Kids: The Tested Stone

I performed this story three times yesterday! Twice at Lilydale Church for the two services and once at the Upper Room Church in the afternoon before preaching “Light in Chaos”.

I’ve included the script so you can see where I did a bit of contextual adlibbing. There’s also a Band-Aid on the thumb I control my R1 ring with, which makes scrolling backward an adventure. lol. Ah, the joys of storytelling! Enjoy.

Click on the video. It will jump forward to my story.

What is this building made from? Wood. Glass. Brick.

What if you want to build out of stone? Where do you get the stone? Before Bunnings existed, if you wanted to build from stone like marble, sandstone and granite, you had to go find it in the Mountains! And to get it out of the mountains, stone masons would drive wedges and plugs with sledge hammers until the stone slab came away from the mountain. Next, they would cut and shape the stones with axes, saws and chisels. Every stone took weeks. A building took years. The place where they take stone from a mountain is called a quarry.

Imagine, with me, that we have just walked into a stone quarry in Bible times. It’s loud! Men are hammering, chiselling, and cutting huge blocks of rock. They are preparing building blocks for a beautiful building: King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

King Solomon wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. He had a very special set of plans for the Temple. God Himself was the Heavenly Architect. That means God told King Solomon exactly how to build it.

Because the Temple was holy, there was a special rule. It had to be quiet enough to pray and worship God - even while they were building it!

Every single stone had to be finished at the quarry. When the stone got to the Temple site, not a single sound of a hammer or axe was allowed to be heard. Instead, the builders quietly slid the stones into place. It was as if the great building was silently growing out of the ground!

One day, a cart arrived from the quarry carrying a new stone.

The workmen looked at it and scratched their heads. Quietly. This stone was a very unusual size, and it had a very peculiar shape. It wasn’t a square stone like the others.

“Where does this one go?” one builder whispered.

“It don’t fit nowhere,” another builder replied.

They tried to put it into the wall, but it was the wrong shape. They tried to use it down in the foundation, but something was off. It wouldn’t fit! So, the builders pushed it out of the way.

For a long time, the stone just sat there all by itself. It was always in the way. Workers would bump into it when they tried to do their work. They would get annoyed because it was taking up needed space. Then, when they had had enough, the workers would push it to a different spot. And the bumping and complaining would start again. It even got a name, among the workers: the “rejected stone.”

Years went by. A Temple takes time to build. And the whole time, the rejected stone was left outside in the dirt. It sat in the scorching heat of the summer sun. It sat in the freezing cold of the winter frost. It was pounded by rain and shaken by heavy storms.

But even though it was treated poorly, and even though the weather attacked it year after year, the rejected stone never cracked. It never broke. It stayed perfectly strong.

Finally, the Temple was almost done. The builders reached the most important part of the whole project: they needed the Chief Cornerstone.

This stone had a very important job to do. It had to be lowered into a special place where it would bear the incredible weight of the entire building. It had to be strong enough to hold the Temple together.

The builders brought over a beautiful, smooth stone they thought would be perfect. They set it in place and started to put the weight of the walls on it. But... CRACK! The beautiful stone crumbled into pieces!

They tried another stone. CRUNCH! It broke, too! Every stone they tried was too weak.

The builders were worried. What were they going to do?

Then, someone remembered the rejected stone sitting out in the weeds.

They ran over to it. They wiped off the years of dirt and mud. They put heavy stones on it and stacked them, 1 - 2 - 3, on top of the rejected stone. They tested it under immense pressure. They expected it to crack and crumble like the others. So they added more and more heavy stones. And guess what? It didn’t break!

Carefully, the workers carried the “special” stone over to the temple. They lowered it into its assigned position. And as it settled into the dirt... it was an exact fit. Every strange angle, every unique edge locked perfectly into place. It was the most perfect stone in the whole building!

Boys and girls, do you know what Jesus said about the rejected stone? He said, “I am just like that stone. Rejected by those working for the temple.”

Jesus didn’t look like the mighty, wealthy King they were expecting. He was an unusual King who loved the poor and the sick. So, people pushed Him aside. They stumbled over His words and actions.

Jesus went through the terrible “storms” of this world. He was treated poorly, lived out in the weather. He even said He was homeless. But Jesus never broke. His love for us never cracked. And finally, when the workmen recognised Him, Jesus took his place as our Chief Cornerstone so we could be His living Temple today!

God, the Heavenly Architect, chose Jesus to be the Chief Cornerstone of His church. Jesus is the sure foundation. When we build our lives on Him, He will never, ever crumble under the weight. He is strong enough for you and you and you. Jesus, our Cornerstone, holds us together.

And you know what? When we choose to follow Him, the Bible says Jesus makes us like “living stones.” He takes us—even when we feel rejected, or unusual, or like we don’t fit in—and He builds us into a beautiful home for the Holy Spirit to live in. Jesus is our cornerstone and we are His temple. Amazing, right?

So, whenever you feel like you don’t fit in, remember: Jesus felt that way, too. And remember the cross where Jesus became our Chief Cornerstone. He is strong enough to save all of us. God has a special, perfect place just for you. And He will always love you!

Thank you for listening!