vassal of the King

CHRIST OUR CURSE FOR OUR GAIN Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church I love the gospel. But I have a tremendous burden pressing upon my soul. I wonder how many professing Christ-knowers and Jesus-lovers actually know and believe the biblical gospel. Just what is the real good news of salvation? What really took place at the cross? What did God do? I believe that Galatians 3:13 is one (of many!) clear statement that strikes at the very heartbeat of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Galatians 3:13 says that “Christ became a a curse for us.” Here, I will summarize Gal 3:13 with the phrase: "Christ our Curse for our gain! And in this writeup, I'll provide 6 components to this phrase in understanding the gospel. 1. Know the BIBLICAL CHRIST  ( Christ …) For Christ to save, one must possess the saving Christ. Lots of religions have a Jesus where he may fill the role of a teacher, a wise sage, a miracle worker, a prophet, or something else. The question then must be: what

Leading in Family Worship During Conflict. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church I’m a great sinner who has been redeemed by a greater Savior. But I still am a sinner! Recently, I lashed out in anger at my children. I raised my voice pointed my finger at them in selfish anger and scolded them. In moments like these, how can I, even in such a moment of sinful conduct, lead my family to the presence of God in family worship? Someone might say: isn’t that hypocritical? Aren’t you being two-faced in sinning and then leading in family worship? How do we as sinful parents still lead in family worship even in those moments when we’ve sinned (right in front of our kids!)? How can we lead well? How can we model godliness, practice repentance, and obey the Lord in bringing the family (the little Church) into God’s presence in family worship? I will provide 5 suggestions to lead in family worship during moments of conflict. 1. HUMBLED God does not require us to lead in family wors

Desiring Eldership! It’s a Good & Blessed Thing! Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church God’s Word states in 1 Timothy 3.1 that if any man aspires to the office of an overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do! It’s good to desire eldership! How noble it is for a man to aspire to serve and shepherd the flock of God! It’s not a desire to hide or be ashamed of, but rather we should speak of the good and blessed and God-given desire to serve as an overseer. In speaking on this, I want to help us understand a number of related items to this great desire! 1. Understanding the Gift. The Bible teaches that God has given those to lead the Church and that includes pastors/elders and teachers (Eph 4:11). Elders are God-given gifts to His church. They are to serve as God’s stewards and His representatives. So, the call to be an elder comes gloriously and graciously from God for the well-being and maturation of His Church. 2. Undertaking the Call. An elder is far more than a ‘

Spiritual Battles of a Minister. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Before any minister is a shepherd, he first is a sheep. A man may be a leader in front of a congregation of believers but he is foremost a servant who must bow low before the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  That reminds us that leaders do not stand immune to temptation and to struggles. Leaders wage war on the spiritually grueling and relentlessly intense battlefield daily. No greater calling exists than that of being a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ! To serve God by studying His Word, preaching His gospel, praying for His people, and shepherding Christ’s blood-bought sheep comprises the most gloriously exhilarating gift God could give to a man. But nevertheless, he is still a man. And he still engages in daily struggles. But what are they? What is unique to the pastor of a church? What are the hardships that godly leaders face? In this brief essay, I’ll present 8 battles that every faithful

HOW TO ATTEND YOUR CHURCH. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Believers love God and love the people of God. True Christians take great joy in worshiping together with the saints. But, how should you attend your church? What should mark your deliberateness in attending corporate worship? Perhaps we would do well to take a step back, ponder deeply and think about six descriptions on how you should attend church. 1. regularly   Attend your church regularly. This may seem obvious but in our extraordinary-busy, priority-confused culture we do well to hear the simple call from God to not forsake the assembling together with the saints. It does the Christian much good to gather often and sit under and hear divine truth proclaimed in the local church. Christians love and long for the regular occasions to meet with God and with His people and to fellowship, to worship, to engage, and to serve one another. 2. hungrily   Attend your church hungrily. When you’re hungry, you eat

Glorifying God & Blessing Your Pastor Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Do you ever wonder how you can glorify God in practical and tangible ways as you serve in your local church? Or, do you consider how you can actively minister in your church? How can you bless your pastor and bring joy to him? Here are a few simple and very practical ways that you can glorify God and bless your pastor as you minister right where you are in your local church. 1. Pray for him in his praying. Do you know when your pastor prays? Do you know if he has a schedule or regular times that he prays for the flock, for his sermon preparation, and for the ministry? Do you know what days of the week he devotes to his sermon preparation? If not, it would be good for you to ask him and find out when he prays, when he studies, when he prepares sermons and then you can do your part to labor with him in praying even during those same times. Consider the blessing it would bring to his soul to kn

15 Benefits to Having Children in the Worship Service Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church An audio podcast can be found here . What are some benefits to having the children in the entire worship service? What can be gained? Why do I have this conviction? This is by no means an exhaustive list, but here are 15 reasons why I believe kids in the worship service is a wise decision. They are exposed to the powerful Word of God. They observe the church body worshiping Christ. They see the importance of biblical, elevated, transcendent worship. They notice that worshiping God thru Christ is not only something their parents do, it’s something many people joyfully do. They learn the great hymns of the faith — often memorizing the stanzas and hiding the truths in their hearts. They realize the primacy of the written Word of God that permeates the worship service. They understand how holy God is as the congregation stands to sing to Him, to read His Word and to pray

Learning From a Leaf. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church On most days I walk to church. On my way home on this warm, October day, I was praying and giving thanks to the Lord and I noticed a beaming-bright red tree in front of me.  The branches were dancing in the wind and the colors seized and captured me. I picked just one of the low-hanging leaves from this tree that may extend 40 feet in the air. This leaf that I picked launched me into worship as I gave thanks to the Lord for His magnificence. Suddenly, a neighbor greeted me. Perhaps he wondered why my lips were moving and why I seemed to be happily muttering to myself walking down the road. For a brief time, this conversation diverted my attention off of the leaf but when I returned home, I opened my computer and jotted down a few ways that I can learn from this leaf. To be specific, I have noted twelve ways that we can learn about God from this leaf. From this leaf, I see the following features of our great God

How to Preach with Great Power Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church If we are to be gospel-proclaiming men filled with God’s truth and called to preach it in season and out of season, then we desperately need God’s help. We acutely understand the great responsibility that we have to study the Word to show ourselves approved as a workman rightly handling the word of God. Also we know we must preach it powerfully, apply it specifically, and proclaim the gospel of salvation so that God may save the lost and edify the saints.  But how do we preach with great power? What needs to happen to preach with the “unction” of God? How do we get this power? This write-up will bring out five elements needed to preach with great power. God’s man must be... 1. Faithful to the Text If we are to be men who preach with great power, we must speak God’s Word faithfully and accurately. God does not bless those who wrongly divide His Truth. He calls all those who minister the gospel to st

The CONVICTION of Preaching Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church The man of God who preaches the Bible must have conviction. When Jesus taught those who heard him said that he taught them with authority — not as their teachers. To fully understand that we speak of eternal things demands our passion, our conviction, our urgency. We preach to persuade. We preach to call sinners to Christ. To preach the Word requires conviction. I want to speak of this kind of conviction in four ways. 1. conviction in PASSION The herald of the Word must have conviction in his passion. He must preach as a man who believes what he says. How tragic for someone to speak of the glories of Christ in a half-hearted way or in an emotionless way. Sad is the congregation who has a man bored in the pulpit and who speaks of gospel-truths in apathetic ways. Let God’s men rise with passion, with earnestness, with confidence. Like the old skeptic who rose early to go hear George Whitefield preach in t

The NECESSITY of Preaching Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Some current church gurus have quipped that preaching is outdated and now irrelevant. We’ve stepped into a new era where monologue doesn’t work anymore, they say. In fact, many may affirm that standing behind a large wooden pulpit, with a Bible open, wearing a tie and authoritatively telling people what the Bible says and how they must respond doesn’t seem to connect with our post-Christian culture anymore. So this timeless duty to preach the Word of God is now being replaced by anything, by something. But I must argue that the preaching of the Word of God is vitally necessary and it is critically important. We see the necessity of preaching in at least 5 ways. We see the necessity of preaching because CHRIST COMMANDED IT. Jesus Christ commanded His followers to go and ‘preach that the kingdom of God is at hand.’ The main mission of the disciples as they permeated Galilee was to go and preach. To stand a

From Michael Wilcock, 2 Chronicles , Bible Speaks Today, p. 247: Speaking of King Hezekiah... "When there is a financial crisis, the first thing we think about is money. When there is a communications crisis, our prime concern is to learn how to talk the language of the modern generation. When there is a church attendance crisis, we make it our chief aim to get numbers up. If Hezekiah had responded to a military threat in a military way, the Assyrians would have understood that. Army would have been matched against army, with dire consequences for Judah. But instead he and his people first look up to God." So needed in our day.  LOOK UP TO GOD!

THE SERIOUSNESS of Preaching Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church, St Louis, MO No other event comes with such weightiness than the preaching of the Word of God. In a day where seriousness lacks in the pulpits what can be done? What must preachers remember? What must all pastors bear in mind? It is my persuasion that we must recover a great seriousness in the proclamation of the Word of Almighty God. Preaching is Serious because of ONE WE REPRESENT. The magnificent transcendence of God catapults biblical preaching in a category that soars high above every other earthly duty. This does not minimize the importance of nor take away the blessings of earthly employments and tasks, but rather it serves to heighten the unsurpassed grandeur of God Almighty and the world-shaking power of His voice that thunders forth through the faithful exposition of His Word. When a man stands to preach the Bible, he represents God. He stands as the mouthpiece for God to herald divine Tru

In a Society of the Acceleration of Accusations….  Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church I wonder if a day goes by where someone, somewhere isn’t accused of some heinous sin and grievous offense. Recently politics have swirled with accusations (of many sorts) regarding one influential figure. Another athlete was recently accused rape. On and on they go. This article is not to suggest that people are or are not guilty of such accusations. Only God knows all the facts and every detail exhaustively and precisely. But my goal in this essay is to plead with men of God who serve as elder-shepherds in the local church to strive to be careful, protective and blameless in all their dealings. No one can guard against accusations. But men of God who serve Christ’s people must live such blameless lives that BE PURE IN YOUR HEART God calls men to be above reproach as shepherds. We understand that this call to blamelessness does not demand sinlessness. Of course, no man can be sinl

THE POWER OF PREACHING Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church,  St Louis, Missouri No power exists on the face of the earth comparable to the Word of God. The Bible goes forth with divine power because the Bible is itself divinely powerful. The Scriptures are the God-breathed Word so that every line — indeed every word! — comes forth with supernatural and unstoppable power. Wise is the preacher who takes the Scriptures and stands and speaks forth what God has said in His Word. Foolish is the man who chooses to misrepresent the Scripture, misquote the Scripture, or ignore the Scriptures altogether. God speaks to every minister of the gospel through Paul’s pen when he wrote: “preach the Word.” Every week the preacher’s main job consists in the reading, explaining and applying of the Word of God. In doing this, he unleashes divine power from the Word of God as the Spirit of God uses His Truth for God's appointed ends. We do well to consider and believe in the power

THE PRIMACY OF PREACHING Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church Upcoming blogs in this preaching series... The PRIMACY of preaching The POWER of preaching The SERIOUSNESS of preaching The NECESSITY of preaching The CONVICTION of preaching I. THE PRIMACY OF PREACHING The authoritative declaration from God is rare to come by in these days. In a society where much of professing evangelicalism are looking to learn from the culture rather than to speak authoritative truth to the culture, we have exchanged the truth of God for the scraps of entertainment. So many have given up on the expository preaching of Truth and have instead replaced it with a talk that may last for 20-30 minutes so people can leave and get on with their already busy Sundays. The case is clear. The need is urgent. We must return to the primacy of preaching and uphold the glory of God’s timeless call to preach the Word — and to be ready in season and out of season to declare: “Thus says the LORD!” The