Kingdom Community | Week 1 | 4 January 2026 | Andy Glover

``And we were talking about the names of God and thinking about his names and how as we understand his names and his character begins to shape us. And we're gonna build on that by asking a slightly different question through this teaching series. And the question that we're gonna be exploring is, who are we becoming together because of him? Who are we becoming together because of him? Because what we believe about God doesn't just shape our theology. I think it actually shapes our relationships, our culture, and our shared life. And that's really what we're going to explore. [00:01:04] (44 seconds)  #BecomingTogether

So pour in spirit for me is about humility replacing comparison. Comparison is the thief of joy. We all compare ourselves with someone else. And we tend to compare in two ways, don't we? We compare ourselves one way by thinking, well, I'm so glad I'm not like that person because I'm so much better. Or we compare ourselves in another direction, think, oh, I could never be like so and so because they're so spiritual. I I do that. Do you do that? But but don't compare yourself. Just you in humility, be who God has called you to be. [00:16:55] (46 seconds)  #HumbleNotCompare

Jesus is talking to people who are making decisions to be followers. And it's not about how you enter the kingdom, so don't get too confused here. In terms of entering the kingdom, the way that you enter the kingdom of God is that you enter it by faith. You make a decision to follow Jesus. And and maybe even in this context today, part of this New Year is about us either renewing our commitment or making that commitment for the first time to follow Jesus. [00:07:36] (37 seconds)  #FollowByFaith

I think the other thing about culture sometimes as well is this sort of faithfulness in service when nobody's applauding. You know, I look I I have the privilege. You know, I look around and can see your faces. So many of you in this room faithfully are serving God without any applause. You turn up on a Saturday morning once a month to do Who Let the Dads Out, or you turn up in another context to serve in trackers or in wildfire or renew well-being or you go down to the community cafe and you're serving on the community cafe at the Crossroads Community Hub. [00:13:03] (44 seconds)  #ServeWithoutApplause

Like when a person walks in for the first time, do they look around and see everybody in their little conversations with people that they know? Or are people just heads up and looking around for an unfamiliar face to give them a welcome? If you've seen somebody this morning that you don't recognize and you think, oh, maybe I could just go and say hello. Little tip, if there's somebody in the room that you don't know and you haven't recognized, don't go up to them and say, is this your first time at HBC? Because it could be their fourth year, and you just haven't spoken to them. The little tip is to say, oh, I don't think we've ever spoken before. I'm Andy. What's your name? [00:26:09] (44 seconds)  #WelcomeWithRespect

Just a few things about salt. Salt pervert preserves, brings flavor. It must be mixed in. Light, it exists to be seen. That's an interesting one, isn't it? Light exists to be seen. Light is no good if you don't see it. Has to be seen. And it works best together. Light. Something about light, isn't it? Like, we've talked about before. If you just get one candle in a dark room, yes, the light shines. But if you then get a 100 candles in a dark room, the light magnifies. It becomes more illuminated. There's something about us working together. [00:29:29] (43 seconds)  #SaltAndLightTogether

And church isn't just about when we gather like this. And lots of us can be thinking that way. We can have a worldview, that church is this, this sort of gathering. And yet it's much more than that, and I'm sure you'll appreciate that. Many of you will agree with that and will have experienced that church is much more than this gathering on a Sunday morning even though this gathering is important. [00:02:29] (26 seconds)  #ChurchBeyondSunday

The the challenge is about, well, then how do we process that? And this is what we're going to be unpacking in Matthew five, six, and seven. So this series that we're going to look at is not so much about adding content. I don't want you to think about, oh, we're just going to have more content in our lives or more knowledge in our lives. That's that's that's okay. You know, we need to grow in knowledge. But this teaching series for me and for us as a leadership, as we've been thinking about it, it's about shaping our culture. [00:03:57] (37 seconds)  #ShapeCultureNotContent