Shepherd & Sheep

We thank you.

We are your people.

Your love is dearly.

Jesus, we want to honor you.

We want to give everything that we have to you.

It's a Sunday.

In about an hour and a half, we all return home.

But you're after our lives.

You take deep interest in us.

There is no one who cares for us like you do, Jesus.

It's great that it's a Sunday, but there is so much more, so much more that you want for us.

So, Holy Spirit, we come here.

Today we are here because we want to experience your touch.

So I come first, we come together to say, Jesus, everything that you have for us, we desire.

Everything you have for us, we want to appropriate, we want to take claim of it, we want to inhabit it.

We thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So the topic for today is sheep and shepherd.

Sheep and shepherd.

When I got a sense of today and the father said talk primarily from Psalm 23, but a few other things as well,

and that you should go down the route of sheep and shepherd, my immediate response was, everyone knows about it.

Everyone knows Psalm 23.

Everyone knows how to go over the verses again and again.

Someone was saying it's the crib Psalm.

It's the Psalm that you read out to kids.

Everyone knows it.

One of the things though that happens when we know something too much is familiarity kicks in.

And when familiarity kicks in, what can happen is it can curtail discovery.

It can happen with people.

So it can happen with spouses where if you've known each other for a long time, you kind of know each other.

What more is there?

And then you're putting a limit to discovering that person more.

So I want to talk about shepherd and sheep.

All through the Bible, you go back to the Old Testament, you go through the New Testament, you see the theme over and over again,

where the Father tries to communicate who he is and his nature to me, to you, as that of his shepherd.

It's not a passage, Psalm 23 alone.

It's not just a few verses in the Gospel of John.

You go back to the Old Testament, you see it.

You read through the New Testament, you see it.

So there is something that he wants us to catch.

And what I want you guys to do today is on one hand, while you know some of these scriptures, be open hearted.

Be ready to say, Abba, there is more here.

And I want to take claim of everything that you have for me.

Yeah.

So we're going to look at a few scriptures first.

I don't know, Brandon, if you're here, maybe the first two, three slides.

We'll go through a few scriptures in the Old Testament and in the New Testament that talk about this.

The Father's nature of his shepherd.

OK, so Ezekiel chapter 34, verses 11 and 12.

Ezekiel 34:11

Ezekiel chapter 34, verses 11 and 12.

Ezekiel 34:11

For thus says the Lord God, behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep.

And I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on, on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

So you begin to see in Ezekiel prophecy after prophecy where God actually says, I am like that of a shepherd.

You are my flock and my heart for you is that I'll seek you out.

I'll find you out.

It doesn't matter where you are scattered.

I will run after you.

I'll seek you out.

Next slide.

You see another scripture this time from Isaiah, I think.

Brandon.

Isaiah chapter 40, verse 11.

Isaiah 40:11

He will tend his flock like a shepherd.

He will gather the lambs in his arms.

He will carry them in his bosom and generally lead those that are with young.

Guys, begin to think like this now.

Think with me.

Go with me.

Over the next 30 minutes, an hour, let's think like this.

That he, my father, your father, wants to relate to you and I like a shepherd does to his flock.

He wants it.

He desires it.

It's not one time that he says this.

He keeps saying it throughout the Bible.

I am the shepherd.

Jesus said that later.

But it was said way before that.

He is like a shepherd.

He wants to be a shepherd to my soul.

He wants to be a shepherd to you.

What does that mean?

And that's what we're going to dig out today.

There is way more to what seems to be.

There is way more to it than what we sometimes grasp.

And I want the Holy Spirit, I pray, that he will give me, give you a sense of what it really looks for us to relate to him as our shepherd.

And then to walk every day as the sheep of his pasture.

Next one, please, Brandon.

Here's something from Psalm.

Psalm 100, verse 3.

Psalms 100:3

Know that the Lord, he is good.

He is God.

It is he who made us and we are his.

I am part of his people.

You are part of his people, the sheep of his pasture.

And there is more in the New Testament.

But what I want to do first is establish this thing that it's not Psalm 23 alone, that it's not just Jesus in the New Testament saying that he is the good shepherd.

Yes, he is.

But this is something that spans throughout the scripture.

This is how he wants to relate to me and to you.

And oftentimes, when God says certain things, if we can latch on to what he wants to give me through it, I can access more of him.

So when God says I am healer and he names himself Jehovah Rafa, there is so much to it that's for me to appropriate as I begin to relate to him as he is my healer.

It goes beyond physical healing.

It goes beyond just spiritual healing.

It goes beyond realms of my being because he is so much more and he wants to give all of himself to me.

So that's my prayer, guys.

Truly, truly, truly.

That today you will begin a new walk with him, where you associate with him as sheep, sheep, sheep.

And he is shepherd, shepherd, shepherd.

And it's different.

As I began to, as my eyes began to open up to new things, this is something I've not really, I'm not used to relating to God like this personally.

It's new to me.

And it could be new to some of you.

Psalm 23.

Let's go to Psalm 23 and read it out and we'll go from there.

Psalm 23.

So that's David, who used to be a shepherd.

What's interesting with Israel and being a shepherd in Israel is this.

It's not like New Zealand.

A lot of mountainous areas, lots of places where it's really not easy to have your sheep go and find good pasture.

If you have a year with really good rain, then yes, you can have a few spots of good pasture.

But year round, you don't get a whole lot of good pasture in Israel, not in the Jewish lands.

So think about it that way.

And then two, there is an enemy to the sheep.

And that's usually the wolf.

Lots of wolves, they try to attack.

And so as the Psalm goes on, it talks about how God is a protector.

It goes on to say that he makes me lie down in green pastures.

So there is so much more here.

And how does that relate to me living today in Vancouver?

How does that relate to you living today in Surrey?

What does that look like?

How can I get more of him?

This thing that he's opened up, it's like a door.

It's something that he says, I am this, I am this, come access me.

I am this, come touch me.

I am this, come experience me.

How can we do it?

So the Lord is my shepherd.

I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside quiet waters.

He refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake.

Brandon?

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Surely goodness and mercy said, follow me.

All the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Forever.

So number one, guys, the Father wants you and me

to move away from flock familiarity

to personal association.

So if all of us here is sheep and he's the shepherd,

we can relate to him two ways.

One is as part of the flock.

Two is a personal, deep understanding of who he is.

And in many things in our lives, we have to ask, where are we?

Is it a flock familiarity?

Or is it something beyond that, where I really know who he is?

And the truth is, there are areas in your life,

areas in my life, where we really know him personally.

We know who he is.

So for Nick, something could be that Nick is absolutely sure

who God is when it comes to him being a provider.

He gets it.

He understands it.

He can turn around, teach every single person here

what it means when God says God is a provider.

But Nick may not, in the same level,

know what it means that God is a protector.

Someone else may know exactly what it means

and the full depth of it.

But there may be another facet of God

that you haven't fully explored.

So Abba, we come.

We come because this is what your interest is for us,

in that you want us to be not flock familiar.

You want us to be deeply associating with you,

so that everything you have for me, for us,

we can appropriate in our lives.

So Father, over the next few minutes,

with what we are wanting to do, it's quite simple, Holy Spirit.

You're opening up our eyes to the different ways

we need to associate with you, so that our days and nights

begin to look different.

So that our days and nights begin to look different.

So we'll go back to the first point, number one.

The greater your association with the shepherd,

the richer your experience of him.

The greater your association with the shepherd,

the richer your experience of him.

You know what's interesting in the Psalm

that we just read out?

In the next five seconds, if you answer my question,

there is a gift.

Psalm 23.

You get five seconds.

That's it.

OK, ready?

Ready?

Ready?

That's not enough.

Ready?

OK.

Five seconds.

If you get the answer, there is a gift.

Psalm 23.

How many times do you see me, my, or I?

How many times do you see me, my, or I?

One, two, three, four, five.

No, guys, 17 times.

Six verses, 17 times.

What's the point?

Here's the point.

Xavier, you didn't say it.

You didn't say it.

Here's the point.

See, six verses, 17 times.

What am I saying?

David wasn't talking about a shepherd.

David was talking about his shepherd.

And as soon as you move from a shepherd to my shepherd,

you have much to tell the world about who he is.

So that's why you keep reading through it.

You go, I, me, my, I, me, my.

This is about him and the shepherd.

That's where we want to get to, guys.

These are not scriptures that we just know.

Yeah, go ahead.

The richer your experience of him,

the greater your association with the shepherd,

the richer your experience of him.

So I must move from flock familiarity to association,

to intimate association, so that in all areas of my life,

when it comes to provision, when it comes to protection,

when it comes to him redeeming things for me

in all areas of my life, I've moved away from knowing him

as part of what he does for the flock

to knowing him intimately.

And what I want us to do is, maybe there's a slide there,

Brandon, you can bring up.

There are seven things that God has promised for us.

This is who he is.

And if you've been coming to Acts 29,

the seven essentials is something

we've talked about before.

These seven things God has promised, it's set.

It's written.

If he made you and he did, these things are guaranteed for you.

Number one, dignity.

Two, authority.

Three, blessing and provision.

Four, security.

Five, freedom.

Six, companionship and intimacy.

Seven, purpose.

Can you take a minute?

Because I'm not interested in just going into the next thing.

Can you take a minute, look at what you have here,

and ask yourself, where are you intimately, intimately

associating with him?

Where you know that in this area, when it comes to freedom,

I have it.

But when it comes to purpose, I don't really

know him fully well how that pans out.

Maybe when it comes to authority, you understand it.

But when it comes to companionship,

you find it different.

And this isn't just him giving you things.

This is also how you live on Earth.

So when it says blessing and provision,

this is you and me walking on Earth and God promising,

the Father promising that I want to give you blessings,

that I am a blester of man.

I bless you day and night.

I bless you wherever I go.

The Psalms and the Bible is full of blessings.

But how do you really know him like that?

How much do you know him as someone who blesses you?

Guys, you following me in this?

Because it's so easy to go through life.

Sometimes in certain areas of life,

we know him actually as part of the flock.

We haven't gone beyond that to a personal revelation,

a personal understanding where it's different.

This is me and him.

This is why David kept saying, I, me, my.

17 times in six verses, I, me, my.

Look at this.

Take a second.

Take a minute.

When I was thinking through this,

there are two areas where I really

want him more than I've ever experienced him.

Two areas where I really want to know him more than I've ever

lived in those areas, more than I've ever

experienced him, I want those.

What are those things for you?

What are those things where you say, give me more, shepherd.

Give me more.

I come here to associate with you, to be with you,

to be intimate with you so that I can know you in this way

so that, like we were saying last week,

Enoch knew him in a way that others did not.

Right now, the truth is the Holy Spirit wants all of us

to catch certain facets of himself, certain facets of God,

and say, hey, these areas, I want

to make this so real to you.

I want to make this so meaty for you.

Flock familiarity is more like, it's like the breadcrumbs.

Luke 22 or something.

It's what falls off the table.

But moving from that to intimate association with him,

that's like marrow in the bone.

That's so much more.

So much more.

There's so much more.

So if you're listening to this, I'm

hoping you're going through this and say, that, this,

and this, Holy Spirit, I'm ready.

Shepherd, I'm ready.

I want to experience you so that next year, this time,

you can actually begin to say, I've lived with him this way.

This is not something I can, this is not a verse I recite.

This is not something I can just say.

This is him.

This is me.

I have my own psalm.

I have my own song for him.

And that's when others around you

begin to get a glimpse of who he is.

David had to write this for us to see

how you can associate with God as Shepherd.

What is the song that you're writing?

What is the song that I'm writing?

And as seasons change, songs change.

As life progresses, he wants to show me

more and more and more, which is why we

can't get stuck in one place.

We can't get too comfortable with one thing.

We know, we understand, we mourn,

because he's like, you can peel the onion so many times.

There is so much more.

Really, really, guys, this is my prayer, that you take this

and you say, Lord, help me.

Show me what it means.

I'm willing.

Change my thinking.

Change my understanding.

Come flood in with your awareness

so that I begin to change in how I see myself in this.

Any questions?

OK, next.

It is possible that while we do all of this,

we can get familiar with what we're doing, and we stop.

And so we have to look back to certain scriptures, one

where Aqsa, the daughter of Caleb, approaches Caleb

and says, I want more.

Aqsa approaches Caleb and says, you promised me something.

I want more.

Is this the daily way we live, guys?

How often do you go back to him and say, you promised me this?

I need it.

You promised me this.

I will contend for this.

Brandon, can you go to the next slide?

How often do you do that?

It's his desire, where he actually wants me and you

to go beyond these things.

Because you can see here, Caleb basically says,

if you capture this land, then I'm

going to give my daughter as wife

to whoever captures the land.

And Ogniel, he captured it.

And then Aqsa, Caleb's daughter, tells Ogniel,

go to the father and ask him for a field.

And she, Aqsa, dismounted from her donkey,

and Caleb said to her, what do you want?

She said to him, give me a blessing.

Since you have set me in the land of Najib,

give me also springs of water.

She initially wanted a field.

Then she wanted springs of water.

And what does the father do?

Caleb does.

Caleb gives her the upper springs and the lower springs.

Ask him.

I'm not satisfied.

I want more.

And I know that you know me by my name.

The thing with the shepherd is, he is not,

we are not, this isn't a room where,

how would you perceive this?

If he were to walk in right now, if Jesus were to walk in right

now, and let's say he walks in and he begins

to talk with Matt, begins to interact with Matt,

begins to ask questions to Matt, how will May

perceive this conversation?

Will May be there thinking, hey, I really

hope he comes to me too.

I really hope he sees me.

I really hope he knows me.

Or is May so confident that he knows me by name?

See, he's not any shepherd, and you're not any sheep.

This is different.

He's a shepherd who takes personal interest in you.

I've often thought of it this way.

Can you go into rooms?

Can you go to places?

Can you go to cities?

Can you go to wherever God sends you with that confidence

that all of him is for me?

Think about it this way, guys.

It's easy sometimes to just rush through things.

If he walks in right now and he starts talking with someone,

how would your heart feel?

Are you confident?

Are you confident?

Are you sure of his love?

Are you sure of how he sees you?

Or as minutes go by, will your heart begin to shake?

As minutes go by, will you begin to wonder, oh, or are you?

You know it.

I like thinking about these things this way

because it makes things practical.

Otherwise, we just rush through a verse

and we think we understand it, but there is more.

And it's a question that each of us has to answer.

And his desire is that I go through life day by day,

you go through life day by day.

We are so confident of this nature of him

that he knows me by name, that he knows you by name.

Second, surrender yields control.

Surrender yields control.

Control resists surrender.

And I'll explain this.

Surrender yields control, and control

resists surrender.

I saw Dilna with his dog, Penny.

And so Penny is in a new place that Penny is not familiar in.

And so Dilna keeps telling Penny, Penny, lie down.

Lie down.

And Penny is resisting because new people, new place,

Penny doesn't know where she is.

Penny is not lying down.

Sheep doesn't lie down unless three or four conditions are

met.

One, sheep has to be.

Is that on camera?

All right.

Sheep doesn't lie down unless four conditions, three

or four conditions are met.

One is it needs to have eaten enough.

Two, sheep doesn't lie down if it

thinks that there is danger.

If it senses the presence of wolves around,

it's not going to lie down.

Three, if there is inter-sheep conflict,

sheep doesn't lie down.

So if there is chaos in the flock, it doesn't lie down.

Four, if it's being bothered or tormented by flies or pests,

it doesn't lie down.

But when these four things are taken care of,

sheep will lie down.

Just like Dilna's dog, Penny, when things are familiar,

Penny knows no one is going to harm,

no one is going to do anything wrong.

I'm good, I'm safe.

Penny will lie down.

Four things.

So when the psalmist says, when David says,

he makes me lie down in green pastures,

it is this quiet confidence that everything around me

is taken care of.

Everything in me is taken care of.

He has got me.

He has got me.

He knows me.

He knows what I need.

He has taken care of my needs.

I'm well fed.

I'm well taken care of.

And he makes me lie down in green pastures.

So surrendering, meaning yielding my control to say,

I will lie down, is surrender.

When I'm saying, I know you.

I know how your heart is towards me.

I know how good you are to me.

You are my shepherd.

And I'll lie down.

And sometimes we don't really live

like that in certain areas of our life.

We still want that control so that just in case,

we still have something we can hold on to.

Surrender yields control.

Control resists surrender.

Control is you taking charge.

Surrender is him taking charge.

Control is you taking charge.

Surrender is him taking charge.

Let's put it this way, guys.

There is something called daily surrender, where I wake up

and I say, you're my shepherd.

For today, everything that I need, you're going to give me.

I look back and I see your faithfulness and your goodness

to me.

You've kept me safe.

You've given me what I need.

Things may not be all pretty, but I

trust that you're good to me.

You say, therefore, where you want me to lie down,

I will lie down.

Because I trust that you have my best interest in your mind.

Daily surrender leads to lasting transformation.

Daily surrender leads to lasting transformation.

This is what happened with Peter, a guy who said no

to Jesus three times, then tried to control his life

to go and do his own thing, then in Acts chapter 4,

Acts 4 · chapter mention

stands up as a changed man.

Why?

Daily surrender.

It's not a one time thing.

It's a daily surrender.

Daily surrender where I say, I will lie down wherever

you want me to lie down, because you've got my best interest

in your mind.

So the question is, how often do you

go through moments of surrender?

Is it something that happens whenever you sing a worship

song?

Is it something that happens when you pray?

Or is it a posture of your heart?

A daily surrender.

I've seen you yesterday.

I've tasted you yesterday.

And today I come.

Take it, Abba.

Take it.

Here I am.

Daily surrender leads to lasting transformation.

Three, shepherd heals every hurt and restores every brokenness.

Shepherd heals every hurt and restores every brokenness.

So sheep can't heal itself.

Sheep needs the shepherd.

Sheep can't heal itself.

It needs the shepherd.

And the whole idea is things from the past that's undelt

delays progress.

Undelt past delays progress.

Things that happen in the past where you keep going back to it,

because it happened, it's a real thing.

But it hasn't been fully dealt with.

This is why, again, the psalmist says, he restores my soul.

There is a restoration that he offers for free.

Every time you run to him, he restores you.

Restore what?

Whatever from the past.

Could be hurt.

Could be a wound.

It could be things people did to you, things that happen to you,

nasty things.

The sheep can run to the shepherd.

And the shepherd always heals the sheep.

Sheep can't heal itself.

And the more we carry these things in our lives,

we delay the progress God wants to bring in our life.

Undelt past prevents progress.

Undelt past prevents progress.

So let him restore your soul.

Let him do things where all these things from the past,

whatever it may be, are taken care of.

Where you go through life knowing that your past, your present

is taken care of.

One of the things that last year or so,

God began to talk to me about joy.

And here is how I understood it then,

that any time my past I know is painted by his goodness,

my present is marked by his presence.

And if my future is anchored in his promise, I have joy.

When my past, present, and future,

when I know that all these three things are taken care of,

I have joy.

I don't know exactly what I said.

OK, let's try it.

So when my past is painted in his goodness,

when my present, what did I say?

Is marked by his presence.

And when my future is anchored in his promise,

then I have joy.

All three.

All three.

So I love him, guys.

This is one of those teachings where for me,

as I wrote things down, this is more about living it.

It's not a new thing.

We know it.

But somehow, the Holy Spirit wants to tell this to us today

so that we don't take things into the new year, 2025.

Certain things, mark it in your mind

that today, God is saying, this stuff,

you ain't taking it into your new year.

You ain't taking that into 2025.

It's done.

It's dealt with.

And some of you will have to practically go to him

and say, here's the stuff.

These are things that you feel like you've dealt with,

but you haven't really dealt with it because it

re-emerges from the shadows.

That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about,

where you've tried.

You've made progress, but it's not dealt with fully.

Can you take it to him?

Because he is saying that he'll do it for you, whatever it is.

The thing with a good shepherd is that when you run to him,

he doesn't ask you more questions.

He'll fix your problem.

Sheep and shepherd.

Number four, sheep hear and follow

the voice of the shepherd.

Sheep hear and follow the voice of the shepherd.

I love this.

I really love this.

Someone needs to hear it.

See, the most natural thing for the sheep to do

is to hear the voice of the shepherd.

Sheep by itself has a nature.

It keeps wandering, keeps going wherever it wants to go.

But that very weakness that the sheep has

can become the sheep's greatest strength

because the sheep can say, I need to listen.

I need to hear.

And what am I saying?

Because if you're new to axe or you've

been here for a few couple of years,

one of the things that this church, this body is marked by,

is this thing where we actually truly believe

that God can speak to us clearly and that it's not

limited to a few people.

I grew up in a church where I saw people operating

in all sorts of gifts.

But I said, as a kid, I looked to them and I thought, wow,

how can this be?

So if you're here and you're hearing me,

sheep hear the voice of the shepherd.

There should be something inside you that rises up

to say, this is who I am.

Nothing can stop me from hearing his voice.

It's normal to me.

I think it's 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 17 or something.

1 Corinthians 6:17

For me, that was the thing that changed my life.

When I really began to understand

what that verse means, which is His spirit and my spirit

is one, that my spirit is united with Him, that did it for me.

Because all of a sudden, light came into my mind

to inform my being that my spirit is united

with His spirit, 1 Corinthians 6, 17.

It should then be the most natural thing for me

to know what His spirit wants to do.

My spirit is united with Him.

There is no separation between my spirit and His spirit.

It's united with His spirit.

That changed it for me.

That was the day I realized that it's

natural for me to hear God.

It's normal for me to hear God.

And yes, there is practice.

Yes, there is progressing in it.

Yes, all those things are true.

But the greatest truth is this, that sheep hear His voice.

His sheep hear His voice.

So if you're new to Acts for Indiana

and been coming here for a little while

and you see things happening where you're like,

this is different from other churches and I want more of it,

excellent.

This is exactly what God wants for you,

for you to hear His voice so that others can benefit from it.

When I was in India, completed my undergrad,

and I wanted to come here, my mom took me to a prayer meeting.

And in the prayer meeting, a pastor

who was preaching in the front, he

makes his way through the crowd to the very back

where I was at, like Ashish.

You didn't change from there, bro.

He made his way to the back and he laid his hands on me

and he said, I see you going to a land where there is snowfall.

I wanted to go to England.

That was a setback in my mind because England isn't

known for a lot of snowfall.

And he said, I see you with people with white skin color.

And so I thought, OK.

I go to a second prayer meeting a week and a half,

two weeks later, when another pastor at another church

is ministering and he makes his way through the crowd,

lays his hands on me, and says the exact same thing.

I see you going to a land where there is snowfall

and I see you sitting with people who have white skin.

That's what they said.

And it settled it for me.

At that time, for me, it was this thing of, OK,

it's not England and God is speaking.

I got to do something about it.

It's not England.

There is another place.

And God brought me here.

So in certain stages, he uses others

to tell you what you need to do.

And it can happen any time in your life

where he begins to talk to you through others.

But the expectation is always that he knows you

and you know him, that he speaks and you hear.

The expectation is not to rely on someone else all your life.

The expectation is for you to say, he is my father.

I am his son.

He is my father.

I am his daughter.

This is me and him, father, son, father, daughter intimacies,

where his voice I will always hear.

There is no power, no nothing that can stop it.

My spirit is united with him.

This is the reality.

And if you dare do this, you will walk into a place in life

where you will get the hang of what it really means.

It will change you.

It will open up your eyes to a lifestyle

that you wouldn't even think of today.

That's the truth.

The shepherd leads you.

He guides you.

Another thing, guys, is this.

If he is one who leads, if he is one who guides,

I've got to ask him where he wants to go.

Because oftentimes, it's possible to go through life

assuming things.

And one of the things that we need to be aware of,

careful of is this.

Are we making assumptions, or are we inquiring of him?

Are we making assumptions because we know him,

because we are familiar with him,

because we know his ways, or are we inquiring of him?

All of that is true.

We know him.

We know his ways.

Moses knew his ways.

That's the whole idea.

I want to know his ways.

I want to grow in it.

But don't make assumptions based on that.

A place of inquiry, where when it comes to,

and this isn't about just big things.

I was thinking about it the other day.

It would be very sad if Brielle comes to me and says,

well, I'm a year and a half now.

When I am 12, when that happens, and 18,

when I decide to choose college, and then 24,

when I get married, I definitely need your counsel.

That would be heartbreaking for me.

I would love for her to come to me every day,

to tell me things every day.

So this isn't about major decisions in your life.

This is about a way of living with him,

where the shepherd is key to your next step.

You want to be close to him.

You want to ask of him.

You want to know what he is speaking.

And you want his guiding step to lead you.

Guidance.

It's a promise.

The first time I started understanding hearing,

and I was in downtown, it was like 14 years ago.

And I was like, if this thing is true, then surely this could

actually be applied to every area of my life.

And I said, how about this is downtown.

I don't really know downtown much.

I want to go to an A&W. So how do I get there?

And really, I asked him.

He said, left, right, left, right.

I ended up in front of an A&W. For me, that was it.

Kalash did it for me.

Because I was like, this is true, man.

He can actually do this.

This isn't just spiritual stuff where

you have to say things to people, or you have to make it.

This is everyday sheep and shepherd.

This is everything.

This is day and night.

This is morning and evening.

This is everyday thing.

Everyday decisions.

Not just big decisions.

He leads you.

My prayer is that even as I'm speaking,

some of you are in the spirit lifting up your hand

and saying, I need this.

I need more of it.

I'm not satisfied with it.

I want to walk into greater depth.

And so that you can then have us say, I want that.

We'll wrap it up at 6.15.

A few days ago, I was praying.

And while I was praying, I shared this with some of you

in a different meeting, I think.

So I was praying and I heard Haryana.

As I'm praying, I was praying in tongues,

and I heard Haryana.

Haryana is the name of a province in India.

And a few minutes later, as I'm praying,

I heard Haryana again.

And a few minutes later, I heard Haryana.

So three times I heard Haryana.

And in my mind, I'm like, OK, but you're saying Haryana.

There is something in Haryana.

I don't know, but I heard it.

A week or so later, James, Mark, and I were in Wally,

and we were walking the streets.

And that day, we felt like we're not

going to talk to a whole lot of people.

What we're doing is around the city center, we'll pray.

So all four sides of the city center will stand there, pray.

And so we decided to do that.

And then the second side we were on,

James actually felt that we should pray for people's mind

to be open to God's truth.

So we started praying.

And I see a guy on the other side sitting in the back

of his shirt said, fear of God.

And so we talked to each other, and we

felt like we should go and talk with him,

and with him were two other two girls.

And so we begin to have a conversation.

I tell him, it's written, fear of God.

What does it mean for you?

He said, it definitely means nothing.

It's just fashion.

It's just nothing.

Nothing.

It means nothing.

He was almost like I was making fun of him.

And then he said, I'm going to pray for you.

Making fun of him.

And then I turned to him, and I say, it means something to me.

Can we talk to you?

So the three of us begin to talk to them.

And they're from Punjab.

And so as I'm talking, because I knew they are from Punjab,

I thought, OK, kids, they're going to school here.

What's happening?

And when I asked more questions, one of them said, no, no, no.

We're not from Punjab.

We're from Haryana.

And about a week and a half ago, this thing

had happened where I had in my mind locked this thing

that God communicated to me.

Haryana, Haryana, Haryana.

And at that time, in front of me are three kids.

Haryana, Haryana, Haryana.

All three of them are from there.

We progress to share the gospel.

We tell them about who God is.

If I know the shepherd, I can surely

say this is what the shepherd can do for you.

Why am I sharing this?

Guys, guiding steps, leading steps,

guiding steps, leading steps.

His leadings are so clear.

Our days and nights can be so much adventurous with him.

So adventure.

What is your role?

What do you ever have to do with three kids from Haryana?

Nothing.

But with him, he opens a door.

With him, he says, you're not just about, you're my sheep,

because I had a few other points.

I don't have time.

Let's just conclude by this.

The fourth thing I wanted to say is this.

Protection.

But that's for another day.

If you have time, we'll cover it another day.

Protection is something that you should interest him with.

Interest him with your protection.

Because the truth is, anyway, we can't do it.

Anyway, we can't do it.

Interest him with your protection.

There is a scripture from Amos, if you can bring it up,

Brandon, that I had read before, but I hadn't read it like this.

Thus says the Lord, as the shepherd rescues

from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of a ear,

so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria

be rescued with the corner of a couch and part of a bed.

The whole idea here being this.

Amos actually is known as a shepherd prophet.

So he was also a shepherd while being a prophet.

I didn't know that.

But then the thing that I had read before,

but I'd never really thought much of, is this idea that, man,

in this case, the Lord is saying this one sheep, let's say,

part of its ear was already in the mouth of a lion or whatever.

God rescues it.

Two legs were already in the mouth of a lion.

God rescues it.

What's the deal?

The deal is this.

He has authority.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So on one hand, the staff is something

that the shepherd uses to guide.

The rod is something that he uses to make sure nothing

comes near you.

So protection.

I hope some of you can go back and meditate on this verse.

It's beautiful.

So things from the past.

When you meet people who seem to be in a place where

a part of the ear is in its mouth,

a two legs are in its mouth, the lion or a wolf

or whatever it is, you can have the confidence

that we serve a shepherd who can pull them out.

And a couple more things, but I'll wrap it up this way.

The idea, though, is that as we walk like this, we are sheep.

He is the shepherd.

The idea, though, is that he wants

to transform us as we relate to him like this day after day

so that one day he can ask you the question, do you love me?

And you can say, yes, I do.

So he can say, feed my sheep.

That's the idea.

The idea is not that we remain like this all the time.

Of course we do.

This is until I die.

This is until you die.

You're always sheep on his pasture.

He is always your shepherd.

But he also has another thing in mind,

that as you associate with him, as you

know the ways of the shepherd, he then

wants to turn you around and have you

become a shepherd to others.

And that's for everyone, because again, the tendency

is that we think of this as just a pastoral thing.

While pastors are shepherds, you cannot disciple people

without having the heart of a shepherd.

And the call to disciple people is not limited to just pastors.

Every believer is supposed to be a disciple maker.

And so it's you and me and us.

And so as I begin to know him in this way, where I relate to him,

there are ways about your discipling people

that will change.

Look forward to it.

Because we go by patterns.

We go by things we know.

But the good shepherd wants you to know certain ways about him

so that your answer to Nick is not

the same as to someone else, so that you don't

have prepackaged responses, that you actually

know how to deal with each sheep.

He knows sheep, each of them, by its name.

So there is a transformation that happens.

Sheep to shepherd.

Yeah?

Let's wrap it up.

There are a few things, but maybe another time or we'll see.

So Holy Spirit, we thank you.

Because you always give light to our path.

You shine light on it so we can move with you in the direction

that you have for us.

Jesus hears my prayer for us, that this week and moving forward,

we will walk in a deeper understanding of what

it means to be sheep, what it means to relate with you

as our shepherd.

I pray if I go back to the seven things that were written,

that was on the screen.

I pray, Lord, that during this week,

we will lift up our hands and say, I want more,

like Aksa did to Caleb.

That we will say, in these areas, shepherd,

it's flock familiarity.

I want more.

I want intimate association.

And that our understanding of you changes drastically.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you will bring acceleration

in this in our lives.

We thank you.

We look forward to living as sheep on your pasture.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Jane, was there any announcements or anything?

Yeah?

Yeah, if you need prayer, there'll be people up here.

So if you're new and you'd like prayer,

there'll be a few folks here who can pray for you.

Thanks, everyone.