more than you honor God. You see how this is? God warns you about work being too much of a focus of your life. Things are out of balance. You hear the warning but you don’t do anything about the warning, and in doing nothing you honor your work more than your family; you honor your job more than Jesus. Do you see how this works? When we’re passive about a certain area or about a certain person, it reveals that we are honoring that area or that person more than we’re honoring God Himself.

I think the number one reason Eli was probably so passive, though, is revealed in verse 22. It just says, “By this time Eli was very old.” I think Eli probably thought, “It’s too late.” That’s a response. It’s a common response. “I understand what you’re saying. I agree that something needs to be done, but it’s too late for me to do anything now.” My guess is, no matter what age you are, there are people in this room who listen to the message. You agree with it. You see the warning signs in your life. In fact, you’ve been aware of them for many years, but what are you supposed to do now because it just seems too little too late. If you would’ve heard it five, ten, fifteen years ago, maybe, but what are you supposed to do now? The house was burnt to the ground! You would say, “Kyle, my kids are too old. My marriage is too broken. My debt is too overwhelming. My friend is too angry. My reputation is too shot. My addictions are too powerful. My relationship with Jesus has grown too cold. It’s not that I don’t agree. It’s not that I don’t want to take action, but what am I supposed to do? Things have gone…things have gone too far.”

There is a sense in which you’re right. There is a sense in which the very reason we have this message from God is so what we decide today can save us such great heartbreak tomorrow. So on one hand I would say, “What about…? What about now? What if you don’t act now? What is it going to be like later?” But there is another part of me that would say, “Look, it’s too late for you, but it’s not too late for Jesus. It’s never too late for Jesus.” It’s never too late for Jesus. My favorite thing about God is that He can redeem anything. “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” He can redeem it. It doesn’t mean there is not pain. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. But He can redeem it. It is never too late for God. It’s too late for you; it’s not too late for Him.

When I was watching the Tiger Woods interview…or his apology…you notice, like I did, that he talks about his Buddhist faith. You kind of…you kind of saw that reflected in his apology. He talked about certain things that revealed the teachings of Buddhism. He didn’t call it sin. Buddhism would call it more ignorance than it would sin. He didn’t refer to God, and Buddha himself wasn’t really sure how he felt about God. He was really more of an agnostic. But more than anything else, where you noticed this Buddhist influence was in his self-determination to get himself right. Buddhism is based upon this eight-fold path. It’