Welcome, All Flawed Followers!

Well, Flawed Follower is the name of our next series here at Twin Lakes Church. Good morning! My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church, and before I get into the message, I have some very exciting, very personal news. Are you ready for this? Are you in suspense? This past Friday afternoon, our daughter Elizabeth gave birth to our sixth grandchild. Welcome, Owen Alexander Kantorik! Look at him flexing! He's already got abs! I love this kid! I feel like I'm just on a cloud right now. I'm just high. It's gonna be very hard to concentrate. Can we just conclude the service so I can go visit my grandchild right now? I heard too many "Amen's." I don't know about that, but I want to thank you for all your prayers. Mom and baby are doing great, and now I'm gonna try to concentrate.

If you're new, you picked a wonderful, wonderful weekend to join us because the fall is always the time that we start exciting seasons. We always launch a new series that ties into small groups, kind of in order to get us all together again after we were dispersed during the summer, and this year we start a series on Simon Peter, St. Peter in the Bible. Peter is probably my favorite character in the Bible aside from Jesus Christ. Check this out. Peter is mentioned more in the New Testament than anyone except for Jesus Christ, and it's not even close. For example, look at some of the other apostles. John is mentioned 20 times. Andrew is mentioned 12 times. Thomas is mentioned 10 times. Peter is mentioned 120 times, and what this means is that you could say Peter's eyes are the main windows through which we see Jesus Christ, right?

When Jesus teaches, when he does miracles, when he is even tortured, you know, at the end and Pilate condemns it to death, Peter is there every single time watching, and I figured if Peter is this important to the writers of the Bible, then I kind of want to get to know him a little bit better. And so what I did starting about two years ago is went back to Israel, went to the Sea of Galilee where Jesus called Peter. I went fishing on the oldest continuously operating fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee with some fishermen, even rented a paddleboard. I figured this was the closest I was ever gonna get to walking on water, so that was a lot of fun.

Even went to Jerusalem and we found some unknown by tourists first-century tombs, and I got to go inside and explore some of these tombs that are off the beaten track in order to kind of feel what it might have been like for Peter to go into these tombs and discover that the tomb of Jesus Christ was empty, and then we wound up in Rome earlier this year where I got to go visit the once secret excavations under the Vatican searching for the tomb of St. Peter, so it was a very exciting experience. All of this is available at flobfollower.com, and I did this because I don't want this study to just be information. I don't just want it to be education. I want you to feel like you are actually traveling with Peter through all of these sites, following Jesus when Jesus first calls you, when the storms of life strike, when Jesus gets confusing and says things that are alarming, when panic attacks, when the pressure hits, when you've fallen, when surprising doors open, and more.

These are all titles related to stories about Simon Peter in the Bible that are so relevant. This is gonna encourage you. It's gonna challenge you. It's going to unify us in a potentially divisive season. Now, next weekend is week one, and that's the week when our small groups start. I'd encourage you, whether this is your first time or thousandth time here at Twin Lakes Church, sign up for a small group. You can do it outside or at tlc.org/smallgroups.

Now, I want to tell you why I actually decided to do this as a project. I saw something happening, especially lately as a pastor among people who you could say were maybe faith adjacent, people who were starting to attend church, this church, but were a little hesitant to commit themselves to Jesus Christ, and maybe you'll be able to relate to this. I spoke to more and more people who told me, "Well, René, I'm drawn to Jesus Christ, but frankly, I'm repelled by church, not necessarily by the things that are going on at Twin Lakes Church, but kind of like by church people who are hypocrites, or even people who would visit church and say, 'I'm drawn to Jesus, but I disqualify myself from getting involved in a church because I just don't fit in. I'm not like all these other people.'

And in fact, maybe this describes you. Maybe you grew up in a church, a Baptist church, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist. Maybe you were even baptized as a child, but as you grew up in that church the way you perceived it, whether or not this was accurate or not, the message you got was it's all about rules and regulations and formalities and rituals you didn't understand, and do this and don't do that, and you just weren't good at it. And somewhere along the line you decided if you couldn't do it perfectly then you wouldn't do it at all, and so you left. And maybe even the churchy people kind of pushed you out the door. They put so much pressure on you, you just finally said, 'You know what? I'm out. I'm out. And if I go to hell, I go to hell.' At least I'll know people there. You know, you even said that line. 'I just can't play this game anymore.'

And maybe even later in life, like when you visited, you know, at Christmas Easter or maybe at a funeral, or maybe even you've been visiting the last few weeks or months, and you kind of sit in the back and you look around and go, 'There's something about Jesus that's attractive, but I don't think I'm like these people.' They all seem to have no doubts. It seems like they've got it all together. They're so disciplined and that's just not me. I don't fit in. And I want to put your mind at ease today because you know what? Even a lot of church people feel like I'm drawn to Jesus, but I still have many questions about Jesus and some of the things Jesus taught and some of the things the church believes. I don't always understand Jesus. Jesus has clear words. Sometimes don't make sense to me. How could I call myself a follower of Jesus? I don't always like Christians and I am one. A lot of church people feel like that. And it's not just them, it's me.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on the right track, but then I return to my old nagging habits, my sins, and consequently I can feel unworthy to call myself a Christian. I feel like I shouldn't be a hypocrite, so maybe I should stop doing this whole thing, and maybe you've even done that and gone through that cycle. I can't do this anymore, but I'm drawn to Jesus. I'll come back. I just can't do this. One thing that might encourage you is I've felt all these things and I'm a pastor. I mean from the very beginning when I was called to be a pastor here at this church, I was working as a disc jockey in Reno and also pastoring this small church up at Lake Tahoe and when the committee called and said, 'Well, you would like to consider being a pastor at Twin Lakes Church, you know what I said?' I said, 'Not me. I'm not good enough. I'm not experienced enough. I am not the guy you're looking for.'

Well, they didn't really like it very much. They said, 'Why don't you know, we'll tell you the kind of person we're looking for.' And I said, 'No, I'll tell you.' And I literally told them, 'Here's the kind of person that you should get to be pastor of Twin Lakes Church and it's not me. I don't feel like I fit in. I don't feel like I qualify.' And even after that, there's been many times I felt like such a fool as a pastor. I just don't have the skills. Like for example, as I say in the book, one of the basic skills for any pastor of any church is to actually know the names of the people in your church. A skill I can't seem to master.

One time I was out in the lobby here and I came up to a woman and I said, 'Okay.' And she started chatting. I said, 'Could you just remind me of your name? I know we've met before.' And she looks at me, she goes, 'No, no. I'm not gonna tell you my name.' And I said, 'Well, why?' And she said, 'I have told you my name three times.' And you still don't remember. And I said, 'I'm so sorry I've got a bad memory.' She goes, 'No, it's not your memory. You're just not listening.' I said, 'No, no, no. I'm listening.' I just, she goes, 'No, you're not listening.' I said, 'Please just tell me your name. I promise you I won't forget.' And she says, 'Okay, my name is René.' I deserved the diss because I apparently had not been listening.

So yeah, I can feel unworthy too. But if you've ever felt like this, you know what's the beautiful thing? Once you remove all of the stained glass and the halos and all the religious encrustations that we put onto all these Bible stories, these Bible characters are exactly like this. They were not haloed perfect saints. In fact, Simon Peter could have said all of these very same things and worse. Simon Peter was impulsive, probably one of the most impulsive characters in the Bible. He never looked before he left. He never thought before he spoke. Peter was often clueless about Jesus and just clueless in general. Peter's the guy who always says the wrong things at parties. Peter's the guy who never seems to be able to read a room. Peter's the socially awkward guy. Peter could be very egotistical at times. He could be stupidly aggressive, very unreliable, self-loathing.

I mean, just for example, some of the episodes that we're gonna see in this series, when Jesus first calls Peter to follow him, Peter refuses. He says, 'Nope, I'm not the guy. Not the man you're looking for. Go away. Go away. I'm a sinful man.' One time, Peter in faith starts walking on water, eyes on Jesus, but quickly loses his faith, gets scared, starts to drown, and that becomes kind of emblematic of Peter's entire up and down, up and down, up and down life. For example, another time he vows to stand with Jesus in his time of trial and then promptly falls asleep on Jesus. And every time I see one of you asleep in church, I remind myself even Jesus Christ had to deal with us. So that kind of makes me feel better.

But another time Peter vows he will never deny Jesus, even if threatened with death. And the first person who challenges him, who happens to be a young servant girl, makes Peter instantly cave. And then Peter denies Jesus three times and weeps with disgust and self-loathing over it. And that character I just described to you that did all that, Jesus Christ makes him the leader of the early Jesus movement. How did Jesus do that? Man, I want to know because that can bring me such encouragement and I know it'll bring you such encouragement. That is why we call this series "Flawed Follower Hope for Imperfect, Inconsistent, Confused People Who Still Love Jesus." Because the more you see how Jesus changed Peter, the more you'll understand and be encouraged by how Jesus can change you too.

You don't have to pretend you're perfect. In fact, to set the stage for the series, here's an important question. How do we even know all these embarrassing stories about Peter? Like they're so embarrassing. Was somebody against Peter in the early church who was recording all of his pratfalls? Well check this out. According to the very earliest Christian writers, like the first generation after the New Testament was written, here's how it happened. Peter later in life traveled throughout the world telling people about Jesus and his assistant who traveled with him was a young man named John Mark. And John Mark wrote what's in our Bibles now as the gospel of Mark, which is a collection of Peter's memories, Peter's stories about what it was like to follow Jesus.

This was the universal opinion of the very, very earliest, the first generation of Christians. In other words, all these stories of Peter's awkwardness and failures and denials came from Peter. Peter is telling these stories on himself. I want you to think of this because I think any other person kind of getting the baton handed to them from some beloved religious figure, especially Jesus Christ, they probably would be tempted to sort of pad their resume with all kinds of self-glorifying stories. Everybody else was clueless, but I'm the one who always understood Jesus Christ first. So clearly qualified. Peter doesn't do that at all. In fact, Peter's relentless about what a clueless goofball he was just face planting over and over.

Why would Peter tell these stories on himself? This is why. The dynamic that I just described, this was happening then too. And we'll go into more detail on that in this series. And so Peter had something to say to every one of us who's ever felt like, "Am I really allowed to cross the line and say, 'I want to follow Jesus because I'm far from perfect. Maybe I've got to be perfect first.'" And Peter's saying, "There's something you really need to know about how Jesus operated." Jesus' call is not an invitation to perfection. Jesus' call is an invitation to relationship, to be with him. And it starts with a simple request "Follow me." That's how Jesus invited people. "Just follow me." He didn't give people theological quizzes. He didn't make them fill out a job application. "Hey you, take a little baby step with me. Tag along. Watch. Listen. Learn what you see in me."

I love this word follow. Follow means movement. Follow means you're getting somewhere. Follow means you're not stuck. Follow means you're making progress. You're changing. You're going somewhere. One step at a time. Continually, you're following. That's the invitation of Jesus Christ. It's interesting, one of the first things Peter tells us through Mark is about the first few days that Peter followed Jesus in Mark chapters one and two, and that's what I want to focus on this morning in this preview message. Because if you look at the kinds of stories Peter tells, it's clear that he's trying to make a point about what it was like to follow Jesus in those early days. I imagine Peter as an old man saying, "Mark, Mark, come over here. Get your pen and your parchment and write this down. People need to know this."

Jesus said, "Follow me" first to a group of fishermen including Peter. Now we're gonna see more details on this next weekend. It's a great story and I've learned some details I never knew before, but fishermen were seen as very lower class in those days. One ancient writer, I found a treasure trove here, a first century Roman writer named Athanas. He was a comedy writer. Romans loved comedy too, and he actually wrote a book about comedy that is highlights of like different plays that he thought were funny, different scenes. And one whole chapter is devoted to insults directed toward fishermen and fishmongers that he thought were just hilarious, an entire chapter of his book.

And here's some of the gems that he collected. Somebody said, "When I see the fishmongers of all tribes, far the worst, bending their sulky eyes down to the ground, I am disgusted. A good burn." You know, he loved these. Other words used to describe fishermen were moody, stubborn, and homicidal. And Jesus sees them and goes, "Perfect. Come, follow me." And again, we'll see more details next weekend. And then Jesus goes from there to heal even worse outcasts, the demon possessed. I mean, nobody wanted to be around these people. They freaked everybody out, and Jesus frees them. And I imagine Peter saying, "And then, guess what? It got weirder." Because then came a leper. The Bible says, "A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, 'If you're willing, you can make me clean.'

Now in those days, lepers were feared, lepers were ostracized, lepers were avoided. In fact, they had a word for lepers, "unclean." Yeah, look at what Jesus does. It says, "Jesus reached out his hand, and..." And I could just imagine Peter at this moment, he had been thinking, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, don't touch him." Because if you touch him, Jesus, you become ceremonially unclean. And if you become ceremonially unclean, then you know what we have to do? We have to take a six-day journey down to Jerusalem. And it has to... there's days of rituals for you to become ceremonially clean again in a religious way. And then we've got to come all the way back, another six, seven-day journey all the way back up here to the north of Galilee. So please, Lord, if you're going to do something for this guy, just say something. Pray for him or something like that. Don't touch him.

And, and I think Peter said, and I'll never forget this, "And Jesus touched the man." "Touched leper." "I am willing," he said, "be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. Fantastic. So fishermen, demon-possessed, lepers, this is all happening like in approximately the first week or so. One right after the next. And then Jesus heals a paralyzed man. Now in ancient times, if anybody was sick in a serious way, like paralyzed, it was their fault. That's what people thought. They believe that major sickness was punishment for some major sin. It meant you have been cursed by God. God found you out. Oh, nobody else may know. You may not confess it, but we all know what a sinner you are because look, you're blind, you're lame, you're paralyzed. Jesus heals him. And Jesus also says, "Your sins are forgiven," to make sure there's no more taboo, there's no more curse associated with this guy.

Now look at these scripts. There's only one more group that was more ostracized, more loathed, more avoided than all of these. Like there was one group even the lepers avoided. And guess where Jesus goes next? The tax collectors. That's right. Jesus sees Matthew, also known as Levi, the tax collectors, for the Romans. I mean, everybody loathed the Romans. They were the oppressive foreign power and the especially loathed Jewish men who worked for the Romans, and especially loathed Jewish men who worked for the Romans who extracted money from them. There was a lot to hate there, and for Jesus it was personal. Because what kicked off this first week or so of ministry for Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke, was that the tetrarch, the Roman puppet governor in this part of Judea, Herod, had just killed Jesus Christ's cousin, John the Baptist.

So this guy works for a power that has just killed your cousin. Like you just got back from your cousin's funeral. You see a guy there who's a part of, who's associated with that repressive regime. And Jesus goes, "Hew, follow me. This is incredible." And the fishermen are going, "No, don't do that, Jesus. We can't stand those people." And the lepers are like, "Come on." But the tax collectors come in. Now the tax collectors were so ostracized that the only friendship circle they had was really bad sinners, like other tax collectors, and those called sinners in those days, which would have been prostitutes, and so on. And Matthew that night has a party at his house, and guess where Jesus goes? To those people to call them to follow him too.

And how do we know that he called them to follow him too? Well, because a bunch of the religious leaders are really upset about this whole thing, right? Especially this part. He's already, in fact, there's opposition starts right around here, because he says your sins are forgiven. And then here, and then it really ramps up here. They go outside Matthew's house, and they're like knocking on the door, and says, "We want to talk to Jesus, because this ain't right. You can't go eat with these people. You can't associate with these people. You say you're just a kind of holy man or preacher. Uh-uh, these people have got to be off limits for you. We've got to straighten you out." And Jesus is having too much fun at the party or something, because he won't even go outside to talk to these guys. Instead, he tells one of his disciples, "You go and tell them, 'I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.'

How many people, from a personal standpoint, because you're a sinner, think this is very, very good news? Anybody excited about that? There's three things I see from this very early snapshot of the ministry of Jesus Christ. And you're going to see these themes come up again and again in this series. They're so glorious. Number one, being a sinner does not disqualify me from following Jesus. Can I hear an amen? Being a sinner does not disqualify me. There is nothing that you have done. There is no sin. There is no habit. There is no compulsion. There's no addiction. There's no problem. There's no pain that puts you outside of the people Jesus calls to follow Him. I mean, you know what all those stories tell me? If Jesus met you today, Jesus would like you. Jesus would love you. Jesus would not be put off by anything about you.

In fact, not only is being a sinner not a disqualification, you could say, "It's actually a prerequisite." Because unless you realize that you're weak, you won't turn to Jesus for strength. And I want you to think about this. Here's sort of a side benefit. Realizing we're all flawed followers of Jesus Christ. Realizing Jesus has things to work on in my own life has this benefit to unity in the church. And it's this, the more focused I am on what God has yet to do in me, the less critical I am of what God has yet to do in you. Amen? So you realize, "I'm flawed, but Jesus loves me. Jesus calls me." And that also means you can't look at anybody else and go, "Well, they can't be a follower. I can't invite them to church. I invite them to this person. Everybody else would stay." No, Jesus would say, "It's cool. Follow me. Follow me. Let's just keep walking together and see what happens."

And the second thing this first week with Jesus really shows me is even being an unbeliever does not disqualify you. Now, that might surprise you. Being an unbeliever. Think of this. None of Jesus Christ's first followers believed in Him at first, did they? Nobody who followed Jesus initially thought that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the Savior of the world. In fact, when Jesus starts talking about it, as we'll see in this series, Peter tells him to shut up. Peter corrects him. Jesus says, "I'm going to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to die on the cross. I'm going to be resurrected." And Peter says to Jesus, "I never want to hear you say that again." They were all what we would call unbelievers in that regard, pushed back against that part of Jesus Christ's identity.

In fact, one of the disciples, the Apostle John, says, "Yeah, in retrospect, it was after he was raised from the dead that we recalled what he did and said, 'And then we believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.'" Now, they came to different stages in their belief and their understanding of Jesus, but until this, they really weren't sure what it was all about. Now, they were interested. They thought he was a great teacher, but they didn't even really know anything about him yet. And Jesus invited them to follow along anyway. I want to make this very clear because I meet people all the time who tell me, for example, "You know, René, I'll be honest with you. I'm an atheist, but I am encouraged by the things that I'm hearing, that Jesus said. Is it okay for me to still come along and just kind of check this out?" Or even, "I'm actually identified as a member of another faith, but are you cool with me just being here, just kind of following along with what you're saying about Jesus?" "Absolutely, and how do I know that's okay?"

Because look at Jesus Christ's early ministry. Nobody was what we would call a Christian, and Jesus doesn't even explain it all to them and say, "Here's the bullet points, Christian doctrine, sign here." He just says, "Why don't you just follow along for a while and learn?" If you're kind of hung up on some point of Christian doctrine, you're still invited to follow. You can lean in the direction of Jesus, even if you don't know what you believe, even if you don't know anything about the Bible, you're still invited to follow Jesus, to listen to what He said, to see what He did. Third thing this shows me, being inconsistent does not disqualify you.

You know, it's not like I heard somebody say in our baptism class after the 9 o'clock service, she said, "I've been coming to Twin Lakes Church for a while, but I was hesitant to be baptized and call myself a Christian because I kept telling myself I'm not good enough yet. I need to reach a level of perfection before I can step across that line without being a hypocrite." Listen, all of Jesus's first followers were very inconsistent on every level, especially Simon Peter. And remember, we know this because Peter told these stories on himself. Peter wants us to know if Jesus could call Him, Jesus can call anyone, Jesus can change anyone, Jesus can redeem anyone. Don't get discouraged just because you're not perfect.

I mentioned this in one of our video devos last week when I was learning to swim at the public school in San Jose. First day of swim school, the lifeguards gave us all a swim test. Anybody remember this from your childhood? And then we got put into different classes, different ability groups. Now they didn't want to make us feel bad, so they didn't name the groups advanced swimmers, mediocre swimmers, remedial swimmers who sink like a rock. They named the groups after marine life to try to fool us, but nobody was fooled. I mean, it wasn't hard to figure out. So at the pool where I took my lessons every summer, Pioneer High School in San Jose, there were, here were the groups, the dolphins, the seals, the minnows, and the polywogs. Now, shout it out. Which group do you suppose were the best swimmers? The dolphins.

And I guarantee you, not one kid went home and told his parents, "Guess what, we took the test I made, polywog! I'm so proud!" But our parents knew being a polywog was fine because we would learn. And not to brag, but I did go from polywog to dolphin in one summer. But here's why I bring this up. When it comes to following Jesus, no one starts as a dolphin. In fact, all of Jesus Christ's first disciples, every one of them, was a polywog. But they were still students, which is all the word disciple means, a student. They hung out at the pool. When it comes to following Jesus, the question is not, "Am I perfect?" or "Do I understand it all?" The question is just, "Am I following?" Following, note, ing, not followed. Not that I make a decision once when I was in kindergarten. Not that I pray a prayer once, as beautiful and as important that is. But am I following?

And this is where the call of Christ challenges veteran Christians to, who speaking as a veteran Christian can often think, "I accepted Jesus when I was five, so this whole sermon is not for me today. Could have stayed home and watched the Nighter game." Listen, the question is, "Am I following? Am I living Jesusly today?" Like Peter, because guess who started as a polywog and kind of stayed a polywog for maybe he was, you know, the seventh grader in the polywog class with all the kindergartners for quite a while, but guess who became a dolphin? Acts 4:13 says that the religious leaders of Jerusalem were all opposing the Christians, threatening them with death when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, this is a few years later, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized they had been with Jesus.

They had been with Jesus. That is what ultimately changes you. Just being with Jesus, when you follow, then you will change, not just because of your self-discipline, not just because of your self-will, but because of your proximity to Jesus. Here's the big idea about following. Religion says, "Change, and you can join us." Jesus says, "Join us, and you will change." And that is a huge difference. Jesus' call is an invitation to relationship. Just tag along for a while, whatever the next step is for you. And it's also a call to community. You know, Jesus doesn't just say, "Hey, everybody, here's some inspiring content. Now good luck. Go be a peace-out monk somewhere on a mountain." He says, "Let's do this together." And that's why every fall, we organize these things so we can get back together as a church.

If you've never done one of these 60-second explanations, there's a book that we produce that ties into the weekly series. You can get it in print today. It's also available on Kindle, an audiobook that I narrated. And I just want to say again, I don't get a penny from these books or the audiobook or the films or anything at all. 100% goes back to church. If you open up the book, each chapter connects to each weekend's message. There are photos and maps so you can visualize it. There's digging deeper sections with archaeology and stuff. And in the back, there's discussion questions that tie into each week's message. And that QR code links to seven different discussion starter videos for your small group discussions, little 12-minute long videos. So I encourage you to just try it. If you've never done it before, it's okay to be a polywog, right? And I know life is busy. I get that. But this is only seven weeks, and these relationships that you start now could really enhance your whole life.

Now listen, you might have some apprehension. If you've never been in a small book before, it can sound intimidating, but that's why we put the questions right there in the book so that you can not be surprised. You can think about your responses and mold them over so that you can share them with the group and be prepared. And if you forget any of this, you can go to FlawedFollower.com. Now something very cool about this series is we're doing it with 10 other churches in California. Here's a map that shows you where they are. And what I love about this is these are churches from different denominations. We've got a Pentecostal church, varieties of Baptist churches, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Covenant, in other words, everything from the Holy Rollers to the Frozen Chosen. But we are focusing on what we have in common, which is Jesus Christ.

And in a divisive culture, aren't you glad to be a part of something like that? I just love this so much. Peter's story has something to say to all those intrigued by Jesus. Start the journey no matter how unqualified you think you are. You know, this is a time for some of you to consider baptism. Maybe that's the next step in your journey. We've got a baptism class right after this service. And stay on the journey no matter how often you fail. Because if you keep following Jesus, you never know where He's going to take you.

I'll close with this. There's a fascinating documentary called Landfill Harmonic. It's the true story of kids who literally lived in this garbage dump in Paraguay. A man named Fabio Chavez lives there too. And he envisioned a music school for these kids. Problem, no instruments, too expensive. So he described instruments to a man named Don Gomez, who had never seen a classical instrument before in his life. But he took a paint can and he made a violin. His next instrument was a cello made out of an oil barrel. And using these instruments, they started a school for kids. They started with small concerts. They started to gain some fame. A few years later, they have now toured around the world playing with super groups, including Metallica, including Stevie Wonder, including playing for Pope Francis.

Kids who had been relegated to the dump now seeing the world playing for royalty. And of course, this is exactly what we saw Jesus do that first week of his ministry, isn't it? He took people that have been kind of relegated to society's dumps, made the masterpieces, and then said, "Go into the world where you will stand before kings." He did that for Peter, for Matthew, for Mary Magdalene, and he's offering to do it for you. Jesus is doing this still. You don't even have to clean up first. You just follow, no matter how flawed, because when you do one step at a time, who knows where Jesus will take you? Let's pray.

"Lord, thank you for this opportunity. We want to follow Jesus. None of us knows it all. None of us has it all together. None of us is perfect, but we are drawn to you. And today for some, they're ready to take the next step of faith to simply say to you, 'I specifically want to follow you, Jesus, as Lord and Savior.' And so we dedicate this false series to you. Work through it, powerfully unify these churches, not around Peter, but around the one who changed Peter, Jesus Christ. And we pray this all in his holy name. Amen."