Every Stone Counts: Take Your Place in the Wall

Introduction

In this second installment of the Build Together series at Hillsong Church (Momentum), Jerry Yéboué-Kouamé Cox continues the message about the foundations laid by Pastor Brendan. Once the foundation is laid in Christ, the question becomes very practical: what do we do next? The Bible answers by raising the walls, and those walls are made of people. The title of the message is simple and powerful: every stone counts. You are not just one member among others in the body of Christ -- you are a living stone whose absence or presence directly changes the strength of what God is building among us.

Message Outline

1. We Don't Just Come to Church, We Are the Church

• Many Christians today live as though the church were something external to them. Common language has ended up warping our thinking: we talk about church as a place, a moment, an activity that starts when we gather and stops when we leave.
• Yet Paul writes to the Corinthians: "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27). A body does not function intermittently; it is alive at all times, or it is dead.
• This declaration has a direct consequence: through your presence or absence, through what you bring or what you withhold, you are partly responsible for the state of the body of Christ today.
• The human body is never neutral: a muscle that doesn't move weakens. In the body of Christ, each person is called to be both a receiver and a contributor. When this exchange stops, the vitality of the entire body declines.

2. Identity Before Mission: Know First Who You Are

• The Bible does not start by giving us organizational strategies; it first explains who we are. The logic is simple: know who you are so you can understand what you must build.
• God applies this principle to His own Son. At Jesus' baptism, before the ministry begins, the Father declares: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Right after, when Satan attacks in the wilderness with "if You are the Son of God," Jesus does not fall into the trap because His identity is already firmly established.
• Paul follows the same logic in his letter to the Ephesians. For three full chapters, he gives no practical instructions: he explains to believers who they are in Jesus. It is only in chapter 4 that he addresses "how to walk together."
• "And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). Being seated with Christ means no longer standing before God as an accused person, but as a co-heir of the Kingdom.

3. Position and Function Have Changed: Kings and Priests

• In the Old Testament, the priests continually offered sacrifices, standing, never sitting: the Bible mentions no seats among the furniture of the temple. Commentators explain that these sacrifices covered sin without transforming the heart; the cycle never stopped.
• Jesus, however, sat down forever at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10). The work is finished. And if we are in Christ, we share the fruits of His victory: the verdict has already been rendered, declaring us not guilty and co-heirs.
• Under the old covenant, roles were locked: kings, prophets, priests. None crossed the boundary. King Uzziah, a great king of Judah, learned this the hard way: he entered the temple to burn incense, a function reserved for the priests descended from Aaron. Leprosy broke out on his face, and he ended his days cut off from the temple, the throne, and the community (2 Chronicles 26).
• Only one figure united kingship and priesthood: Melchizedek, a foreshadowing of Christ. Psalm 110:4 prophesies it. Christ is the King of kings and the great High Priest. And what He is, He shares with those who are in Him: "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people" (1 Peter 2:9). Revelation 1:6 confirms it: "He has made us kings and priests to His God and Father."

4. Each in Their Own Lane: Take Your Place in the Wall

• "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us" (Romans 12:6). The body of Christ does not grow when everyone does the same thing, but when each person is in their place.
• The preacher outlines several lanes: financing the Kingdom, mentoring and training, teaching the Word in depth, evangelizing boldly, bringing strategic, legal, or administrative expertise. He invites you to identify your own lane and commit to it.
• Nehemiah 3 is the model: each person rebuilds the section of the wall in front of their own house, with who they are and what they have. The early Christian communities understood this well: in Antioch, a leadership of remarkable diversity (Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, Saul of Tarsus) built the first missionary church in history.
• In Philippi, Lydia, a businesswoman, opens her home and becomes the starting point of the most generous church in the New Testament. In Jerusalem, when crisis strikes, the apostles refuse to "leave the word of God and serve tables" (Acts 6:2): the deacons serve, the apostles teach, and the word spreads.

Key Takeaways

• You are not a consumer who comes to church: you are the church. Your presence or absence, what you bring or what you withhold, directly changes the state of the body of Christ.
• God always affirms identity before mission: at Jesus' baptism, in Ephesians 1-3, in your life too. Without a firmly established identity, you will fall for the temptations that begin with "if you are..."
• In Christ, you are seated in heavenly places: you are no longer an accused person waiting for a verdict, you are a co-heir with Jesus. This position exposes and tramples the enemy's tactics.
• You are a king and a priest: you have direct access to God without an intermediary, and you have authority to exercise on this earth for the Kingdom. Do not delegate your spiritual life to others.
• The wall is no stronger than the sum of the stones that make it up. When the stones know neither their function nor their position, the wall fills with breaches, and it is through those breaches that everything destructive eventually enters.

Personal Application

1. What misunderstanding about the church may have settled into your language and mindset? Where do you shift from being a member of the body to a Sunday visitor?
2. Take a moment before God to let Ephesians 1-3 remind you of who you are in Christ, before even asking yourself what you should do. Is your identity truly founded on what Christ has done, or on what you accomplish?
3. Identify your lane. Is it generosity, mentoring, teaching, evangelism, strategic expertise? What is your section of the wall in front of your house, according to Nehemiah 3?
4. What "consumer" habit do you want to lay down this week? Conversely, how will you serve as a priest and build as a king in your local church?
5. Like the king in Deuteronomy 17 who had to copy the law with his own hand, what concrete plan do you have to let yourself be shaped by the Word of God every day, not just on Sundays?

Verses Cited

• 1 Corinthians 12:27 — "You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it"
• Ephesians 2:6 — "He made us sit together in the heavenly places"
• Ephesians 4:1 — "Walk worthy of the calling you have received"
• Hebrews 10:11-14 — Jesus sat down forever at the right hand of God
• 2 Chronicles 26:16-21 — Uzziah struck with leprosy
• Psalm 110:4 — "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek"
• 1 Peter 2:5 — "You also, like living stones, are being built up"
• 1 Peter 2:9 — "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood"
• Revelation 1:6 — "He has made us kings and priests"
• Romans 12:6 — "Having then gifts differing according to the grace given"
• Nehemiah 3 — Each one builds across from their own house
• Acts 6:2-7 — The apostles to teaching, the deacons to service
• Acts 13:1 — The leadership of Antioch
• Deuteronomy 17:18-19 — The king copies the law with his own hand

Further reading

• Evaluating a Christian Event: The Method
• How to Prevent Volunteer Burnout
• Welcome Message Examples for Your Church

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Jerry Yéboué-Kouamé Cox mean by "every stone counts"?

He draws from the image in 1 Peter 2:5 where the church is made of living stones. The quality and strength of the wall depend directly on the quality of each stone. No one is surplus, no one is too small, but every believer is necessary so that the body of Christ has no breaches. When part of the room "does the work" and another part doesn't, it is the entire body that suffers.

Why emphasize identity before mission?

Because God Himself did so with His Son: at the baptism, He affirms Jesus' identity before the ministry begins, which enables Jesus to resist the temptation in the wilderness that begins with "if You are the Son of God." Paul follows the same logic in Ephesians: three chapters to remind us who we are in Christ, before saying in chapter 4 how to walk together. If our identity is not firmly established, the enemy will make it rest on our performance.

Practically, how do I take my place in the wall?

By identifying your lane: gifts of generosity, mentoring and training ability, in-depth teaching, bold evangelism, strategic, legal, or administrative intelligence. Then by letting yourself be shaped by the Word of God, like a king who, according to Deuteronomy 17, had to copy the law with his own hand and have it with him every day of his life. And above all, by giving up the consumer mentality to live as a priest who serves and a king who builds.