03 August 2025: Gathering together (David Pounder)

Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South

Australia. All right, so I'm going to be

talking about gathering together this week.

Fellowship. God's will is for us to be

together. Hebrews 10/25 says not forsaking

the assembling of ourselves together as in the manner of

some, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see

the day approaching, so much the more as you see the day of the

Lord approaching. And so we would want to be found

together a whole lot more as more like more as we see the day

approaching. I think the day is approaching.

I think we can see that the day is approaching.

You know, the early believers had this heart.

They believed that the day was approaching and they wanted to

be together. And we too want to be together

because we see the day approaching and like, do we want

to be together? Just, you know, I read this

scripture, it talks about, you know, have this desire to be

together. Do we want to be together just

because the word of God says to be together or do we actually

want to be together? I think like sometimes it starts

with just trusting and having faith in what God says for these

things. When God says you, you should be

together. It's good for you to be

together. Sometimes it's, it's hard to, to

step out and be together. You don't really want to, you

know, I want to be isolated. I want to be on my own, but

God's calling me to be with his family and be together.

So it might take some effort on my part to push through that, to

take a hold of the truth and then walk it out.

And so this is just another one of these reasons why we just

can't rely on our own feelings and our own emotions and our

flesh. We we need to rely solely on

God's lead and the things that he's calling us to do.

So we're called to be together. And so desire to be together

grows when you step out in faith and take a hold of what God's

called you to do, like you will begin to want to be together if

you don't already, because you'll see that it's good

because God is good. His word is good.

His direction is always good. When you walk in God's ways,

you, you see the fruit of walking in God's ways and you

realize, yeah, this is good. And that's for all things.

Anything that you lay down and say, look, I, I will do, I will

do this your way, Lord, over time, you will see that that was

the right thing to do. You will, you will have this

desire in you to, to walk further into the things of God.

God's never wrong, like when God gives us direction and leading

and tells us to stay away from this thing and and push into

this thing. God's never wrong because God's

desire is good for us. He's never wrong.

And so when you step out in faith and just trust him, you

will realize that God was right always.

He's never wrong. But we're going to look at the

example of Jesus here today when it comes to fellowship and

gathering together. Jesus gathered together in the

synagogues, in these corporate gatherings.

Jesus was there for those. Jesus preached to a lot of

people on mountains and stuff like that where there was

corporate gatherings that Jesus was a part of.

Did Jesus pray? Yeah.

Did he pray on his own or did he pray with others?

Both. Jesus prayed a lot on his own,

but he also prayed a lot with his disciples.

He taught them how to pray. They asked him, how do we pray?

This is how you pray. When you read Jesus's words,

quite often he is praying and you sort of don't realize it,

but when, when you look at it and he says Amen and, and like

he is praying, but there's a lot of times when it's very clear

that Jesus is praying. You know, he says, I pray to the

Father for you. You know, he says to Peter, I've

been praying for you and these things.

So, so prayer is a big part of, of following Christ.

We gather together to pray. We're called to be a House of

prayer for the nations. So you're praying together

corporately and and on your own is a call that we have in Christ

and it's exampled by Jesus. Did Jesus meet in homes?

Yes. How often did Jesus meet in

homes? All the time, A lot.

It seems like Jesus didn't even have his own home.

He was just sort of just going from home to home, which is

interesting when you think about what we're called to do.

How often was food involved when Jesus was ministering and

meeting like you? You almost say all the time,

don't you? It's like food is just like, I

love food. I love being together and you're

around the table and eating together.

Jesus loved it too, it would seem eating together is a very

special thing. Our culture has kicked out the

dining table for a for a couch and ATV.

Do you think that's by accident? Do you think that the the

enemies had a hand in doing that in in setting up something to

take our attention away so that we wouldn't be fellowshipping

with each other the way that Jesus did?

Of course. And so we as the called out

believers need to get back to what Jesus did.

Back to Jesus example, we just point all of our furniture at

this TV like it's some sort of shrine.

It's not. It's weird when you think about

it, you know, like my friends would come over and have, you

know, hang out. We didn't call it fellowship

then, but your friends would come over and hang out and you

just point all your bodies at the TV and just ignore each

other. We do this with our phones.

We do this with, you know, laptops and stuff like that.

We come together to hang out. Hey, do you want to come hang

out? Yeah, sure.

Then we sit around on our phones and we ignore each other all

night. This is not by accident, guys.

This is like the enemies designed to keep us out of

fellowship with with each other and to keep us from walking in

the example that Christ set for us.

And so we got to push back. We really have to push back on

this because out there, this is just the way that it is.

So anywhere, anywhere you go out here, you're just going to be

sucked into this the way of the world, right?

But we as believers, as followers of Christ, as set

apart, you know, covenantal family of God, we need to look

very different. So when people come into our

home, we're not just going to like sit in front of the TV and

hope that, you know, we have the opportunity to share Christ with

them. We're going to sit at the table.

We're going to eat food together.

We're going to make it very clear who we are and what we

believe. And so this is the this is the

culture that we're building as a local church here, a family

community, one that gathers together and follows Jesus

example. Think about the Old Testament

feasts, which is very important in the scripture.

What are they doing, eating? They're coming together and, and

setting their hearts and their minds and everything towards

God. They're and, and you know, these

feasts, when you actually look at them, they, they all point to

Jesus. And so, you know, the Old

Testament believers were, were looking to, to Jesus without

even really knowing it. But they're coming together in

fellowship and they're eating together and they're celebrating

and they're, it's all about God. It's a celebration of who God is

and what God's done and what God's going to do.

These are the feasts. You know, I said this before,

like many, many months ago now, when I don't think we'd been

planted for too long, but I said that Jesus was either on his

way. He's either at a meal, on his

way to a meal, or planning a meal.

And it's funny because you can, you, can you make a case for

that in the Scripture? Jesus's first miracle was at a

feast. He turned water to wine.

What are they doing with the wine?

Drinking it, the eating, drinking.

There's one of the miracles. I think there's only one, maybe

2. I mean, the resurrection is

there, but the, one of the miracles that's in all of the

Gospels is the feeding of the 5000.

Is there any food involved with that?

It's feeding people. It's just interesting when you

when you start to look at these things, right?

What about the Last Supper? What were they doing eating?

You know, Jesus takes the bread and the wine off of a table of

fellowship and off of out of a meal.

He didn't say to to his guys, Hey, Peter, just run into the

into the cupboard there, grab the wine, grab the bread out

there. We're going to have communion,

you know, just say hey, hey, guys, just run to Audi so we can

grab some bread and some wine because we're going to have

communion this morning. They're having a meal.

Jesus grabs a takes from the table, the bread and the wine.

It's interesting, isn't it? What about when Jesus is

resurrected? Luke 24 verse 30, it says this.

Luke 24:30

Now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them that he took

the bread and he blessed and he broke it and he gave it to them

and their eyes were opened and they knew him and then he

vanished out of his sight. Jesus sitting at a table again,

Jesus gets resurrected, has this light walks along with them and

teaches them, you know, the, the Scripture and they don't know

who he is. And then he goes back and they,

they, they convince him to stay and come to the table.

Jesus is breaking bread. He's eating again, you know, and

then what about John 29 verse 15?

Again, this is after the resurrection.

So when he had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

Simon, son of Judah, do you, do you love me?

Do you love me, Peter? Jesus is cooking some fish and

they're out fishing and then he calls them in for what?

For breakfast. He's going to feed them.

Jesus is going to talk to them. Jesus is going to speak the word

of God, but he's feeding them food at the same time.

There's this cool prophecy in Isaiah, Isaiah 25.

This is not the whole, whole whole thing, but listen to what

it says here. It says, I think it's verse 6,

it says, and in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for

all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wine on the

leas, of fat things full of marrow, of well refined wines on

the leas. And we would we and he will

destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering, cast

over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever.

And the Lord God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

It's talking about a feast. And you know, this is echoing

the the words that come later in Revelation where it talks about

death being swallowed up, talks about every tear being washed

away. Do you think that we're going to

be feasting with the Lord in eternity?

I think we are. You know, there's a the wedding

supper of the Lamb. Jesus is all about it.

And so we need to be about the things that Jesus is about,

right? This is a powerful thing for us

to grasp, guys. God has given us something very

powerful for us to fellowship with one another and reach the

lost around us. When Jesus appoints the 70

without looking like, I'm not even going to tell you where it

is, but it's in Luke, right? When Jesus appoints them go and

do these things, what does he tell them to do?

Can someone just call out something?

This is when he he gets the 70 together and he sends them out.

What's one thing that he says that for them to do?

Go into homes. You guys are cheating.

I wouldn't just say all the other stuff.

You're not cheating, no, but that this is this is it.

Because like when I think about that, you guys are just smarter

than me. Clearly when I think about what

Jesus told them to do, it was like go.

Therefore, I think of the Great Commission.

It's like healing the sick and casting out demons and going in

pairs and all of these things. But this is what it says.

It says Luke, Luke 10 verse one. Now after these things, the Lord

appointed the 70 others. I'm just going to skip down to

to verse 5. It says, and into whatsoever

house you shall enter first say peace be to this house.

And if the son of peace is there, the peace shall rest upon

it upon him. But if not, it shall return to

you. And in that same house remain

eating and drinking such things as they give.

Jesus is sending them out to to reach people and because the

thing that he says to them to tell them and tell them the

Kingdom of God is at hand and he sends them before himself.

So he says going to the places that I'm going to go and tell

them that the Kingdom of God is at hand and go into their houses

and eat and drink whatever they give you.

You know, obviously there's a lot of emphasis here, but my

emphasis is go into their houses, eat and drink, tell them

that the king is coming. And so we are called in the same

way we are sent once, you know, the Great Commission, When,

when, when Jesus says go therefore and go into the

nations and and baptize them and teach them all the things that

I've commanded and all these things how go into their homes.

Do the thing that he's exampled. Jesus did this over and over and

over again. And so they knew how Jesus did

it. And so even when he sends them

out, he tells them how to do it, Get into their homes.

And if they don't, if they're not willing to hear, and if they

don't want you in their homes, blow the dust off your feet and

move on. Go to someone who's willing to

hear. It's interesting, isn't it?

And so when you think about this, what sort of people should

we as the white church or as believers, as followers of

Jesus, what sort of people should be at the table with us,

saved or unsaved? Both.

Jesus ate with his disciples. Jesus ate with the sinners and

the tax collectors. And he says, like people that

don't need, you know, saving, they have no use for me.

I'm, I'm butchering what he actually said.

He said that those that are well don't need a physician.

It's like don't spend all your time with believers.

They don't need to hear the gospel, right?

We need to be at our tables with unbelievers.

Otherwise we're just, we're, we're isolated.

We're just doing our own thing and we're not following the

example of Jesus and we're not doing what he's called us to do.

It's very hard to share the gospel with an unbeliever if

you're never around unbelievers, right?

And that's at their place and your place and my place and your

place. Like it's just, we're going to

get in each other's homes. We're going to get in other

people's homes. Jesus invited himself to

people's homes. It's pretty bold, isn't it?

I'm coming to your house tonight, buddy.

Come down that tree. I'm coming to yours.

Well, he's pretty stoked. Well, these guys were were

wanting to hear what Jesus had had to say and he sends them in

twos as well. This is interesting.

Jesus always sends them in in pairs.

He never sends anyone on their own.

So I would suggest that like when we're at the table with

unbelievers, there should be more than one believer.

If we're going to share the gospel, there should be a couple

of us. And so it might just mean that

when you invite your unsaved friends or when you have a a

feast with people that don't know Christ, invite some of the

people from the church, bring some of the believers around,

follow Jesus example, go in pairs, strengthen one another,

help each other. Don't try to do this alone.

When I think about some of the things that's hold us back from

having our neighbors and stuff in our house, it's just like

there's no support. It's just me.

Invite, invite Justin. Justin will come here.

Justin loves eating and, and, and, and drinking.

He doesn't drink. He doesn't drink wine.

I'm going to put it out there, but he will have some coffee.

He will happily have some coffee, right?

Invite someone along, get some support.

If he, if you know, sharing the gospel is hard for you, invite

Daniel. Invite someone.

That's that not that is comfortable in doing this.

We don't have to do this alone. We're not called to do this

alone. So we've we've all been meeting

as a as a group in one group. And you know, we'd felt stirred

and many, many of the sort of helped us to say that we needed

to expand, that we needed to multiply, that we need to have

multiple groups going. We need to make space.

These guys have got a big house, but it's not big enough.

And we found that like when it came to inviting others along to

that, there's not a whole lot of space.

You know, when you walk into a room, there's no space for you.

It doesn't feel very comfortable, does it?

You feel like you're sort of just like an inconvenience.

And so these are just practical things.

We want, we want to make space for people to come.

And so last Friday was our first night where where we met in our

home. Actually, we're going to be

meeting in Daniel and Chantelle's home.

These guys are opening up their home.

And so some of us are going to be going to these, to Daniel, to

Justin and Bianca's house and, and others are going to be going

to Daniel and Chantel's house. And so, but we had the first,

first group in our house and it was really cool because, you

know, it wasn't really cool at the time because I was, we

invited some people and it was like we got to 6:00 and there's

just no one there. And it was just like, Oh my

gosh, like I knew that one of us was going to be there.

So I was like, oh, what are we going to do here?

Maybe we just go out and eat somewhere else.

But luckily some people came along.

We had some people come and they weren't people from our usual

group, which I think is amazing, right?

When we when we step out and we go, you know, God's calling us

to multiply, all of a sudden now there's a different group here.

Isn't that amazing? And so this is this is the

season that we find ourselves in multiplication opening up, you

know, more space for people to come.

We had our we've been having, we've had two men's gatherings

now. So we had our second one.

I missed the first one because, you know, I was with Hillary at

the hospital. But that's OK.

It was wonderful. I'm glad I was there.

But but we had our second men's gathering and we were having

this in where Colin lives in the village there.

And it's really cool. They've got like space for us to

meet. There's a pool table and stuff

like that. So we had some fellowship there.

We had a couple of people that weren't a part of our church

there. Isn't that cool?

We open up another space and there's people there that that

aren't a part of us. And so this is just highlighting

to us that when we, when we step out and we and we seek to do

things God's way, God breathes life on it.

And so be excited about that, guys, there's there's things

that we can invite our friends into Now.

I would, I would encourage you ladies.

Yeah, you ladies. I'm not going to do it for you,

You ladies. You know, if you want to get

together and have some fellowship and invite your

friends and stuff like that, you're going to have to organise

that between yourselves. I think you should.

I think there's definitely an opportunity.

You like ladies love getting together.

I'm sure something will come of this, but yeah, this is just

another opportunity for us to come together, have fellowship,

eat together, welcoming others, you know, have people at our

table. Just remember, we want to invite

people that don't know him to the table.

And so that means that, you know, just be on the lookout for

people to come. I find that when I invite people

to church, you know, we invite people at the hampers and stuff

like that. And hampers is on Tuesday night,

we would invite people, hey, we should come to church.

Yeah, yeah, maybe I will. Whatever.

But it's like then you've got like, Wednesday, Thursday,

Friday, Saturday, Sunday. There's just too many

opportunities. Like, you even forget that you

were even invited into in that time.

And so I've just realized that, like, we need to make it easy

for people. You know, it's like invite

someone to dinner tonight, invite someone to dinner

tomorrow. And Jesus did this.

Jesus said I'm coming to your house tonight.

It was like it it, it means that they have to respond to you in

the moment. It means that they have to

either commit or say no. If I say to someone, would you

come to my house tonight, they're either going to say yes

or no. If they say yes, very likely

that they're going to be there. If I invite them a week down the

track, maybe not. Do you see my point?

Let's just make it easy for people to come.

God is leading us into a space of fellowship with one another.

God's wanting us to walk this thing out in community.

God has called us to be a a church that is the family of

God, that is a a safe place, that is a healthy family.

This is the, the church that God's building here.

And as we operate in this healthy family, taking care of

one another, being real with one another, helping us walk through

the challenges and the things that we're facing, we can grow

up in him into maturity. And not only that, God wants to

add to us. God wants to bring people into

this fellowship that need him, that need us.

You know, we love God and we love each other.

God wants to bring people in here that he could be known and

that he could be loved by us. And so this is where we are.

And so I just want to encourage all of us to get around the

table, eat some food together. I shouldn't have to encourage us

to do this. We love food, right?

Eat some food together and be intentional about our

conversation. Jesus sent them into the homes

and into the houses to to eat with them, but he didn't just do

that. He told them to be intentional

about they had a purpose. So our purpose is to share

Christ, share the coming King. And that's going to take some

some intentionality. We're going to have to go to

these dinners and go to each other's houses prayerfully and

asking that God would give us the words Amen.

And I believe that when we do this and when we follow Christ's

example and we will see the the fruit following, we'll see

people come tonight. Thank you for joining us for

today's message. For more information about The

Way Church, please visit [email protected] dot

AU. Have a blessed day.