Divine Savior Church-Santa Rita Ranch Sermons

Many people have spoken “famous last words” before they died. What “Famous Last Words” would Jesus speak? His first words, instead of bitter words of anger, were words of love, asking his Father to forgive those who were wronging Him. In his second words from the cross, Jesus turns his love and compassion toward his family and friends. He wants to make sure they are taken care of in ways that are...

Many people have spoken “famous last words” before they died. What “Famous Last Words” would Jesus speak when He was being killed mercilessly on a cross? You might expect bitter words of anger, with the way He was being treated. But… instead of bitter words of anger, He asked his Father to forgive those who were wronging Him! Who would have expected that? How can these words comfort us? What can w...

Jesus' transfiguration changes the way we view him and what it means to be a disciple.  Support the show

In his book Making Sense of God author Tim Keller quotes postmodern novelist David Foster Wallace who is an atheist: “In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as…not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” Is this true? If so, what implications does this have for the choices we make in life? Our relationships? Our attitudes? Does it real...

Is there life after death? If there is, what will that life be like? From a completely human perspective, it would appear as though this life is all there is. When you die, you’re dead. In the Scripture, however, we discover that death was not a part of God’s original plan for the world, that death is God’s judgment against sin. That makes death frightening and ugly, but God found a way to destroy...

Who determines what’s right and wrong? Shouldn’t the individual have the right to determine that for himself or herself? That sounds good to me. But how is that actually going to work in the real world? Is morality subjective or objective? A scriptural world-view makes no bones about it. The Creator calls the shots. Support the show

What have I been put on earth for? Am I here to have fun? Am I here to somehow make the world a better place? Is there no way for me to know why I’m really here? The answers we come up with aren’t really satisfying. In the end what I come up with seems so, well, meaningless. But when the Bible talks about why we’re here, it makes sense. I begin to see that I have meaning and purpose that reaches f...

Am I just here by chance, a random lucky draw of the straw? Is there nothing special about me other than the fact that the genetic mutations of my ancestors produced the “me” I am today? God says “No.” God says that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wow! That changes everything.  Support the show

How do we maintain Christmas joy all year long? Simeon and Anna give us a stirring picture of what it means to wait on the Lord and finally experience the joy of God’s promises fulfilled. How have you experienced the joy of God’s promises fulfilled?  Support the show

On Christmas Eve, God gave us the greatest gift ever; the gift of his Son. He is the greatest gift you'll receive this Christmas.  Support the show

God promised that he would send a forerunner who would prepare the way for the coming Savior by proclaiming our need for deliverance. How is God preparing your heart for your Deliverer? Support the show

God’s people were waiting for a Prophet like Moses. The prophet brought God’s word to the ears of God’s people. God sent his Son into this world to reveal His truth that you might see and understand his promises fulfilled. Support the show

God’s people were waiting for the promised great High Priest. The priest was the representative of God before the people, offering the required sacrifices for sin. Jesus came into the world to represent you in his life and his sacrificial death and bring you God’s promised salvation. Matthew 1:18-25 Support the show

God’s people were waiting for the promised King of kings. The king was the protector and the deliverer of God’s people. God came into the world so that he could keep his promise to protect and deliver you.  Support the show

Never could there be a king like Christ, our king. Beyond all comparison is the rule he exercises in time and in eternity. Incomparably great therefore is also our joy in worshiping him even now as we await his triumphant return to transform our worship in faith and under the cross to worship in sight and in glory. Support the show

Today our message series on the book of Judges comes to a close. A very sad close. A dark and disturbing look at how far God’s people had gone in living life in a way that was right in their eyes… but not His eyes. People doing whatever they wanted to do. And we aren’t talking about unbelievers. We are talking about God’s own people. Even if we haven’t done things as outwardly awful as these peopl...

Rock bottom and guardrails. Messy People… No one plans on making a huge mess in their life, but plenty of people do. Often big messes happen when you begin to think that you are invincible. This was the case for Samson. He thought he was invincible and ended up hitting rock bottom in life. The sinful nature inside of us is dangerous and destructive. Merciful God… As Christians, we need to call upo...

Do we realize that the sinful world around us is actually our spiritual “enemy”? Or have we gotten all too comfortable with it? Have we just accepted the fact that things are the way they are? Do the things that should bother us no longer bother us? That is the way things were in Israel during the time of Samson. The people weren’t even crying out to the Lord to help anymore. They had just surrend...

Are we more influenced by the Word of God or by the culture around us? We are more affected by our culture than we think. And that often leads us to try treating God like one of our idols. We treat God like a vending machine, trying to get Him to give us what we want Him to give us. And when we are more influenced by the culture around us, we struggle to see God as a God of grace. If our other “go...

Do we have the tendency to boast about and take credit for things that actually are blessings from God? We don’t like it when others take credit for what we do, and God doesn’t like it when we take credit for what He does. Gideon and his army could have been tempted to take credit for the coming victory. God took some things away to make sure they couldn’t. God sometimes takes things away from us...

Are we sometimes obsessed with the need for human approval?  Whether it is your parents, peers, friends or strangers, it is easy to live a life solely devoted to trying to impress others. In the book of Judges we learn that Barak had the same problem that we all have today. So, what do you expect for what you do? Do you expect praise from others or are you trying to please your Father in heaven? K...

How is it possible that people can “forget” God?  We may “know” certain truths about God, but those truths don’t grab our hearts, and therefore He stops being “real” to us. The Israelites forgot God, and so idols became more “real” to them than God was. It is important that God is real to us! And if his forgiveness and salvation is real to us, then we will live it out in our lives! So let’s let hi...

Today we will see how important it is for one generation to pass the faith down to the next generation. The failure to do that leads to the loss of something very important. We are also introduced to the repeated cycle in the book of Judges - Rebelling against God, being oppressed, crying out for help, God sending someone to deliver, and then a return to sin. An awful downward spiral. That unfaith...

The book of Judges. Messy People. Merciful God. As we walk through this book, we are going to encounter a lot of horrifying tales of what sin can do in people’s lives. Sin can get real messy. We can identify with that today. The book of Judges shows what happens when people stop giving full-hearted devotion to God and start offering Him half-hearted discipleship. It eventually leads to non-discipl...

How could they do that ? Sometimes what we read about or see in the news seems shocking to us, scandalous even. In the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, Jesus tells perhaps the most shocking story imaginable in order to hold up before his hearers the very crime they were premeditating in their hearts to commit. In doing so we find ourselves also in the story when it comes to our own foolish thoughts...