Sermons

Sermons – Audio

Sermons by Tony and Patricia Higton. Tony and Patricia met at theological college and have spoken in many places around the world for many years

Sermons – Written

01.03.09 All Saints Church Temptation to Doubt: You may have heard many a sermon preached in Lent about the importance of overcoming temptation.  Various temptations will have been mentioned – lust, greed, anger, hatred, envy, pride, etc. But in the reading from Genesis we heard of the very first temptation ever to the first human beings: the temptation to doubt God.  That temptation, which can be mild or agonising and takes many different forms, has afflicted humanity ever since. Temptation is not sin – only if we give in to it.  But we can take comfort from the fact that this particular temptation comes to most people at one time or another and even afflicted Jesus. Patricia Higton Luke 4:1-13 
12.12.08 All Saints Church Jesus the Only Way: I never cease to marvel at how favoured Mary was. She was a young, unknown peasant girl living in a small village in remote corner of the Roman Empire. Yet, to use a Greek theological term, she was theotokos – the God bearer.  I wonder how much she took in of what the angel said to her. The angel referred to: Tony Higton Luke 1:26-38
09.11.08 All Saints Church Facing Death: “We grieve; for Christians death is sleep. For Christians grief is not hopeless, for Christians hope is certain. Tony Higton 1 Thess. 4:13-18
17.08.08 All Saints Church What is the Purpose of the Law?: When we lived in Jerusalem it was clear that Jewish people thought that we Christians didn’t think the Torah (the Law) was important.   They thought we simply thought it was important to believe, but keeping the Law of the Hebrew Scriptures was unimportant. Tony Higton Luke 10:23-41; Galatians 3:16-29
10.08.08 All Saints Church Walking on Water: There are some Christians who seem to think Christianity is meant to be an insurance policy against all difficulty and suffering. They dogmatically believe every sick person should be healed and that God wants Christians to be affluent. They think that life should be one uninterrupted string of miracles. Tony Higton Matt. 14:22-33
03.08.08 All Saints Church The Feeding of the 10,000: Yes it probably was about 10,000! The 5000 didn’t include women and children.I worked out that dividing loaves between all that crowd would have provided each person with the equivalent of about one hundredth of a modern slice of bread. Yet they were all satisfied and 12 baskets full of scraps were gathered up.  To me this brings home the amazing nature of this miracle. Tony Higton Matt.14:13-21
13.07.08 All Saints’ Church Responding to God’s Word: Jesus speaks about this in his Parable of the Sower. The “seed” is the “message about the kingdom [of God]” (verse 19), i.e. the message about the rule of God in our lives.  The “soil” is our heart attitude towards that message. Rev. Tony Higton Matt.13:1-9, 18-23
01.06.08 All Saints’ Church If We Love God We Will Obey Him: I always remember an experience I had as a boy on holiday in Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast in the 1950s.  At the far North end of the beach there was an RAF bombing range, littered with debris from shells and bombs. Rev. Tony Higton Matt. 7:21-29
11.05.08 All Saints Church Pentecost: If Ever We Need the Power of the Holy Spirit, It’s Now!: We live in a very needy nation. There is widespread breakdown of the family with all the trauma and social problems that produces. There is a very high abortion rate. There is a growing problem of violent crime, particularly amongst young people. Tony Higton 1 Cor. 3. 3-13
13.04.08 All Saints’ Church What is Church For? What’s the purpose of the church? What’s it all about? Is it just for people who have nothing better to do on a Sunday morning? Is it just a cosy religious club? Is it a gathering of those who like singing hymns? Rev. Tony Higton Acts 2: 42-47
12.03.08 All Saints’ Church Palm Sunday: The full significance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey may be lost on us if we do not know the background to his action. It was, in fact, a public claim to being the long-awaited Messiah. Rev. Tony Higton Matt 21:1-11
17.02.08 All Saints’ Church How to be a Part of God’s Chosen People: Abraham lived many centuries before Jesus. He didn’t have the Bible (it wasn’t written then). He didn’t have the church (it hadn’t started). He didn’t know about Jesus. But he had faith and… Rev. Tony Higton Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
09.02.08 All Saints’ Church What’s Wrong with Human Beings?: Did Jesus really have an encounter in the wilderness with a personal Devil? That is how the story of Lent – Jesus’ 40 days and 40 nights in the desert – puts it.  I can’t go into that in great depth here. But, like the Church of England, I do believe in a personal Devil. Rev. Tony Higton Gen 2:15-37
03.02.08 All Saints’ Church A Sermon for Older People: I think I’m beginning to feel depressed. Even more so when I read Cicero: ”As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age: first, it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death.” Rev. Tony Higton Luke 2: 22-40
06.01.08 All Saints’ Church God is Working His Purpose Out: God brought about the incarnation of his son through the virgin birth in Bethlehem, attended by a heavenly choir, and the subsequent visit of the Magi from the East. Then King Herod hears of it and acts to destroy the infant Jesus, slaughtering other small boys in the process. On the face of it, is God really in control? Rev. Tony Higton
16.12.07 All Saints Church Mary’s Example: There is a major problem with the Christmas story in Britain: it tends to be ignored – even by Christians. Everyone knows that it is ignored amidst the commercial festivities. But it should also be noted that, because the story is so familiar, it can wash over Christians like warm shower water. Rev. Tony Higton Matt 1.18-25
09.12.07 All Saints’ Church The Generosity of God Challenges Us to Generosity: Are you finding life difficult?  Are you hanging on by your finger tips- not sure if you can carry on? Perhaps just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse: it did.  I’ve been there, and sympathize.  Rev. Tony Higton Romans 15: 4-13
04.11.07 St Mary’s Church A Different Kind of Kingdom: We remember all the saints today – that doesn’t just mean those depicted in stained glass windows, because Paul wrote to the saints in Rome, the saints in Ephesus, the saints in Philippi – and he could just as well have written to the saints in the Woottons. Patricia Higton Matt. 5:1-12
07.10.07 All Saints Church A Harvest Challenge: I know of a clergyman who was preaching on this passage and couldn’t understand why the congregation became highly amused. He was speaking of Jesus teaching about the seed (of the word of God) falling on rocky (shallow) ground, where it soon stopped growing and was killed off by the hot sun. Rev. Tony Higton Luke 8: 1-15
02.09.07 All Saints Church “Life is not fair”: I don’t know how many times I’ve stood in front of grieving family and friends and acknowledged: “We’re all asking the question ‘why?’” Rev. Tony Higton
15.07.07 All Saints Church How do you inherit eternal life? Over the years I have spoken at meetings in many places and many countries. On occasions I have had someone come up to me to check out if I am orthodox.  They tend to be more Evangelical believers. “Do you believe in the authority of the Bible?” Rev. Tony Higton Luke 10:25-37
08.07.07 All Saints Church A God Who Identifies: God loved us so much that he became one of us, experiencing all the pressures, suffering, disappointments, humiliation, injustice, unrequited affection and temptations that we do. Rev. Tony Higton Phil. 2:6-8; Col. 1:12-13; Heb. 4:15
01.07.07 All Saints Church The Only Organisation Which Exists Primarily for Non-Members: Why is the church the only organisation which exists primarily for non-members! Is it to get a higher income for the church? No, it’s because we believe in a Missionary God.  He reaches out to the whole of humanity – every human being, to tell them about, and enable them to experience, salvation. Christianity is essentially a Missionary Religion.  Mission, including Evangelism, is essential to Christianity. Without Mission and Evangelism Christianity is emasculated: a pale reflection of the real thing.  Rev. Tony Higton Amos 4:13; Isaiah: 43:10; Psalms 98:2