Preaching: You’ve preached on a lot of biblical characters. Do you have a favorite?
Swindoll: I honestly don’t. I’m not a good subject to ask that. People always want to know favorite verse; I don’t have a favorite verse. You have a favorite book? I don’t have a favorite book. I think there are some characters that I find a little more fascinating than others. Certainly, I find David and the color of his life so much more fascinating than, say, an Elijah. I find Joseph a fascinating individual because of what he endured and he never became bitter in his life. You meant it to be for evil, he said to his brothers, but God meant it to be for good. I’m drawn to a person who’s able to live above the pain of his life.
Sometimes, I think, a brief biography. I mention Caleb — you don’t know a whole lot more about Caleb than what you read in that chapter. But he’s a fascinating story again. I’m drawn to a person who refuses to let his age get in the way of his effectiveness. He hasn’t checked into neutrality or mediocrity just because he’s gotten up in years. I’m drawn to situations like that. And you’d have to include Esther — this woman who was brought on earth for such a time as this. I think it is a marvelous, remarkable story of a person who makes the most of where she is at the time.
Preaching: Is biographical preaching your favorite, or what would be your favorite approach to preaching?
Swindoll: Well, I probably am most comfortable with the practical themes. I probably wouldn’t get as excited about teaching the book of Ezekiel as I would about teaching on marriage and the family. You can track that. I know some guys that are just as comfortable going through the book of Deuteronomy – which, by the way, is a marvelous book — as they would be in going to a subject like how to endure the pain of the days in which we live. I find myself drawn to life’s realities a little more comfortably than I am to just taking a subject or a chapter of a book and developing it. That’s why when I’m speaking at a conference, for example, I will usually draw the messages along the lines of where people are rather than “during my time with you we’re going to study the book of Colossians.” I’ve done that, and I enjoy book studies. I’m getting ready to do the book of Titus, the letter to Titus, after I finish the current series that we’ve started. I’m doing a series, right now, on “Meeting God in Favorite Places.” By that I mean the attributes of God in familiar sections of scripture. The sovereignty of God in Daniel 4, the comfort of God in Psalm 23, the love of God in Romans 8. Now, that is the kind of series that I could just, I could link with that, I could do that for a year. I’m very comfortable doing that.