At The Baptism Of Bonnie Wiltshire

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given at the baptism of Bonnie Wiltsire on the 11/9/22 on the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.

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Sermon starts at 1:37

Luke 15 v 1-10

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear Jesus.

2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.’

3 Then Jesus told them this parable:

4 ‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders

6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.”

7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety- nine righteous people who do not need to repent.

8 ‘Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.”

10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
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The Cost Of Discipleship

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given our vicar Rev’ Nick Mwandia on the 4/9/22 on the twelth Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘The Cost Of Discipleship’

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Sermon starts at 1:50

Luke 14 v 25-33

The Cost of Being a Disciple

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.

27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?

29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,

30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.

33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
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Humility

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given our vicar Rev’ Nick Mwandia on the 28/8/22 on the eleventh Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘Humility’

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Sermon starts at 2:05

Luke 14 v 1, 7-14

Jesus at a Pharisee’s House

1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable:

8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.

9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.

10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests.

11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.

13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
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Jesus, Lord Of The Sabbath

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given our vicar Rev’ Nick Mwandia on the 21/8/22 on the tenth Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath’

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Sermon starts at 1:48

Luke 13 v 10-17

10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues,

11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.

12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”

13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?

16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
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Always Ready

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given our vicar Rev’ Nick Mwandia on the 7/8/22 on the eighth Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘Parable Of The Rich Fool’

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Sermon starts at 1:34

Luke 12 v 32-40

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning,

36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.

37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.

38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak.

39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
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Parable Of The Rich Fool

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given our reader Julie Taylor on the 31/7/22 on the seventh Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘Parable Of The Rich Fool’

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Sermon starts at 1:52

Luke 12 v 13-21

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”

15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.

17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.

19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
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Prayer and Perseverance

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given by the Rev’ Nick Mwandia on the 24/7/22 on the sixth Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘Prayer and Perseverance’

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Sermon starts at 2:41

Luke 11 v 1-13

1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

3 Give us each day our daily bread.

4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”

5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;

6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’

7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’

8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?

12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
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The One Thing Necessary

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given by the Rev’ Nick Mwandia on the 17/7/22 on the fifth Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘The One Thing Necessary’

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Sermon starts at 3:46

Amos 8 v 1-12

1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit.

2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”

4 Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land,

5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”— skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales,

6 buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

8 “Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt.

9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

12 People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.


Luke 10 v 38-42

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.

40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,

42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
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The Good Samaritan

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given by the Rev’ Nick Mwandia on the 10/7/22 on the forth Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘The Good Samaritan’

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Sermon starts at 2:07

Luke 10 v 25-37

25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

26 He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’

27 He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’

28 And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’

30 Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

33 But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”

36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’

37 He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’
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Jesus Sends His Disciples

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given by the Rev’ Nick Mwandia on the 3/7/22 on the third Sunday after Trinity – entitled ‘Jesus Sends His Disciples’

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Sermon starts at 2:08

Luke 10 v 1-12

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.

2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’

6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you.

7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you.

9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say,

11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’

12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
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