SERMON SERIES    Psalms
SERMON TITLE    The desire for only one me
SERMON DATE    01/22/2009
SPEAKER    Jeff Paschall
TEXT    Psalm 15
David Moore was a very successful pastor of the SW Community Church in Palm Dessert, CA.  His church grew from 400 people in 1987 to over 7000 people.  He erected a $36M, 300,000sqft complex set on 42 acres.  (HUGE!)  He had over 80 pastors and support people.  He was a masterfully gifted speaker and writer and set up a non-profit organization called Moore on Life.  He sold best selling books.  He had a national radio ministry.  He became an itinerant speaker.  I actually heard him speak twice at Hume Lake Camp while his ministry was in its heyday!  He was incredible… gifted… inspiring… likeable… and WILDLY influential.
In 2002… a former friend of his in child custody proceedings… what on the surface was leverage against his ex-wife… presented as evidence… 4 photos of David Moore…  and David’s wife… and this MAN’s ex-wife… in a hot tub… without clothes… » Read The Rest

SERMON SERIES    God’s Playlist
SERMON TITLE    …worship when I feel spiritually flat?
SERMON DATE    01/18/09
SPEAKER    Jeff Paschall
TEXT    Psalm 95
Dr John Stott is one of the most perceptive theologians of our time.  And he identifies… 3 hungers of the human heart.  1)  The hunger to matter… the desire to be significant… we want our lives to MEAN SOMETHING… and to be INVOLVED IN… things that will AFFIRM… SIGNIFICANCE… None of us want to come to the place where we end our life and realize… it didn’t really matter for ANYTHING… that we even lived.  2)  Is to belong!  We want to feel connected to other people without fearing risk to ourselves!  We want to feel a part of a family… a community… a group that has our best interest in mind.  When you walk in a room… you want to have people know you… and are encouraged you showed up!   We want to BELONG… and BE KNOWN… and KNOW OTHER PEOPLE.  3) Is to believe.  Not just in anything!  He calls it “a quest for transcendence”.  And that’s just a fancy way to say we hunger to relate to a power greater than ourselves.  It takes a few screws to fall loose somewhere to think that you REALLY ARE… the TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN in the universe!  We KNOW… there MUST BE SOMETHING BIGGER out there… and BURNED INTO OUR HEARTS…  is this HUNGER… to BELIEVE… And if there REALLY IS a God… we long to DISCOVER Him… and KNOW Him personally… and be TOUCHED personally by Him… KNOWING He’s PLEASED with you… and ACTUALLY SEE HIM intimately WORKING in your life… … » Read The Rest

SERMON SERIES    Hebrews
SERMON TITLE    What Makes faith Unforgettable
SERMON DATE    06/22/08
SPEAKER    Jeff Paschall
TEXT    Hebrews 13:1-40
Last week we posed that the 18 commands presented in this last chapter are here because 1) of the real needs these people were facing at the moment.  And 2) to plead with them to exercise their faith!  He wants them to persevere… GO FORWARD in the face pressure!  He wants them to NOT QUIT GOD!  And so the commands are meant to make their faith SOLID… and show how faith shows up unforgettable!  Last week (v. 1-6) he said it shows up in our relationships.  In our 1) love for others, 2) for strangers, 3) for suffering, 4) and marriage, 5) and in NOT LOVING money…
But it ALSO ought to BLEED THROUGH… in our relationship with GOD!  And you know what’s interesting to me when he turns to our relationship with God… THE VERY FIRST AREA he looks at… is in our relationship with spiritual LEADERS.  » Read The Rest

SERMON SERIES    Hebrews
SERMON TITLE    What Makes faith Unforgettable
SERMON DATE    06/22/08
SPEAKER    Jeff Paschall
TEXT    Hebrews 13:1-40
It took a dozen chapters for the writer to stretch our minds and challenge our convictions.  He’s taken us from the ancient past and pondered when the Son of God fashioned our world… to far into the future where the same Son will reign supreme as King over a new universe.  And in between he’s argued that the death of Jesus was foreshadowed by the sacrifice of animals through the old covenant.  And that old covenant – all about laws… and rules… and procedures – is no longer in effect for those who accept the sacrifice of Jesus.
And in those first dozen chapters… amidst all these severe warnings that, “You can’t go back!”… there’s hardly a smattering of commands.  Barely a handful of them – five, maybe six – over all of those chapters.  But now when we come this thirteenth last chapter… the page is littered with them!  In fact… 18 commands in 25 verses!  And he isn’t giving just random suggestions for no particular reason.  He’s not saying, “Okay, no rolling stops at stop signs… Uh, try something new spiritually every once in a while to mix things up.  Floss.  Okay, read your Bible, and take a walk now and then.”
No.  The commands here are presented because of two reasons.  » Read The Rest

SERMON SERIES    Hebrews
SERMON TITLE    Seeing the Unseen
SERMON DATE    06/22/08
SPEAKER    Jeff Paschall
TEXT    Hebrews 11:1-40 (I’ll try, Travis!)

Whatever else you might say about faith… it’s very clear that it matters.  “Faith” surfaces 40 times in the letter to the Hebrews.  28 times in this chapter alone.  It’s what THEY needed in that day.  And it’s what WE need desperately in our day – It allows us to persevere – to live in a way that pleases God – and to make an impact in our world.  Faith is odd.  It’s not a commodity.  It has no existence outside the person who exercises it.  On the other hand, it TOTALLY TRANSFOMRS the person in whom it resides.  Faith isn’t OBEDIENCE, though it leads to obedience.  It’s not DOCTIRNE though it permeates doctrine.  It’s SO IMPORTANT in Scripture – that the NT calls us… “BELIEVERS” (people who have faith).  Your faith can GROW… or it can SHRINK.  It’s DYNAMIC!  It can be WORKED OUT and it can ATROPHY.  And it can THRIVE and it can DIE! » Read The Rest

Rebecca Watson, an internet blogger made famous for her religious skepticism and atheism, said, “I once was a born-again Christian…but I’m not any more.” Every once in a while I a comment accusing me of being a liar, saying it’s impossible for me to once have been a “real” Christian and now to be an atheist. Of course, the people who SAY THAT didn’t know me as a Christian.
Here’s my story: I was 9 years old.  “Jesus loved us”, the pastor said, “and gave his life freely to save us from sin and hell. Wouldn’t anyone like to accept Jesus tonight, this holy night of Jesus’ birth? If you would, get up out of your seat and come down to the altar, and pray with me now.”  I didn’t get up. I sat quietly in my seat as a few adults walked up to the front of the church to be saved. But when Pastor had the new converts repeat the sinner’s prayer, I closed my eyes and said the words silently in my heart.
» Read The Rest