play the year before had socked the club solidly into the basement of the NFL, and sportscasters everywhere used it as the butt of loser jokes. But Lombardi picked and pulled and prodded and trained and disciplined the players into becoming a winning team. They were NF...

9. Changing Times

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Advent reminds us of the flow of time. We are all bound by time. Time is our teacher, our boss, our constant companion. Time locks us into the march of life and forces us to wake up each morning in a place we’ve never been before, in a place we can never return to again. All our lives we struggle with time. When will we ever have enough time? When will I be old enough? When will time stop long en...

10. Creation Reborn

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

When I was a pastor in rural southern Alberta, we held our Easter Sunrise worship services in a cemetery. It was difficult to gather in the dark, since neither mountains nor forests hid the spring-time sun, and the high desert plains lay open to almost ceaselessly unclouded skies. Still, we mumbled in hushed whispers as we acknowledged one another, and saved our booming tones for the final rousing...

11. Ecological Politics

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

One of the greatest military campaigns ever conducted was the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC. King Xerxes (the ruler featured in the pages of the Old Testament book of Esther) set out to redress the humiliation suffered by his father's army at Marathon, where a small Greek force had worn out the massive Persian onslaught and whimpered it into retreat. While the previous force had been huge, ...

12. Faces at a Funeral

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

During the nineteenth century, all Oxford graduates were required to translate a portion of the Greek New Testament aloud. Oscar Wilde was assigned this passage from the passion story of Jesus. His translation was fluent and accurate. Satisfied with his skill, the examiners told him he could stop. But he ignored them and continued to translate. Several times more they tried to call a halt to his r...

13. For Future Generations

Psalm 22:1-31

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

We thought you might like to see the oral style in which Wayne Brouwer prepares his messages. INTRODUCTION (1) In 1976, Gail Sheehy wrote a book about the changes we go through in our lives. She called it Passages (Bantam, 1977). And it opens with a scene from one of the most terrible days in her life. She was a news reporter in Northern Ireland. She’d been sent there to write a story about th...

14. Freedom's Year

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

A man in Alberta, Canada, delights in telling the story of his older brother's second wedding. The man's wife had died suddenly when they were both in their middle years. But then came a widow to the community, a feisty, free-spirited little person, and in just a short while, they asked the minister to come over for a house wedding. The families were gathered for the occasion, and the minister rea...

15. Hearing A Familiar Voice

John 10:22-30

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

As parents of three wonderful daughters, my wife and I can sympathize with the couple who sent their child off to college, only to find out a few months later that she was dating another student, and that the two of them were already talking about marriage. The troubled parents urged their daughter to bring her boyfriend home so that they could meet him. When the college twosome arrived and hurrie...

16. Hunger and Politics

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Yogi Berra, the great baseball player of an earlier age, was known for his unusual and creative use of the English language. In giving directions to his home, for example, he often told people, "When you come to the fork in the road, take it." His formula for success, as some heard it, was this: "Ninety percent perspiration, and the rest mostly just plain hard work." Then there was the time he wen...

17. I Have No Enemies

Matthew 18:15-20

Illustration

Wayne Brouwer

When the great nineteenth-century Spanish General, Ramon Narvaez, lay dying in Madrid, a priest was called in to give him last rites. "Have you forgiven your enemies?" the padre asked. "Father," confessed Narvaez, "I have no enemies. I shot them all." Too often that is the story of our lives, and Jesus knows it.

18. I'll Never Forget That Night

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Years ago, a band called Lobo sang about an international memorable event. Describing the impoverished plights of a boy from Chicago’s racial ghetto and a girl living among India’s “Untouchables,” the singers went on to shake their heads in wonder that both, on a “July afternoon,” along with the entire population of planet earth, heard and saw Neil Armstrong “walk upon the moon.” Some incidents ...

19. In the Mirror

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

The first birth is extraordinarily exciting, isn’t it? My wife and I were married less than a year when our firstborn came along. We knew right away that she was the most beautiful, most intelligent, most promising human being that had ever come into this world! Parenting the firstborn is an experiment in everything new. First smile, first coo, first steps, first words… One first we did not antici...

20. Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Jesus was tempted. We know the story is there, but it isn’t our favorite, is it? Somehow it tarnishes our ideas about Jesus. Was he as wimpy as we are, almost ready to step over the edge of whatever morality we might have left, at the first offer? Ray Stedman, great twentieth-century preacher, remembered a morning at a restaurant. He was the featured speaker at a large church conference out east a...

21. King Jesus

Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

One morning in 1872, David Livingstone wrote this in his diary: "March 19, my birthday. My Jesus, my king, my life, my all, I again dedicate my whole self to thee. Accept me, and grant, O gracious Father, that ere the year is gone I may finish my work. In Jesus' name I ask it. Amen." Just one year later, servants came to check on their master's delay. They found him on his knees in prayer. He was ...

22. Kingdoms in Conflict

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

When Vince Lombardi was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1958, the team was in dismal shape. A single win in season play the year before had socked the club solidly into the basement of the NFL, and sportscasters everywhere used it as the butt of loser jokes. But Lombardi picked and pulled and prodded and trained and discipled the players into become a winning team. They were NFL ch...

23. Messiah’s Community

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

In his widely-read testimony, Man’s Search for Meaning, famed psychiatrist Viktor Frankl remembered a terrible day during World War II. He was on a work gang, just outside the fences that hid the horrors of Hitler’s infamous Dachau death camp. “We were at work in a trench,” wrote Frankl. “The dawn was gray around us; gray was the sky above; gray the snow in the pale light of dawn; gray rags in whi...

24. Mistaken Identity

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Appearances can be deceiving. John Wayne, for instance, acted the part of a genuine cowboy in dozens of motion pictures and fired make-believe rifles and revolvers hundreds of times. Even his last starring role in The Shootist had him portray an aging western gunslinger. Yet, here is what Wayne had to say about his skills with a firearm: "I couldn't hit a wall with a six-gun, but I can twirl one. ...

25. Mountaintop Experience

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Some years ago, the History Network created a strange new hit series. It began as “Ice Road Truckers,” monitoring the dangerous winter haulage north of Yellowknife on the frozen Canadian tundra. Then, after several seasons of gaining familiarity with the top tonnage truckers, the network displaced them to northern Alaska and introduced new challenges and new road masters. Finally, in a thrilling n...

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Showing 1 to 25 of 46 results

1. A Career in The Kingdom

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

2. A Cry in the Dark

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

3. A Dance in the Desert

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

4. A Date With Destiny

Hebrews 10:19-39

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

5. A New Vantage Point

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

6. A Portion of Thyself

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

7. A Shocking Revelation

Revelation 1:9-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

8. Building a New Team

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

9. Changing Times

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

10. Creation Reborn

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

11. Ecological Politics

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

12. Faces at a Funeral

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

13. For Future Generations

Psalm 22:1-31

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

14. Freedom's Year

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

15. Hearing A Familiar Voice

John 10:22-30

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

16. Hunger and Politics

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

17. I Have No Enemies

Matthew 18:15-20

Illustration

Wayne Brouwer

18. I'll Never Forget That Night

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

19. In the Mirror

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

20. Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

21. King Jesus

Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

22. Kingdoms in Conflict

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

When Vince Lombardi was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1958, the team was in dismal shape. A single win in season play the year before had socked the club solidly into the basement of the NFL, and sportscasters everywhere used it as the butt of loser jokes. But Lombardi picked and pulled and prodded and trained and discipled the players into become a winning team. They were NFL ch...

23. Messiah’s Community

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

24. Mistaken Identity

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

25. Mountaintop Experience

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

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