What Do These Stones Mean?

Enjoy this message from Pastor Tyler Schoenberger called "What Do These Stones Mean?" on Sunday, July 19, 2026 at Reach Church in Bear, Delaware!

Places carry stories, and throughout Scripture God consistently called His people to mark significant moments with physical memorials. In Joshua 4, after Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground, God commanded them to set up twelve stones at Gilgal so that future generations would ask what they meant. The answer was always the same: the Lord is faithful, His hand is mighty, and He is worthy of reverence forever. Buildings work the same way. The Church is not a building, but buildings matter because of what God does inside them. They are where people encounter Jesus for the first time, where addictions are broken, where families are healed, and where lives are permanently changed.

Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 3 that people will build on the foundation of the Gospel with very different materials. Some will use gold, silver, and precious stones. Others will use wood, hay, and straw. Fire will eventually test every person's work, and only what was built on Jesus will survive. This is a sobering reality in a culture where it is entirely possible to build crowds, platforms, and emotional moments that look impressive but are void of the Gospel. Like the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, something can appear to be alive while having no breath in it at all. Building on the Gospel takes longer and requires more patience, but it produces something that lasts.

Peter describes every believer as a living stone being built into a spiritual house through Jesus Christ. The vision is not simply a renovated facility with new chairs and better sound. The real vision is children not yet born being baptized, broken marriages being restored, addicts finding freedom, and prodigals coming home. It is generation after generation proclaiming the excellencies of the One who called them out of darkness and into His marvelous light. That is what the stones mean, and that is what is worth building.