Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Given by our vicar Rev Lindsey Moss, recorded on the 21st June 2026 on Sanctuary Sunday
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Sermon starts at 4:55
Genesis 21 v 8-21
Hagar and Ishmael sent away
8
The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned
Abraham held a great feast.
9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the
Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking,
10 and she said to Abraham,
‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never
share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’
11
The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.
12 But
God said to him, ‘Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave
woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that
your offspring will be reckoned.
13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation
also, because he is your offspring.’
14
Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and
gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with
the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
15
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the
bushes.
16 Then she went off and sat down about a bow-shot away, for she
thought, ‘I cannot watch the boy die.’ And as she sat there, she began to sob.
17
God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from
heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has
heard the boy crying as he lies there.
18 Lift the boy up and take him by the
hand, for I will make him into a great nation.’
19
Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and
filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20
God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an
archer.
21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for
him from Egypt.
Matthew: 10 v 24-39
24
‘The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master.
25 It is
enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If
the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the
members of his household!
26
‘So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be
disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.
27 What I tell you in the dark,
speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the
roofs.
28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
29 Are
not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground
outside your Father’s care.
30 And even the very hairs of your head are all
numbered.
31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
32
‘Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before
my Father in heaven.
33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown
before my Father in heaven.
34
‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come
to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to turn
‘“a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law –
36
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”
37
‘Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of
me.
38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of
me.
39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my
sake will find it.
