[SERMON] Following God is the Best Game Plan - Level Up Sunday

On Level Up Sunday, Pastor Cyle celebrates students advancing to the next grade and shares how God is moving in the next generation through baptisms and youth ministry. Drawing from the story of David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, the message explores how good intentions can never replace God's directions — and how obedience must come before worship. When David chose God's way over his own, the result was joyful, uninhibited celebration. The sermon challenges us to care more about God's approval than people's opinions, to stop asking God to follow our plan and instead follow His, and to trust that the One who knows the whole plan is worth following — even when it looks foolish to the world. God's plan is simple: know Him and make Him known.

Transcript

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We want to take time to share with you about our children's ministry and our youth ministry because uh we have a hundred students in our children's ministry. We have uh 55 to 65 kids a week in our high school and middle school ministry come here on Sunday nights. We have a lot of kids learning about the Lord. We had 50 baptisms here, but we also had, I think, uh over 12 or 15 kids from our own church get baptized at Somerset Beach Camp along with that. So God is moving in the younger ages of our church, and we want you to know that we take it serious that the Bible matters to us, but also to our children. That's why we're giving it away to our middle school students and to our kindergartners. We want you to, as a family, we want you to impact them with the word, make the word important, not only by getting them to church, getting them to children's ministry, getting them to youth ministry, but getting them to church and getting yourself here as well, because we believe that following God is the best game plan. Now, the reason I have a jersey on is because I was told wear a jersey. This is like the second time I've worn Michigan stuff in 10 years here. I don't normally wear it, but I figure I've been spending a lot of time with Ohio State fans and Penn State fans and Michigan State fans lately. I can get away with one in every five years. So I spent a lot of time with them. So, and the reason why they said why you wear this one, I don't own any other ones this big. So, like, I did have uh five people volunteer to let me borrow their Ohio State uh jerseys last service. So uh think I'm good on if I ever need to borrow one. Uh the answer is still no. Uh so but uh but our big idea for this month is following God is the best game plan. That is what we're teaching our children all month long. All of our stories will be about David, different parts of David's life, which will point back to following God is the best game plan. So that's what we're gonna talk about today because these stories that our children are learning, guess what? They're good enough for us to learn too. This is God's word. And so this one's about the Ark of the Covenant. Now, where are my Indiana Jones fans? Who who knows what the Ark of the Covenant is, right? Remember to see that that movie? So uh Ark of the Covenant. I don't have an Ark of the Covenant replica. I probably should have one, but I have something that I think that's similar. I'm gonna share it with you. So uh yeah, I have it over here. Here is my my version of the Ark of the Covenant. Anyone know what this is? Oh, sorry. There is there any Minnesota fans? I could have bought my Paul Bunyan trophy. I didn't bring that one, so I was being very nice. So this is uh this is my version of the Ark of the Covenant. This is the little brown jug, which is a trophy that it has won when Michigan and Minnesota play. The winner of the game gets this trophy. Now it is similar, it's it's not the residence of God like the Ark of the Covenant, but this is a powerful symbol for people. And I have seen people dance and act clamorously foolish when they win this. Because what happens is this is actually placed on a padded cart, and then it has sides that come up that are padded. They lock it up, they have a padlock, they roll it out, it's a whole ceremony, pumping circumstances. They roll it out of the sidelines, they crack it open, and it's like, oh, and it sits on the sidelines. This is what happens. Now, this is smaller than the original one. The original one's actually a little a lot bigger, heavier. They keep the scores of the games on the Victor side, so there's there's a lot more on the Michigan side. Um, but yeah. And uh but ultimately this sits there all game, and then when the game is over, whoever wins the battle gets to charge over to the other side and grab it and hoist this up, and this is something that is cherished. And they celebrate. I've seen people kiss this, I've seen people run around the field with it, I've seen people dance with it, I've seen people do foolish things with trophies. This is what David was doing. They were bringing the trophy, the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God's power. They were bringing it back to Jerusalem, and we see this story that we saw on screen. And so this is kind of my stand-in for the ark today. And what we find out in the story is that God's way is always better than my way. Uh, we go to Psalms 33, 11 in scripture. Now we're gonna read this together from God's word. So, Psalms 33.11. I don't have anything in yellow, so you're gonna say uh this word here forever. Okay? When we get there, you guys all say that really loud and loud and proud, ready? So Psalm 33.11. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever. Good. The purposes of his heart through all generations. So we we know as a church that God's plan matters. And God's plan is big, God's plan is firm, God's plan can run through generations, and God has a plan for you. The problem is we all know God's plan, but we often replace that plan with just good intentions. I want to live a good life, I want to try to be a good person. I say this all the time, but 78% of Americans think they're above average. That's not possible. That's what the statistics say. We all think that we're good people with good intentions and we're better than everyone else. But the reality is we're not. And so good intentions don't replace God's directions. Just because you want to be a good person, there's a lot of good people in the world who do have good intentions, but they're not following God's plan. And for us, we want to follow God's direction for our life, God's plan for our life, and that comes from reading his word, knowing his son, Jesus, and living for him. And in this story, there's some background in the story of things that are going on that probably will make it make more sense. So in the story, God made it very clear to them how they were to transport the ark of the covenant. They had recently gotten the ark back from the Philistines who had captured the ark and had the ark in their city. The problem is, wherever the ark of the covenant was, that's the seat of God. And if you are followers, Jehovah, followers of God, guess what? God blesses you. If you're the enemy and you've captured it, God curses you. The Philistines did not want the Ark of the Covenant anymore because God was cursing them with it. And so they end up, the Israelites got the Ark of the Covenant back. It was in a town, it was in a house, that the family that was in their house, they were blessed immensely. And so uh the leadership decided to take the ark back to Jerusalem. And there were two op two tries for this. The first one, they took the Ark of the Covenant and they said, We know God told us how to handle this thing, but we've decided we want to get a cart, just like they do with Trophies Day. We're gonna put it on a cart, we're gonna put all this padding on it, we're gonna stick some ox into it, and we're gonna haul this thing back to Jerusalem, and we're gonna bring it in the city, and everybody will be able to see it. And so they took off with the ark on a cart. And as they were going along the way, anybody ever have one of those um little red wagons? Anyone have those? And you put kids in it, and then you run around the yard as fast as you can, and you and then it tips it over, and the kids spill out. Anyone? Anyone have that happen before? Okay, like listen, you guys never raise your hands for stuff, but you've got a lot of people dangering kids, so that's never actually happened to me. No, I'm just kidding. Um, but ultimately, what happens with the cart? They're going back to Jerusalem, and guess what happens? The cart gets wobbly, and the ark starts to tip. And so there's this guy named Uzzah. Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark because nobody wants the holy place of God to fall off the cart, right? And guess what happens to Uzzah? Anybody know? He dies immediately. He dies. Because in his disobedience, in their disobedience to God, he touched the ark, and he touched the ark on the cart. It wasn't supposed to be on a cart. Obedience puts us in step with God. Disobedience puts us out of step with God. In Exodus 23, this is back when we got the Ten Commandments and many of the laws that the Jews live by. Back in Exodus, it says this remember the yellow part's yours, you shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it. So God told his people, When you're transporting my ark, run the poles through the rings and leave them there and carry it only by hand through the countryside, through the city. There was actually a group of Jews, kind of a sect of Jews, that their whole job was to be the transporters of the ark, and they were supposed to like carry it with them. So when they decided to put the ark on the wagon, pulled by the oxen, they were actually disobeying a direct command of God. God said, do one thing. They were just being people with good intentions. Oh, we'll take it, we'll take good care of it. We'll put the oxen. That's much safer, right? We don't have to worry about anybody's trip or anything. But they did, in their good intentions, they they were disobedient to God's plan and God's way. And so what happens is Uzzah dies. David and everyone get, they get frustrated, they're mourning, they're lost a friend, and they decide we're still going to take the ark to Jerusalem. So David rallies the people, they get the poles, they do what they were supposed to in obedience to God, and they take the ark to Jerusalem. He actually sacrifices some cattle when they go six steps, and then they go on to Jerusalem. And so they enter into Jerusalem with no other further issues, nobody else dies because they're listening to God, they're obeying God, and they get into the city, and people are cheering and they're celebrating. God's presence is now with them, which brings blessing, which brings victory, and they're excited. There's a celebration, there's dancing. But before David danced, David obeyed. He went back to being obedient to God, not saying, We know better than you, God, we know how to handle this thing. No, instead, they listened to God's plan for how to handle the ark. And when you know God is good, then your worship gets personal. Once David recognized that being obedient to God, that was where he needed to be, and his good God would bless them and take care of them, that gets personal. And you have worship that gets personal. And so David, in his excitement, his jubilation, I've seen, I've seen people get their trophies to run around the field like crazy people. I remember we won in 1997 when we beat a hostate to go to the Rose Bowl. People threw roses out of the stands. The guys had roses in their mouths, and you're running around with roses in your mouth, and you're just having the good old time, acting clamorously foolish, like David did, celebrating. And in this this moment, David danced naked. Plague on the plate. He wasn't naked. Okay. Alright, thank you. Thank you, referee. Anyone ever hear that David danced naked before the Lord? Nobody's raised their hand. I have heard some of you say this to me. All right. You know David danced naked. People say all the time. Um so some translations of the Bible, that's why it's important to know which translation you have. Some translations of the Bible translate this moment that David is dancing what seems to be naked. And so people will actually say, you know, David danced naked before the Lord. He wasn't actually naked, he was actually wearing a linen ephod, which was undergarments. So you could say that David danced in his undergarments, David danced in his underwear before the Lord. And that's why his wife, Michael, was upset, because he is dignified. He's the ruler, he's God's chosen person. No way should you be in the streets in your underwear, dancing like a fool, right? You should be wearing your robes, and everybody should be worshiping and celebrating you as king, as the ruler. But no, David was so excited about the goodness of his God that he was kind of just doing his own thing, celebrating God in his own way, dancing in the streets in a linen ephod. So David, he worshiped while Michael watched. And she was upset. Now, uh, if you look at the story and you saw here, like what Mike, what happened to Michael was she got she caught the ick, right? Anybody know what that means? She caught the ick. Anyone ever caught the ick before? Some of you are just like, I have no idea what that language is. That's called Gen Alpha, people. So uh yeah. Caught the ick. She's kind of grossed her out. So much so that their whole relationship was like done from that moment forward. Like they never had children, they were kind of at odds. And the Bible even says that Michael basically caught the ick, while others looked at David as like a hero. And that even though he was acting foolish, they saw that and they respected that because he was doing it in his service of his Lord. He was he was worshiping his God. Now I had thought today, I should bring two volunteers up. We should play some music, we should have a little dance off, and we would see what people do. And then I thought to myself, you know what people are gonna do? I don't dance. I don't dance. I'm not doing that, right? Because we don't want to act foolish in front of people. We don't want people to laugh at us or make fun of us or talk about it later. But David didn't care. David was worshiping the Lord. He didn't care what people thought of himself. And really, for us as Christians, following God may look foolish to people watching. When we live our lives, when we follow God's word, guess what? The world's gonna disagree. The world's gonna think the way that we're living, which is different than they want us to live, it's foolish. We're gonna talk different, we're gonna act different, we're gonna be different, we're gonna speak different, we're gonna eat and drink different, we're gonna spend our time different, we're gonna treat people different. And the world says go one direction, we're gonna go the opposite direction, and when we don't go where the world wants to go, they're gonna say we are foolish, we're dumb. When I was at Michigan, I was in religious studies, and so for four years I went to religion classes while I was in school, and every one of my classes was essentially these all these other religions are correct, Christians are idiots, right? That was literally every class I went to, and so I argued for four years. It was like the best thing for me because I came out of college knowing what I believed. A lot of people didn't. A lot of people lost their faith because they didn't know really what they believed and why they believed. And the the professors and the classmates I had, they thought I was acting foolish because I was different. I didn't participate in the things that other people participated in. I lived differently from the world, but I was doing it in worship of my God. I was following this and his plan, not the plan of the world. And see, David cared more about God's approval than people's opinions. And I think as us as Christians, we need to care more about people, God's approval than people's opinions. And we often get stuck in caring more about people's opinions than God's approval. What will so-and-so say about me? What will so-and-so think about me? What will they think about me at school? What will they say about me at work if they find out that I'm living a Christian life or I don't do that or I don't participate in that? I had I just I was spent some time with a friend yesterday, and a friend told me, told me this. He goes, uh, when I go to work, people ask me, hey, after work, you want to go get a beer? Like after work? And he's like, I don't drink. And he's he tells them that, and they're like, Well, you just come in, we'll just have one. We're not gonna get drunk. He's like, I don't want to go there. They're like, Well, you you could you could find somebody to fall in love with there. He's like, I don't want to find those people there. Like, do you not understand what I'm telling you? And they think he's living a foolish lifestyle because the world says do this, and he's saying, My God says, do this. This is what I want for my life, this is what I want for my relationships, this is what I'm choosing for me. See, that looks foolish to the world, but in God's eyes, that's part of his plan. So, what we need to do is stop asking God to follow our plan, and we need to start following his plan. His plan. What does his word say? What does his spirit say to us? How does he convict us to live and to spend our time? This is something I regularly think about. What does God tell me about how I spend my time, how I treat people, how I live my life, because he has a plan for us. And here's the plan. God's plan is to know God and make him known. Know Christ, make him known. That's it. That is the only plan. It's not to play sports, it's not to have every life experience, it's not to go hunting, fishing, boating, sewing, doing, have every experience that you want, travel everywhere you want. That's not God's plan. That is your plan. God's plan is to live for him and tell others about him. Know him and make him known. And when we do that, that's when we stay in the plan of God. That's if you want the blessing that David and his people experience by having God with you, it's being in God's plan and following his plan. Not listening to what the world says is important. Not trying to have all those experiences and all those things the world tells us and pushes on us. It's living for God and making sure that others live for him as well. And so, what does this mean for you? Why are we talking about this? I think following God doesn't require knowing the whole plan. You don't have to know the whole plan. It's just trusting the one who does know the whole plan. God knows the whole plan. The whole plan's in here. It's pretty clear. Live for Jesus, spend eternity with him. Now, all the details of the plan, I don't know. He knows them. I just gotta trust that he's got all the details worked out for me. And as long as I'm following his lead, it's all gonna work out. Because following God is the best plan for my life. And so maybe the question you need to think about today is this where do you need to choose God's way over your way? Where do you need to choose God's plan over your plan? Where do you need to say, hey, you know what, God, I've been following my plan. I've been making life all about me. All about me. And I've been fitting you in when I have a little extra time, a little extra money. But how can I make my life more about you all the time instead of fitting you in to my plan? How about I live God's plan for my life and watch what that does? We've been trying to teach this over the summer. You know, we've been saying things like, hey, wake up every day and say, Lord, interrupt my plan and my will with yours today. I've been doing that, it's been crazy. So I probably should stop doing this being so crazy. But like, I got free board games yesterday. Now, I told you guys, I love board games. I literally was driving to a card show over in Ship Shawana, first time I ever went, and on the way there, I happened to see a split-second flash of a like a like a sign, like ours, an electronic sign. And it said, Welcome, Jen non board gamers. Now, that's gonna always catch my attention. But the thing only flashed for like five seconds at a time. I just happened to be driving around down Route 12, near Cold Water, in the middle of nowhere, saw this thing. I said, you know what? I should stop there on the way back and see what that is, because I'm a board gamer and that's my thing. So I went to Shipshawana, came back, stopped at this place. It was literally an HVAC company that had that sign in the front yard. So there were a bunch of cars, it was closed, so I just I went up, opened the door. Inside are my people, board gamers, a lot of them, like 40 board gamers. Like that's Stacey, you need to start having board games in your lobby. So I think it's over there at Mechanical Streams. But like they're all playing board games. And it literally they just said, we get together one day a year, and all they're a bunch of Christian guys from a free Methodist church that I know the pastor of, uh out in Coldwater, and they just play board games and they're just having fun. And they're all sitting and have me all doing life together, being different from the world, living, and so they hear the guy's like, Hey, do you want to stay? I was like, Well, I can't, I gotta go. But he's like, Do you want a free board game? I was like, Oh, I definitely want free board games. So I left with two, so yeah, it was great. So sometimes when you let God's plan be your plan, you leave with free board games, guys. Come in, it's it's great. These things I can't make them up, they just happen. And you know, the first thing passed said, You didn't pay for those? I said, Nope, we're good. So but following God is always the best plan. If you follow God, if you really follow God, your life will be good. It doesn't mean it'll be perfect, it doesn't mean you won't have problems, it doesn't mean you won't have health issues, it doesn't mean that your kids won't fall away, it doesn't mean that it just means that it'll be good. So follow God's plan. It will work out in the end for you if you just trust him, trust his plan and follow it. Stop following the world's plan, stop listening to what the world tells you on social media, on TikTok, on Facebook, and all those things, and just follow his plan that's in his word. And then watch what it does to your life. We gotta celebrate 50 some baptisms this summer. Uh today we get to celebrate more. We get to see what God is doing in the lives of people that are following his plan, and it's awesome. Make sure you're following his plan too. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you for, Lord, we just thank you for the opportunity to just go into the Bible and hear this story from David's life, and Lord, understand it's important to be obedient to your word. Lord, you you tell us how to live. You give us a guidebook, you give us advice, you give you showed us the best example in Jesus, and yet, Lord, we still struggle to follow your plan. And we pray that we can be a church of people who recognize that sometimes our plan, it gets in the way of your plan. And Lord, we need to do better. We need to Lord, we just need you to lead us, and we need to follow. And Lord, we need you to forgive us for not always following. And we need to submit to your plan and watch how you lead us and what you do. And Lord, we just pray that we can be a church of people who are united, both individually and corporately, and serving you and following your plan for our lives. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.