I’m sure you’ve seen over the years some of the wildfires that Southern California can have trouble with. I mean, when the conditions are dry and windy, these fire storms can become very dangerous. They can get out of control quickly. When we lived in the Los Angeles area for a number of years, we experienced some of those fires. We would have ash that would fall in our backyard. The kids would say, “Is that snow?” “It’s not snow. That is not snow.” And it would blow in from where the fires were in the mountains. So it can become a real problem.
When we moved here, we had only been here a few months when they had one of the worst fire storms in Southern California that they had ever experienced. And the fires got into the woods right behind where our neighborhood was when we lived there, so we were following that news pretty closely.
There was an article in USA Today that says, “Hesitation is a Fatal Mistake.” That was the title of the article and it talked about people who were warned in advance. They were, in fact, watching the news coverage on their own TVs about how close the fires were getting, but they waited too long. In fact, that fire storm…that particular one…claimed over two dozen lives. They interviewed some people in that article. One of them was Sgt. Conrad Grayson. He was pretty frustrated with people that were being warned but weren’t listening. Here is what he said: “We’re begging people to leave. We’re begging people, and they don’t take us seriously. They want to pack up some clothes or they want to fight the fire in their backyard with a garden hose.” John Smalldridge told of frantically warning his neighbors only to have some of them disregard him or respond casually. He told of people he wanted to save but they wanted to get their televisions and their computers first. Here is what he said: “They looked like they were packing for a trip. The ones who listened to me and left the area lived; the ones who didn’t died.”
You would think that this was a warning that would get your attention, right? “There is a fire coming and you need to act now!” But there is something within us that says, “I’ve got a few more minutes.” There is something within us that says, “I’ve got time to go in and get my TV,” or, “I can handle it myself. I’ve got one of those high-quality hoses in my backyard. I think I can deal with this.” There is something within us that, even though we hear the warning, we think it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be all right. “I’m sure it’s not going to do to me what it has done to these other people.” So we can be slow to respond.
So we watched the news coverage of people whose houses are burning down because they don’t listen to the warnings. You think, “What’s wrong with them? Why don’t they do something? What is it going to take to get their attention?” But we have to turn up the volume on the TV to silence the blaring fire alarms in our own homes. We can see the warning signs in other people’s lives. We can see that someone else needs to take action. But when it comes to our own lives we can be very stubborn; we can be very slow to respond.
So last week we talked about the ways that God tries to get our attention and how He will send these blinking lights on the dashboard of our lives to try and wake us up so that we can act now and be saved from all kinds of pain later. And I’m wondering if God is trying to get your attention and He is warning you about a sin that you’re keeping a secret, a habit you’re trying to hide. You think you’ve got it under control but it is a fire that will devastate you. And He is warning you about it right now. Maybe He is warning you about some things in your marriage now that seem okay. I mean, it’s not that great of a marriage but it’s acceptable. But here is the thing: He is warning you that these things need to be addressed because there are some winds coming and these winds are going to cause that fire to spread, so now is the time to pay attention to these warnings in your marriage. Maybe He is warning you that there are children in the home and they’re in danger, and if you don’t do something now you’re not just putting your future in danger; you’re putting their future in danger. And He is trying to get our attention. He is trying to call us to action. But there is something within us that says, “I’ve got a little bit more time,” and what I want us to do today is talk about the fact that how we respond right now can make a lot of difference down the road. It can make the difference between heartache and blessing in our lives.
So last week we talked a little bit about seeing these warning signs; this week we want to talk about responding to them. If you have your Bibles you can turn to 1 Samuel chapter 2, 1 Samuel 2. We’re going to spend some time looking at the NIV translation but we’ll also use some of The Message paraphrase of this story. We’re going to be studying about Eli. Eli was a priest in Israel for forty years. He, in many ways, understood the warnings of God better than anyone else alive at that time. Ironically, he was oftentimes the voice of warning to other people about the fire that was approaching in their lives, but what we see is it’s his house that is on fire. It’s his house that is burning down. So even though he knew God’s commands, even though he was well aware of God’s warnings, he wasn’t responding to them in his own life.
So we’re going to pick up here in 1 Samuel 2:12 and we’re just going to see that his house is on fire. Verse 12 says, “Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord.” He had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and these two sons (because they were his sons) were also priests. That is to say, they were considered the spiritual leaders of the nation of Israel; yet we read in verse 12, “They had no regard for the Lord.”
And it’s worse than you think. It’s not that they just…you know…quit coming to church even though they were the pastors. We go on to read that they were stealing money from the offering. They were stealing sacrifices that were meant for God and they were eating them themselves. They were sleeping…we read on down…sleeping with the women who served outside the sanctuary. They had no regard for the Lord.
And Eli was aware of this. He knew this was happening. He knew what his sons were up to. Verse 22, The Message paraphrases it this way: “By this time Eli was very old. He kept getting reports on how his sons were ripping off the people and sleeping with the women who helped out at the sanctuary.” So you’ve got this priest and this father who hears these reports that are coming to him. “Hey, Eli, do you know what the other priests are doing—your sons? Have you heard what they’re doing?” And the alarm is blaring. It’s time for Eli to take some action. He has got to do something. So here is what we read. It says, “Eli took them to task.” Oh, this ought to be good. He’s going to let them have it. He’s going to remove them as priests. But here is what we read. Eli says to his boys:
What's going on here? Why are you doing these things? I hear story after story of your corrupt and evil carrying on. Oh, my sons, this is not right! These are terrible reports I'm getting, stories spreading right and left among God's people! If you sin against another person, there's help—God's help. But if you sin against God, who is around to help?
And…uh…that’s about it. That’s all he does. He gives them a good talkin’ to. That’s what he does. This is what Supernanny calls a “threatening parent,” right? A parent who is always saying, “Well, next time…next time this happens. If you do that again, I’ll turn this car around, Hophni. I will, Phineas. If you don’t do something different, I’m just…I’m warning you for the last time. I’m telling you for the last time.” And he’s got a lot of words here but there is not much action that takes place.
Verse 25 says, “But his sons were far gone in disobedience and refused to listen to a thing their father said.” If Eli was going to do something, he needed to do something before now. His sons were pretty well set in their ways. But besides that, we go on to read that God had already decided what He was going to do about Eli’s sons, and we read of a warning that comes to Eli. Verse 27, God sends a special messenger, and God says to Eli, “Why do you treat your sons better than me, turning them loose to get fat on these offerings, and ignoring me?” Verse 31 God says, “Be well warned: It won't be long before I wipe out both your family and your future family.” There are going to be some long-term consequences here.
So God warns Eli that a fire is coming and Eli doesn’t do a thing. There is no response recorded. He receives the message and that’s it. In the next chapter another warning comes. This time it comes through the boy Samuel who grew up to be a great prophet of God. In verse 11 he hears God’s voice for the first time and God gives Samuel a message to give to Eli. Here is what God says to Samuel:
Listen carefully. I'm getting ready to do something in Israel that is going to shake everyone up and get their attention. (I’m going to sound the alarm.) The time has come for me to bring down on Eli's family everything I warned him of, every last word of it. I'm letting him know that the time's up. I'm bringing judgment on his family for good. He knew what was going on, that his sons were desecrating God's name and God's place, and he did nothing to stop them.
He did nothing. I’ve warned them and I’ve warned them and I’ve warned them, and the time is up. The time for warnings is over, God says. He’s done nothing. He sees the warning signs. He is well aware of God’s commands. He doesn’t do anything.
Now here is what I can tell you about Eli. If you were to rewind forty years when he first started out as a priest, this is not what he wanted. Along the way…along the way…this isn’t the direction he wanted to go. He wanted to end up in a different place. It’s not something he meant to have happen, but it happened. He knew God’s warning signs, right? He smelled the smoke. He saw the ash falling in his yard and he thought, “I’m going to do something about it.” But he doesn’t. He never does.
So the question for you and for me is not just, “Can we see the warning signs of God?” but, “What are we going to do? How are we going to respond?” because they call us to action. His warnings call us to do something with a sense of urgency. So we’re going to look here at some things in Eli’s life. I think we’ll find ourselves pretty easily in this story. We’re going to consider, what keeps us from really responding to these warnings?
Eli was not only a priest for forty years; he was also a judge. What you need to know is that this was unusual in the nation of Israel. Typically those positions were held by more than one person. Eli had decided to be both priest and judge. This would’ve translated to a very busy, overextended work life. He would have had his hands full as priest and judge of Israel. And here is what happens. We get really busy, especially at work. We get overextended, and we see God’s warning lights in other places—perhaps in our spiritual life or, like in Eli’s case, family life—we see these lights flashing and it’s not that we don’t recognize them; it’s just that we’re really busy right now. So our response to God’s warnings is procrastination. Here is what we say to God: “I’ll get to it later. I’ll get to it later. It’s not that I don’t agree that there is a problem. It’s not that I don’t see that the fire is getting close. But it’s just a busy season right now, and when things slow down, when I catch my breath, I’m going to address that over there.”
So maybe for you it’s very similar to Eli’s story. You’re doing really well at addressing the blinking lights at work, but you’ve ignored the blinking lights at home. When you’re at home you take the phone calls during dinner. You go to your kid’s game and you’re staying on top of the email. You go on a date and you’ve got to check up on your text messages. You’re making sure all the fires are being put out at work, but there is smoke in your house. There is smoke in your house. You need to do something about that.
We intend to. It’s our plan. It’s on the to-do list. “I’m going to address those things. I just can’t do it right now because I’ve got a full plate. I’ve got a busy schedule.” And here is what we do. We let ourselves off the hook because we know we’re going to get to it eventually, right? We say, “God, I hear what you’re saying. I recognize that these things need some attention, and it’s not that I don’t care. I do care. I am going to address this. I just can’t do it right now. I’ll get to it later.” So we let ourselves off the hook—that we’ve really addressed these warnings from God. We haven’t done anything! We’ve just acknowledged them and said, “I’m going to get to it.” It is procrastination. Eventually what happens is what we read in verse 25. (We read) that his sons were too far gone. By the time he finally gets around to doing something…for Eli it’s too late.
I don’t know. Have you seen the show Hoarders on A&E? Raise your hand if you’ve seen Hoarders. If you haven’t seen that, you make sure and DVR it. It will make you feel so much better about yourself. (Laughter) In some ways it’s very sad, and I don’t mean to make light of it, because they say there are three million hoarders. But it’s shocking. It is shocking. I mean, typically the show features two or three folks who are about ready to experience some very severe consequences because of this long-term neglect of their homes. I mean, their homes are full…and when I say “full” I mean full of just stuff…of just junk. And usually they’ve got like a one foot aisle that winds through their house that they can get through and everything else…it’s just mountains of stuff! You can’t access rooms because they’re just full of stuff, and bathrooms aren’t being used because they’re just full of stuff. Counters can’t be seen. The table…nobody really knows for sure where it is at. There is a bed in there somewhere. But you can’t see any of it because the…they’ve just got all these things. And in some ways it doesn’t make any sense. I mean, it’s a 73-year-old; she’s got four tricycles in her living room. Is it really necessary? Do you really need that? But what has happened? Well, here is what I know from watching the show. I do like it. I like watching the show with my wife because it makes me look like a neat freak, makes me look impressive. (Laughter) So here is what happens, though. They interview these people and typically the first thing they say in the mic is, “I’m not really sure how this happened. I’m not sure how it got like this.” Well, I can tell you how it got like this, right? A day at a time. Then here is what else they’ll say. They’ll say, “I’m going to get to it. I mean, I’m glad the show is here. I’m glad that you all are going to help me get my house cleaned up and in order, but if you wouldn’t have come I was going to get to it. I’m gonna get to it.” And they’ve let themselves off the hook because they say, “One of these days I’m going to get things cleaned up.” And when you watch the show they’re about ready to lose their home; they’re about ready to lose their kids. And here is what you ask yourself, “What is it going to take? What is it going to take to wake them up, to get their attention and to put them into action? What is it going to take?”
And I’m…I’m asking you. I mean, what are you going to have to lose here? What is it going to take for you to address the situation that you’re in? You gonna have to lose the family? You gonna have to lose the marriage? You gonna have to lose your purity? You gonna have to lose your temper one more time? I mean, what is it going to take for you to acknowledge that now is the time to act?
You see, for some of you—and, believe me, I know what it’s like—you sense God’s call on your life. The Holy Spirit has been convicting you about a change, about something you need to address, and you sense it and you’re going to do something about it but you say, “I just can’t do it today. I’ll do it tomorrow.” When you hear the word “tomorrow,” when you hear the phrase “next week,” I can tell you this much: that is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never uses the word tomorrow. Tomorrow is a word the Holy Spirit does not know. Tomorrow is not in the Holy Spirit’s vocabulary. So when God is challenging you, when He is warning you and there is something within you that says, “I’ll take care of it tomorrow,” that is not coming from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s word is today. The Holy Spirit says, “Now is the time.” Hebrews says, “Today is the day of salvation. Don’t harden your hearts.” But we procrastinate. It’s not that we don’t care. We just think it can wait until later.
Another response that is pretty common, (which) we see here in Eli, is denial. We look at the warning; we’re aware of the fire, but we just kind of say to ourselves, “It’s not going to be me. It’s not that big of a deal. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
At first Eli really doesn’t do anything about his sons, even though he knows what is going on, but then he starts getting report after report. And eventually it reaches the point where he has to address it. But when he does. He acts shocked. Did you catch this—what he says to his boys first? “What’s going on here, boys?” As if he never really saw it coming. It’s denial.
Here is the definition for denial. Denial is “the failure to recognize” or it is “refusal to acknowledge the warning of God in your life.” It is the failure to recognize or a refusal to acknowledge the warning of God in your life. The reason we enter into denial is because we don’t…we don’t want to see the warnings because we know if we see the warnings it is going to call us to do something we don’t want to do. It’s going to call us to change something we don’t want to change.
This last week I was shopping for a used truck, so I got online just to kind of see what was out there. I entered in my price range and I was shocked…shocked…when one of the ads that came up was this ad. It said, “2008 Ford F150 pickup, 4x4, 14,500 miles. Price: $4,900.” Well, I was just curious more than anything. I assumed it was a typo. I figured somebody meant to put a 2 or a 3 in front of that and they just accidentally missed it. So I shot the person an email more out of curiosity than anything else and I said, “Can you let me know what the real price is of this truck?” And she sends me back an email and she says, “No, the price is $4,900. This picture of it is a beautiful truck. There is not a scratch on it.” She goes on to tell me her story—that her husband had recently died and it was his truck, that she had to move quickly to Canada to be with some family and that the truck was now in Atlanta being held by a shipping center owned by eBay, and if I would email her…or if I would send her the $4,900…then she would ship the truck to my house. (Audience murmuring) Oh, yeah, now you tell me. No, it’s got a happy ending. (Laughter) Now all kinds of warning signs, right? All kinds of warning signs! If you’re telling me the story I’m like, “You, moron. That’s a scam! How can you not know that is a scam?” But listen. It’s hard to see the warning signs when they’re about ready to ruin the deal of a lifetime, right? Then it’s a lot harder. Suddenly you find yourself justifying. Suddenly you think, “Well, if this is true and this is true, then maybe…maybe.” So I sent her back an email. Here is the email I sent her. This is true. I said, “I am sorry to hear about your husband. In case you haven’t checked it out and have some money challenges, I want to make sure you know you could get a lot more for his truck. I wouldn’t feel right buying it unless I made sure that you knew that.” That seemed like the Christian thing to do, right? I mean, I felt like I should know she knew just in case that this was…she could get a lot more for it. Then I added this at the end: “P.S. Please send me the eBay account information and we’ll get the ball rolling.” (Laughter) Okay? So that is the email I sent out to her. Then I get an email from…it says, “eBay Motors.” It looks quite official in some ways. I start reading through it and I’m like, “Oh no! It’s all a scam.” I mean, it just becomes very clear. Suddenly, you know, the warning lights are flashing and I realize it’s a scam. I take her email address—you can do this over the internet. You can find out who the name of the real owner is and where they live. It was somebody who lives in Arizona. I got her real name and I just sent her back an email with her real name and address on it.
You see this and here is what I learned about myself (Maybe you already know this to be true.): It is hard to see the warning signs when you don’t want to see the warning signs. I’ll tell you why scams like that work. It’s because people don’t want to believe it. Now other folks can see it for what it is. I’m telling you the story and you’re like, “Oh, well, of course.” Well, yeah, but if you’re the one…if you’re the one it is harder to see it. Those scams work because people are in denial. They want something to be true so desperately that they refuse to acknowledge what is obvious to so many other people. So denial is this refusal to acknowledge, refusal to recognize the warnings of God in your life because you want to keep doing what you want to do. You don’t want to change what you’ve come to be quite comfortable with. But here is what happens. We stay in denial but the warnings continue and continue. Then you start experiencing consequences, and the consequences escalate until you are forced to deal with reality.
We all saw an example of this on television this weekend when Tiger Woods stood up and gave his apology. When he did, he spoke about the denial that he had been going through. He didn’t use that word but let me quote him. He said, “I know my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules don’t apply to me. I never thought about who I was hurting. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to.” That’s denial. “I didn’t think I…I didn’t think I was playing by the same rules. I didn’t think about who I was hurting.”
Well, it’s obvious to you and me. It’s obvious to everyone else. But when you don’t want to change, when you don’t want to acknowledge the warning signs because of how it is going to affect your life, then you’re in denial, and the consequences escalate until you have to deal with it.
Here is what I’ve heard over the years as I’ve talked to people who have been in denial, denial and denial, and then their whole house comes burning down. I hear people say this. Here is what they say. They say, “Well, I had to hit rock bottom.” That’s what they’ll say. “I had to hit rock bottom before I could change, before I could really realize where things were at. I had to hit rock bottom.” And I think God would say to you on this day, “No, you don’t. Listen, do you see the smoke? Can you hear the fireman pounding on your door? You don’t have to hit rock bottom. I’m trying to get your attention right now. Don’t wait until later. Do something today, because what you do today can make all the difference later.”
We go through this denial where we just don’t want to acknowledge the reality of the situation. Eli shows us another common response to God’s warnings. Chapter 3, verse 13, here is what it says. It just simply says, “And Eli did nothing to stop them.” He did nothing. He found out about it. He sees the warnings. He is aware of it, but he doesn’t do anything. The word for this is “passivity,” and it is a great sin of husbands and fathers and Eli shows it to us. He did nothing.
Here is what we do. We see God’s warning lights and we just say, “I’m not going to do anything because I’m sure everything will work out.” We’re passive. One of the reasons we’re passive is because we know just how bad things might be and it seems like we’re going to be happier in life if we just don’t look, if we just don’t address the reality. So we stay passive.
You see studies of this. It’s reflected in other areas. When someone has a history of cancer in their family, oftentimes they are the least likely to go in for a cancer screening. When a person has financial trouble, they are sometimes the least likely people to open up their bills and to stay on top of their finances or to balance their checkbook. Why? Because there is part of us that says, “Doing nothing is what is best.” But that is not how you deal with a fire. When a fire is coming and you do nothing, the fire spreads and it can spread quite quickly.
There are a few cues, I think, as to why Eli was passive. First, I want you to look at his response when Samuel comes to him. Samuel comes to Eli and says, “Look, here is what is going to happen to your family. Here is what is going to happen to your sons.” Look how Eli responds to Samuel. Here is what Eli says, “He is the Lord. Let Him do what is good in His eyes. Let Him do whatever He thinks is best.” He has just found out that his family, his future family, is going to experience these long-term consequences and his response is, “Well, God is God. Let Him do what He thinks is best.” And that may sound spiritual. It may sound submissive. That’s not spiritual; it’s passive.
There are a lot of examples I could show you in Scripture where God’s warning comes and the people respond with repentance and brokenness and God relents. A classic example is Nineveh. The king of Nineveh finds out that God is going to destroy his city and the king breaks down (and) repents. He calls on all the people to cry out to the Lord, and he says, “There is going to be a fast in our whole nation. No living creature will eat a single thing. Who knows? God may yet relent and not bring upon us the destruction that He has warned us about.” Chapter 3, verse 10 of Jonah says, “When God saw what they did…” When He saw how they responded, when He saw how they took action, “and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.”
How much different is that than Eli’s response? Eli hears what is coming and he says, “Well, God is God. Let Him do what He thinks is right.” That’s not…that’s not spiritual; it’s passive. He was hiding behind it. Instead what God was looking for, I believe, was a broken man who would fall on his knees and say, “God, I have been so wrong. My way is not the right way. Look where it has led me. God, you know what is best. God, I want for my life what you want for my life, so this day I surrender everything to you. God, I beg you for your mercy. I am crying out to you for help.” I think…I think that would’ve been more spiritual. I think that is what God was looking for; not a, “Well, God is God. Let Him do what He thinks is best.”
Another clue of why Eli was passive comes from chapter 2, verse 29. Eli says…God asks Eli, “Why do you honor your sons more than me?” Why do you honor your sons more than me? And this tells us something about why we’re passive in certain areas. It’s because we’re honoring something more than God. Do you see how this works? God says to Eli, “I’m warning you about your sons.” Eli does nothing about his sons, and in doing nothing he reveals that he honors his sons more than God.
See how this is? God is warning you, perhaps, about a dating relationship. You do nothing about the dating relationship. In doing nothing you revealed that you honor your boyfriend more than you honor God. God warns you about your lust. You hear the warning; you don’t do anything about your lust, and in doing nothing you honor your porn more than you honor your God. You honor alcohol 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’s a religious walk based solely on a person’s individual performance—how good of a person you are. And if you’re a good enough person, over a period of lives where you are reincarnated, you can reach a level of enlightenment or nirvana. And you just saw this teaching, this idea that you can fix yourself, throughout his talk. I just jotted down some of what he said. He said, “I have a lot to atone for. It’s now up to me. I have a long way to go. I am the one who needs to change. I need to make my behavior more respectful. It’s up to me,” he says again. “I have a lot of work to do.”
On one hand I applaud him for taking responsibility; on the other hand my heart just breaks for him because he is saying again and again, “It’s up to me. It’s up to me. I’ve got to atone for myself.” And I know the truth. The Bible teaches us we can’t fix ourselves. We can’t atone for our own sins. We can’t make ourselves righteous. We can’t do that. We can’t rebuild the burnt down house. But Jesus can. So our confidence is not in what we do but rather we celebrate that someone…that God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves.
As I was watching the interview, the story of the Prodigal Son came to my mind. In Luke 15 Jesus tells the parable of the son who leaves the father. He goes off to this distant country. He spends his money on wild living. His whole life just kind of falls apart and he reaches a point… The Bible says, “He came to his senses,” and he is ready to go back home. And it struck me as I was thinking about that parable, did you know that there is a story in Buddhist literature that is almost exactly the same as the story of the Prodigal Son? It’s almost exactly the same. They start off the same. Luke 15 (and) Buddhist literature you’ve got this son (who) goes off to a foreign country. His whole life falls apart because of his own decisions. In both Buddhist literature and in Scripture the son comes to a point where he doesn’t want to live that way anymore; he wants to make changes. So they both decide to go back home to the father. Then the stories go very different directions, because in Buddhist literature the son comes home and the father accepts him home but says, “Because of what you’ve done, you’re going to be spending years of servitude shoveling excrement to make things right.” That is not what happens in the Prodigal Son. In Jesus’ story the son comes home, and here is what the Bible says. It says, “While the son was still a long way off, the father saw him, ran to him, threw his arms around his son and said, ‘Let’s have a party and celebrate. For this son of mine was lost but now he is found; he was dead but now he is alive again.’” That’s different.
And if you’re at a place where you feel like it’s too late—“I’ve missed my opportunity”—the story of Scripture is, “There is a Redeemer and His name is Jesus Christ. And you can’t but He can.” So if there are some warning signs in your life right now, if you can kind of see the smoke, would you please take some action? Really the whole point of this message is for a response. If there is not some kind of a response from each of us then we’ve…then we’ve missed the point. So would you respond in some way? Is there a warning that you really need to address? I don’t mean tomorrow; I mean today. Is there some person you need to confess to? Is there someone you need to ask accountability from? Is there a family you need to sit down with and say, “We’re going to do things differently”? Is there a phone call you need to make? Is there something at home you need to throw away? What’s the response for you? If you have been thinking about making a decision to accept Jesus as your Savior or talk to someone about that, then right now there is probably something within you that says, “I will. I’m going to get to it. Maybe next week.” That’s not from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is saying, “Today is the day.” So if you want to talk to someone about your relationship with Christ or you’re ready to make this your church family, we’d love to have you. You can meet me right down front over here as we stand and worship.
