Gold, Silver, Precious Stones (1 Corinthians 3:7–15) — Vision Sunday

It wouldn't be a surprise for those familiar that the Westminster Abbey is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and significant buildings in all of the world, not merely by Christian admirers, but by architects, historians, poets, and statesmen across centuries.

Its beauty is not only aesthetic, but symbolic. It gathers theology, history, worship, and nationhood into stone.

It's been described as a masterpiece of Gothic architecture and the supreme example of English medieval church design.

And beyond its technical beauty, it's considered the spiritual heart of England. Now, one wonders at how in a time of great technological advancement that we don't build buildings like that anymore.

Why most all of the commercial buildings that we see look like the same brick rectangle.

Why new residential neighborhoods are filled with cookie cutter houses, or why warehouses have become the go -to sanctuary, and the idea of building a church with a steeple on it like this one is a non -starter in most cases.

There's gonna be another one of those outdoor malls that's gonna be built right down the street from here, right off the highway in the next year or two, and newsflash, right?

It's gonna look exactly like the other ones in the area, just like the one in Linfield and Woburn and Dedham, Salem, New Hampshire, all the other ones that are popping up now look just like the one that's gonna be down the street from here.

No originality, nothing unique, nothing special, no culture, just the latest template to maximize shareholder returns and satiate the sorry impulses of the modern

American man. With all the technology and manpower that we have today, why do we seem incapable of building beauty anymore?

I think of three reasons right out of the gate. First, the love of money, the loss of culture, and a lack of vision.

The motivations should be obvious, right? So much of what we see built nowadays is done for the same reason, money.

It's about maximizing return on investment. That's the goal ultimately. When land is owned by people who won't live on it, won't work on it, won't depend on it, but will make money off of it, then maximizing that money is the only goal.

And that's why they can build these fast, right? It's part of maximizing the money because they can throw more money at it earlier so that it grows quicker, it builds faster, it's sold or leased faster, it's producing the return faster.

Speed to market is good business at the end of the day. But their motivations are wrong, right?

The people who own our land have become lovers of money and they've become slaves to the bottom line and slaves to the bankers who loaned them the money to go build it.

The only motivation now is money, not beauty, not permanence, not culture, and certainly not the glory of God.

When the value of a land is measured by the wealth that it produces for its few benefactors, its beauty will inevitably be forgotten.

What's more, we will get a loss of culture. Collectively, as an American culture, we've become enamored with sameness, fitting into the trends, keeping up with the

Joneses, whatever you'd wanna call it, but ultimately it's the same spirit at work. Fit in, be like everyone else, don't rock the boat, keep your opinions to yourself.

If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all. And so we've co -opted this view of things in many areas and architecture is no different.

This idea that if our town gets an outdoor mall, we can be like them. If they put a Chick -fil -A in there, then we know we've really made it.

Let's build a brand new school to show how much we care about our children and raise our taxes. All the while, the schools look more like prisons or factories than houses of learning.

And what we've done by embracing sameness is actually lose so much of what makes us unique.

We've lost our culture to the latest fads and trends. We've embraced this idea of equality to the point that it's killed off anything that would dare to say otherwise.

We're too afraid to acknowledge that the world has stratification and variation built into it.

That men are different than women and they can't be changed out like seasonal decorations. That some people are better suited to be presidents, doctors, athletes, and so on than others.

And we can't all just grow up to be whatever we want. And some cultures build things this way with wood, some build things another way with other materials.

The whole world has lost sight of this uniqueness. It's to the point where you can hardly tell the difference between most places in the world because they have the same stores, the same restaurants, the same cars on the roads, the same clothes on the people, and the same buildings that they walk in and out of.

All distinction has been lost and it hasn't resulted in an expansion of beauty, excuse me, but in a race to the middle, the obscurity of the mundane.

But ultimately, the issue lies in our lack of vision. We fail to see our connection to the future and have gotten ourselves caught up in the greed and laziness that comfort has produced.

We don't see the ways in which the things that we do, the things that we build will tell a story about who we were, what we believed to future generations, even the ones that we're raising here with us.

We've grown comfortable in the present and we failed to look forward at what it all is going to produce and what it's for.

That Westminster Abbey, right, in the form that we know it today, it took almost 300 years to build.

That means that we had men waking up every day for their entire working lives to go to work on a project that they would never see finished.

People born, living full lives and dying at an old age, knowing nothing but the reality that the

Abbey was still under construction, but they did it anyways. There's an old story

I've heard of three men who were building the Westminster Abbey when another man passes by and asks each of them what they're doing.

And the first replies to the pastor by, I'm cutting stone. The second says, I'm earning my wages.

And the third replies, I'm building the cathedral of the living God. All three are doing the same thing and all the statements are true.

But only the third man understood the telos. Only he had a true, lasting, compelling vision for what he was doing.

And how much has that changed the way that we look at the Abbey? I know for me, it makes it even more beautiful to think that countless men, our fathers, worked on this their whole lives to make it what it was and what it is today.

Because they knew that they were building something bigger than what they could see and that it was worth it. That's a vision that lasts, that doesn't ignore culture, but builds it.

It doesn't care about only maximizing financial returns and convenience, but about multiplying truth, goodness, and beauty in our home and place.

And that's the perspective, as we consider our vision here at Christ the King, that we wanna have, right?

That when we're looking at the kingdom of God, we need to have the mind that this is eternal. It needs to be built to last.

And so we need a vision worth having and we need to use the materials that can withstand the trying fire that is to come.

So with that, I want us to turn to the text that I've selected for this Lord's day.

That's in 1 Corinthians 3. It really served as the principle that we must see having in mind when we think about the vision of Christ the

King Reformed Church, not only for today, but even for as long as God would grant that this church continues in its ministry.

Again, if you would turn with me to 1 Corinthians 3, and starting in verse seven. Hear the word of the

Lord. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.

But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is

Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

Thus ends the reading of God's word. May he write it on our hearts by faith. Be God. Let us pray.

Father, we do thank you again for your word, and we ask that you'd be with us now in this time of considering this passage here from 1

Corinthians 3, and again, the vision of this church that you've given to this church, where the things that you would have us to work on, the things that you'd have us to give our lives for, in faith and trust in you, knowing that you,

Father, have laid the foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom we seek to build. Grant us faith and trust in you, especially here this day as we consider your word.

Help us, we ask in Jesus' name, and amen. Now again, my focus today is on the principle of this passage, and how that's the drive, how we think about vision.

I'm not really gonna spend the time going precisely into the specifics that Paul has in view in Corinth, but suffice it to say, in a bit of a brief exegesis, that what he's addressing here, starting in verse seven, is the tendency in these

Corinthian Christians to divide themselves, to find reasons to separate themselves from one another, namely, by which teacher they wanted to be associated with, whether Paul, Apollos, Peter, or whoever.

He reminds them that none of this really matters, because they aren't part of any one of these man's kingdoms.

They are part of God's kingdom, and he is the one in whom we must find ourselves, not in this group or that group, with this preacher or that preacher.

Again, we read in verses seven through nine. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Ultimately, the church is engaged in God's work.

We are laborers together with him, as Paul says, and no man will take the credit for the work that God is doing beyond what

God is kind enough to share. We, the church, are God's building. We're his husbandry, meaning he is the one who has taken on the responsibility to steward us, not men, not pastors, not anyone else.

In verse 10, Paul helps us to see this same principle from another angle. The church is

God's. He is the one who has covenanted himself to his bride. He is the responsible steward, and thus we should always look to him, not the men that God enlists to serve.

But in verse 10, Paul says that he, and by association all ministers of the gospel, are builders of this building.

And so a distinction of categories is important for us here. The building is God's. He alone is responsible for it and its growth.

But God has appointed his under -shepherds, his ministers, to the work, and they are to labor as wise master builders of God's building,

Paul says. God is responsible for his building, but he has enlisted ministers to be accountable to him in the labor that he has ordained to build it.

And so this is an important thing for us to bear in mind, this principle that we want to have in mind, that the building that is the church doesn't belong to human ministers, and you can't build this house any way that you like.

In verse 11, Paul writes, for the other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is

Jesus Christ. So by his decree, the Lord has established Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone of his building.

He is the only foundation upon which all the oracles of God rest. Nothing, nothing in God's building will be built upon a different foundation than him.

There's no Pope of Rome, no Jewish temple, no false religion, no mega church pastor, no podcaster, nothing that will make up the foundation of God's church than his own son, the

Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sure foundation, the solid rock upon whom the church must stand.

And so the church does not have the liberty to lay a new foundation, nor, and this is important for us to remember, nor does the church have the need for a different foundation, because Christ is the perfect foundation.

He is true in every way, and he is strong enough to hold the glory of God's building.

And so where we are called to build is not in the foundations. We're called to build up and out as the

Lord enlists us to service of his people. But even in this, right, even in the building up and out, we are not at liberty to build in any way that we see fit.

God does not use cheap materials in the building of his house, nor does he allow us to. He has called us to labor in faith in his son, who is worthy of the greater sacrifice.

Verses 12 and 13, Paul writes, "'Now, if any man build upon this foundation, "'gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, "'every man's work shall be made manifest, "'for the day shall declare it "'because it shall be revealed by fire, "'and the fire shall try every man's work "'of what sort it is.'"

Everything that a minister, and by extension, the church he leads does, and not only that, but why they do it, will be made manifest.

It will be evident. It will be laid bare for all to see. And all will see whether we built with what will be burnt up with the trying fire, right, that wood, hay, and stubble, human ingenuity, man -centeredness, selfishness, and greed, or whether we built with gold, silver, and precious stones, the foolishness of the cross,

Christ -centeredness, humble sacrifice for the people that God has given to our care.

This is the test of a man's ministry, and again, all will be revealed. We know, I mean, we're smart enough people here, right?

We know how to examine these things even now, right? We can look at the work of churches today and understand what types of materials many of them are using.

All will be revealed, but even some things we can see today with a discerning eye. Personally, I think that's the true test of any minister that you would consider submitting yourself or your family to, because the purpose of a system is what it does.

Examine the priorities, examine the vision, examine the fruit, and surmise which bucket those priorities fall into.

Is it wood, hay, and stubble that will burn up easily and will fade with testing?

Or is it gold, silver, and precious stones, materials that can withstand great heat and are even purified by it?

This is why vision is so important, because to properly build anything, the church must be rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ, her

Lord, and the people of God within a local church must be bought in, willing to move forward with the vision that's being set, right?

And trusting that this is God's means to care for them in their posterity, not just the church's ideas for the best ways to build a following or stay relevant or pay the bills or so on.

This is God's way of caring for his people. And so we must find ourselves in places where we can trust that that is what's happening.

What you build and how you build it matters to God because this is his house.

And so we must build with him in mind and we must build with his people in mind since that is who he intends to serve with it.

We look down at verse 22 of 1 Corinthians 3 and Paul explains why God does it this way.

It says, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours.

The beauty of God's design for his church is that as we submit the labor to his glory, only building on the foundation that is

Jesus Christ and him crucified, this is what best serves us, his people. And so we need a vision for bringing this to bear.

What does it mean for us to build in Littleton, Massachusetts upon the foundation of Jesus Christ?

What does it mean to build with gold, silver and precious stones, to build for the people of God today and tomorrow, right?

Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29, 18. We must not let that happen to us, not here at our beginning, nor in the years ahead.

We must be a people always ensuring that the focuses of this ministry and its families are being built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and that those focuses serve

God's people in lasting ways. The specifics are gonna look different, right? At different times and seasons, but the principle should always remain the same when it comes to the vision of this church on Christ and for his people.

Now, before we get into that vision for Christ the King as we head into 2026 and our first year of ministry,

I do wanna acknowledge something that I think is important for us to be aware of, particularly as in the ways that we've gotten started in how we've, in a small church here in Massachusetts, perceptions are inevitable, right?

People outside of our fellowship here will always have their own perception, good, bad, or indifferent to what we're doing.

And we didn't look any further than Corinth to see that this is true, that this principle that people are gonna perceive things is always going to be true.

The way in which they're laboring there in Corinth has created a certain perception for Paul of the types of people in that church.

And while we know that Paul's perceptions under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit are correct, this passage, again, reminds us that the reality of outsider perceptions, whether they're true as they are here in Corinth or not, is that they will always exist.

Outsiders will always have a view of what we're doing. They'll always, whether they have any real idea about what we're doing or not, there will always be people who will confidently tell you why it is you're doing what you're doing.

Somehow they've figured out, without ever witnessing it or asking questions, they've intuited our intent from a distance.

And most every time they will interpret this poorly. Most anytime outsiders will evaluate what we're doing here, they will find reason to paint it in a negative light.

They'll find reason, like in Paul's metaphor in verse 12, to cast what we're doing in the lot of wood, hay, and stubble, the things that don't withstand the fire that aren't going to last.

And so we need to anticipate this play by the enemy who would seek to discourage us from pressing on, right?

We need to condition ourselves to overcome that play. We must protect ourselves from that type of sabotage that would look to manipulate us in any direction away from the

Christ -centered vision that we believe God has given us. And so let's be specific on what some of this might look like, right?

The godless, this is an obvious one, around us here in Massachusetts, will try to scare us away from moving forward.

They'll lie, threaten, insults, and worse, just to get us to stop, especially if we're making progress.

But we can't let that slow us down, right? We can't be controlled by that fear of man who can only kill the body.

Frankly, even, we need to expect that this will come as God grants us success in carrying out our vision.

But we'll also have Christians, conservative ones as well, who will seek to discourage us from the work that we're doing.

They'll invent reasons why we're doing what we're doing and why it must be wrong. Mostly, I would say, because they themselves have done nothing of any real substance for a myriad of made -up reasons.

They'll backseat driver us till the cows come home. And again, especially if we have success.

But the truth is that many of us grew up here, right? We've watched our home, as broken as it already was when we were young, disintegrate even further with no real

Christian presence ready or willing to engage the fight where it's needed the most. And so we have to learn to not grow weary at their displeasure, because we're working on things that they refuse to do.

Again, some will call us revolutionaries and upstarts, too ambitious and impatient. And in that, they'll say that by doing what we're doing, we're somehow getting in the way of all the things that they had planned.

Others will call us purists and legalists, right? Too serious about obedience. You know, they read the law every week, living out our faith in the ways that we are, right?

All of Christ for all of life. And others will accuse us of all sorts of evil things.

Even Christians, again, they'll call us bigots, racists, antisemites, whatever you want to call it. But again, we need to anticipate this type of attack.

And we need to be ready to give a defense for the Christ -centered hope that we have. And what's more, we need to be thick -skinned, not prone to discouragement when outsiders mock or deride us, or when we inevitably hit bumps along the way.

The vision is important, but even more so is that that vision draws us nearer to Christ, so that we never grow weary as we go.

We need to be a people who have the perspective of that third man building the Abbey. We're building the cathedral of the living

God. No matter how others may seek to discourage us or how long it takes, we are resolute.

Our eyes are fixed on Christ, his kingdom, his glory, and our good forever.

And so, we must block out the noise, and we set our gaze on the work that we believe

God has given us to build on Christ. We're not starting anything new, right? We're building on the foundation laid by our

Lord and the teaching of the apostles and the reformed traditions of our fathers. So we're here to build on Christ and to build up.

We're not content to rest on what great men have done before us, but rather, we want to honor that work by giving our own lives to Christ.

To further the cause. And sadly, because our time is a post -Christian one here in Massachusetts and cultural decay is all around us, ours is a restorative work in its nature so that our children and our children's children can build out to spread the kingdom of our

God further and further. Now, with all of that as the introduction to today's message, and all that as a backdrop to our understanding of our vision or a vision in general,

I want to state what we believe God has given this church, Christ the King Reformed Church in Littleton, Massachusetts for its initial aim.

By faith and labor, we build a robust Christian borough and culture, our heritage for our children's children.

Now, admittedly, this is a big goal, is it not? We want to build a Christian borough.

And by that, we mean a community where Jesus Christ is openly honored as Lord of all in homes, in churches, and in the public square.

We're endeavoring towards a place here in Littleton or wherever God may plant us permanently, where the honoring of Jesus Christ is the norm of all public and private life.

A place where the local church is the cathedral again, the seat of authority in the

Latin, where the cathedral is there again in the community.

Recognized, that's one of the reasons why I love this building so much is its place in the town here in Littleton.

It overlooks the common, right? As the people drive through or walk through that theoretical center of the town, they can't escape the shadows of Jesus Christ and his church.

That's a glorious thing to be aiming for. But why, why is this important?

You know, some of us may have grown up in churches where this type of cultural involvement and upheaval was taught as unnecessary or even ungodly, right?

It was too preoccupied with the things of the world. But the answer to its importance, why building a

Christian borough is important is simple, I think. And the Lord Jesus himself teaches us to pray the words towards this end when he says in Matthew 6 9 -10, after this manner therefore pray ye, our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

We are to pray that the kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. Are we not also to believe that it will work like we mean it that when we read from Isaiah chapter 65 and verses 17 through 22, that these things

God will do through his church are true. Shouldn't we believe these things? Isaiah 65 and verse 17 for behold,

I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which

I create for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying.

There shall be no more hence an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days for the child shall die a hundred years old, but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed and they shall build houses and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

They shall not build in another inhabit. They shall not plant in another eats for as the days of a tree are the days of my people and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

We wanna be a people believing that this is the trajectory of history and not just a result of Jesus's return, but a target that we will by God's grace attain in generations to come.

And we know that this is true. We know that we're interpreting Isaiah 65 correctly because he writes in verse 20, that people are still dying at this time of new heavens and new earth.

They're just much older. For the child, he says, shall die a hundred years old. Dying at a hundred will be considered young.

And so not only do we want big aims, right? But I would argue that the Bible teaches us that we must.

Passages like this in Isaiah 65, don't leave room for a view of the future that is bleak. And so whatever vision it is that we will say we're gonna have, we know that it must be in line with that long -term end that God has said the future will look like.

It must be big. It must be optimistic. And it must represent the type of fruitful life that he has promised for his people as his kingdom comes on earth.

Now, having said that though, I do think we need to take care not to be a people consumed with the end of a doctrine and so consumed with it that we forget the means by which

God has given us to get there. The Lord has spoken. He has made his promise.

Now, are we just supposed to kind of hold on and wait in this holy holding pattern, trusting that God will bring it to pass someday, somehow?

Certainly not, right? Rather we are to wait in faith, yes, but we also labor towards his end, believing that he has determined that his house will be built by his grace and through the faithful labors of his people.

And so by faith and labor, we must take up the plow for the work and to be most effective together, we must know that long -term end that we're working towards and we must know the near -term things that we're working on.

One of the great errors of most or many post -millennial thinkers is that they're good at the doctrine, rather they're not so good at the practice.

And the result is their people suffer under the same errors. They know the long -term end, but they don't know how to break that end, that big lofty end into smaller pieces that are actually accomplishable in our lifetimes.

And what results is a people who become easily discouraged by the lack of progress. Again, where there is no vision, the people perish.

You think about it like this, it's easy in our day to become discouraged with the state of things in our town here, our state, our country.

We've fallen far and we've fallen fast, but it's even more discouraging to our work here in this church, if our vision only had the end in view.

If the only way we thought about or talked about our vision was in the ultimate sense, where we'll know that we were successful when

Isaiah 65 is accomplished, it would be natural to become discouraged as our country teeters and wallows in division and the

Christian church is not much different. And so we need to hedge against that discouragement by having a vision that is long -term, but near -term in its application.

A vision that's long -term in its end, in its goal, but near -term in its application for us.

Otherwise, where there is no vision, again, the people will perish in discouragement that we're not making enough progress.

Like Abraham, as we read in Hebrews 11, nine and 10, says, by faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is

God. We need to be a people like Abraham who are laboring towards a heavenly city while still in the land of promise.

We need to have our eyes fixed on heaven in the ends that God has promised while laboring by faith in the meantime towards that end.

And so what does that look like for us here at Christ the King in 2026? What does it mean for us to be working towards that vision of a

Christian borough and culture in the near term? If our long -term end is something like Isaiah 65, it's on earth as it is in heaven, what does that look like in 2026?

And how do we know if we're making progress? Well, I'm glad you asked. Because it's with these goals in mind, right?

That we need to understand what we're going to pour our efforts into. We can't do everything all the time, at least not well, but we can do a few things with excellence.

And so this question is really important for us to answer with clarity. What are we committing ourselves to doing with excellence in the near term to help move us closer to accomplishing our long -term vision?

And I'd say there are three things that we need to be particularly focused on this year.

And this is for all of us. We all have a part in bringing these things to pass. Three things in order of importance as we lean into our vision as a church.

First, we want to establish a healthy church and culture. Second, establish a presence in Littleton.

And third, strategically engage in broader opportunities in Massachusetts and New England.

Now, this is our sixth meeting as a church. And thankfully,

I don't think any of us here are under the impression that we've checked off establish a healthy church in that short amount of time.

We have a good church, a good culture, but it's young and it's unestablished. And if we're gonna be positioned to build upon the ministry here at some point, we need to get to the point where it can handle the added load.

And what does that look like? I'd say some specifics that it includes, right, of building or establishing this healthy church and culture are strong families, faithful leadership, financial stability, and a vibrant culture.

At the end of the day, the church needs to be engaged in the work of building up the saints, and that starts in the home with strong families.

We could have all the other things, right? We could have tons of leaders, tons of money, a fun culture, but if the families are rotten, then it's all a show.

It's all lip gloss on a pig. Without strong families, the rest of these things that help us to become established are meaningless.

And yet, with strong families, even if we don't attain the others, we still have something worth praising.

And so we will be a church that is focused on the family, making efforts to ensure marriages are healthy and supported, that parents are being aided in raising their children where they need it, and that issues in the home aren't ignored just because we don't wanna deal with it.

I've seen too many instances, even just a few years, in leadership in churches where issues in families are percolating, they're bubbling up, but they're ignored, and they're only dealt with when the issue, when the blow -up finally happens.

But we need a more proactive approach. We can't just wait for the issues to come and then react. If we're gonna be a healthy church, we need healthy families and true health doesn't come from medication after you're already sick.

True health comes from being proactive, living healthy, the preventative maintenance that keeps you strong.

And so this year, one of the primary focuses towards this goal is to establish a pastoral visitation ministry, a proactive work to know our member families well, be engaged with where we're all at, to spur one another on to maturity in Christ.

Richard Baxter was a Puritan minister in the 17th century in England, and his pastoral visitation ministry is famous, and his emphasis on it, his ferocity towards it is very, very popular, very well -known, particularly in his book,

Reformed Pastor. He devoted a large portion of his time every week, two full days to visiting families so he might visit all 800 homes in his parish each year.

He would spend an hour teaching, catechizing, and ministering during every visit, often leaving families with a couple of good books.

But by the time he finished his ministry, the church was full and the town was transformed.

And Baxter wrote that on a Sunday, you might hear a hundred families singing psalms and repeating sermons as you pass through the streets.

Now, we don't have 800 homes quite yet, so the transformation of our town might take some time, but again, establishing these disciplines early helps us to grow healthy and to take steps towards that goal as our borough expands.

Now, Baxter understood himself as a servant of Christ, and by extension, a servant to God's people, and that's the call to pastoral ministry.

And so as we look for faithful leaders, that being the second aspect of the second focus area, as we look to establish a healthy church, this is an important thing that we're keeping in mind, that those called to leadership in the church are not called merely to preach and to lead, but it's a call to die, to lay down your life for the sheep.

And this leads us, again, into that second focus area for more faithful leadership.

To serve his people, God has given the church under shepherds, pastors, elders, deacons, to care for his people, and we need more of those, right?

So the work that goes into raising up those men within our congregation to shepherd will be paramount in the year ahead.

Identifying and training men to be elders and deacons within this church will help us to share the load of the work more effectively and efficiently, and it'll position us to care for additional people, as the

Lord adds to our number in the future. Raising up faithful leadership will be critical to the long -term prospects of Christ the

King Reformed Church and to our near -term ability to make progress towards our goals.

Now, in addition to strong families and a growing leadership, we also need to reach a place of financial stability, right?

As our members know, having seen the 2026 budget, our aim is always to operate responsibly, trusting that God has given us exactly what we need to accomplish the work that he has for us.

And with that being the case, there's already a way in which we are stable in the sense that we operate at a surplus in our budget.

We never spend more than we bring in. Hopefully, if you don't already do this in your home,

I highly recommend. But we're small, right? And in the year ahead, we wanna work towards a greater level of stability that allows for us to grow, expand our ministries where it makes sense, and to invest in the future of this community.

We wanna add people to our number who will adopt our vision, right, as their own, and they'll join us as we labor and give towards it, whether they're

Christians who are growing frustrated in churches without vision, whether they're Christians who we convinced to move here to join us, or they're converts even here in Littleton and the surrounding areas who are compelled by what we're aiming towards.

Adding people, again, with the understanding that they're being added into a healthy ministry will help us get to greater levels of stability and position us to continue making progress towards our vision.

And further, we wanna be mindful of ways in which we can lean into the resources around us.

Asking for money, I won't lie to you, is a very awkward thing at times. It's really a challenge for me, to be honest.

But there are good Christian men and women out there whom God has blessed with the resources to give to others, and we can't be too proud to pursue those opportunities, believing that the

Lord means to fuel us towards the worthy goals that he's given us, right? If we believe in what we're doing, then asking for those resources from those who are looking to give shouldn't be a burdensome thing, but an honor, even, to pursue.

Money is not an evil thing, but the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. So we can't allow ourselves to be controlled by money, but we should rightly understand that as a tool given by God for us to execute the vision that he's given us.

And lastly, again, in this list of things of establishing a healthy church in the near term, we need to be engaged in growing that culture and feeding into it with gravity, joy, and gladness, not gloom and triviality.

We need to have a culture that's vibrant, full of life, full of rejoicing, even in our time of small beginnings.

In C .S. Lewis's novel, The Horse and His Boy, book three of the Narnian saga, a righteous character named

King Loon says this about kingship to his son. Says, this is what it means to be a king, to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat.

And when there's hunger in the land, as must be now and then in bad years, to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.

First in, last out, and laughing loudest. Joe Rigney notes on this, that King Loon exemplifies a culture where gravity and gladness are both essential.

Without gravity, gladness declines into triviality. Without gladness, gravity degenerates into gloom.

But together, they are a potent combination that inspires others, forms communities, and extends a man's influence in the world.

This is the type of culture that we're aiming for here, where competence and confidence are valued because we understand that it has a compelling virtue to outsiders.

A people who cultivate strength for God's mission and the joy of others will be a magnet for the people of God, starving for that in their lives and the lives of their families.

And we can't let the fact that we're in the earliest stages or that we're small, prevent us from forming and embracing this type of culture.

We need to be committed to a culture of gravity and gladness and be willing to fight to maintain it, even when it's hard, so that when the better days come, we have all the more reason to be glad.

We're aiming for a healthy church. And as we labor towards that this year, we wanna be laser focused on proactively equipping families, raising up faithful leadership, leveling up our financial stability and multiplying a life -giving culture of gravity and gladness, excellence, and rejoicing.

If these are the marks of the long -term Christian borough that we're aiming for, then this is the year that we need to lean into cultivating that borough within ourselves.

Now, moving to establishing a presence in Littleton. If establishing a healthy church and culture is primarily inward focused, we also want to look outward, right?

From our fellowship and establish something in this town that God has placed us in. It should not be in our nature, yet I think it too often is, as Christians to be satisfied being unknown.

As Jesus said in Matthew 5 and verse 15, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

We are Christ and he has lit a candle and he has not put us under a bushel.

We are to be known, and so we will labor this year to make ourselves known here in Littleton.

Now, what I don't mean by that is that we're gonna go out with the aim of becoming notorious or known for some bad quality, though some will obviously hate us.

Rather, our aim will be to be known on our terms for our love for the truth of God and our love for our neighbors and even our enemies.

Now, admittedly, it is not easy to become known in a place when we don't have a place of our own. We're sojourners here right now, right?

But as we've said, we're praying that God would grant to us to have a place here in Littleton, right in this building even, to become our long -term home as Christ the

King Reformed Church. But again, well, we're not there yet, but having a physical place is of great value, especially when it's located as this building is and reestablishing the church as the cathedral in a community.

But having said that, there are aspects of that establishment of ourselves here in Littleton that are outside of our control, and yet it can't stop us from aiming at establishing ourselves.

And so in the meantime, we're gonna put our signs out for all the passersby to see. We're gonna let them know that we're here at two o 'clock on Sunday afternoon.

But we'll also aim to involve ourselves in this town in as many realms as we can do, and we're gonna aim to do it well.

Whether it's within business, we have several business owners here in our small group. We wanna be able to be engaged in the economy of this community, or through employment or patronage and other local companies here.

Whether it's through education, by finding ways to do some of the teaching that we'd be doing anyways, but in public spaces like the local library, where are the ways that we can get ourselves established and in front of the people of Littleton.

Or through service, right? By identifying needs in our community and doing what we can to be a part of good solutions.

Eventually even, it'd be great to be a resource to the local government here to know that they can reach out to us when they might need some assistance.

If they think if there's a need that comes up in town, we should call Christ the King. Yes, you should.

And you should also call us. But the goal is to make Christ known in Littleton. And we are his people, so who better to do that than us?

It won't happen by accident, right? Again, we need to be proactive in finding ways to establish a presence on our terms.

If I could think of one word that would sum up where we're trying to, how we're trying to work in this year of 2026, it's to be proactive in the things of God for his people and for Littleton.

Now, finally, as we look at this year ahead with our focus being so local as it should be with the proper ordering of loves, we start with establishing a healthy church, presenting that outward to our community here in Littleton.

We also need to acknowledge, I think something that is a unique characteristic of our community here that the

Lord has given to us in these early stages. Though we're young, God has granted what I would say is an outsized sphere of influence in the

Christian communities of Massachusetts being represented within this group. Through various points of connection, we have very strong relationships with important leaders within conservative

Christian groups in our state, and we can't be afraid to lean into those just because we're small.

We can't make that the full or only aim of what we do because we'd be putting the cart before the horse in a sense.

But I do think we honor what God has given us relationally by strategically engaging in broader opportunities that may come our way, whether in Massachusetts or even other parts of New England.

These things help us further establish our presence here. And it also gives us a greater sense of progress even that fuels us to keep going and grows us closer together, all the while connecting us with the broader church in our region, excuse me.

We don't need to do everything on our own, right? So we don't wanna be the people that only do our projects, our programs.

We don't need to be that. Lord hasn't made that our station here. He has given us connections into the

Christian church here in Massachusetts. We should use it as it benefits us, as it serves his purpose and his kingdom.

God has not designed his church that we should operate on our own, that we should work together with his people across our region.

Now, you'll notice that our focus, again, kind of starts in the center and it flows outward from there.

We won't have boroughs all over Massachusetts and New England, unless we build one in Littleton first.

And we won't have a borough in Littleton unless we build one within Christ the King first. That's the near -term vision, right?

Love one another well, and in so doing, all men will know that we belong to Christ.

And as the Lord blesses that work, we trust that he will multiply it from the household of God across Littleton, across Massachusetts and New England, into the ends of the earth, guiding us along the proper path as we go.

But it starts here. It starts with this group of saints at Christ the King Reformed Church, that if we're going to take proper strides forward in the year ahead, something is required of each of us.

Varying degrees and different emphases, surely, but all of us must be engaged.

And the primary place for that is in the heart and the perspectives that we approach this work with.

Are we cutting stone? Are we earning wages? Or are we building the cathedral of God? None of these things will happen, right?

None of these long -term goals will ever happen if we're loose, if we adopt the wrong perspective.

All of this requires that we are a serious group, that we are serious men and women, because these types of outcomes don't happen by accident.

Work needs to be done. Effort needs to be put in. Humility needs to be exercised. Generosity needs to be displayed.

And joy needs to be had. The only hope that we have to do this great thing, to build something that'll last to bless our children's children, is if we, by faith in Christ, use the right materials, if we build on Him with gold, silver, and precious stones.

We need to be serious people with serious conviction, willing to be spent to the work, believing that we build on earth because we seek the better, heavenly city promised by God.

So our aim is big, right? To build a robust Christian borough and culture, a heritage for our children's children.

We need to have that long -term view in mind, but we also need to be able to take that vision in pieces one year at a time in many ways.

For this year, the year of our Lord, 2026, first and foremost, if we're gonna build a robust Christian borough and culture that'll last for generations, and that'll impact the world around us, it needs to start here, right within this church.

We need a healthy, stable church and culture that is ready to add to its number and expand its footprint and influence.

And second, we need to establish the presence of faithful witness to the community around us here in Littleton, working towards reestablishing the

Christian church as the cathedral, the seat of authority over this place. And third, we need to strategically engage in our region, leaning on and into the

Christian church around us as the right opportunities present themselves for us to aid Christendom and expand our influence and profile for future ministry even.

It's gonna take time, it's gonna take great effort, but as we labor in the belief that these are not only good works in the near term, but also good works for establishing the ministry of Christ the

King in the longterm, then we are building with gold, silver, and precious stones.

And as those works are tested and survive as gold, silver, and precious stones do, we are reminded of verse 14 of 1

Corinthians 3, when Paul writes, if any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

As we work in faith and build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, we look forward to his continued blessing and the reward that he has promised to his people.

And so finally, as we close, I wanna do so with a bit of a warning in a way,

I guess. It'd be easy for us, we wanna do a lot in the years ahead to become consumed with the accomplishments, with the next thing.

But we need to remember as Paul reminded the Corinthians that this is God's house, we work for him.

And everything that we're aiming towards is foolishness, apart from a steadfast faith in Christ, the foundation that has been laid.

Everything that we do must be done in a wholehearted trust in the God who gives the growth.

Psalm 127 verses one and two, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakest, but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Unless the Lord builds it, we labor in vain. What's more, everything that we do must be done in a wholehearted trust in the

God who promises to bless those who fear him. Psalm 128, blessed is the one that feareth the

Lord that walketh in his ways, for thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thy house, thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children in peace upon Israel.

So may we take heart, because God has promised that he will do it. He has promised to his people who pour out their lives by faith and labor for the building of his kingdom that he will be with us, that he will bless us, his people.