I Dare You To Dance | Pastor Jeremy DeWeerdt

It is so, so good to see each and every one of you. Welcome to church, say hello to all of our locations. Want to welcome all of you. For those of you that have been around here a long time, you probably know this. You know that I grew up in the 80s. And for those of you that were not alive, allow me to say that was probably the best decade ever. Now, I know you may disagree. But I would just say it was the best decade ever in my humble but accurate opinion. And this was before cell phones. This was before the internet. And so you had to do something crazy. You actually hung out with your friends 24-7. And on Friday and Saturday nights, for those of you that grew up here in Rockford, Illinois, with myself and many others, allow me to be a little specific here to at least my experience. We used to jump in cars and we would all go to parking lots all over the city. We'd go to Taco Bell. We'd go to Little Caesars parking lot. Beef-a-roo, and if you aren't from Rockford, you don't know what that is. McDonald's, Rocky Rococo, for those of you who remember that. Sometimes, we'd go to McDonald's, Rocky Rococo, for those of you who remember that.

Sometimes, we'd be hanging out. There'd be literally 100 of us in a parking lot. And sometimes, fights would break out. That was an extra eventful night. We didn't stream our movies. We actually went to the theaters. And if you couldn't go to the theater, you go to Blockbuster. How many of you remember Blockbuster, right? Yeah. Many of you don't know this. Actually, my great-great-uncle owned Blockbuster. And so back in the day. Anyway, here's the thing. You go to Blockbuster, or you would go to the drive-in theater. We had a drive-in theater here called the Belford. And what you would actually do is you would actually pay per person to get into the drive-in theater. And so because we didn't have any money, we'd usually, like three of us, we would actually get in the trunk of the car. And then, you know, the rest of us would drive in, and then they'd let us out of the trunk. And so that way, we didn't all have to pay admission. We were actually the MTV generation. In fact, I remember being in middle school when being in line to go to the lunch room, and I remember somebody turned to me and said,

hey, do you hear about that new channel called MTV? MTV, you know, we were kind of the MTV generation. We loved music. It moved us. If you're a local here, if you're into pop music, you listen to WZOK. If you are into rock or metal, you listen to 104.9 The X. And I remember watching MTV, and we would watch like downtown Julie Brown and her show Club MTV. I remember running into her and Frank Zappa actually on spring break in Daytona back in the day. But we had our own little club, MTV, here in Rockville, Illinois. It was on the south side on Sandy Hollow Road. It was called Lasers. Some of you remember Lasers? Anybody in here? Any of you? Some of you are like going, I don't know if I should raise my hand or not. Lasers was a teen dance club, so they didn't serve alcohol there, so you could get in as a teenager. I remember Dean and Todd, a couple of my friends, we'd always just go to Lasers, and the place was booming. It had lights. It had fog.

It was like boom, boom, boom. Everybody was dancing around and acting like dorks, and it was fun. It was so much fun. I read an article when I was on vacation that was kind of interesting regarding dancing. And the article was about a study that was done, and in certain parts of America, it's kind of interesting, they said young people are actually a little reluctant to dance. And it went on to say in this study and in this article, the reason is is because now everyone has a smartphone, and everybody's filming everything, and so people don't want to dance because they don't want to become the next meme. And I thought that was kind of sad because in the 80s, there were no cell phones. No one was videoing. If you videoed something, you had a camcorder. It was like the size of a huge box you put on your shoulder. And so it was interesting. The article, the author went on to say that maybe our nation right now and our culture, we become prisoners to the panopticon. The panopticon. You probably never heard that term before. You say, well, what is a panopticon?

It's actually, it's a architectural design of a prison. They called it Panopticon, it's a prison in the round. You may have seen it before, but basically like cells are on the outside of the circle and the guard tower is in the middle of it and it was invented in the 18th century by a British philosopher by the name of Jeremy Bentham. And he proposed that if prisons could be built in the round with the guard tower in the middle, it may actually not only save money, but it will actually keep the prisoners at bay. This is a picture of a Panopticon. It's actually, this is a postcard from way long time ago of Joliet prison. For those of you that watch the Blues Brothers, you might recognize this. And the design is that the guards are in the middle and back in the day there were blinds and then after some advancement, it was like a one-way glass where the guards were behind a mirrored glass and so therefore the prisoners don't know if the guards are watching them. And so this British philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, thought to himself, well, if we could create this kind of an environment, the prisoners won't do anything because they don't know if they are being watched or not. And in 2026, there are people out there,

sociologists and such like that, that are wondering if we as a culture have become prisoners to the cultural Panopticon. In other words, we don't really live because we're afraid of what people might think and people are always watching us. So today, I've entitled my message, I Dare You to Dance. This is not a footloose theme, for those of you from the 80s. I'm not advocating you go get loose at whatever the modern day lasers is or at Lollapalooza or whatever else. What I'm saying is this, I'm talking today about how some of us are so overtly concerned and hyper fixated on what other people think that it's actually limiting your life, especially your Christian life. And it does not matter if you are 16 or you are 66 in here. We all care about what other people think about us and some of us care too much. Some of us have dialed back our faith. Some of us have maybe dialed back our beliefs. Some of us are afraid to say certain things because we're paranoid about what culture might think and a backlash that may come. In fact, some of us are a little afraid because maybe we don't want to say something wrong. And maybe some of us are afraid because if we say it,

we know that a coworker, a neighbor, a friend, a family member, or somebody else might actually become toxic towards us or actually adversarial towards us if we say what we really believe. It takes no courage to agree with what culture agrees with. But it takes a lot of courage to speak out and stand for what God says or what the Bible says. It takes a lot of courage and there could be a backlash to that. And I believe though, what's interesting, I've seen this actually the last couple of years, I read a lot about various polls and studies and things like that, especially in church and faith. And it's interesting, there's actually a remnant of American church, all ages, and especially in the younger ages, that are actually rising up and they're saying, I don't care what culture thinks, I'm standing out for God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So in 2 Samuel chapter six, I want to talk about a man of God by the name of David. And he refused to become a prisoner to culture's panopticon. In fact, he was willing to look foolish in the eyes of some

because he decided to be faithful in the eyes of God. And we can learn a lot from him in our culture and this culture of social media and a lot of criticism and critique and people attacking each other online and all of the different adversarial things that are happening right now. We can learn from him because David is known as actually one of the most prominent kings in the Old Testament. Even today, if you go to Israel and ask about King David, they will talk about him in high esteem. He's kind of like the Abraham Lincoln of America. They look to him and they say, this person was a great leader and a great man of God. And so today I want to look. Look at just one of the stories from his life. There's a lot. If you've never studied David, please study his life. It's a fascinating, but also it is a revolutionary way of understanding how to live for God. He was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he did have a heart after God. And before I dive in the story, I almost got to like rewind now 20 years or so before this story. I got to go back in time and the Israelites, which are God's people, are fighting against our arch enemy called the Philistines again.

And they're in this battle. And the Israelites, God's people, are not really, well, I'd say this. They're not really following God. They kind of have a spirituality about them, but they're not really committed at a heart level to God. And so they're in this battle with the Philistines and somebody gets an idea. They're like, you know what we're gonna do? We should take the Ark of the Covenant and bring it to the battlefield for good luck. So basically the relationship that Israel had with God at that point was one that if they're in trouble, they reached out to God, or if they needed good luck, they'd reach out to God. Some people even today in 2026, that's the way they look at God. They don't really think about God until they're in trouble. And this was really what Israel was like at this point. And so the Ark of the Covenant is not necessarily the Raiders of the Lost Ark version. That's the Hollywood version of it, but really it's this golden box and there's a replica picture of it behind me. This is not the actual Ark, but somebody did a replica of it. And it housed holy items. And it also had the manifest presence of the Almighty God there. In fact, if you touched the Ark,

you would immediately die because it was holy, because God's presence was there. And so the Israelites, they're not really following God, but they bring the Ark into the battle. And they're like, you know what? This will give us good luck. And guess what happens? They lose. Like the Philistines win. The Ark did not bring them good luck because their heart was not connected to God in the right way. And so the Philistines take into captivity the Ark of the Covenant. And they actually bring it back to their land and they put it in a pagan temple to their God. And they just kind of sit it in there. Well, long story short, all kinds of crazy things start happening in the Philistine land. Like there's plagues that come and there's curses and things like that. And it's the reason why is because they have the Ark of the Covenant, which is this holy item. And they are not following God. They're following pagan gods. And finally, after about seven months, the Philistines are so put off by this and so fed up with all the plagues and everything, they actually give the Ark back to Israel.

They're like, you take this thing back. Whatever it is, it's bringing bad luck. And so it comes back to Israel. And what do the Israelites do? They just stick it in somebody's private home. The Ark of the Covenant is like in someone's living room. And 20 years goes by. 20 years. And David now becomes king. And he has a heart after God and he wants to worship God and obey God. And he asks, where is the Ark of the Covenant? And somebody says, oh, it's at Joe's house. I mean, literally, that's the way it is. And so what he does is he goes, okay, I'm gonna bring the Ark of the Covenant back to the capital city of Jerusalem and we're gonna put it in its rightful place. Now, this is huge. It's not just physically bringing the Ark, but what David is doing is he's leading the nation in a spiritual revival. He's saying God has been put somewhere on the outskirts and now we are gonna bring God right back into the middle. You've been looking at God as a good luck charm. You've been kind of keeping God and the presence of God on the skirts or the outskirts of town, you could say. But now what we're gonna do is we're gonna bring God into the rightful place. He's gonna be the center of our society

and he's gonna be the center of our hearts. And so David brings the Ark back and this is where we pick up the story. It's found in 2 Samuel 6, verse 12. So David went there and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David, which is Jerusalem, with a great celebration. Turn the person next to you and say, great celebration. This was not something small, this was huge, all right? Says there, after the men who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, literally they went six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf, which was a form of worship back then. And David danced. And David danced. "'before the Lord with all his might.'" This wasn't a little. With all his might, he danced. In fact, the Hebrew word there for dance, it gives this idea of twirling. He's spinning, he's dancing with all his might. And very interesting, it says this. Wearing a priestly garment. He wasn't wearing his robe. So David and all the people of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the blowing of ram's horns. Now you have to envision this. This is the king, the king.

This is the equivalent of a president or a prime minister of a country who is dancing and twirling and shouting and horns are blowing and they're bringing the presence of God back into the middle of society and culture in a nation. And he's not wearing his robe. He's not in his kingly attire. Instead, he put on the garments of a priest, which is interesting. And he danced his heart out in front of all the people. Putting on the garments of a priest was very symbolic. What he was saying is this. As God is coming back into our society, I am not going to wear my robe of power. Rather, I'm gonna put on an attire of minister and serving. He was saying this. He's like, I'm not in charge here. God is in charge. And so therefore, I am going to be a minister to the Lord. See, kings don't dance. Kings don't dance. They're stately, they're regal. They walk into rooms and everyone else bows. Kings don't act foolish. They don't twirl around like a little child dancing. They must not have emotion because if they have emotion, it shows weakness. And David said, forget all that. I don't care.

I am dancing with celebration because God Almighty is going to be in the middle of our nation, not on the outskirts. He is gonna be the center of my heart. And he danced with all of his might. This was a turning point, actually, in Israel's history. But someone was watching David and it was David's wife. And it says in 2 Samuel 6, verse 16, but as the ark of the Lord entered the city of David, now, I'm gonna pronounce her name Michal. This is not how you pronounce it. There's actually like five different pronunciations. Some people say it's Michael, some say Michal. Okay, the actual way to do it, you have to have a in your voice. It's like Michal, okay? I'm not Jewish. I don't know how to do it right. And if I do it right, it's just gonna sound foolish. So I'm gonna call her Michal, okay? Does that sound good? Michal, the daughter of Saul. Interesting, this is David's wife, but actually, she was the daughter of the previous king, Saul, who did not follow God. In fact, he had actually consulted witches. He was not a holy man at all. He ended up dying a tragic death. And David married his daughter. And it's interesting, when you read the Bible,

you can't just read it just to read it at face value. It has much hidden meaning in it. And the very fact that the author is not saying that she is David's wife, but throughout this entire passage says daughter of Saul is symbolic because she had the heart of her father, not the heart of her husband. She was not following God. And it says this, that basically, she looked down from her window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him. She had the stink eye going on. The Bible says that everyone in Jerusalem was in the street. Everyone was dancing with their King David as the ark is coming in. But Michal is high in the palace, in a window, looking down. This image is very powerful. She is not participating. And she is looking down on everyone else. I've noticed that when you and I, we live a life of worship to God, there are gonna be people who will not participate and they will look down on you. At work, maybe even in your family. family, in your friendship group at school, maybe your mom's group, at the gym, wherever.

They're gonna make fun. They're gonna look down with a haughty spirit. They're gonna make fun of your convictions. They're gonna, they're going to make fun of your beliefs, your actions, your worldview. They're gonna go, why do you go to church? They're gonna look at your generosity and they're gonna go, that's a waste of money. They're gonna sit there with their opinions and they're gonna mock your loyalty to Jesus. My question is this, will you dance anyway? Will you be like David and be like, I don't care? British pastor and theologian John Stott said it this way. He said, persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value systems. Do you understand that your faith and your worldview will never make sense to this culture? I think some Christians believe that loving people is making sure that no one around them is uncomfortable. Hey, guess what? Jesus made a lot of people feel uncomfortable. Now, there's a difference between living out a life of God's word that makes people feel uncomfortable versus being a jerk for Jesus. I'm not saying being a jerk for Jesus. I'm not advocating you go out and try to make enemies, but my point is, is this, your life, your values, your priority, your convictions, it's gonna rub some people wrong. And if that bothers you, it's gonna be very hard

then to live out your faith because throughout the last 2000 years, going all the way back to Jesus and even the way he lived, guess what? Christians and especially Jesus, their lifestyles rub people wrong. Your worldview is going to be counter-cultural. If you're wanting everybody to all play nice like a coexist bumper sticker, it ain't gonna happen. And I know some of you are a little offended by that. Do you understand there's symbols on that coexist bumper sticker that actually all out believe that other symbols on that coexist bumper sticker should not exist? So therefore, we could feel warm and fuzzy about putting it on our bumper, but that is not a reality. The reality is this, the exclusivity of Jesus, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He says, I'm the only way. Every other way does not work. That's gonna rub some people wrong. Reverend Timothy Keller, he's now passed away, he's in heaven now, but I love what he said. He said this, if you are never experiencing opposition because of your Christian faith, you have to ask yourself if anyone knows you are a Christian. There'll be people at school. There'll be people at work. There'll be people at Thanksgiving dinner. There'll be people that do not agree with you.

And my question to you today is this, will you dance anyway? Will you dance anyway? So David blesses the people. Back to our story. All the people in the street, he gives them gifts. He gives them food. The Ark of the Covenant is being ushered into his rightful place. There's horns blowing. He's giving out gifts as a king, and the Ark is put in its proper place, and it says in 2 Samuel 6 20, it says this, when David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, here it is again, not the wife of David, the daughter of Saul. Symbolic, there's a message there the author's trying to tell us, came out to meet him, and she said in disgust, how distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do. Whoa. Whoa. Now, nothing in the scripture, go back and read it, nothing in the scripture innuendoed at all that David was doing anything lewd or off-color. The way he was dressed was not scandalous. There was nothing that he did. She makes an accusation that's absolutely not true. Like literally, he's not doing anything

that's off-color or lewd, and yet she says, you are vulgar. Many times I've noticed this. I've noticed this, City First, that when someone doesn't wanna participate with something, they have to somehow accuse it of being wrong or less than. And this has happened. in our culture in spades. You know what, you know, you hear people who they don't want to have a faith in Jesus, so what do they do? They make it their mission to discredit Christianity, to make church look stupid and foolish, to talk about how the word of God is not legit. They make it their mission to discredit your faith. They point out faults, they point out failures. Now, there's no failures in the word of God and there's no failures in our God, but there are failures sometimes in church, so they'll capitalize on that, they'll talk about it, they'll talk about the one pastor that fell, but they won't talk about the 10,000 pastors that are faithful. You know, they'll talk about that one church that stole money, but they won't talk about the 10,000 churches that didn't. You know why? Planes that land safely don't make the news. And here's the thing, when churches crash and sometimes pastors crash, then all of a sudden, people will make this broad, brush-stroke statement

and they'll be like, yeah, well, Christianity's a crock then. No, no, no, no, no. A person disappointed you, a church disappointed you, Jesus never disappointed you. You understand that? There's a difference, there's a difference. Just realize that when someone is out to discredit Jesus, many times it's an underlying issue in their own life. Many times the loudest criticism is just covering a deeper struggle. And when people attack your faith, don't always assume it's about you. Sometimes the argument they're having with Christianity is actually an argument they're having with God. You hear that? And sometimes criticism is about you. Sometimes criticism isn't about your worship, it's about what your worship exposes. That was a big statement there. I wonder if deep down inside, Mikal, she maybe had pride or she was too concerned about her own appearance. Or maybe there was bitterness somewhere from something in her past. Or maybe there was a fear. I don't know, but there was something there because she goes really like zero to 100 on David, right? Like he walks in the door and he's like, whoa. It actually even says this.

It says in verse 21, David then retorted to Mikal. I was dancing before the Lord who chose me above your father, by the way, and all his family. Because normally, a son of the king becomes the king. But because of Saul and his life and everything, instead God chose somebody else. It wasn't somebody in the family. He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord, David says. Yes, I am willing to look even more foolish than this, honey, even to be humiliated in my own eyes. I love this. It's like, I'm gonna look like a fool, even to me, he says. But those servant girls you mentioned will indeed think I am distinguished. In other words, he's saying this. He's like, they're gonna see an authenticity in my worship. They're actually going to notice that and it's gonna be powerful. So one of the saddest verses in the story. Cal, the daughter of Saul remained childless throughout her entire life from that point on. Like literally, from that point on. We don't know why. We don't know if that was judgment from God or maybe David at that point is like, we're not gonna be together. I don't know.

She remained a wife, but childless. Really, this is a story of someone who is humble and someone who's proud. That's really what the story's about. And can I just remind us, city first, that pride is very dangerous. It's very dangerous. Pride wants to look self-sufficient. Pride wants to look like I'm in control. I'm strong. I'm successful. Humility understands that God is sufficient and that God is in control. And any sort of quote unquote success that we have is because God gave it to us. It's because of him. Oh yeah, but I got abilities. Who gave you those abilities? Well, I learned. Who gave you the ability to learn? Well, you know what? I'm a self-made person. Oh yeah? Who gives you breath in your lungs? You know, pride says, I did it. Humility says, no, God helped me do this. Pride asks, how do I look? Humility asks, what does God see? See, some of us today, we're too concerned about how we look. How do we look to others?

What do people think about me? In fact, we go to great lengths. Some of us, you are curating your life to solicit the approval of others, literally. It's not just social media. Your life. You're trying to buy certain things and drive certain things and wear certain things and do certain things and achieve certain things. Why? So that someone else says, wow, you are somebody. Or it makes you feel better about yourself. There's nothing wrong with nice things. In fact, say first, I hope you all have nice things, as long as those nice things don't have you. You hear that? So this is not about, oh, I can't have anything nice. No. Instead, it's when God gives you nice things, you remember he's your source. And you say, thank you, God. Thank you for this car. Thank you for this shirt. Thank you for this job. Thank you for my family. See, my encouragement to us today is this, is to ask ourselves a question, what does God see in me? Not do other people see. What does Jesus see? What does he see in my heart?

What does he see in my motives? What does he see in my actions? What does he see? Because what if, what if, say first, we were as concerned with God's opinion as we are with everyone else's? How would that change things? You know, it's Superhero Sunday, and we are, we are putting a spotlight on the champions and the illuminators that are a part of our congregation at all of our locations. People with special needs. Well, many of you know this, our youngest son, Paxton, who's almost 15, he'll be 15 in October, he has Down syndrome, and he was one of the inspirations for Champions Club. He loves to dance. It's funny. When he went to Caden and Dakota's wedding, he danced, and then we have pictures of the wedding, and every week, he'll point at the picture, and he'll be like, dance? Like he wants to go back and dance. And it's kind of interesting because Paxton really doesn't care what anybody else thinks. Tries to be a champion, but he doesn't care what anybody else thinks. Trust me, if you see us in a restaurant and he burps real loud, he don't care. He had to burp.

I've often thought, what would it be like to have zero, zero anxiety over what other people think? What would it be like to live that way? Because that's Paxton. He don't care. If only you and I cared as much about God's approval as we do sometimes people's approval. We spend so much time worrying about who's watching us instead of who's watching over us. What if we feared disappointing God more than looking foolish in front of people? See, the greatest freedom comes when God's opinion matters more than everyone else's. And that right there is the topic that I want to drive home today. Leaving here, leaving church, what would it be like if we cared more about God's opinion than anyone else's? So city first, today I dare you to dance. Quit living in the panopticon. I dare you to dance and say God's opinion is the most important thing. His opinion is my identity. His opinion is my worldview. His opinion is how I'm going to live. And guess what? If people in their windows look down on me with contempt, So be it, because like David said, I'll look even more foolish than this. I don't care, because I care about what God cares about. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that Jesus today,

that we would care more about Your opinion. We would care more about Your Word. We would care more about what You say than anything else. Lord, I pray that the spirit of David would be in us, that we would be willing to look foolish in culture's eyes, but faithful in Yours. Some of us today, we've been living in the prison, because we are too fixated on what other people think. Today, Lord God, help us to be fixated on Your thoughts, on Your opinions, and Lord God, on Your approval. We love You. In Jesus' name, everybody said, Amen. Come on, we've got a huge round of applause. What an amazing message, and I just want to challenge you this week to put into practice what we learned, and then also to share this message with those that are in your life. And we do want to take a moment and say that if you did pray that prayer to make Jesus the leader and forgiver of your life, we want to let you know that we are celebrating with you. That is the best decision that you will ever make, and we would love to, as your church family, come alongside you in this journey of following Jesus and help you with a few next steps. First, tell someone about the decision that you made. We are not meant to walk this life alone. Secondly, we have a free resource just for you called New Beginning. It's a simple 14-day devotional as you start growing in your relationship with Jesus. When you sign up for this resource, you're also going to receive a link to a few videos from our pastors, Jeremy and Jen. And these videos are going to guide you through how to pray, how to read the Bible, how to build relationships that are Christ-centered. And as you start this journey, we just want to make sure you know

that you can reach out to us at any point with any questions, or if there's something we can do to help you grow in your faith, just simply jump on the website, send us an email, or you can even DM us on social media. Then, after you walk through that New Beginning resource, a next great step to take is to join Growth Track, which starts the first Sunday of the month. This is a great way to discover your God-given purpose and design. You can attend in person or online. And if you'd like more information or want to sign up, you can visit the app or scan the QR code on your screen. And finally, if you need prayer for anything, jump on the app and you can enter a prayer request at any moment. And we have a team of people that are praying over every single request that comes in, praying consistently. One of the best things that you can do, though, is to come back to church and to bring somebody with you. So, we just want to take a moment and say thank you again for gathering today. We hope you have a great week. That's right, guys. We love you and we're praying for you. And we'll catch you guys next week.