Divine Savior Church-Santa Rita Ranch Sermons

We feel shame when we fail to live up to our own expectations or those of others. We may bring shame on ourselves or on others by our actions. We may feel shame because of the actions of someone close to us. Sadly, because of social media, our mistakes can easily end up in the feeds of many people, which only adds to our personal and public shame as they share and retweet. The Twelve experienced a...

Feeling stressed? You're not alone. Anxiety is something everyone deals with to some degree. In fact anxiety is at an all-time high. In this chaotic, uncertain world, there are lots of reasons why. The good news is lots of people in the Bible struggled with anxiety too. Yet, operating from a full-time place of anxiety isn't great for you. Anxiety doesn't accomplish anything fruitful...

"Just do it." "The power is within you." "You have the power to rise above whatever is trying to keep you down." "Go out there and crush it you animal!" Cliches like these are often what you'll find online or in the self-help section of Barnes and Noble. But what happens when you have that gnawing feeling anyway, that feeling that growls, "I'm...

Do you ever get frustrated when you do the right thing and in the end it doesn’t change a thing? Reality Check: Do you ever get angry with God? Have you ever felt that it’s just not fair that you do everything by the Book and still struggle, while people who completely disregard the Word and will of God prosper? Check out this young man who did everything right and still couldn’t save his nation. ...

When the true LORD, the God of mercy and grace, is removed from the picture, there’s a spiritual vacuum that forms. And it’s amazing—no, it’s frightening—to see what people will fill this vacuum with. Reality Check: What is the Baal worship of today? The “sacrificing of our sons in the fire”? Have we somehow reconstructed the true religion into a religion of our own devising? Support the show

Let go and let God. It should be simple enough. God is in charge. He’ll work everything out for good. Just give all your problems to him. Reality Check:  Doesn’t happen, does it? We worry…and question. This week God’s Word shows us what can happen if we just lay our problems before the Lord. Support the show

Medical professionals talk about warning signs. Heeding them could save our lives. So why wouldn’t we? Reality Check: And yet, it happens all the time. What’s worse is that we often fail to heed the spiritual warnings God shares with us in his Word. May God’s Spirit give us humble hearts—hearts that heed his loving rebukes so that we can receive his amazing grace! Support the show

Keeping focused on the most important stuff of life. It’s the topic untold books and seminars. It’s also Jesus’ point when he says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.” Reality Check: And yet, how often we find ourselves majoring in the minors. Lord, forgive our failures and keep us focused on the mission you’ve laid before us. Support the show

Are our hearts divided? When it comes to our love for God, we’d say, “Absolutely not!” Wouldn’t we? Reality Check: Yet, is it possible that, while we are zealous for God, we are still holding on to our own personal idols? Thank God for a Savior who loved and served the Lord alone! Support the show

How we detest people who are all into themselves. And yet, we often fail to detect the many ways selfishness manifests itself in our own lives. Reality Check: As long as we live we’re going to battle the part of us that’s stuck on ourselves. The answer is found in the self-sacrificing love of God in Christ.  Support the show

Are control issues and power struggles limited to those in positions of authority? Reality Check: Take a look at the people you work with. Watch your kids at the playground. These are real issues we all deal with. Yet, why are we grasping for power and control when God’s already got everything in hand? Support the show

Jesus ascended into heaven. That does not mean the gospel has ceased to march victorious around the world! Jesus promised to send another advocate to represent God to the world: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the constant companion of believers in these Last Days. This raises an important question. If God now reveals himself by his Spirit, where is the Holy Spirit found? God has not left the answe...

Out of all the habits we’ve talked about, which is the most important? The truth is that while everything we’ve talked about in this series is important, there is only “one thing that is needed” according to Jesus himself. This is meant to be a great comfort to every disciple, including us. Why? Because the “one thing that is needed” is not our giving. It’s not our doing. It’s simply our receiving...

“Is there something I can pray about for you right now?” This is a powerful question to ask not just because almost everyone has something serious going on in their life. It’s powerful also because God promises to hear our prayers! A healthy spiritual life is kind of like breathing. We breathe in deeply and receive from God the “oxygen of faith” – the Gospel. Then we breathe out and talk to God wh...

One way we see the love of Jesus is in how he interacted with people from all segments of society. He talked with them. He listened to them. He asked them questions. He taught them. Our human tendency is to be comfortable only with people from our social circles, those we would happily already call our friends. Perhaps this is why “talk to people” is something we need to, well, talk about in churc...

Life can be extremely difficult sometimes. That is true even for disciples of Jesus. Yet difficult circumstances in life often provide excellent opportunities to show the love of Christ by doing good to and for others. Jesus showed love and did good, so we reflect Christ by showing love and doing good even though our best efforts will always be imperfect. Yet even our imperfect efforts, when motiv...

Disciples are those who are connected to Jesus Christ by faith even though we could never do anything to deserve this. Yet just like with his first disciples, Jesus sends us out to share this good news with others so that they might become his disciples too. The power to do this is not in ourselves. It is in the promises of God who is at work through us. So where and how are we to do this? It star...

“What is a disciple? “Am I a disciple?” These are important questions for those who seek to follow Jesus. While the resurrection of Jesus on Easter changes our entire outlook on death and the life to come, we also need to ask ourselves, “What does it change for my life right now if I’m going to call myself a Christian or a disciple of Jesus?” As we answer this question we’ll see that being a disci...

When your world crashes down and you feel like you're losing control, where do you turn? Mary thought she needed to find the dead body of Jesus, but she received something much better: the Living Jesus.  Support the show

Good Friday, we celebrate when Jesus took our place that we might go free.  Support the show

We are so used to there being corruption in this world. Leaders pull strings for friends, political leaders lie, and many times, rulers rule in their best interest instead of their peoples'. We long for a ruler to lead us in righteousness. That's exactly what we get in Jesus. However, Jesus isn't the powerful king that comes and exerts his will on people. He's the humble, serva...

If there's one thing that is sure in this world, it is the fear of death. No matter who we are, death is coming for all of us and it is terrifying. Many people spend lots of money looking for anyway to prevent death. We look to those earthly saviors hoping and praying that we can keep death at a distance. While they may prevent death, they can never save from death. We need a Savior to defeat...

The disciples wanted a Savior who was going to bring power and rule with authority. Since they were Jesus' loyal followers, they would of course have access to some special places next to Jesus where they would have some power as well. That's the Savior we want. A powerful one that will bring earthly power and influence. We want one that will be glorified here, rule here, and have power...

What the man needed in John 9 was obvious. He was born blind and needed to be healed so he could see. However, the man had an even greater need: forgiveness of his sins. As we consider the needs we have, the list is pretty long. How great would it be to have a Savior that takes care of all our needs? Often times we want a genie more than a Savior. However, what we find in Jesus is a Savior we need...

The woman at the well was lost. She was searching for something or someone to quench the thirst of her soul. She searched for so long that she was now lost. We know what its like to go searching for something to quench the desire of our hearts, but nothing ever does. Like this woman, we eventually get lost and we don't know where to look. The good news? We have a Savior who has been searching...