A Shepherd's Heart — Keith Malcomson

Jeremiah 23 and the Shepherd’s Heart

I want you here to turn with me to the book of Jeremiah, again, Jeremiah chapter 23. I do want you to go to Jeremiah 3 as well, and to an awful lot of other scriptures. But there's one scripture we're going to read in Jeremiah 3, very important this morning, but I want to read a few verses from Jeremiah 23.

You'll remember last week we dealt with a heart to know God. That was Jeremiah 24. I'm bringing you back one chapter to the same message by the same prophet. And I want to give you the message here this morning.

And we've done these several messages on the heart that God searches for, the heart that God looks to, the heart that God takes note of, the heart that God is searching the church for, and nations for, and cities for.

There's a certain kind of heart, and we're looking at the different aspects of it, but it's one heart. It's the heart of the new covenant. It is the heart of the redeemed believer. And when you're born again, I believe you receive by grace through faith this heart.

Then the flesh rises up, and circumstances, and experiences. And if you're not careful, you lose that. You still have it by grace. But now you've got to fight for it. Now you realize you've got to guard that, that which you began with.

You suddenly realize you have to fight very hard to maintain. And that's why you have believers in the church who once had this as an act of God's grace, a humble heart, a broken heart, a contrite heart, a pure heart.

All of these things were given at the beginning, a heart to fear God. God gave it to you. And yet we can so affect that and let this world affect it that we begin to lose the reality and the power of that.

And so God, down through history, has said, I'm searching for such a heart. I am looking for such a heart. Read in here. And this is my message this morning. A shepherd's heart. Read in from Jeremiah chapter 23.

Jeremiah 23, verse 1 through to verse 4. Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, God of Israel, against the pastors that feed my people, ye have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them.

Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doing, saith the Lord, and I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries, whether I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase.

Notice this, verse 4. And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. Will you pray with me here?

Father, we thank you that in this dark and gloomy day, this hour of judgment, this hour of confusion. Lord God, this hour when there is no shepherds yet, there is too many shepherds. There are many shepherds that have forgotten your word, turned away from your sheep.

They have got caught up in ministry and games and gimmicks, and they no longer lead your sheep with your heart. Father, we pray, even right now, be gracious, O God. Be very gracious in this hour to turn again towards your church, to regather your church right across the nations, Lord God, and set over them, or raise up, O God, shepherds with your heart within them.

We ask it, O God, that you be very gracious, that you multiply shepherds on the hillside, that you would multiply the shepherds in the cities. For your name's sake, we need it desperately in this hour.

In Jesus' name, amen. My message is we're dealing with this heart. You see, the previous aspects of this heart are for all of us. Now I want to narrow it down in this message. This isn't essentially for you all.

All of you will not have this heart, because you're not meant to have this aspect of the heart, but you've got to understand it. You, as a people in this church, you desperately want this heart to be in this church.

It is vital for your well-being that this heart of a shepherd is actually here. Listen to what it says in Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, a very important fundamental scripture to this message. This is the key scripture of this entire message, and we'll come back to it.

Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, and this is the Lord speaking through Jeremiah, and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and with understanding. Then as we already said in Jeremiah 23 and 4, it says, I will set up shepherds over you, which shall feed you.

So notice here that this shepherd's heart is something that God gives. I will give you pastors according to my heart. Do you realize in a dark and an evil generation and an hour in the church like we live in, that this is a remarkable, vital promise.

God is actually saying, I can raise up shepherds with my heart within them, not their own heart, not the heart of a denomination, not the heart taught in a Bible school, but I literally can put a heart within them that is my heart for the sheep.

You want to pray that this man has that heart. You want to be pleading before God because you know what? It's for your good and your blessing. But God would say, I will give you pastors according to mine heart.

Do you realize that is a great blessing? If God ever removes pastors with his heart, it is a curse. It is a judgment. It is a terrible thing. When you can search a city and you cannot find pastors with the heart of God, it is a tragedy.

When you walk in churches and you cannot find that pastor's heart or more correctly, the heart of God in a pastor, it is because judgment has come. You see, don't think that the loss of real pastors is an accident.

It's not. And do not think that having a pastor with God's heart is just a circumstance. If you actually, and talking to the ones online as well, if you have a church where there's a real shepherd with a real shepherd's heart or the heart of God, you are very rare in this hour.

You see, we've traveled. Before we started this church, we traveled constantly every other weekend. And I want to tell you, it is very hard to find a real pastor or a real shepherd. They are as rare as hen's teeth.

There is no other ministry more popular than pastor so-and-so. I'm a pastor. They're the pastor. We have a pastor. Every church has a pastor. And yet I can hardly find a pastor. So this ministry title and position is more dominant than any other ministry.

And yet I can hardly find what I read in this scripture. I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you knowledge and understanding. Or I will set up, raise up, rouse, stir, or lift up individuals to be shepherds over you.

Do you know it's a supernatural work for God to raise up shepherds who really care for the flock. They're not moved by money and they're not moved by ministry and they're not moved by influence and they're not moved by notoriety and they're not moved by all of those things.

But they actually have the heart of the shepherd. If you're blessed with that, you are very rare. And if you ever take it for granted, you will get in serious trouble. I've been in the church a long time and I've seen a lot.

And I want to tell you that those that take for granted a shepherd's heart, lose it. And they cry a lot of tears over it. They spend decades and it's crisis in their family and their own life and their circumstance as a result.

But they despised it when they had it. Woe unto you in this church if you take it for granted because it's not natural. If God doesn't give it, you cannot create it. You can't get it in a Bible school.

You can't get it from years of experience. God has to give it. It's an act of his will. You know that this is a heart God has always sought for, for the good and the blessing and the endurance of his church.

In 1 Samuel 13 and verse 14, and there's the Lord speaking through Samuel, but now thy kingdom shall not continue. Speaking of Saul, the Lord has sought him a man after his own heart. Do you realize David was such a man?

He was not only a shepherd of a handful of sheep, he was a king raised up of God with the shepherd's heart for an entire nation. Do you know King David is the marker in the Bible of a true shepherd. He is even used as an example of the coming Messiah who will be the only shepherd during the millennium.

I'm so glad I won't be a shepherd in the millennium. There's only going to be one shepherd in the millennium when Jesus comes back. And David is used as an example to show us what it's going to be like when Christ reigns as a shepherd over the entire earth.

You know what Samuel said here, the Lord sought him a man after his own heart. He was looking for a man and he found him a 17 year old boy in a sheepfold on the hillside playing his harp, singing his songs, writing his songs, guarding the sheep.

And he said, that's my man for the entire nation. You little realize what's going on in this church. You little realize online or anywhere else what God could be doing as you sit under this message. You little realize that God has sought himself in this generation for shepherds to put over his sheep.

You don't realize that right now God is looking for what he's going to do in the days ahead. He is looking for men and he's looking for women and he looks for a certain heart. I wonder what sort of heart God finds with you because he's looking, he's searching and he will find himself shepherds.

When he found David, he rejected Saul, a man anointed of God, mighty in battle, high in stature, beautiful in looks, majestic in his step a mighty warrior that could lead the armies against the enemy.

And yet God says you're rejected. You can keep your position. You can keep your title. You can keep the armies. You can continue for 48 years. But you know what you don't have? You don't have a shepherd's heart.

You do not have a heart that I have been searching for. But instead this little shepherd neglected by his father, mocked by his seven brothers, obscure on the hillside, nobody noticing him. I want to tell you God noticed him.

God noticed him. You see, I don't care whether men notice me or not. Does God notice me? I don't care what we look like here this morning. Do we draw the attention of God in this meeting or does God bypass us?

It says in Jeremiah chapter 3, in the context of this verse, I will give you pastors according to my heart. There is a context concerning it. It says in Jeremiah 3 and verse 3, just the previous, previous to that verse, it says, therefore, the showers have been withholding and there has been no latter rain.

Notice this carefully. God gives the promise, I will give you shepherds at an hour where you couldn't find any shepherds. You couldn't find any real flocks, where judgment had covered the land, where there were thousands of shepherds in name only.

All across Israel, judgment had come, compromise, sin, games of religion, titles, making money. It was all across Israel. And God says, therefore, the showers have been withholding. You know what the showers are?

That's revival. That's the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Jeremiah chapter 3, when he turns to speak about his desire to raise up shepherds or pastors with his heart, he's actually talking in an hour where you can't find them, where it's impossible to find a real flock.

It's impossible to find a shepherd on the hillside with the real heart of God functioning in him. It is utterly impossible. And so God says, this is an hour I have withheld the rain. Do you realize there's no revival in this hour?

There's no revival in America. There's no revival in Britain, no revival in Europe. There's a dearth in the land. You can have revival in your personal life. Church could have revival personally in its midst.

But what we see is God has withholding the rain. You know what I want to know? Why is withholding the rain? There's no revival. So everyone's praying about revival. Everyone's prophesying about revival.

But if God withholds the rain, you can't make him give that. And it says, and there's been no latter rain. And thou has the whore's forehead, thou refuses to be ashamed. In Jeremiah chapter 3, the whole context is rebellion in the house of God.

Your need for repentance, your sin against God. And he calls them a harlot. He called Israel a harlot. He called Judah a harlot. And he says, you're like two unfaithful women. Both of you have committed adultery and I had to divorce you.

You're hard hearted. You're rebellious. You love your sin. You're playing games with religion. And he says, you know, I had to divorce you. And yet later he says to Judah, yet I'm married to the backslider.

Speaking of an entire nation, which is meant to represent him. You know, and this are the very best of what we call the church in the Western world. I think it's like Judah. He's saying, I had to divorce you and yet you're married to me.

You are the real remnant. But I'm going to have to do something with you. It's in the context of speaking about withholding the latter reign. That he then says, I, what's going to be the answer? I will give you pastors according to my heart.

Do you know how it got like this? Do you know how across entire nations? I mean, entire continents. Where you're going, what is wrong with the church? What is wrong is the loss of a local shepherd and pastor.

I don't care if he only has 10 sheep or 50 or a hundred or two. I don't care. But the loss of this shepherd, God says, you know why I'm withholding the reign and why it's in such a state? There's no shepherds with my heart.

If I had shepherds in every town, every community with my heart, it wouldn't be like this. We'd be experiencing rain, the former and the latter reign. The latter reign speaks of the last days before Jesus comes back.

Listen again in Zechariah chapter 10. Zechariah 10 and chapter 11, two chapters are about shepherds, real shepherds and false shepherds. But listen to how Zechariah chapter 10, one begins in speaking about real and false shepherds.

It says, ask ye of the Lord reign in the time of the latter reign, so the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to every one grass in the field. I do not think it's an accident that we have in Jeremiah 3 and Zechariah 10, this issue of real shepherds being given in order to bring us to the former and the latter reign.

The Gift of Shepherds in Church History

I read some years ago and it impacted me, a history of Scotland, a spiritual history. When John Knox rose up ministry at the beginning, we are told that Scotland was saturated by dark superstitious Catholicism.

They worship bits of wood, which they said was from the cross. They weren't allowed to read the Bible. There was no local education. He was in a terrible spiritual condition. The entire nation was on its way to hell.

Yet in 40 days of preaching through this man called John Knox, who wanted to become a Catholic priest, through preaching the word of God, the entire nation was changed. In that old church history book, I read that it seemed like all over Scotland and every village and every town and every city, God suddenly out of nowhere raised up shepherds with his heart in every single local community.

They said it had to be a work of God. It wasn't natural that all over, all of a sudden the shepherds arose and the flocks began to gather. Many were converted. There was outpourings of the Holy Spirit.

I believe there's an hour coming. Saints of God, we are in the time of the latter rain. It should have rained. No rain has come. You ought to be asking for rain. Where are the shepherds? Look at the mess of the church and you say, what are we going to do?

We just batten down and say, oh, Sarah, Sarah. No, we begin to pray. Lord, give us shepherds after your heart again. Lord, make us ready for the latter rain again. I've got three points here I want to give to you.

A Shepherd Is a Gift from God

Number one, concerning a shepherd's heart, and this is my first point, a gift from God. You've got to understand this. It's so essential. You may not be called to be a shepherd. You may not be called to lead and to preach and to teach and to care for people's lives.

But what you do need to understand is a real gifted shepherd or a real gifted pastor. It's a gift from God. It is a gift from God. What does it say here? I will give you. When the Bible speaks, I will give you.

It's a thing of grace. It's not a thing of reward. He's not rewarding you. It's an act of God's grace to give you a pastor according to my heart. It's not natural to find a pastor. I've met many pastors.

I have met thousands of preachers. I have met so many in ministry that I'm sick to death with it. Some 15, 20 years ago, I went, I am tired. Give me the old granny at the back of the church. Give me the young kids.

But I said, I don't want to go near a preacher. I'd seen the games and I'd been burnt and I'd seen what goes on in ministry. And I'd said, Lord, just give me those that aren't caught up in that. They just want the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is all that they desire. Do you know over in Ephesians chapter four, we are told about the ministries the Lord gives to the church. Listen carefully. Ephesians chapter four, verse 11. And he, that is Christ risen from the dead.

He gave some. All of you aren't in this. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Five distinct different ministries, not three, not four. There's five unique different ministries.

The fourth one mentioned here is pastors. Now this word pastor is a unique gifted ministry from God. Not everyone in the church has it. There are very few in my reckoning. There are many who call themselves pastor.

I'm pastor Jim, really pastor Jim. So you're a pastor. Yes. How do you know you're a pastor? Well, I've got a church and I went to Bible school and they give me my ordination certificate and everyone in the church calls me pastor.

Do you have the heart of a pastor? Do you have the gifting of a pastor? Do you have a supernatural work that made you a pastor? This word pastor is the Greek word pomion. It is the word for shepherd. It is shepherd.

What is a pastor? You tell me what the word pastor means. What does it mean in English? You can't even tell me. You know the word pastor is a Latin word. I do not like Latin words when it changes scripture.

This is a place where a Latin word was used in the English to go, they're a pastor. Actually the Greek word means shepherd. The direct translation for pomion, this Greek word is used 17 times in our New Testament.

Only once in the entire New Testament is it translated pastor. The other 16 times, the exact same Greek word is used. It's translated shepherd. So why in Ephesians 4 .11 did they translate it pastor instead of shepherd?

I believe through this, we have lost something. It doesn't sound as good to say shepherd Jimmy, does it? Doesn't have the ring of pastor. Pastor's a title to call someone a shepherd. Do you know what that means?

That means work and responsibility and effort, probably a broken heart, a few headaches, a few sleepless nights if you're a shepherd. But when we use pastor, we are talking about a title, a position. I think we've lost something.

See before this first talking about God gave, notice what a pastor or a shepherd is. It is a ministry put in the church. God gave it or more correctly, Christ gave it. Listen to what it says in Ephesians 4 and 8.

Wherefore he says, having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive and he has given gifts to men. He then goes on to explain what these gifts are. One of these gifts is the shepherd. A shepherd is a gift that God gives to the church to edify the church, to bring it to maturity.

Without these five gifts, you wouldn't have a church come into maturity. There'd be an awful lot of immaturity. That shows me that if we have a lot of people called pastors, fulfilling titles, doing ministry, but they don't have the gifted ministry, they don't have the heart of the shepherd, we're gonna have a lot of immaturity.

In fact, rather like we have today, a lot of immaturity, a lot of rebellion, a lot of disobedience, a lot of confusion, a lot of strain. And yet we've got multitudes of men called pastors. What's gone wrong?

Jesus ascended on high and he led captivity captive and has given gifts to men. This is a quote from Psalm 68 verse 18. And it says there, he received gifts for men, or it could mean among men. So among men, he received out certain men to be gifts that he gives back again.

That's what it literally means. He took captivity captive. You know what the picture here is of a great Roman general who's gone off to war and in fighting the enemy, he has triumphed over the Germanic nations.

Sorry, and the Frankish nations and has even invaded Britain. And when the general returns to Rome again, as he marches into the city, do you know what they used to do? They'd set a date and a time and they'd send information to the city.

Now tomorrow at nine o 'clock, we're gonna march back triumphant into the city. Make sure the whole city's ready for us. And after being away for two years or three years, they march back. And do you know what they have?

As they begin to roll in and the general is there on his chariot with all his horsemen, do you know that they would have taken captivity captive and they would have a prince from Britain and a Germanic prince and a Frankish prince and they would be chained coming along on the chariot wheels as he rode back into the city of Rome.

You see, he had taken captivity captive and as the general come back in, you would see the greatness of this general. And then do you know what he would do with this prince from Britain? He would say, I'm gonna keep him in the city of Rome and I'm gonna give him to this rich family and he is a gift into that family to show our victory and power.

Do you know that happened in the body of Christ? When you look at Jesus Christ coming in triumph, Isaiah Peter, a fisherman who was taken captive by the Lord Jesus Christ and you know what happened? He was given as a gift to the body of Christ or better still, what about Paul the apostle that was persecuting the church and fighting the church and he hated the name of Jesus.

Captivity was taken captive and you know what? Then Paul is given as a gifted Bible teacher, an apostle to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see that Christ gives gifts out of his plunder of men.

He saves men and women and then out of them, out of his plunder of hell, he gives them as gifts back to his church. These gifts are men, gifted men or men given as gifts to the body of Christ. We call them the fivefold ministry or the ascension gifts or the post resurrection gifts.

That's what we call them and one of them is shepherd. In other words, out of all those that Christ has saved out of the world, he rescued men, he delivered the worst, he saves the drug addict and the prostitute, he saves the rebel and the criminal and the atheist and the Catholic and the Muslim.

You know, all through the years, I've found I've met shepherds, real shepherds and say, I used to do drugs and get high on heroin and I lived for years and then God saved me and then God called me and then God made me a preacher and God sent me back into the same prisons that I got saved out of.

Do you know what that is? That is Christ taking captivity captive and giving gifts back onto the church. He takes some of the most unlikely men. He'll take Matthew, the tax collector and he'll make him an apostle to preach on the high street.

He used to try and get all your money. Now he's trying to give you something free that's better than money. It's a remarkable thing. Saints of God, this is the first thing I want you to see here is that a shepherd is a gift from God.

It is a gifted ministry. I will give you, you can't make yourself a shepherd. Do you know you can't decide to be one of these ministries? You can't decide to be a preacher. You can't make yourself a preacher.

I've met them. I've met them from young guys straight through to old timers and they're a curse on the church. They are an absolute problem in the church. They may be eloquent. They may be knowledgeable, but I assure you they're carnal and they bring a curse on the church.

They don't know what pastoring is. They don't know what it is to be a shepherd. When you go to the Bible, you begin to see that some of God's greatest gifts to the church and to Israel were actually shepherds.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Moses in the Old Testament were all shepherds. God trained them in the sheepfold and you know what that means? That means if you hang around sheep, there's something about sheep that typifies a real Christian more than any animal, all their traits, all their character.

If you can be a shepherd, I mean a real shepherd with real sheep and look at them, if you can do that, you can pastor any church in the entire country. If you really understood what it meant to look after a flock of sheep, you would have all the characteristics.

To birth a nation, God chose a shepherd whose name was Abraham. To establish the 12 tribes of Israel, he chose a shepherd called Jacob. To preserve his people in Egypt, he chose a shepherd called Joseph.

To deliver the nation from Egyptian bondage, he chose a shepherd called Moses. And to rule over the nation in kingly authority, he chose another shepherd, his name was called David. Do you think that's accidental?

That as we look at the Old Testament, get me a shepherd with my heart. If I can put my heart and a man in the little sheepfold, do you know God could raise up mighty ministries out of this church? He is searching, he is working.

If you're wasting your time here, you're very foolish doing that. Do you realize God is here? God is speaking here in a unique way. God is actually working in our midst. If you don't see that, you're going to miss God.

You need eyes to see that God is actually a God who is giving gifts to his body. And if God is going to do an extraordinary thing very shortly and send a real revival, you know what he's going to do? He's going to give real gifted ministry.

Where do you think he's going to find that? You know what I believe? I believe drunken on the side of the street here this morning, or lying at home high on drugs are some of those gifts that haven't even got plundered yet and saved out of sin.

I believe there's evangelists out here and I believe there's pastors out here and there could be apostles out here and there could be prophets out here that are going to be used as voices to the church.

And yet they're fast held in sin and someone has to share the gospel with them. My second point, false shepherds. So I believe in these verses, this is what it means. If God says, I will give you pastors according to my own heart, that means there's an awful lot of pastors who are not according to his heart.

False Shepherds Scatter and Harm the Flock

If you find a pastor and he's not in line with God's heart, God did not give him. If he doesn't speak like the great shepherd, if he doesn't minister like the great shepherd, if he doesn't feel like the great shepherd, if he doesn't think about sin and think about backsliding and think about the young, then he wasn't given by God.

It says in Jeremiah 23 and one, listen to this instruction, concern the false shepherds. So we see that a shepherd is a gift from God. But secondly, there are false shepherds. Woe unto the pastors or the shepherds, it's the same word.

Woe unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. Do you think God notices that? Do you think God takes good note of those that are false shepherds? Do you think he sees the sheep that are getting scattered because of abuse in ministry and because pastors aren't right and leaders aren't right and the sheep are scattered?

Do you know over this two years, we've heard thousands, from thousands of genuine Christian sheep all around the world who can't find a church. And they're not just saying that, you're talking about people who love the Lord Jesus Christ.

They're searching cities, you know some of them. They're searching nations and their community and their area. And they say, I'm not looking for much. I just want a real church where there's no flashing lights, no gimmicks, no games, and that they simply preach the word of God.

But it's so hard to find. He says, woe to those pastors who are scattering the flock, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I am against the pastors that feed my people. These shepherds are there everywhere, all through Israel.

They are feeding the sheep and yet God says, I'm against you. You're feeding, you're speaking, you're casting out your prepared food and yet you're scattering the people. You're destroying what you should never touch.

And can I warn you, don't you dare go into ministry if God hasn't called you. If that doesn't make you tremble, then nothing will. If you dare to touch ministry, we have a very high view of ministry. I don't care about ministry.

You know that in one sense. I just love people. I care about you. But we have a very high view of ministry. You don't put yourself in there. It's God called. You will curse the church. You would damage this church.

I don't want you leading youth. I don't want you with an instrument. I don't want you involved in anything unless God has called you to it. You've scattered the flock, driven them away and have not visited them.

Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doing, saith the Lord. Notice he says all of this about the full shepherds. Then in verse four, he says, I will set up shepherds. It's gonna be out of all this confusion that God intervenes, I'm gonna gather you.

I'm gonna raise up real shepherds. I'm gonna stir up certain individuals. I'm gonna stir them with the call of God. All through Jeremiah speaks about this problem. Remember, he was the prophet chosen when the entire people were carried off into captivity in Babylon.

He had to preach. It's gonna happen. You're gonna get carried off. God's judgment is coming. God has raised up Nebuchadnezzar. They thought he was a false prophet. They wanted to kill the man. They said, you're a liar.

You're making this up. You're working for Nebuchadnezzar. How else could you preach such a negative message to us? Can't you be happy? Can't you preach all blessing and prosperity? Listen to what else he says.

Jeremiah 10, 21. For the pastors are become broodish like animals and have not sought the Lord. Do you realize shepherds that do not seek the Lord are a curse to the church? It would be better not to have a pastor than to have a pastor, a preacher that does not seek the Lord.

Do you realize how dangerous it would be to sit under my ministry? If I was not someone who hadn't sought the Lord through the years, do you know how dangerous that would be? Therefore they shall not prosper and all the flock should be scattered.

Or what about Jeremiah 12 and 10? Many pastors, it shows those many, many pastors have destroyed my vineyard. They have trodden my portion underfoot. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

Or what about Jeremiah 15 and six? My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place.

You know, when I find sheep that forget their resting place, that have no flock, that aren't together, I don't blame them. I blame the shepherds. See the fact that I can hear from so many in Canada and America, in Australia and New Zealand and South Africa and England and many other nations.

I'm hearing it constantly. Do you realize where the problem is? It's not them. There's lots of churches in this hour. There are lots of pastors in this hour, but they have scattered the flock. That means that God is against the shepherds.

And now we have sheep everywhere who forget what it's like to function in a church. They forget what it's like to have a resting place on the hillsides. Or listen to Ezekiel 24. Which probably has the most clear definition of false shepherds.

You see, they can have the title. They could even abide in a town and a village and a church. They used to have great shepherds and faithful shepherds and real shepherds. But now in this hour, they're unfaithful shepherds.