Every Stone Matters: Take Your Place in the Wall

Introduction

In this second installment of the Building Together series at Hillsong Church (Momentum), Jerry Yeboue-Kouame Cox builds on the foundation 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 strong: every stone matters. You are not merely one member among many in the body of Christ; you are a living stone whose absence or presence directly changes the strength of what God is building in our midst.

Message Outline

1.We do not just come to the Church, we are the Church

Many Christians today live as if the Church were something outside of themselves. Common language has ended up distorting our thinking: we speak of the Church as a place, a moment, an activity, that begins when we gather and ends 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 lives continually, or it is dead.
This statement has a direct consequence: through your presence or your 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 does not move grows weak. In the body of Christ, each person is called to be both a receiver and a contributor. When that exchange stops, the vitality of the whole 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 in order to understand what you are to build.
God applies this principle to his own Son. At Jesus' baptism, before the ministry begins, the Father declares: "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." Right after, when Satan attacks in the wilderness with "if you are the Son of God," Jesus does not fall for 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 instruction: he tells the believers who they are in Jesus. It is not until chapter 4 that he addresses "how to walk together."
"God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). Being seated with Christ means no longer standing before God as a defendant, but as a co-heir of the Kingdom.

3.The position and function have changed: kings and priests

In the Old Testament, the priests continually offered sacrifices, standing, never sitting: the Bible mentions no chairs in the temple furnishings. 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 fallen and has declared 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 people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession" (1 Peter 2:9). Revelation 1:6 confirms it: "He has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father."

4.Stay in your lane: take your place in the wall

"We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of 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, coaching 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 wall in front of their own house, with who they are and what they have. The early Christian communities understood this well: at Antioch, a remarkably diverse leadership team (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 for the most generous church in the New Testament. In Jerusalem, when a crisis erupts, the apostles refuse to "neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on 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 your 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 through 3, and 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 the heavenly realms: you are no longer a defendant awaiting a verdict, you are a co-heir with Jesus. This position exposes and tramples the tactics of the enemy.
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 only as strong as 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

What misunderstanding about the Church may have settled into your language and your mindset? Where are you slipping from being a member of the body to being a Sunday visitor?
Take some time before God to let Ephesians 1 through 3 remind you who you are in Christ, before even asking what you should do. Is your identity truly founded on what Christ has done, or on what you achieve?
Identify your lane. Is it generosity, coaching, teaching, evangelism, strategic expertise? What is your section of wall in front of your house, according to Nehemiah 3?
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?
Just as the king in Deuteronomy 17 had to copy the law with his own hand, what concrete plan are you making to let God's Word shape you every day, and not just on Sundays?

Cited Verses

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Jerry Yeboue-Kouame Cox mean by "every stone matters"?

He takes up the image from 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 does not, it is the entire body that suffers.

Why insist on 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 starts with "if you are the Son of God." Paul follows the same logic in Ephesians: three chapters reminding 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, ability to coach and train, in-depth teaching, bold evangelism, strategic, legal, or administrative insight. Then by letting God's Word shape you like a king who, according to Deuteronomy 17, had to copy the law with his own hand and keep 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.

to take notes and ask questions.