Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 106 results

1. AMBASSADOR

Isaiah 18:2; Ezekiel 17:15

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Isaiah 18:2 - "which sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divided." Ezekiel 17:15 - "But he rebelled against him, by sending ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army ..." There are several way...

2. APOTHECARY

Exodus 30:22-33

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Exodus 30:25 - "And thou shalt make it an oil for holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary; it shall be an holy anointing oil" (KJV). The art of the apothecary is a very ancient one, probably dating back to pre-history, when man first learned to use herbs and barks to heal himself. However, although the word names a compounder of drugs, oils, and perfumes, it was in thi...

3. APPRAISER

2 Kings 23:31-35

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

2 Kings 23:35 - "And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco." Later we will speak of the tax collectors, and the types of articles and services which were taxed, and, although w...

4. ARMOR - BEARER

Jeremiah 9:54; 1 Samuel 14:7

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Jeremiah 9:54 - "Then he called hastily to the young man his armorbearer, and said to him, ‘Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, "A woman killed him." ’ And his young man thrust him through, and he died." 1 Samuel 14:7 - "And his armor-bearer said to him, ‘Do all that your mind inclines to; behold, I am with you; as is your mind, so is mine.’ " 2 Samuel 23:37 - "Zelek the Ammonite, N...

5. ASSAYER

Jeremiah 6:1-30

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Jeremiah 6:27 - "I have made you an assayer and tester among my people, that you may know and assay their ways." Accustomed as we are to Westerns in our movie theaters and on our television screens, we are throughly familiar with the assayer in the Old West (and, probably, today as well), who took the crude material brought in from the deserts and weighed and tested it for the presence of gold or...

6. ATHLETE

1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 2:5

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

1 Corinthians 9:25 - "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable." 2 Timothy 2:5 - "An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules." Beginning long before written history, athletics of one kind or another have been found among primitive peoples in all parts of the world. Carvings made in ancient Egypt...

7. BAKER

Genesis 40:1; 1 Samuel 8:13

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Genesis 40:1 - "Some time after this, the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt." 1 Samuel 8:13 - "He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers." Have you ever been near a big bakery early in the morning and smelled the aroma of newly-baked bread? It’s got to be the greatest perfume that has ever been made! And have you walked into a ...

8. BANKER

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Matthew 25:27 - "Then you ought to have invested my money with bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest." Certainly, I don’t have to acquaint you with the bankers or with their duties or with their very important place in our society and economy. We all know our friendly neighborhood banker, and we have probably had to rely on him more than once to get us thr...

9. BANNER MAKER

Song of Songs 6:1-13

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Song of Solomon 6:4 - "You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners." In spite of all the problems that many people seem to attach to the national flag, there is still a moment for most of us when the sight of many flags flying in the sunlight brings a distinct catch of the breath, and an uplifting of the heart. There’s just no denying it - flags do ...

10. BARBER

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Ezekiel 5:1 - "And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword; use it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard; then take balances for weighing, and divide the hair." According to the dictionary, a barber is one who shaves or trims the beard and dresses the hair. And that’s about the extent of what barbers did in ancient times. This is a very ancient occupation, dating back to ear...

11. BEGGAR

Psalm 37:25

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Psalm 37:25 - "... yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread." A beggar is a person who lives on the charity of others; there were (and are) professional beggars, who solicited alms publicly, and even went from door to door. They are still numerous in the East; they are usually "lame, maimed, or blind" (Luke 14:13). The commonest and most pathetic form of infirmity ...

12. BODYGUARD

2 Samuel 23:23; 2 Kings 25:8

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

2 Samuel 23:23 - "... And David set him over his bodyguard." 2 Kings 25:8 - "In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month - which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem." The term "bodyguard" means exactly what it says. This is a person who is employed to "guard the body," that is, to protect another p...

13. BRICKMAKER

Exodus 5:7, 16

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Exodus 5:7 - "You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves." Exodus 5:16 - "No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us; ‘Make bricks!’ " We take bricks so much for granted in our modern world - we live in brick houses, we have brick patios and barbecue pits - that we seldom stop to think about them. In fact, I wo...

14. BUTCHER

1 Corinthians 10:23--11:1

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

1 Corinthians 10:25 - "Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience." In the past few weeks, my ears have been assaulted several times daily by ads for a local supermarket chain which assures me that the meat I buy in their stores will be absolutely fresh, because it is now computerized! Any housewife knows that the buying of meats has undergone...

15. CARPENTER

Isaiah 44:13; Mark 6:3

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Isaiah 44:13 - "The carpenter stretches a line, he makes it out with a pencil; he fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house." Mark 6:3 - "Is not this the carpenter, the son ot Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" 2 Samuel 5:11 - "And Hiram ki...

16. CARPETMAKER

Judges 5:10; Ezekiel 27:24

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Judges 5:10 - "Tell of it, you who ride on tawny asses, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way." Ezekiel 27:24 - "These traded with you in choice garments, in clothes of blue and embroidered work, and in carpets of colored stuff, bound with cords and made secure; in these they traded with you." Would you believe that carpeting probably existed as long as 25,000-30,000 years ago?...

17. CARVER

1 Kings 6:35

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

1 Kings 6:35 - "On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers; and he overlaid with gold evenly applied upon the carved work." Carving was one of the very earliest activities, of man. Before primitive man knew anything about agriculture or clothing he had found a way of chipping, rubbing, or scraping many different kinds of materials into the sculptural shapes he desired. Bone, ivory...

18. CENSUS TAKER

Exodus 30:12; Numbers 1:1

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Exodus 30:12 - "When you take the census of the people of Israel, then shall each give a ransom for himself to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them." Numbers 1:1 - "Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by families, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head;" I’m sure we all remember t...

19. CHAMBERLAIN

2 Kings 23:11; Esther 1:10

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

2 Kings 23:11 - "... by the chamber of Nathan-melech, the chamberlain, which was in the precincts;" Esther 1:10 - "... the seven eunuchs who served King Ahasuerus as chamberlains," A chamberlain was an officer appointed to look after the personal affairs of a sovereign, in much the same way as a valet or bulter might do, although his duties were somewhat more extensive than those of the modern b...

20. CHARIOTEER

Jeremiah 51:21; 1 Kings 9:22

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Jeremiah 51:21 - "... with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer." 1 Kings 9:22 - "But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves; they were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen." A chariot was a two-wheeled vehicle used mainly in war, although at first this was true of the other nations rather than Israel...

21. CHEESE MAKER

1 Samuel 17:18; 2 Samuel 17:29

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

1 Samuel 17:18 - "also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand ..." 2 Samuel 17:29 - "honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat; for they said, ‘The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.’" Cheese is one of the oldest known foods. Ever since man has learned to domesticate cattle and goats, and use their milk...

22. CONFECTIONER

1 Samuel 8:13

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

1 Samuel 8:13 - "He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers." The confectioner was a female perfumer or apothecary, similar to a woman chemist of today who works for a perfume manufacturer, distilling new scents. In biblical times, these women gathered the blossoms when the orange-trees, the violets, and the roses were in bloom, and then made from them scented waters which t...

23. Cook

1 Samuel 9:23

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

1 Samuel 9:23 - "And Samuel said to the cook, ‘Bring the portion I gave you, of which I said to you, "Put it aside." ’ " Cooking for the family was done by the woman, just as today, although, also as today, men occasionally did it. The only professional cooks were in the homes of the very wealthy, and the royalty, and these were probably female slaves. They were probably trained by a type of appr...

24. COPPERSMITH

2 Timothy 4:14

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

2 Timothy 4:14 - "Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will requite him for his deeds." Metalworkers or smiths were probably the first full-time industrial specialists. The root meaning of the name Cain is probably that of "metalworker" or "smith," and the additional name Tubal-cain is meant to give ancestrial sanction to these ancient metalworkers. The tribal name Kenites means ...

25. COUNSELOR

1 Chronicles 27:32; Ezekiel 7:14

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

1 Chronicles 27:32 - "Jonathan, David’s uncle, was a counselor, being a man of understanding and a scribe;" Ezekiel 7:14 - "For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God, which is in your hand." Counselors were, apparently, the king’s state advisers, and it is even possible that the counselor was next in power t...

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Showing 1 to 25 of 106 results

1. AMBASSADOR

Isaiah 18:2; Ezekiel 17:15

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

2. APOTHECARY

Exodus 30:22-33

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

3. APPRAISER

2 Kings 23:31-35

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

4. ARMOR - BEARER

Jeremiah 9:54; 1 Samuel 14:7

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

5. ASSAYER

Jeremiah 6:1-30

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

6. ATHLETE

1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 2:5

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

7. BAKER

Genesis 40:1; 1 Samuel 8:13

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

8. BANKER

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

9. BANNER MAKER

Song of Songs 6:1-13

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

10. BARBER

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

11. BEGGAR

Psalm 37:25

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

12. BODYGUARD

2 Samuel 23:23; 2 Kings 25:8

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

13. BRICKMAKER

Exodus 5:7, 16

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

14. BUTCHER

1 Corinthians 10:23--11:1

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

15. CARPENTER

Isaiah 44:13; Mark 6:3

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

16. CARPETMAKER

Judges 5:10; Ezekiel 27:24

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

17. CARVER

1 Kings 6:35

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

18. CENSUS TAKER

Exodus 30:12; Numbers 1:1

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

19. CHAMBERLAIN

2 Kings 23:11; Esther 1:10

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

20. CHARIOTEER

Jeremiah 51:21; 1 Kings 9:22

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

21. CHEESE MAKER

1 Samuel 17:18; 2 Samuel 17:29

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

22. CONFECTIONER

1 Samuel 8:13

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

23. Cook

1 Samuel 9:23

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

24. COPPERSMITH

2 Timothy 4:14

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

25. COUNSELOR

1 Chronicles 27:32; Ezekiel 7:14

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

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