Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church
God has called me to preach. He has placed upon my soul the weighty and blessed privilege of studying His Word and feeding His people with the truth of Scripture. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It is a consuming calling that I’m bound to and one that I must stick to His prescriptions for how I am to serve, what I am to say, and in what manner I must preach. God has not left it up to me to figure out how to preach His Word. He has clearly presented how His Word is to be taught to His people. In thinking through my philosophy of preaching the Word of God in the corporate worship of God’s people, I want to present some fundamentals that govern me and my ministry of the Word.
Here are 4 features drive me and my philosophy of preaching in the corporate gathering of the worship of the saints.
Philosophy Simply Stated:
*I'm committed to the exposition of truth, from God's written Word, for the growth of the Saints!
1. Biblical Exposition
I am unswervingly committed to the expositional preaching of God’s Word as my preeminent calling as an undershepherd to care for Christ’s people. He has called me to devote myself to the prayer and the ministry of the Word. He summons me to preach the Word and to be ready in season and out of season. Whatever I may do in ministry, the preeminent task that has been placed upon me as a minister of the gospel is to feed God’s people the food of God’s Word faithfully and consistently. He calls me to preach the full counsel of God and to leave to stone unturned and no doctrine unpreached. I commit to preaching through books of the Bible consecutively, verse-by-verse, so as to allow God to speak to His people through His Word, by His mouthpiece that He has called, commissioned, equipped, and empowered to preach.
2. Divine Truth
God has clearly commissioned me to preach His Word. In fact, I’m under obligation and I’ve been solemnly charged in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead -- I must preach His Word. I must study His Word so as to get at the meaning from the text and then I must deliver that meaning to His people with proper, specific, poignant applications for the spiritual benefit of His people. I commit myself to the study of, praying through, internalization, and bold declaration of divine truth as it is sufficiently revealed in holy Scripture. When I preach, I will preach truth from God’s Word. I will love the truth, serve the truth, seek to advance the truth, preach the truth, and warn against error so God’s people may know the truth, love the truth, and walk in the truth so as to bring utmost pleasure and glory to Christ!
3. Sufficient Scriptures
The source of my study and the theme of my preaching will be the word of the living God contained in Holy Scripture. I believe that the Bible is the sufficient, truth, inerrant, inspired, and authoritative word of the living God. As I declare God’s Word from the pulpit and present the meaning of the text, the application of the text, and the gospel of Christ in every sermon, I recognize that faithful exposition from the Scripture is in fact the voice of God speaking through His mouthpiece to His people. My study, then, must drive me to biblical study, desperate prayer, constant dependence upon God, and diligent work in the text so as to be prepared to stand in the pulpit and speak as a mouthpiece for God from His Word. My commitment is not to give people what they want to hear nor to tickle the ears of those who want to be entertained, but my primary job is to let God speak to God’s people through God’s Word as God has directed. I am a man under obligation to read the text, explain the text, and apply the text in every sermon I preach. The Bible is the word of God. And God reigns supreme over His people. So I must let God speak to His people through the heralding of His Word. This is my chief obligation.
4. Edifying Saints
The purpose of the gathering of the church is to edify God’s people and equip them to do the work of service. I believe that my duty is not to do the work of ministry alone but to build up, to edify, to equip, to instruct, to model, to exemplify, to prepare God’s people to actively do the work of ministry in caring for one another, teaching one another, discipling one another, evangelizing the lost, and glorifying God by playing a part in local and worldwide ministry. I preach the Word of God every week knowing that my foremost calling is to build up the people of God as I preach the Word of God. I must not skip over hard texts or difficult doctrines or uncomfortable truths. I will preach the full counsel of God and theological doctrines faithfully so that Christ’s people may be strengthened in the faith, established in the truth, equipped to expose error, and enflamed with love for Christ. I believe that the preeminent responsibility that God has placed upon me in the public gathering of worship is not to evangelize the lost (though I do and will present the gospel & call sinners to repent and trust in Christ alone for salvation) but it is to present the truth of Scripture and to proclaim the glory of Christ in such a way that God’s people are stirred to love and devotion to Him and equipped to serve Him in their lives.