Divine Savior Church-Santa Rita Ranch Sermons

“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...

In any great story, there's always a villain, victims that he takes captive, and a hero. Every story depicts the hero physically conquering the villain in order to free the people. Sometimes that's what we think we need, isn't it? Wouldn't it be better if the devil wasn't around to tempt us and cause terror in our lives? Wouldn't it be great if Jesus destroyed the dev...

The love of money and what it can buy can be destructive, but the shrewd use of the resources God gives can bring immeasurable blessing. God wants us to be rich in good deeds and generous. Support the show

The God-lived life is a life of showing God’s love. Last month, we focused on letting that shine in serving others, doing things for them. This month, the emphasis shifts a bit, and we look at the God-lived life as one that not just does for others, but opens up our lives to them. As we invite people into our lives and our homes, God shows through us and gives us opportunities to share what we are...

There are two temptations when it comes to serving others in our community. One is not to do it because you consider your time and sacrifice more important than them. The other is to do it because you consider yourself better than them, so they need your help. In the Good Samaritan and in the teller of the parable we don't see judgment, but the love of God. May we show the same! Support the s...

Work has been hard for us ever since our first parents rebelled against God. Work has caused sweat and stress ever since we were kicked out of Eden. Sabbath is the opportunity to return to Eden. To the rest of God. Sabbath is about being free from slavery. God has set his people free from slavery, from being driven by taskmasters. Sabbath is the refusal to go back to Egy Taskmasters don’t like res...

Time is so important to us. Seconds are ticking off the clock while you read this. We are people of calendars, dates, times, schedules. We are driven to get as much done in the time we are given. But do we actually leave time to do what matters? If someone needs you to pray with them, do you have time to do it? Sometimes our drivenness erodes our purposefulness.  Sometimes we have to stop followin...

We are always busy. We are always in a hurry. And since we are always in a hurry, we miss important things. We think our busyness and efficiency in getting to everything helps us experience more, but we actually experience less. We try to do it all and end up really doing nothing When we get too busy, we either dread things or rush to get done with them and check them off a list. We get bored with...

The worst thing busyness does to us is fooling us into thinking we are God. “All depends on me. How will all the right things happen at the right time if I am not working, pushing, pulling, watching, and worrying?” Unless we trust that God is in control, we won’t dare risk Sabbath…rest. In sleep, we become utterly vulnerable, completely defenseless, totally dependent. Not in control. That kind of...

Most of us feel completely wiped out. Endless demands on our time crush us. Even our “vacations” are manic. If we only had more time! We have forgotten the ancient wisdom of Sabbath, rooted in God’s own rhythm of work and rest. Sabbath means rest. The gift of Sabbath (rest) is essential to our full humanity and faith. Since God knows how much we need Sabbath and how easily we might neglect it, He...

Jesus' birth is a very significant event for the entire world, but only if it actually happened. The Apostle Matthew starts his gospel in a way that gives us confidence and joy in the fact that Jesus came to us that first Christmas!  Support the show

We get frustrated and disappointed when companies don’t deliver on what they promise. But it really hurts when someone we care about breaks a promise they made to us. And we have broken plenty of promises ourselves. A promise gives us something to look forward to. To hope for. That hope is the energy source that powers us to do what we do. We need hope! We need promises to come true! In a world wh...

Living in the country we do, freedom is important to us. We don’t like to be held back. We don’t like to be told what to do. There are worse things that hold us back and restrict our freedom though… weaknesses, fears, uncertainty, lack of trust, hopelessness, insecurity, anger, grudges, guilt… All of these things restrict our lives and keep us from living in the freedom God designed us to live in....

No one’s perfect. How many times have we made the rude comment that hurt feelings we wish we wouldn’t have made? How many times did we think of our own selfish wants while trampling on someone else’s needs? Break a promise to our kid? Get caught doing something we shouldn’t do? Wouldn’t it be nice to get a second chance? We don’t live in a world where second chances or “do-overs” are too common. B...