Hope Lutheran Church

Do you ever feel like an imposter? Like you're pretending to have it all together, but really you're a mess inside? It's easy to feel that way when John calls you a child of God in 1 John 3. We feel like we don't live up to that title. But John assures us in this reading that That is What We Are. We are God's children. Not because of our obedience or faithfulness, but because of the love he has lavished on us.

This week we had Pastor Justin Schroeder from Grace Alone Lutheran Church, the new church plant in Northwest Houston, share God's Word with us. His message focused on Matthew 22:1-14, where Jesus "shatters the glass" for what life looks like in his kingdom.

How do you balance truth and love? It's something we all struggle with as Christians. But what John tells us in 2 John 1-6 is that truth and love are inseparable. Truth without love isn't really truth. And love without truth isn't really love. Thankfully for us, we have the one who is truth and love personified to fill our lives with grace, mercy, and peace. With his truth and love living in us, we are equipped to show truth and love in our own lives.

Faith and politics. These are two topics that you're not supposed to talk about at dinner parties. But as Christians, we need to talk about them. We need to talk about what we owe to our government and what we owe to God. If we forget either one, or if we mix the two up, we run into all kinds of problems. Thankfully Jesus sums it up with one simple sentence: Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's.

Paul's closing word for us as we wrap up this series on 1 Thesslonians is this: Live in Peace. Live in peace with God and with one another. Thankfully, that's not something that's left up to us. Instead, we rely on God working in us through his Word and by the power of the Holy Spirt.

It's easy to get complacent in our relationship with God knowing that he loves us unconditionally. But in 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul encourages us to live in a way that pleases God more and more.

What does the model church look like? In today's lesson from 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul paints a portrait of the model church's leaders. He talks about how he and Silas preached the gospel to them with integrity, and how the church loves like a family.

This week as we celebrate our 6th Anniversary, we also start a new sermon series. We're looking at the Thessalonian congregation, because Paul calls them "a model for all the believers." Today we see how the Thessalonians turned from idols to serve the living and true God.

One of the fundamental parts of faith is the ability to see beyond yourself. By nature, we all struggle with that. What we see in this last story from Joseph's life is that, by faith, he didn't. He was able to see beyond himself to forgive his brothers, and he was able to see beyond himself by faith in God's promises.

This week we get to see Joseph and his brothers reconcile. We'll see that there are three parts of their reconciliation. The brothers' repentance, Joseph's refusal to take revenge, and God's redemption of the whole situation.