Divine Savior Church-santa Rita Ranch Sermons

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 answer to that question in doubt. When Jesus promised to send the Spirit, he indicated that his work would be connected to words, specifically God's Word. As a result, we need never wonder where we can find the Spirit. He marches victorious through the Word.Support the show

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 from our Savior. What a comfort to know that “all that is needed” then is not something we must do, but something that is given to us! Jesus speaks to us through his word. The Holy Spirit is like the construction worker who goes to work in our hearts through that word. From start to finish our discipleship therefore is God’s work as we grow in faith and knowledge of his word. This makes “listening to Jesus” the most important daily habit for a disciple to cultivate. It’s how our faith in Jesus will grow and flourish. As we daily rest in God’s grace while listening to his word, so also God will be at work preparing u

“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 who has promised to listen to us. In the Bible, this regular practice or habit is called prayer. We breathe in by hearing from God through his word. Then we breathe out as we speak God’s word back to him. Receiving from God and talking to God. The two go together. It’s no wonder that the Bible describes prayer as such a vital part of a disciple’s life. We learn in fact how vital it is from Jesus’ own example and from the leadership of people like the apostle Paul. As we then live as disciples who also want to make disciples of others, we pray that God will work in them through the Word. By developing the daily habit of

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 church! Don’t worry though, this isn’t just for those who we might call “extroverts” – people who might have a natural gift in talking to people. We’ll explore how this is for “introverts” too – people who might have a natural gift for listening. So we’ll learn from each other and from our Savior how listening and talking are important skills for every disciple of Jesus. Why? Because “faith comes from hearing the message” (Romans 10:17). And if our eyes are open for opportunities and we’re showing love to people by doing good, then we should be prepared. To do what? To talk to people! “Always be prepared to give an answer

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 motivated by the love of Christ, can provide opportunities to tell people why we want to help—because we have a perfect Savior who lived and died for us all! Where then can we look to find such opportunities to do good? Most often we won’t have to go far. Rather the daily activities of our vocations often provide us with many people to love. Every vocation is "God's mask" to love other people. When we make doing good to others a habit, we’ll slow down to invest time in talking with a person, seeking to understand what is best for them in a given situation.Support the show

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 starts with developing the habit of “walking slowly” and having our eyes open for opportunities. Our problem is that unlike Jesus, we don't always have our eyes open for these opportunities. Maybe we’re constantly in a hurry, too busy to stop and really see people. Maybe we overlook some people because deep down we think that we are better than they are. Perhaps religious pride or sinful prejudice clouds our vision. Our eyes don’t always see the potential harvest all around us of so many souls precious to our Savior. Lord Jesus, help us learn from you that we might walk slowly through life learning to keep our eyes

“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 disciple is not and cannot be something that we simply do externally, as if Jesus and his teachings and ways are something we add to our current identity and try to live out. It’s much deeper than that. It is our internal identity. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ means your entire life and identity is based on Him. Only with this foundation can we begin to develop healthy habits of being a disciple. As Jesus wanted one rich young man to learn, it’s only by trusting wholeheartedly in Jesus that anyone can receive God’s free gift of salvation. Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)

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 (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)

Good Friday, we celebrate when Jesus took our place that we might go free. Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)

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, servant king who has come to rule in righteousness for eternity. Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)

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 our greatest enemy. Jesus demonstrates his power over death as he raises Lazarus. This event gives us a foretaste of what is coming in the resurrection. We have a Savior who has and will take care of our greatest need. Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)

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 here on earth. The only problem? That's not the Savior we need. We need a Savior who would be a servant and give his life as a ransom for many. Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)

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; a Savior who meets our greatest need of all as he grants us forgiveness. Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)

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 too. But he hasn't been seeking for someone or something to quench his thirst. Instead, he's been looking for me, the lost. Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)

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 devil and put an end to the hurt and the fear? Surely that's what we need! Except when Jesus met the devil in the wilderness, that's not what happened. Instead, we see our Savior do something that we couldn't do: withstand temptation. We may want the devil dead, but what we need is perfection. That's exactly what we find in our Savior Jesus. Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/divinesaviorchurchsantaritaranch/)