The Audition

As you can see, the title of today's message is The Audition. Her name is Lola, but she has had many names over her 30 years of acting on Broadway, television, and movies.

Lola lives in Unit 517 in Deerfield Beach. Mary and I live in 408. We live there full-time at Lola Winters, mostly, in the condo near Deerfield Beach. I ask her about auditions since she has been on hundreds of them in her lifetime, living in New York and being an actress. How many of you had? Perhaps some of you have had auditions for music, auditions for various things. For those who have not, what is an audition? Well, Yahoo says we'll tell you that an audition is a systematic process for proper selection to fill a needed job. Google will tell you an audition can be a sample performance or simply an employer or a potential employer testing the abilities of an applicant.

Auditions are to showcase your skills and your talents, but nothing can tell you like experience. So, as a matter of fact, I actually talked to Mary and I talked to Lola last night. She came down for a couple of weeks and she's flying back to New York today sometime. But before I put the sermon together, I thought about her as I was talking to her one time and I actually asked her, can I interview you? And so, I actually had her on the phone and asked her about auditions and everything involved. She held Lola in her 70s, I guess, and she's been probably over 30 years, probably 40 years in the business. And we'll still do some voice-over, she said, occasionally. But I wanted to quote Lola about auditions. And you may wonder, how does that tie in with me? How does that tie in with you? But I quote her as she said, an audition starts weeks before you have to stand and deliver in front of people. Quote, so she also said, preparation is needed mentally before physically exposing yourself, before those interviewing you, or before those who are running the camera that you are standing before. She said, it's called rehearsing and it is a way of life. She said, in my profession, something you must be ready to do, something you must be prepared to do. And she also brought out about the mind, the body, and the voice. As she said, she would actually have to stand before a mirror for not minutes, but sometimes hours, practicing exactly how her face would look, how she would say a word, how she would put inflection in her voice, how she would use the range of her voice, as she would actually practice various scripts that she had used before. Learning how to talk and using your facial expressions, even on your profile, and then how you came across in your appearance.

But she brought out one thing that practice. Practice becomes a way of life, as she said, for an actress or an actor. It becomes a way of life, or as she said, it should be. Because she never knew when she would get that call and say, I need you to show up at this studio tomorrow, next week.

She always had to be ready to go to the audition. One of the most interesting things she said was after being around the business so long, and she said, it is a business.

And I actually found, because she was on...looked her up, went on there and looked up. She was in law and order. I guess it got a dozen different ones like that. Various movies, TV shows that she would be on. I actually wanted to see some of her work, but I actually was over in another country and couldn't access that from that country. Just hearing her explain some of this work that she does, I found it interesting. She said, actually, one part that she did was a three-minute opening to law and order.

And it took six and a half hours for her three minutes. Not what you might expect, but she said that's part of the job that you're going to be doing, because they would shoot it again and again and again, with four cameras from different directions, all to be put together and edited. But she brought an interesting part to me, was learning to perform the script they give you as the writer intended it to be. So you had to kind of know the writer. You had to kind of know what the program was going to be about, if they would tell you that, and know your part so that you can act it, carry it off, know it, and deliver it as the writer intended. Not always as easy as it may seem. So I asked you the question, do we? Do we perform? Do we act out the script? Do we understand the script that we've been given by the writer? Many of you traveled a long distance in the last few weeks to audition. Yes. The Feast of Tabernacles was an eight-day audition. It is a chance for God to see you in His element. It is a chance for God to see how you interact with others that He has called. It is a chance for God to see if you can stand and deliver with other family members. You are on display. Did you realize that you had been auditioning for eight days? That the entire heavenly host has had ample opportunity to see you live for eight days like you will be teaching those for a thousand years. And you considered that, that God and the heavenly host. How do we know that? Let's go with me. If you'll go with me to Hebrews. Hebrews 12. We see that there is a heavenly host at His holy days. As Hebrews 12 and verse 18 talks about, He is explaining that there is a heaven full of hosts that are observing and they are here and observing on His holy days. In verse 18, He says, as He was trying to tell the writer of Hebrews, trying to tell the Hebrews that it's not about Mount Zion as they sometimes wanted to think about that. For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched or burned of fire and blackness as they were when the Ten Commandments were given. But He's trying to explain to us and to them in verse 29, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God. When we pray, when we come together and ask His presence, it is holy time.

And when it is holy time, He is here. We are not just the 70 people in this room, but there are ten thousand times, tens of thousands and thousands of thousands who gather at the same time to worship. It says, you have come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the festal gathering, or general assembly. If you want to spend some time, you can find that also out in Revelation address. The festal gathering and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven to God, the judge of all, to the spirits and the just men made perfect.

So during the Feast of Tabernacles, it wasn't just the people who you saw. You were being observed. You were being watched for the audition that you were at. Can you grasp or imagine the thought of God's Feast of Tabernacles being an audition? Most people can't.

Most people should think about it because this is a time that God gets to see us in a special environment, an environment that He has created, a time that He has created, a time He has set apart to see just how His children come together, how they interact.

So we come together for eight days, the Feast of Tabernacles, number one, to worship. He gets to see how we worship together.

Are there some people that just get on our last nerve for after about three or four days?

Or is it a test of some patience that is required that He gets to see as a part of that worship?

Well, how did that go for you this year? Were you able to worship in a manner that God would have thought brought Him reverence and glory?

Number two is to fellowship. One of the reasons He gets to see us come together.

I know when I lived in Tennessee and we had everybody out on my father's farm, and He loved to have all the kids and their grandchildren come together on a Sunday afternoon.

Even sometimes when my mother wasn't exactly looking forward to everybody coming over, He said, Oh, put some food on! I invited everybody over.

Many of you met my mother this time or known her at the feast. Some of you took a picture of her cooking.

But she wasn't always thrilled about having all the kids. She loved the kids. She loved this, but it was a lot of work.

And my father, you say, Oh, don't worry about it. I'll help you. And she goes, No, I'll do it. Stay out of the kitchen.

But he loved having the kids, and they would all come around and they would play ball, or they would be laughing and everything else.

It was a wonderful time. My father used to just sometimes just want to go out and sit out and watch them play.

Even bigger. You had a lot of boys and bobs, so there was always this one-upmanship and so forth.

But he loved it. You think God's any less than that? He loves to see his children come together.

As a matter of fact, he requires it for eight days, so that, in a way, isn't it an audition?

We're auditioning exactly who we really are in a special environment.

And then number three, one of the reasons, third reason we go, is to rejoice. To rejoice. Do you? Did you? Will you?

Are you looking forward to next year's audition? I see people shaking their heads, yes. I hope so.

Are you preparing now for next year? It's forty-something, forty-eight, forty-nine weeks until the next audition. Hmm. Are you preparing? I know mine starts the next check I get, putting money aside, so that I can afford to go to my audition.

But I'm like all of you. I get paid a salary and I then have to put money aside. Hopefully it is important enough to you that you set money aside.

I can't imagine if I'd have asked Lola if she'd have gotten a call from one of the producers and she said, Oh, I'm sorry, could you give me a cab there to come down and do the audition? I don't think she'd have gotten apart. She never would have gotten there. Well, it's important because you remember your father owns everything anyway. He just likes to see how we do things.

But it's interesting because this eight-day audition gives us a chance to live righteously in a controlled environment, unlike most of our lives where we are not taken out of the world.

We have to live apart. And it brings the point out about Ephesians 4 that we talked about before, where Ephesians 4 addresses having a walk worthy of your calling.

Do we? Do we have a walk worthy of our calling? Sure gets us a chance to see. We also, attending Ephesians 4, we also got a chance to see how other people walked, didn't we? Not always what you would expect, right? Not always there.

Now, I actually heard, and you've probably heard many times, people talking about the one-thousand-year millennial reign of Christ, the kingdom of God, as it's referred to in the Bible. And I've heard the mindset of, well, I just want to make it. I don't care that I could be the doorkeeper. I would be happy to be the doorkeeper in the kingdom of God. But when you study the Bible, is that exactly what Christ talks about? See, the coming kingdom of God needs leaders. Leaders. Teachers. Not just someone who just barely gets in. It's not what God called us to do or to be. We have to use the talents, the gifts that He's given us. That's why He gave so many parables about the talents. What are you doing with what you have? He expects you to do the most. Not just say, I just want to slide in. Let me just get in. It doesn't matter. I can't find that in the Bible where He said, just get there. Can you? I don't know. I certainly don't see Christ doing it that way. The world we live in is a training ground, usually every day for most of us. It's a training ground, just like Lola being up in her apartment in New York, standing before that door-length mirror, practicing her craft. Brethren, we get a chance to practice our craft, our spirituality, every day, usually, don't we? You go out in the public, you go to a store, guess what? Practice. You drive on this highway, I guarantee you, it's practice. And you do something wrong, there's a horn. There's a horn. There's a horn.

And then pretty soon, I find myself, after moving here, wanting to hit the horn. I wanted to conform and adapt. Oh, yeah.

And so what do we do? We practice, practice, practice. We are what? Tomorrow, you will practice. The next day, you will practice. And for 360 days or so more, you will practice for your audition. Because we actually, as we try to, come out of the world for the Feast of Tabernacles, for those eight days, that eight-day audition, that God can see who we really are when He puts us there.

Hopefully, according to His plan, we show up at our yearly audition, those eight days, where He gets to view us and we get to view other people.

We get to see how our family is growing spiritually, but it helps us to see how we're growing spiritually. When we don't have to be working, we don't have to be worried about the stress and everything, as He has brought us to this time, as our temporary dwellings go.

But as children of God, how well do we play together? Do we? Do we play together well?

Sometimes. But God gets to observe. Does it feel like a family reunion?

Or do you feel like this is a dysfunctional family?

How do we do it? Do we see growth every year? Real spiritual growth.

Amazing God has one standard for all His children. One code of ethics.

And you know no favorites? God doesn't have favorites. Now some people think He has favorites.

One way of life to live. And that's why we all come together to live together for eight days. Living by those standards, hopefully.

But He doesn't. He doesn't play favorites. It isn't like Cain and Abel. Remember that story?

Cain thought that God played favorites, didn't He? Cain thought that Father liked you best.

Abel. No. This was a chance for God to observe Cain and Abel as they came to bring an offering. What did they do? One was accepted, the other wasn't. One got mad, and the other got killed.

Really got to see, didn't it? In a small little environment as that is.

Father liked you best. We all think of that sometimes in our family.

Growing up, didn't you always feel that somebody, if you had brothers or sisters, got a little better treatment?

No? I did. Many of you met my younger sister. She used to get away with all kinds of stuff.

Now, she would never say that, but she did. We always thought, oh, she's daddy's little girl. She's mama's girl.

God doesn't play favorites. He tries to bring that through. He expects the same from you as He does from me.

He has that same law, the code, or everything else you want to call it, to live by. And He wants us to do that.

Doesn't always go that way in Scripture, though, does it?

Remember Isaac? He had two sons. He had a favorite, and his wife had a favorite, didn't he?

Your God's not like that. Our Father, our spiritual Father, isn't like that.

In fact, I wonder if He gave that example, and you would think, wow, Isaac liked Esau because he was a hunter, and he went out and made him probably great lamb, or whatever he caught. He just liked it.

Rebecca, she liked the other son. And you would think, after observing that, that you would have a feeling of, you know, I won't raise my children like that. But didn't Jacob have a favorite? Such a favorite, he bought him a special coat, many colors, and all the rest of the guys, they all knew Dad liked you best. Now, God loves us all, and He expects us to take His same book and live by it.

And He gives us something, as you all know, if you'll turn with me to Romans 12, you may say, is there actually a scripture in this sermon? Yes, there is.

Romans 12, verse 1 and 2, you know it. Hopefully it's a memory scripture. I started to just quote it off my head, but...

Romans 12, verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a what?

A living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It's basically what you should do. Then He says, do not be conformed or fashioned, as the Greek word actually means, to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Actually, the Greek word for renewing actually means two meanings. One is to renovate. Perhaps you've renovated a room or a house. It means you've got to get rid of some stuff and bring in hopefully better stuff, or good stuff, or something that you want.

But it also means, in that way, freshness. It's another part of the Greek word for renewing.

It means freshness of your mind, that you may prove what is good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

That's all He asks. Try to do that. That's what we've been called to do.

Now, that's all simple, and you all know that. But I want to go a few verses over. Matter of fact, verse 9 to verse 13.

The heading of my Bible in the New King James actually says, above verse 9, behave like a Christian. You've got it in your...behave like a Christian.

So here we get how to live as a Christian. How to present that reasonable service.

How to prove what is that good and acceptable. And those Scriptures from actually verse 9 through 13 are actually 10 different statements.

I call them, my own self. I have it written in my Bible. Yours probably doesn't have it because I wrote it in myself.

I call it the Ten Commandments of Romans. The Ten Commandments of Romans. Because there's actually 10 commands in those short verses there that explain to us how to behave like a Christian.

Because that's what everyone sees, isn't it? We go to a feast tabernacles and we see mostly church people.

And we see how they act. The world, they get to see us when we leave this building.

They get to see how a Christian is supposed to act. This is what we get to do.

This is practice for our audition. Because God gets to see us interact with the world.

And you know the world can basically do something that's not necessarily right.

And they'll go, oh, that looks good to me. A little white lie doesn't hurt, but not so. Not so.

So, let's go there. And I'd like you... Does anybody else have anything besides the New King James that you're reading from?

New Living Translation? You got the NIV, okay? New Living Translation? Old King James? Okay.

Because I actually brought... Because I just want to touch on these Ten Commandments for Romans.

And I actually have one of my reference books, and it's 26 Translations of the Holy Bible.

It's actually Volume 3, Matthew 3. And it just gives... And I'll just touch on some others.

We'll read these, and then I'll touch on some of the different translations so that maybe we can have a deeper understanding.

Because, you know, I'm a minister, but I need to behave like a Christian.

Don't you want a minister that behaves like a Christian?

Don't you want a husband or wife to behave like a Christian? Don't you want a brother or sister?

Don't you want somebody in the church to behave like a Christian that maybe you're working with somebody they meet, and they go, You know Neal Hanson? Yeah! He goes to church. He goes what? He goes to church. Right?

That has happened before in the Church of God. What do you mean?

I mean, so we're on display. Neal knows he is, right? And so do most of us. And so we're on display too because we say we're Christians.

And how many people have been turned off from true Christianity by untrue Christianity, where they're going, if that's Christianity, I don't want any part of it.

So, I need this, and I think all of us need this, so that we can really know what Paul was trying to tell the Romans, who lived in a society that is almost as bad as ours.

Maybe Corinth may have been the worst one, but Rome was pretty tough to live to.

So let's go there. Verse 9, it says, Let love, or agape in the actual Greek, let love be without hypocrisy.

What does that mean? Anybody?

Not to pretend. What does yours say?

Love must be sincere.

Anybody else have something? Without hypocrisy. So we can't be hypocrites. So we actually care for somebody, we have to what? Actually mean it. But you see that a lot of times. Oh, well, yeah. I'm praying for you.

So it says, Let love be without hypocrisy. This actually, and the other translations now that you gave us this, actually says, sincere, unfeigned, let your love must be genuine.

Genuine. Authentic, right? So that's one of the first Ten Commandments of Romans of how to be a Christian. Don't be a hypocrite. If you care for somebody, show it, don't act like it, and then you really don't care.

It says, A poor what is evil? Number two, cling to what is good. A poor what is evil? Cling to what is good. Anybody have something else? A poor? Hate. Hate what is wrong? How do we know what's right and what is wrong? This, right? Because if we make up our own rules, we've got problems. We're supposed to have a constitution in this United States, but we find out what?

People change the things and they modify, and next thing you know, or some judge will make a ruling, and this doesn't really stand, and next thing you know, we've moved the bar. At one time, we understood. Everybody in the country understood marriage was a husband and wife.

No. Not anymore, is it? What got changed?

The rulebook got changed. They just said, hey, it can be a man and a woman. It can be a woman and a man. It can be a man and a man. It can be a woman and a woman. And there's actually been a couple lawsuits as they tried to file because a woman wanted to marry her animal, her dog.

Oh, in Germany, you may have read that. That's a continuing fight because she said she never met a man, treated her better than her dog. I'm not kidding.

So she wanted, she said, wait a minute, if I can leave all my money to my dog, then why can't I marry? Because she did. She was going to leave all her money to her dog.

So you see, everything gets kind of messed up and we have to know, okay, how do we live? What's good and what's bad? What's right and what's wrong? Well, I think it's pretty clear, but most people don't. A poor what is evil, cling to what is good. And actually, here it says, keep on holding to what is right. Another translation. Most people don't know what's right anymore, do they? I mean, there's no set rules on so many things. And that's why we have the Bible and that's how we can behave like a Christian, because they can go, wait a minute, there's Jeff over here. He's doing this and here's Ampey over here doing this and they're both supposed to be Christians, but he's doing this over here and she's doing this over here, right? That's why there's one set of rules. That's why there's this, so that if you say you're a Christian, it's pretty easy to see who a Christian is by observation, if you know what this says.

But I also heard a minister in another church on the radio one time that was saying that two people are the same sex as long as they love each other. God blesses that. Okay? And he was on the radio for an hour as people were calling in saying, and he just said, it's all about God, it's all about love. Okay? So we have to know the rules of the game. So let's go, let's move on and says, Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love.

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. What's brotherly love? Why is he saying we have to be kind to one another? Why? Because God wants us to. He loves everyone. He doesn't love everything they do. He doesn't love everything I do sometimes. And I have to repent of that, right? Well, be kindly affectionate.

It actually said, be affectionate towards each other as the love of brothers demand. What? That means brotherly love. That's the love between us. David's my brother. And so I will go out of my way to help him. When he does something that I don't like, he's still my brother. He's growing, I'm growing. And when I do something, David doesn't like. He has to, okay, he's my brother, or she's my sister.

And we need to be able to do that. Another one says, Love one another tenderly as fellow Christians. Don't get upset just because somebody doesn't agree. It's amazing the people that you meet sometimes that can't agree to disagree. You're not, you don't want to believe like I believe. I can't accept that. You're wrong. Never once thinking, I could be wrong. Haven't you met people like that?

You see them in debates all the time. You know, I don't have all the answers. Only God has all the answers. As long as I stick with His truth, I kind of, you know, feel pretty good about my answers.

Or the way I live. But do we have that kind of love? Can we go, well, you know, I just, I don't really see it that way, but I understand. You do. And I can respect that. But we have to make sure because then we're going to behave like a Christian when we do not have to have our way every single time. Because you know, when I used to think I knew everything 20 years ago, I found out I did. And I find out now, well, why I was thinking like that.

But hopefully we all mature and can give somebody, and Mary knows, because she had put up with me back then, too, that you kind of grow. You kind of grow up. And she didn't have any children, but I think sometimes she thought she had one. And that was me. Next one. In honor, giving preference to one another. In honor. Not just give preference to one another. That's why if you want this, okay, you want the left side, I'll take the right side.

You want to sit over here? Fine, I'll sit over here. No, but it goes deeper than that. In honor, giving preference to one another. Eager to show one another honor. Are we that way? It's part of being a Christian. That, you know, I don't have to be like, well, you know, preacher, well, I gave you that idea for that sermon.

You didn't even mention my name. I should have been put before the congregation. Yes! Dwight inspired me to give this message. Without Dwight, I wouldn't be alive. Without Dwight, I couldn't even speak. I mean, these are some of the things that I mean, I'm exaggerating, but Dwight does do that occasionally.

No, but these are some of the things that we must do. In honor, giving preference to one another. Can we do that, or is that all about me? Next one, not lagging in diligence. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Hmm. Fervent in spirit. One translation actually says, being on fire for the truth. Being on fire, not being lazy. And you know, I think I'll read, um... God is great, God is good.

Where do I find that in this Bible? I'm done. Did my Bible study. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Done. I am so righteous. God doesn't give a time. Does he give a time on how much to study your Bible? How much time to pray? That's between you and him, isn't it? He just asks you to be what? What did he say here? Deligent about it. Okay. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Okay. Somebody needs help. Are you willing to go help them?

No, no, I would if it was that person, but not that one. They sit on the left side in church, and I'm just a right-sided person. So, I'll help everybody on this side, but you know, you're going to have to take care of yourself. We can do that sometimes when we look at that. Then it says, rejoicing in hope.

Do we? Do we rejoice in hope? We really feel good about, you know, our future? Are we happy about it? Are we like, you know? No, I don't know. It's probably not going to be as good as what God pictured it. Oh, 1 Corinthians 2, 9, I think that's just an exaggeration. No. Or do we rejoice in the hope that God's going to give us of what He can have? Well, I know, but I wasn't feeling well.

God should have healed me, you know, and I'm still sick. I'm sick. Sick, sick, sick, God! What's wrong with you? No. Or can we actually rejoice? We have people in here who do a great job of rejoicing. Sometimes, that's the one time I'd like to just come to church, because, you know, Mary beat me up all week, and I'm going to rejoice. But, no, sorry.

Remember, I have to sleep with her tonight when I open now. But, we, what? We should be rejoicing in the hope that lies within us. What is the hope? That this world isn't all there is. Right? That life doesn't live or die except in Alabama tonight if Tennessee beats Alabama. Then life will be over for those people in Alabama. Tennessee, we're used to losing. But, when you think about it, are we? Where are we? Our hope is not in some ballgame.

Our hope isn't in winning the lottery this week. But it says, rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation. Now, that is about pushing the border. He's saying, to behave like a Christian, we have to be patient. Man, persevere, as one says, persevere in tribulation. Man, that's not always. One says, steadfast in a time of trouble. That's very tough to do. But, you know, what we can do is we can observe when somebody is going through something, and you find out later they were going through something and you didn't know, because you couldn't tell.

Is she like the Pharisees? You know what he told the Pharisees? When you fast, don't go around with your head all... What's the matter? I'm fasting. Right? I mean, that's kind of what it was. And so Christ said, don't do that. You know, they would have their hair all down, not washed, and everything. He was like, oh, they must be fasting what religious people they are.

You know, here is the same thing with tribulation. Man, patient in tribulation. You know, God, I want patience, I want it now. We have to get around that and be able to take it and know that he's in charge. And then just a couple more. Continuing steadfastly in prayer. How much prayer? How long? You know, he says continuing and then steadfastly, it's like, okay, isn't that redundant? No. If God's redundant, he's redundant for a reason. He wants us to talk to him. He wants to hear our issues. He wants to hear our problems. He also wants to hear our praise. He just says, you'll continue.

You know, pray during the day. Pray while you're driving. You may need it in this traffic, but pray. Pray. Pray before you go to bed. Pray the last thought. You know, just say, hey, thank you, God. Make it through another day. Get up in the morning. First thing is you're just like, oh, man, God, help me make it through this day.

And then talk to him. Talk to him. Be steadfast. All he wants to do is hear. He wants you to take him up on his offer that you cannot believe what he wants to do for you. But if he never hears from you, can you expect him to?

Distributing to the needs of the saints. Can you help people? People in church need some? I know there's a couple of people in here that I went to, you know, I'd go to somebody sick or visiting and I'm not going to bring out their names. Somebody had already been there. Somebody had already called. Somebody had already checked on them.

Wow! That's what family's all about, isn't it? Just being there. Being there for each other. And if you don't, just pray for the person. You know, we have Nellie. Nellie's not here. Okay? Just got back. She's not doing well. Okay? She's out of the hospital. Okay? We can all pray for Nellie. All pray for Nellie tonight. You know? I have four sons at six o'clock. Don't pray for Nellie. We do that. Say, God, I just need you to help her. She's got problems. She's got health problems. You know? It's what family does. It's what Christians do. I'm going to try to make sure. If I got my other watch on, I'm going to try to set it for six o'clock. I'm going to say, hey, God, our sisters, our sister needs your help. Finally, given to hospitality, given to hospitality. Some people, it just comes natural. They're just hospitable. You're given to hospitality. You know, some just will give you a shirt off their back. They're just like this and this and this. God wants all of us to be that way. Given to hospitality, matter of fact, one of the Moffat translators says, make a practice of hospitality. Make it a practice. Do we? Can we? That's what it's all about.

Behaving like a Christian, Ten Commandments of Romans. Hope you will look it over. Hope you will kind of measure it sometime, maybe even from different translation. You can read. Because we are on display. We are practicing. And we get to have an audition every year as we come together. And you have all these things that God has given His children, and then they all come together with that same like-mind. Like when my father used to have us over all the grandkids. They were all toeheads. They were all blondes. Okay? Now they've kind of changed a little bit, but they were all blondes. Looked like four or five of them in a row. And they all kind of acted a lot alike, too. They all had their differences. But God brings us together. In a lot of ways, we all look alike to Him, but we certainly have our differences. And that's what it needs to be about. Brethren, in the kingdom of God, the law will be taught everywhere. Everywhere. But we will not just teach God's law, but we will teach people how to live God's law. There is a difference. You can teach somebody, but when you actually teach them how, how do I do this? How do I apply this? Can I help? That's why when we get to a new job, what do we do? We have somebody that's been there for 20 years. We're sitting there with this problem, and then we can just go over there. He goes, oh, here, let me show you. Just do this, and then you go, man, why didn't I think of that? I could have, I could have, oh, man, I spent hours trying to figure that out. Well, that's part of our purpose. We'll turn to one last scripture, if we will. If you go with me, I'll read it from the New Living Translation, as I will hurry up here and get this thing done today.

It's in Ezekiel, and you probably had this. You may have had this during the feast. Ezekiel 44, and I'll read from the New Living Translation because I really like it. As it talks about what the priests will be doing, okay, what God expected them to do when they set up the New Jerusalem, but also what our responsibility will be to. From New Living Translation, Ezekiel 44, verse 23, He said, Hmm. We will teach. We will teach. What is very important to God, and that is so that everybody's on the same page. And it will be different then. Because as it says in Isaiah, He says, He will teach what is very important to God. And that is so that everybody's on the same page. And it will be different then.

And it will be different then. Because as it says in Isaiah 30, verse 20, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore. As interesting as I was studying something this week and was watching about teachers, because I want to become a better teacher. Don't you want me to become a better teacher? Because I'm teaching teachers. So you're going to teach. I want a teacher to be not a good teacher. I want a teacher to be a great teacher. I want to be a great teacher. So I'm having to go on and find better ways to teach this word. Because I've got a great product to teach. But it's limited by the teacher. Right, William? Always. Always. But here, it's interesting because in Japan, one of the few countries in the world where the teachers are the higher paid of the professionals. Here, you get kind of, you're down there. You know, they're not held up. Right? But here, because it's so important that the teachers are the best they can get so that they're students. And why do they exceed in the teachings of the world?

And if you don't cut it as a teacher, your students don't do well. They fire you as a teacher. Novel idea. Right? So, it says, But your teachers will not be moved into a corner. But your eyes shall see your teachers, and your ears shall hear a word behind them saying, This is the way. Walk you in it. What kind of teacher do you want to be, brother? You want to be a good teacher, or you want to be a great teacher? Because God wants great teachers. This is the way. Walk you in it. The way. There's only one way. It's this way. And it's talked about in Scripture. And He said, Have a walk worthy of your call. Walk this way. It isn't just a song by Aerosmith. Okay? But He actually says, Walk this way. Walk the way that they... See, this has been done. This has been done time and time again. It actually... References that Luke talks about in Acts, when he's describing it, is they were jealous of the way. Or they were part of the way. Talking about the church. Because the church had a certain way about them that people could observe. And they were part of this way. And that was 2,000 years ago. But you know, guess what? You go back 4,000 years before that, there was the way. The same way that we are going.

And 1,000 years from now, there will still be the way. The way.

The audition is to place you in a teaching and priesthood role for 1,000 years plus. So what it is? We must be evaluated.

Were we? Were you? You were certainly seen. You were certainly evaluated. And what did people see? More important, what did God see? Hopefully one thing. Hopefully just one thing. And one word. Christ.

Jesus Christ. Hopefully that's what they saw. So we have time now to prepare for next year's audition.