So I know that's not the most comfortable way to begin a sermon, but I hope and I pray that your

burden is shared with what's happening in this room and just even hearing those prayers audibly.

And I know many of you praying from other locations not in this room.

God has created an opportunity for us to be a part of his

kingdom come right now in a time on earth like never before. I know I say these things all the

time, but I hope you know that's not to make the sermon sound more hype. That's not to make you more

excited about a moment. It's to wake you up to the moment you stand in in human history.

Stuff's happening right now. And you have breath in your lungs to be loved by God and to overflow

with a life of mission to a lost dark and broken world. So we started this series Remnant last week.

And I just hope that if you missed it, number one, you go back and listen to the

foundational sermon, salt and light for this whole thing. But this cannot be a sermon series that we

preached. This is a vision, trajectory setting moment for our church. So I might get repetitive with

how many times I end up saying this throughout this series, but I have to clarify this so that we are all on the same page.

Last week when I introduced this series, I talked about some research that's been done about renewal in the church and that typically there's a renewal cycle for churches like ours who experience major growth.

It starts with a remnant, a small group of people who are praying and

contending for God to do something new in their area or in their city. And what happens is,

God breathes on it by the power of the Holy Spirit. It grows and people are drawn to it. But

because the leadership becomes overwhelmed by the growth, they start to systemize and staff and

create a culture where everybody's accounted for,

everyone's cared for, which is good. But what happens over time is that the masses are catered to

and the remnant is drowned out. And so you end up with all these systems and you end up with a church

that looks more like a business and an organization than a body of believers who have been set

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