Embracing Hope: A Journey of Faith and Generosity

### Summary

Today, we gathered to reflect on the journey of our community and the path God is leading us on. We began by welcoming everyone, especially those new to our church, and emphasized our commitment to openly sharing where God is moving in our lives. I shared a personal story about the accessibility of pools in California compared to the Midwest, drawing a parallel to how we often take our faith stories for granted. Just as a private pool can go unused, our faith stories can become stagnant if we don't actively share them.

We explored the idea that our community at Menlo has always had a surplus of hope, a hope that overflows and extends to others. This hope is rooted in the understanding that our current circumstances are just a chapter in a much larger story that God is writing. I shared an anecdote about taking my sons to a Lego convention, illustrating how knowing the destination can make the journey more bearable, even enjoyable. This mirrors our faith journey, where trust in God's promises can help us endure present difficulties.

We delved into the history of God's people, the Jewish community, and their anticipation of a Messiah. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, emphasizes that Jesus is the fulfillment of that hope, bringing joy and peace to all who trust in Him. This joy and peace are not dependent on our circumstances but are gifts from the Holy Spirit, who lives within us. Paul encourages us to let this hope overflow, creating a surplus that we can share with others.

At Menlo, we are called to move from survival mode to revival mode, embracing a future filled with God's promises. We introduced our new strategy and vision, focusing on four kingdom qualities: being undivided followers, unhurried friends, sacrificial developers, and thoughtful witnesses. These qualities guide us in living out our identity in Christ every day, bringing hope to everyone we encounter.

We also highlighted the importance of financial generosity, not as a burden but as a blessing that God wants for us. As we look forward to the next decade, we are called to participate actively in God's mission, believing that the best is yet to come. Our journey together is a testament to God's faithfulness, and we are excited about the future He has in store for us.

### Key Takeaways

1. **The Surplus of Hope**: Our community at Menlo has always had a surplus of hope, a hope that overflows and extends to others. This hope is rooted in the understanding that our current circumstances are just a chapter in a much larger story that God is writing. Trusting in God's promises helps us endure present difficulties and share our hope with others. [33:44]

2. **Joy and Peace from the Holy Spirit**: Paul emphasizes that joy and peace are gifts from the Holy Spirit, not dependent on our circumstances. Joy is aligning our future hope with God beyond our present circumstances, and peace is the inner stability that exists even with outer volatility. Trusting in God more deeply allows these gifts to overflow in our lives. [37:06]

3. **Living Out Our Identity in Christ**: At Menlo, we are called to live out our identity in Christ every day, bringing hope to everyone we encounter. This involves being undivided followers, unhurried friends, sacrificial developers, and thoughtful witnesses. These kingdom qualities guide us in reflecting God's love and grace in our daily lives. [45:28]

4. **The Blessing of Generosity**: Financial generosity is not a burden but a blessing that God wants for us. When we give, we experience the joy of participating in God's mission and the blessing of seeing His work in our community. Generosity allows us to be part of something greater than ourselves, contributing to the growth and impact of our church. [54:27]

5. **Moving from Survival to Revival**: God is calling us to move from survival mode to revival mode, embracing a future filled with His promises. This shift requires active participation from all of us, stepping into community, serving, and giving. Believing that the best is yet to come, we are called to be part of a transformative movement in the Bay Area. [53:27]

### YouTube Chapters

[0:00] - Welcome
[28:29] - Introduction and Prayer
[29:59] - The Legacy of Menlo
[30:59] - The Story of Pools
[32:43] - Sharing Our Faith Stories
[33:10] - Menlo's Surplus of Hope
[34:16] - The Source of Our Hope
[35:51] - The Anticipation of the Messiah
[37:06] - Joy and Peace from the Holy Spirit
[38:22] - Defining Joy and Peace
[39:00] - The Overflowing Hope
[40:23] - Tim Keller's Insight
[41:38] - Moving from Survival to Revival
[43:22] - Menlo's Mission and Strategy
[45:28] - Kingdom Qualities
[48:25] - The Growth Pathway
[49:55] - Celebrating God's Faithfulness
[51:55] - Financial Generosity
[53:27] - The Call to Participate
[55:30] - Closing Prayer and Reflection

### Bible Reading
1. Romans 15:13 (NIV) - "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

### Observation Questions
1. What does Paul mean when he refers to God as the "God of hope" in Romans 15:13?
2. How does Paul describe the relationship between trust in God and the experience of joy and peace? [37:06]
3. What are the four kingdom qualities introduced in the sermon, and how do they guide us in living out our identity in Christ? [45:28]
4. How does the sermon illustrate the concept of having a "surplus of hope" through the story of the Lego convention? [34:16]

### Interpretation Questions
1. In Romans 15:13, Paul speaks of joy and peace as gifts from the Holy Spirit. How might these gifts manifest in a believer's life, especially during difficult times? [37:06]
2. The sermon mentions that our current circumstances are just a chapter in a larger story God is writing. How does this perspective help in dealing with present difficulties? [33:44]
3. The sermon calls for moving from "survival mode to revival mode." What might this shift look like in practical terms for an individual or a community? [53:27]
4. How does financial generosity serve as a blessing rather than a burden, according to the sermon? [54:27]

### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you experienced joy and peace despite challenging circumstances. How did your trust in God play a role in that experience? [37:06]
2. The sermon encourages sharing our faith stories to prevent them from becoming stagnant. Who is someone in your life with whom you can share your faith story this week? [32:43]
3. Consider the four kingdom qualities: undivided followers, unhurried friends, sacrificial developers, and thoughtful witnesses. Which of these qualities do you find most challenging to live out, and why? [45:28]
4. The sermon speaks about the importance of financial generosity. What steps can you take to view your giving as a blessing and participate more actively in God's mission? [54:27]
5. How can you contribute to moving your community from "survival mode to revival mode"? Identify one specific action you can take this week to support this shift. [53:27]
6. The sermon mentions that our hope should overflow to others. Think of someone who might need hope right now. How can you practically extend hope to them this week? [33:44]
7. Reflect on the idea that our current circumstances are just a chapter in a larger story God is writing. How does this perspective change the way you view your current challenges and opportunities? [33:44]

Day 1: Overflowing Hope
Our community at Menlo has always had a surplus of hope, a hope that overflows and extends to others. This hope is rooted in the understanding that our current circumstances are just a chapter in a much larger story that God is writing. Trusting in God's promises helps us endure present difficulties and share our hope with others. This hope is not just for us to hold onto but to share with those around us, creating a ripple effect of encouragement and faith.

When we understand that our lives are part of a grand narrative authored by God, we can find peace and strength even in challenging times. This perspective allows us to see beyond our immediate struggles and trust in the ultimate good that God is working towards. By sharing our stories of hope, we can inspire others to trust in God's promises and find their own strength in Him. [33:44]

Romans 15:13 (ESV): "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."

Reflection: Think of a recent challenge you faced. How did your faith help you navigate it? How can you share this story to encourage someone else today?


Day 2: Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Paul emphasizes that joy and peace are gifts from the Holy Spirit, not dependent on our circumstances. Joy is aligning our future hope with God beyond our present circumstances, and peace is the inner stability that exists even with outer volatility. Trusting in God more deeply allows these gifts to overflow in our lives.

These gifts are not fleeting emotions but deep-seated states of being that come from a relationship with God. Joy and peace are signs of the Holy Spirit's work within us, transforming our hearts and minds to reflect God's love and grace. By cultivating a deeper trust in God, we can experience these gifts more fully and allow them to influence our interactions with others. [37:06]

Isaiah 26:3 (ESV): "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."

Reflection: Identify an area of your life where you lack peace. How can you invite the Holy Spirit to bring peace and joy into this area today?


Day 3: Living Out Our Identity in Christ
At Menlo, we are called to live out our identity in Christ every day, bringing hope to everyone we encounter. This involves being undivided followers, unhurried friends, sacrificial developers, and thoughtful witnesses. These kingdom qualities guide us in reflecting God's love and grace in our daily lives.

Living out our identity in Christ means embodying these qualities in all our interactions and decisions. It means prioritizing our relationship with God and others, being intentional in our friendships, investing in the growth of others, and sharing our faith thoughtfully. By doing so, we become living testimonies of God's transformative power and love. [45:28]

Colossians 3:12-14 (ESV): "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

Reflection: Which of the four kingdom qualities do you find most challenging to live out? What practical steps can you take to grow in this area today?


Day 4: The Blessing of Generosity
Financial generosity is not a burden but a blessing that God wants for us. When we give, we experience the joy of participating in God's mission and the blessing of seeing His work in our community. Generosity allows us to be part of something greater than ourselves, contributing to the growth and impact of our church.

Generosity is a reflection of God's own nature, and by giving, we align ourselves with His heart. It is an act of trust, believing that God will provide for our needs as we contribute to His work. This act of giving not only supports the church's mission but also transforms our own hearts, making us more like Christ. [54:27]

2 Corinthians 9:7-8 (ESV): "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work."

Reflection: Reflect on your current approach to financial giving. How can you shift your perspective to see it as a joyful participation in God's mission?


Day 5: From Survival to Revival
God is calling us to move from survival mode to revival mode, embracing a future filled with His promises. This shift requires active participation from all of us, stepping into community, serving, and giving. Believing that the best is yet to come, we are called to be part of a transformative movement in the Bay Area.

Moving from survival to revival means shifting our mindset from merely getting by to actively pursuing God's vision for our lives and community. It involves stepping out in faith, engaging with others, and contributing to the collective mission of the church. By doing so, we become catalysts for change, bringing God's hope and love to those around us. [53:27]

Habakkuk 1:5 (ESV): "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told."

Reflection: What is one specific way you can move from survival mode to revival mode in your spiritual life? How can you actively participate in God's transformative work in your community today?

What a great story. You've been to church already today. So good to see you. Thanks so much for being here, and welcome to the final weekend in our Storyteller series and a special weekend where we're going to highlight a little bit about what God has done and where he's taking us as a community.

If you are new or newer to church, we want to say welcome, and I hope that what you hear today, even as you hear maybe some things that are a little unfamiliar to you, like how does that work, and that you see and hear a community that wants to openly listen and honestly communicate where God is moving and what he's doing.

My daughter was like, she watched the videos of Jonah and David, and she was under the impression that it was a competition that we were voting for one of them. You actually get to vote for either one of them, or for both. You can say approve or not for both of them. If you're a covenant partner, we'd love for you to be able to do that.

Welcome to our Bay Area campuses. Joining us for the first time ever in this annual meeting, conversation from their campus and their service time in Saratoga, Mountain View, Menlo Park, San Mateo, joining us online. We are one church in multiple locations, and this shift to do these elements together this way is because of that.

As has already been mentioned, if you're a covenant partner here at Menlo and you need help voting, just go to Info Central at your campus, and you'll make somebody's day who is waiting and hoping that they get the opportunity to serve you today.

Over the next 24 hours, 25 minutes or so, I'm going to try to do a few things. I'm going to tell you about private pools. I'm going to talk about how you can live with a surplus, and I'm going to give some updates on where we are headed and what God is doing in our community.

Before I get started, I'm going to pray for us. And if you've never been here before or never heard me speak, before I speak, I pray kneeling. And part of the reason that I do that on a day like today is this amazing reminder of the shoulders of the giants that we stand on, men and women who have helped lead this community for 150 years. And today, we ask God to try and help us honor their legacy and God's desire for our community.

So, would you pray with me? God, thank you so much. Thank you for this incredible community of people who love you, who stand in a long line of people that lock arms and love you and try to love the communities that we live in well because of it. Would you be with us now, God? Remind us of that truth. Help us to celebrate what you've done and to anticipate, God, what is in front of us together. It's in Jesus' name. Amen.

So, I grew up in the Midwest, and there are a lot of things in the Midwest that translate kind of anywhere. But one of the things that really stands out about California is how accessible pools are. In Ohio, where I grew up, a pool would really only be helpful about three days out of the year. Like, it's a pretty limited window of time. But here in California, a pool is helpful for a whole lot of the year, and there are different kinds of pools. There's like the big pool that you pay to have access to, maybe like a resort. There's the neighborhood pool that lots of people use. And then there is like the crème de la crème pinnacle private pool. And the best private pool is somebody else's private pool, right? So, we all kind of have some of that in our space and the way we experience pools.

And when we first moved here, our options were pretty limited. But our kids, they loved it when we were able to use a pool. And we had a couple of people eventually offer to let us use their private pools. It was incredible. And to us, it felt like this amazing act of generosity towards us. But to them, it felt kind of like second nature, right? To them, the pool was just sitting in their backyard, whether we used it or not. So, we were eager to use it, and they were eager to have someone use it. Maybe for you, you have a pool and you can relate to being the one who is generous with what you have. And as someone who uses other people's pools, it makes a big difference. Thank you so much for doing that.

Now, maybe you're wondering like, why am I talking about pools? And obviously, it's so we can get more invitations to private pools. I feel like I was not hiding that. No, I'm just playing. We're good. I promise. I'm mentioning this because just like someone with a pool can take it for granted over time, they don't realize what they have, and it just kind of sits there. If you're a person of faith, you have a story that you also can take for granted over time if you're not careful. We may feel like we've already told our story to the people in our life or maybe that our story doesn't compare to the story of other people who have a better pool, I mean story, than we do, right? But what we've been learning together over the course of this series is that all of us have a story worth sharing and that God is actually still writing our story today, and that's really good news.

At Menlo, we have this even bigger story we've been able to be a part of. For more than 150 years, we have watched God's faithfulness towards his people at Menlo and the communities that we serve function like this overflowing pool of love and grace that we get to extend to others, and we have been extending to others for a really long time. Here at Menlo, our story has always had a surplus of hope. In a community where sometimes hope can be hard to find, in places where it can sometimes feel elusive, this has always been a community of people that leads with hope. From stories like the ones we've been watching together each week of this series to the amazing impact we'll talk about in just a few minutes to thousands of people who gather every weekend because they believe that God is still writing stories today. I mean, why else would all of you people be missing the San Francisco 49ers right now? That's a gift. That's amazing.

Now, there is a fundamental reason that we have had this surplus of hope even when circumstances would seem hopeless at low points even over the course of the last few years. We have a surplus of hope that is bigger than the chapter we are in. We understand, if you're a follower of Jesus, that even if right now what you're facing is difficult, right now is not forever.

Recently, I took our two youngest boys to a Lego convention. And none of us had been there before, but I had a sense of what we would come to expect. And because we hadn't been there before, and I have a five-year-old, he was constantly asking how much longer the drive would be, if he was going to get Legos that he would be able to keep. That was his primary interest. And what it would be like. And he was curious, and every delay or setback on our trip felt very discouraging and frustrating for him. But for me, because I had a sense of where we were going, I'd been to stuff like this before, we were spending the day together, I knew a little bit about it, I could appreciate this long drive with them, and the setbacks didn't set me back too much.

Fast forward to the day that we experienced together, and we had an amazing time. It turned out that it was worth the wait. Maybe for you, you have an experience that's fun, maybe for you it's serious, where you only realized how much the wait was worth, once the wait was over. And it's okay. You're in good company. That's true for a lot of us. As a matter of fact, that's been true and a challenge for God's people since the very beginning.

The first group of people that God had a unique love relationship with were the Jewish people in the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. They anticipated God's help in their pain and difficulty, they came to depend on it, but it became really easy to narrow their desires and requests for God for what they needed, and to forget the needs and concerns of others. It just became very, very easy to narrow their focus. Meanwhile, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, there were hundreds of promises about a future Messiah, the rescuer for the entire world. Not just Jewish people, but Gentiles, or non-Jewish people also. That one day God would offer salvation to everyone, that one day everyone would worship Him.

In the letter that we studied all summer, the book of Romans, Paul makes this case in Romans chapter 15, that the hope of heaven came in the person and work of Jesus for all of us, and that He was worth the wait. And when he gets to the end of the section, he makes this case, and he does this kind of a few times throughout his writing, where he gets to kind of a crescendo, and he says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust Him, so that you may overflow with the hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Now as we look at this passage, we see Paul sort of hitting a crescendo moment from the passages that he's been in just before this, and then he talks about the God of hope is the one that's going to be filling us with all joy and all peace with a direct parallel to our trust for Him. As we trust in Him more, He fills us more with all joy and all peace, so that, this is what's called a henna clause, He's given us a purpose statement, so that we may overflow. Not that you would have enough, not that one day it would be sufficient, but that you would have more than enough with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit that now is still kind of a new concept in the early church, that the God of the universe lives inside of every man or woman who chooses to follow Jesus. This is a normal pattern for Paul. He's getting to the end, this crescendo, and he's finishing with this kind of blessing slash challenge for the people that are hearing the letter likely read out loud. And Paul is using some really loaded terms to point to the bigger story that God is writing through all of us.

Joy, as defined by Paul, is a choice to align my hope, my hope for the future, my anticipated next, with God beyond my circumstances. I'm going to connect what I believe God's going to do, even if I don't see it. And peace is the inner stability that can exist even with outer volatility, because I have the Holy Spirit living inside of me. Paul is making the case that when God is the source of our joy and peace, the more that we trust him, the greater that he supplies us with hope by the power of God living inside of us as Jesus followers. It's a hope that overflows. It's a surplus.

And what we've seen at Menlo for a really long time is that our story has always had a surplus of hope. We've always had more than enough. But what about you? Do you believe that this is still true today, still available for you, regardless of your present circumstances or what you face? Let me be honest with you. I don't know your story, but I believe this is still possible for you. But I think the problem for a lot of us is that what happens is the longer we have lived as though this isn't true, the more nearsighted our vision for life becomes. The smaller we anticipate, the bigger we anticipate God's potential and power for us can be.

Pastor and author Tim Keller points out this tendency this way. He says, "While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life's joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of life's sorrows, tasting the coming joy." It doesn't matter how difficult your life is presently. If you're a follower of Jesus, it's not forever. And it doesn't matter how good your life is if you're a follower of Jesus, because as good as it is now, it will only be better into eternity.

Think about that pivot in your life, if you could believe that, if you could live that way. Can you live that kind of hope that outlasts the heartache that you might be living through today? Our world walked through a lot of heartache over the course of the last few years, and Menlo has had a unique set of pain points to carry along the way. But today, if you're looking for it, we will discover a lot of really good things to celebrate that I want to highlight in just a minute for what God has been doing in our story and where he is taking us from here.

The shift that God is calling us to make as a church is that we must move from survival mode to revival mode. I understand why we've been where we've been, and I also understand that now it is time to turn the page. My hope is to give you a few pieces of information to re-instill hope that God is not done with us, that God is not done with you. And this story of where God is taking us, when we think about it, the best is yet to come.

As a part of this weekend, we prepared a digital annual report. Then I'm going to spend a few minutes walking together with you. You can find the full report linked through the QR codes around you or at menlo.church/connect. And there's other information for this weekend, as well, ways for covenant partners to vote, a place to submit questions that we'll answer in this week's Menlo Midweek Podcast. We'd love for that resource to be made available for you.

Today marks 624 days since our family moved here and began serving at Menlo. We have had plenty of opportunities to jump in and start working on things that couldn't wait, that were pretty emergent. But for about 300 of those days, we were working on praying for and discerning the will of God for His church at Menlo for the years to come. We worked with an outside group to help us kind of involve staff leadership, our volunteer session that you've heard from today, our broader staff, key stakeholders at every campus in multiple phases to hear from God together, to pray to God together, and to construct what we believed He was sharing with us about where we were called to go and who we were called to be in the middle of it as a church.

After countless hours of prayer, study, discussion, and collaboration, we began using this new strategy and vision over the course of the last year. And God has been blessing those steps for our church. I want to show you some of that work and the blessing that God has brought through it here at Menlo. And if you're somebody that's like, "Hey, Phil, this all sounds a little corporate," I would just say Jesus gave us a strategy. Every church has the same mission. They just frame it differently for the context they're in. Every church that's followed Jesus for 2,000 years has followed what's called the great co-mission that we would help people find and follow Jesus. And the way we frame that, phrase that, and leverage that in our context is because of where we are. And we're just trying to follow God's heart for our church in this moment.

So our mission at Menlo, what it is we're trying to do, is that we're bringing hope to everyone by living out our identity in Christ every single day. There are some places still, right around the country, where you can just open your doors and eventually people will find it and start showing up consistently. You don't have to do very much beyond that. But we are not in one of those communities. In the Bay Area, people are largely self-satisfied, at least on the outside. And it will take endearing ourselves to the communities around us, individually and collectively, to regain credibility and interest from unchurched people in our lives.

Look, there is just a challenge that we find ourselves in the middle of. That if we're not careful, we will find ourselves expecting other people to be interested in a faith that they have clearly shown us that they are not interested in. We need to show them the generosity of God practically in the way we live our lives. We need to become hope bringers in the way this shows up right here.

Now for a lot of us, you know, the truest thing about us might be our job, or it might feel like our family, or it might feel like some other aspect of our life. But what we see over and over again in the pages of Scripture is that if you're a follower of Jesus, the truest thing about you is who you are in Jesus, your identity in Him. And it's about how we show up as a son or a daughter of the King in every place that we live, work, learn, and play. And that's what our mission calls us to here at Menlo.

Okay, so what does it look like to actually be successful at this? And it's easy to tag a bunch of different organizational things that we're concerned about to that, like what steps are you taking? And those things are valuable and good. But what we wanted to do is say what does a Menlo-shaped disciple of Jesus look like? And so we came up with four things that we call our kingdom qualities.

And the first of our kingdom qualities is that we're undivided followers. That as a church, we really want to make sure that there is a focus and an understanding that as easy as it is in the time and place that we live to show up as different people to different people in different places, sort of wear convenient masks, that instead we are committed to seeing our time, energy, and resources through the lens of our life with Jesus. We are consistent people trying to follow Jesus.

The second of our kingdom qualities is that we're unhurried friends. That while we run at a pace that feels so frenetic and unsustainable, honestly, that instead we are glad and eager to make ourselves increasingly present with Jesus and others.

Our third kingdom quality is that we are sacrificial developers. And I know this is very counter-cultural, that for the most part we are incentivized in our culture to try to find the places where we can give the least to get the most. But Jesus actually says that when you give your life away, that's when you'll really find it. And so we want to model that and demonstrate that to other people that we interact with in our daily lives.

And then fourth and finally, we are thoughtful witnesses. That while it may be easier to be secret agents for God in the Bay Area, it's not actually what God has called us to do. That we are living a life that reflects the gospel, the good news of Jesus, and we're able to communicate it with conviction and compassion. And that is picking only one.

Now these ideas, I want to make it very clear. Sometimes you walk into a space like this and it's like so undersold. And we say these things too. I believe in them. We want you to belong before you believe here. I really do believe that. I want this to be a place that even if you never think like me, believe like me, live like me, this is still a place that you can say, "I'm glad to be here. I'm glad this place exists in our community."

I have an agenda for you. We think that there is an abundant life and an eternal life that is found in Jesus. And as you learn how to follow him at Menlo, we hope that God shapes all of us, myself and you, into these qualities.

So how do we do that? What's our strategy? Well here at Menlo, we have something that we call the growth pathway. And it looks like this. And in this growth pathway, it demonstrates a cycle of growth that God does in our life, oftentimes cyclically over and over throughout our entire life as we learn to follow Jesus. From encountering God through events and services, where we think that oftentimes what God uses to wake us up is transcendent moments with him, to this kind of bigger snapshot of being able to help maybe people feel engaged with others through saying yes to groups or to serving on teams, to equipping purpose to take hope wherever you go. That you would become a hope bringer in your everyday life.

Equipping with purpose also has this unique eight-month ministry that we're launching at all of our campuses as kind of a beta test this fall. That's an eight-month experience called Menlo Cohorts where you spend weekly time looking at each one of these and applying all four kingdom qualities in a small group setting to your daily life. Our entire staff is finishing work right now.

Now, finally, empowering change is really going to happen through the For the Bay and Beyond initiatives that we do all the time here at Menlo. By not just the things that we do but by you bringing your everyday hope, by bringing your habits of hope into everywhere that you live, work, learn, and play. We've already been applying these things to weekend services and ministry environments and we've been watching God show up.

So much of this is about hearing from God together for the future because of appreciating what God has done in the past. Last fall, as a church, we celebrated Menlo 150. Remember, we all have one great co-mission, one mission many generations and we saw a full Woodside High School gymnasium auditorium where we got to worship together and hundreds of volunteers served thousands of people to celebrate God's faithfulness at Menlo.

We've watched God continue to grow us as a church over the course of the last several years with our in-person weekly attendance and kids ministry and Christmas and Easter services. We're blown away by the stories of thoughtful witnesses at Menlo. People just like you who are inviting your friends to join you to encounter God at services all the time. These are not the only numbers that matter, but they do matter and every one of these numbers is a person and every one of those people has a story and God cares about each and every one of them.

We've been celebrating people encountering God by taking the step of baptism over the course of the last year and seeing that happen at all of our campuses. See people engaging with others as they say yes to group life at all of our campuses where those have been growing even before hundreds of you signed up for more information to consider group life just a few weeks ago.

At Menlo, we give away a whole bunch of what we receive every single year. You may not know that, but financially some of that goes to partners and initiatives all around the Bay Area for the good of people and the glory of God. And we saw amazing partnerships with undivided followers throughout Menlo who invested their time, their talent, and their treasure to help others in tangible ways in the places that they are every day.

We also have 30 partners overseas where we're bringing the hope of heaven to the hurting in this world, bringing the hope of heaven and help to some of the most hopeless situations you can possibly imagine all because of the generosity of people right here at Menlo Church. And all of this is happening because of your financial generosity.

Look, over the course of the last several years here at Menlo, we have had to navigate some big challenges and I wouldn't ever downplay those kinds of challenges, but we've also seen that as we've walked through important and difficult changes, God has really done some amazing things. About two years ago when we got here, our staff spending against our giving, our staff spending was 72% of what Menlo received each year, which is really unsustainable, and through some very difficult but necessary decisions, that percentage is now 52%. We've looked at every part of our ministry budget and we've become a lean, mean ministry machine. We've made sure that every dollar has a name and every name has a mission because the mission that God has given us is two.

So with all that as a backdrop and more of it that you can find in the annual report online, I just want to say thank you. That as difficult maybe as the last few years has been for you and at times as difficult as the last few years has been for Menlo, it simply doesn't work. None of this works without you. Without your involvement and without your investment.

And so over the course of the next few weeks, we're going to talk about where we believe God is calling us into the next decade and where we believe that God is calling us as phase one of that decade-long plan and what it looks like for us to take a step into that together. Not to just make a difference, not to just figure out how to make what's happened happen a little bit more but potentially to be a part of something that the Bay Area has never seen that I think God may be calling us to step into together.

For some of you, it'll feel uncomfortable. Because Menlo's been a place that you've been able to lean back into and maybe spectate for a while. And I'm going to be calling you to participate. That where it is that we feel God calling us, it's going to take all of us. And so I'm going to be asking each one of us to think about what it is to take a step into really being involved, really serving, really getting into community and giving.

And I know that maybe that's a brand new conversation and topic, but I believe when we don't talk about it openly and honestly, if you're a follower of Jesus, I'm robbing you of the blessing that God wants to bring in your life through financial generosity. This is something that I actually think God wants for you, even though sometimes we think it's something He wants from us. And if you need to learn more about that, ask somebody in your life who's generous to tell you why. And I guarantee you to a person, what they will say is, "I'm more blessed to give than to receive."

And as a church, we're going to experience that again. In the famous words of the famous theologian Spiderman, "To whom much is given, much is required." And I think that God has an amazing path forward for us together, Menlo. I think the future is bright and it is because of the faithfulness of God's people and the faithfulness of God over top of all of it.

So thanks for letting us do something a little bit different today. I hope God's used it to wake you up to the filling that He wants to do in you of joy and peace. And the change He wants to deliver through you and the life around you. Let's pray together.

God, thank you so much. Thank you for the tremendous gift of your people. Thank you so much for the journey that we've been on all these years and certainly in these last few years. Thank you for the sweet experience that we even have had today. To be able to consider some new leaders to the team. To be able to hear an amazing story. To be able to sing songs to you. To be able to look at the scriptures together. God, help us to never take this for granted. That this surplus of hope that you have given this place uniquely. God, we want to be not just grateful for it but responsible with it. Would you help us to be that today and in the days to come? It's in Jesus' name. Amen.

I hope you have enjoyed those stories. As we've kind of been walking through this series together, they've been really a sweet way to be able to see God's faithfulness in people's lives right here at Menlo. Welcome to our final week of our Storytellers series. But not only that, also kind of a special weekend where we're gonna highlight a little bit of what God has done and what He is doing in our community.

If you are new or newer to church, I hope what you see, even through some of like the behind the curtain voting for stuff and all that, is a community that wants to openly and honestly communicate where God is moving and how ministry works in this place. Welcome to our Bay Area campuses who are joining us for the first time ever in this kind of annual meeting conversation, both from their campus as well as during their normal service times in Saratoga, Mountain View, Menlo Park, San Mateo, those joining us online. We are one church in multiple locations, and we've made this shift so that this would be more accessible because of that reality.

As has already been mentioned, if you are a covenant partner here at Menlo and you need help voting, just stop by Info Central at your campus and someone would love it if you would, so that they could help you. They're waiting to serve you. My 12-year-old daughter watched both of those videos in the last service and she was like, "So are we like deciding which one of those two becomes elders, like is it a vote thing?" No, no, like both of them are being considered for elder. You get to vote. Yes or no? But I was like, that's a good idea. Maybe next year we'll do it that way, but it's not that way this year.

Over the next 25 minutes or so, I'm going to try and do a few things for us. One, I'm going to tell you about private pools. Two, I want to talk about how you can live with a surplus. And three, I'm going to give you some updates on where we are and where we're headed as a community. But before we get started, I'm going to pray for us. And if you've never been here before or never heard me speak, before I speak, I pray kneeling. And part of the reason that I do that on a weekend like this one is this humble reminder of the shoulders of the men and women we stand on, generationally, and a legacy for whom we want to both honor, as well as the name of God we want to glorify together.

So would you pray with me? God, thank you so much. Thank you for the men and women who have sat in rooms just like these for so many years and sought to learn from you, to grow in you, to talk with you. And I pray that we wouldn't settle for just what you've done, but that, God, what you've done would create a hunger in us for what you might do today. Would you be with us now, God, that you would be glorified and we would be changed because of it? It's in Jesus' name. Amen.

So I grew up in the Midwest. And a lot of the things just about Midwest life are translatable. They make sense everywhere. But one of the things that doesn't make as much sense, it didn't translate as much when we moved here, is how accessible pools are in California. So I grew up in Ohio. And in Ohio, I would say a pool would be helpful for about three days in a calendar year. You just don't have a ton of calendar space where that makes sense. But here in California, a pool is really helpful for a whole lot of the year. And there are lots of different kinds of pools as a result. There's the big pools that you pay to use, maybe at a resort. There are the neighborhood pools that a bunch of people use and have access to. And then there is like the crème de la crème, the pinnacle, the private pool. And actually, the best private pool is somebody else's private pool, right? Like one you get to use.

Now when we first moved here, our options were pretty limited. But our kids loved it whenever they were able to use a pool. And we had a couple of people early on offer to let us use their private pools. It was incredible. And to us, it felt like this amazing act of generosity. But to them, it felt like second nature, right? To them, the pool was just sitting in their backyard, whether they were using it or not. And so they were eager to let someone use it.

Now maybe for you, you are a pool person and you can relate to being that person that genuinely extends the offer for someone else to use your pool. And as someone who uses other people's pools, thank you, it's great. Now, why am I talking about pools? I think it's pretty obvious. It's so that we can get more invitations to private pools. I don't think I've masked that at this point. No, seriously, we're good, I promise.

The reason that I'm talking to you about it is because I think over time, the people that have pools, they can like take it for granted. They're like, "Oh yeah, I guess we do have that." And it can go unused, untouched, and unaddressed. And some of us, that's not just true of whether or not we have pools. I think actually that happens if you're a person of faith with your own story of faith, this reservoir that God has given you. Maybe you feel like you've shifted your pool, shared your story with most people in your life already, or your story doesn't compare to the story of other people who have a better pool, I mean, story, than you do. But what we've been learning together over the course of this series is that we all have a story that's worth sharing. And more than that, God's not done writing our story.

At Menlo, we actually have this even bigger story when we all lean in together. For more than 150 years, we have watched God's faithfulness towards his people at Menlo and the communities that we serve function like this overflowing pool of love and grace that we extend to others. And we've been doing that for a very long time. As a matter of fact, at Menlo, our story has always had a surplus of hope. We've always had more hope than just we needed so that we might be able to give it away. From stories like the ones we've been watching together each week of this series, to the amazing impact that we'll talk about in a few minutes, to thousands of people who gather every weekend because they believe that God is still writing stories.

There is a fundamental reason that we have this surplus of hope, even when circumstances would seem hopeless at low points over the last several years. And that is that we have a source of hope that is bigger than the chapter we are in. You can believe for a longer story than just the section you're enduring.

Recently, I took our two youngest boys to a Lego convention. And now none of us had been there before. I had a little bit of a sense of what we were going to experience, but it was new to me too. And because we hadn't been there before, and I have a five-year-old, he was constantly asking how much longer the drive was going to be. The question he was most interested in the answer was, was he going to get Legos to keep while he was there? And what would it be like? And he was curious, but really any setback or delay felt really, really bad. It was really discouraging for him. Because I knew a little bit of what we were going to anticipate because we were spending the time together, I appreciated the long drive. I appreciated the beautiful day. The setbacks didn't feel quite the same for me.

But when you fast forward to the day, they had an amazing time. Like when we experienced it finally, they loved every part of it. They got Legos to keep. It was worth the wait. Maybe for you, you had an experience like that, that's fun or silly or simple. Maybe for you, it's way more serious than that. And maybe for you, you had to face something where you only realized how much the wait was worth it once the wait was over. In the midst of it, you couldn't imagine that the wait was really going to be worth it. And if that's you, it's okay. You're in really good company. As a matter of fact, that's been a challenge for God's people since the very beginning.

The first group of people that God uniquely pursued a relationship with were the Jewish people in the Hebrew scripture. It's what we call the Old Testament. They anticipated God's help in their pain and in their difficulty. And it became easy for them over time to narrow their focus of wanting God to move only in their life circumstances, to forget that God had a plan and desire for others.

Now, meanwhile, at the same time in the Hebrew scriptures, hundreds of promises were being written called messianic prophecies. And these messianic prophecies, these promises of a future Messiah were about a rescuer that was coming to save the entire world, not just the Jewish people, but Gentile people or non-Jews also, that one day everyone would worship God in Jesus.

Now in the letter that we studied all summer, Romans, Paul makes this case that God actually sent Jesus, his son to bring everyone in that by grace through faith, everyone would have access to this new hope. That the hope of heaven came in the person and the work of Jesus for everyone, and that he was worth the wait. And when he gets to the end of the section where he makes this case, he writes these words and he follows a pattern that he will often follow in his writing. He says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with the hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Now, if you've been with us, before you know that some of these things are sort of connective tissue, right? Paul is building, there's kind of a crescendo that he's writing right before this in chapter 15. And then right here, this God of hope, he is doing the filling and that we would experience all joy and all peace as a result of that in connection to our ability by God to trust in him. And then this word right here, so we're really right here, this is called a henna clause. The purpose that you may overflow with hope. Not that we would have enough one day, but that actually you would have more than enough hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is still a pretty new concept as Paul is writing this, that it would be extended to every person who had a relationship with God because of Jesus that they would actually have God living inside of them.

And actually we believe that every person who's a follower of Jesus has the Holy Spirit living inside of them. And it makes these things possible. Now this is a pretty normal pattern for Paul at the end of any argument where he's kind of like offering a little bit of a blessing slash challenge for the audience that he's writing to. And Paul is using loaded terms in this passage to point to this bigger story that God has been writing throughout all of human history.

See for Paul, joy as defined by Paul is a choice to align my future hope with God beyond my present circumstances. Like I'm making a choice. It's not just about happiness. And peace is this inner stability that God gives me that can exist even with outer volatility all around me. That I don't have to be just a result of my circumstances. Paul is making the case that when God is the source of our joy and peace, that the more we trust him, the more we lean on him, the more what the Bible says we abide, we stay connected to him, the greater he supplies us with hope by the power of God living inside of us as Jesus followers. A hope that overflows. A surplus.

And as we've seen at Menlo, our story always had a surplus of hope. If you're a follower of Jesus, your story, whether you realize it or not, God has given you more hope than you need because he wants you to give it away.

1. "If you're a person of faith, you have a story that you also can take for granted over time if you're not careful. We may feel like we've already told our story to the people in our life or maybe that our story doesn't compare to the story of other people who have a better pool, I mean story, than we do, right? But what we've been learning together over the course of this series is that all of us have a story worth sharing and that God is actually still writing our story today and that's really good news." [32:43] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Here at Menlo, our story has always had a surplus of hope. In a community where sometimes hope can be hard to find, in places where it can sometimes feel elusive, this has always been a community of people that leads with hope. From stories like the ones we've been watching together each week of this series to the amazing impact we'll talk about in just a few minutes to thousands of people who gather every weekend because they believe that God is still writing stories today." [33:44] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "We have a surplus of hope that is bigger than the chapter we are in. We understand, if you're a follower of Jesus, that even if right now what you're facing is difficult, right now is not forever. Recently, I took our two youngest boys to a Lego convention. And none of us had been there before, but I had a sense of what we would come to expect. And because we hadn't been there before, and I have a five-year-old, he was constantly asking how much longer the drive would be, if he was going to get Legos that he would be able to keep." [34:16] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Joy, as defined by Paul, is a choice to align my hope, my hope for the future, my anticipated next, with God beyond my circumstances. I'm going to connect what I believe God's going to do, even if I don't see it. And peace is the inner stability that can exist even with outer volatility, because I have the Holy Spirit living inside of me. Paul is making the case, that when God is the source of our joy and peace, the more that we trust him, the greater that he supplies us with hope by the power of God living inside of us as Jesus followers." [38:22] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "It doesn't matter how difficult your life is presently. If you're a follower of Jesus, it's not forever. And it doesn't matter how good your life is if you're a follower of Jesus, because as good as it is now, it will only be better into eternity. Think about that pivot in your life, if you could believe that, if you could live that way. Can you live that kind of hope that outlasts the heartache that you might be living through today?" [40:23] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "The shift that God is calling us to make as a church is that we must move from survival mode to revival mode. I understand why we've been where we've been, and I also understand that now it is time to turn the page. My hope is to give you a few pieces of information to re-instill hope that God is not done with us, that God is not done with you. And this story of where God is taking us, when we think about it, the best is yet to come." [40:58] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "We need to show them the generosity of God practically in the way we live our lives. We need to become hope bringers in the way this shows up right here. Now for a lot of us, you know, the truest thing about us might be our job, or it might feel like our family, or it might feel like some other aspect of our life. But what we see over and over again in the pages of Scripture is that if you're a follower of Jesus, the truest thing about you is who you are in Jesus, your identity in Him." [44:28] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "We are consistent people trying to follow Jesus. The second of our kingdom qualities is that we're unhurried friends. That while we run at a pace that feels so frenetic and unsustainable, honestly, that instead we are glad and eager to make ourselves increasingly present with Jesus and others. Our third kingdom quality is that we are sacrificial developers. And I know this is very counter-cultural that for the most part we are incentivized in our culture to try to find the places where we can give the least to get the most." [46:26] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "We need to become hope bringers in the way this shows up right here. Now for a lot of us, you know, the truest thing about us might be our job, or it might feel like our family, or it might feel like some other aspect of our life. But what we see over and over again in the pages of Scripture is that if you're a follower of Jesus, the truest thing about you is who you are in Jesus, your identity in Him. And it's about how we show up as a son or a daughter of the King in every place that we live, work, learn, and play." [44:57] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "We need to show them the generosity of God practically in the way we live our lives. We need to become hope bringers in the way this shows up right here. Now for a lot of us, you know, the truest thing about us might be our job, or it might feel like our family, or it might feel like some other aspect of our life. But what we see over and over again in the pages of Scripture is that if you're a follower of Jesus, the truest thing about you is who you are in Jesus, your identity in Him." [44:28] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)