How Great Is Our God!

The Glory of God

Pastor Chuck Swindoll

The Holiness of God

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • Isaiah 6:1–8

What comes to your mind when you think about God? Whatever those thoughts are, one thing is true: they say more about you than they do about God. Fashionable thinking today—in a society that no longer receives its cues from the Scripture—wants a god who is predictable, not one of mystery. We want a god who is comfortable, not one who makes us shudder. We want a god who is a little holier than us but not too holy. In short, we want a god like us . . . only better. How foul such thoughts are, for our God is none of these things. In His unique otherness, our God is the measure of all things. And in the beauty of His holiness, we see the ugliness of our wretchedness, yet we also find the encouragement to be holy as He is.

The Love of God

Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Love is the best known and least understood of God's attributes. Few doubt that God is love. Yet, many believe that God's love, as demonstrated in His patience, mercy, and forgiveness, nullifies His righteousness, justice, and holiness. This popular notion of God, as if He were a benign, aging grandfather, sitting passively in heaven—affable, lenient, permissive, and devoid of any real displeasure over sin because He loves us—cheapens God's love. It doesn't uphold the value of His love. In truth, looking into God's heart to discover His love is to discover His other attributes as well.

The Grace of God

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • 2 Samuel 9:1–13

Some Bible words have been handled and mishandled for so long they've become shopworn and of very little interest to anyone. Not so with the word grace; it still retains its luster and mystery. Perhaps this is because grace, unlike so many other biblical ideas, is never earned or rewarded. Grace is only given as a free gift, a gift given to all who are undeserving and disabled—and that includes all of us.

The Servant Who Came

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • Philippians 2:5–8

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus came to earth to seek and to save those who are lost in their sin (see Luke 19:10). But why did Jesus do this? Why did Jesus leave His glorious throne in heaven to mingle among sinful humanity and eventually die? Does the Bible make this equally clear? Absolutely. Jesus left His heavenly throne because of His great love for us and because He is a humble servant.

The Cup That He Drank

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • John 18:1–11

It has been said that the secret to a happy life is learning how to avoid pain. We certainly live in a day in which this philosophy holds sway. Ours is a comfort-at-any-cost, I-want-it-now society; a society that trumpets, “It's all about me!” Yet, what the world shuns as foolishness, the Lord embraces as wisdom—the wisdom of pain to turn mere followers of Christ into disciples of Christ. Jesus called it “the cup.” To Him the cup was the anguish, humiliation, and torturous death on the cross. To us it means “taking up our cross” and following Him daily.

The Lamb That Was Slaughtered

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • Isaiah 53:3–7

Rarely do you hear someone described as “a person of character.” The idea speaks of maturity and integrity and self-sacrifice. But the phrase has fallen on hard times—perhaps because people of this sort are harder to find or harder to appreciate. We celebrate the rogue, the rough-and-ready, and the rugged individuals. Those who are meek and mild possess a character too wimpy for the times, so we think. We love lions, not lambs. But Jesus demonstrates that meekness isn't weakness—it is incredible strength.

The Cross We Proclaim

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • 1 Corinthians 1:18—2:5

Not many people are powerful, not many are rich, not many are famous—though many wish they were. No one wants to appear foolish or weak, which is why the allure of worldly ways is so enticing. The world has built a better mousetrap, so it seems, coaxing Christians onto its spring-loaded trap of humanism and intellectual pride. But Paul would have none of it. He warned us to turn our attention to what really matters—the cross of Christ—even if the world thinks it foolish and weak. Because through the cross, God blesses.

Getting Reacquainted with the Spirit of Power

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • 1 Corinthians 2:6–12

“Boo! I'm the Holy Ghost.” That's what some people think whenever the subject of the Holy Spirit arises. But who is He, really, and what exactly does He do? Is He an actual ghost, a mysterious fog-like substance that floats in the ceilings of cathedrals or hovers over cemetery plots like an ethereal phantom? Hardly! Of the three persons in the godhead, including God the Father and God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is the least understood and the most mystifying. Let's dispel some of the myths and mystery by getting reacquainted with the Spirit of Power.

What Does Being "Filled with the Spirit" Mean?

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • Ephesians 5:15–21

The Christian life is like a car. One needs at least two important things to drive it: a key and fuel. When an individual comes to faith in Christ, he or she is given the key: salvation. But the car of the Christian life doesn't get very far without fuel—the divine enablement of the Holy Spirit, what the Bible calls being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Once we realize that we need to keep our spiritual tanks full every day, we'll live lives of true authenticity.

Those Unidentified Inner Promptings

Pastor Chuck Swindoll

God often gets blamed for things He didn't do. But more times than not, He doesn't get credit for the things He does accomplish. So much of what God does in our lives is not carried out with fanfare—blowing trumpets and exploding fireworks—but in subtle, unheralded ways. All of us who follow Christ have sensed God's working, even if we couldn't put our finger on exactly what He was doing. But how do we recognize it? This spiritual sense comes from the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer and who gives believers inner promptings to participate in God's activities in our lives.

The Spirit's Most Significant Mission

Pastor Chuck Swindoll • Luke 1:26–38

For millennia, average Christians as well as learned theologians have strained more than one brain cell trying to understand the incomprehensible mystery surrounding the conception and birth of our Savior. We'll not lose ourselves in the unsolvable riddle that is the conception of God the Son. Rather, we'll lose ourselves in the wonder that is God the Holy Spirit's most significant mission.