Are you a little tired of all the pious platitudes about failure? You know, the folks who tell you that failure is a good thing because you will grow from failure and you will be a better person? I am a little tired of that. I do not want to grow from failure. I want to be a success. I do not want to be a better person. I want to be an accomplished person. Isn’t that where you are too? Come on, now, let’s admit it.
We do not really want to hear any more about how many materials Thomas Edison tried for his electric light bulb before he hit on tungsten; we are tired of trying things out, only to see them fail. We are ready for success, not more failure. We don’t even want to hear the old Edison saying about success being one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. There comes a time in life when you just want all the work to be over and your goals to be attained and, whew, can I sit down for a while?! We don’t want to hear any more preachments about failure and success, do we?
Do not tell me how many experiments George Washington Carver did with peanuts; I am no longer interested in peanuts. I want success and I want it now! By the way, I heard someone the other day describing how his grandfather arrived in the United States from overseas, riding in a ship carrying tons and tons of peanuts. He said his grandfather had nothing to eat but peanuts all the way across the ocean, and that when he arrived in America, he never ate another peanut for the rest of his ninety-five years! I can identify with that, can’t you? Might be a symbol of success in some ways, but for him those peanuts represented the failures in his old life, and he was finished with that. Like some of you have told me, “I’ve been poor and I’m never going back to that. Seen it, don’t like it.” Some of us, when we get on in years, are tired of playing with peanuts. We want something real. We want success. And we don’t want anybody telling us just to hold on, because tomorrow everything will be all right. Forget about tomorrow; when you are seventy or eighty or ninety you figure you don’t have a whole lot of tomorrows. You don’t have time to fail. You want success and you want it now.
Unfortunately, a whole lot of time in the senior years is spent dealing with failure. Failure dominates us. We find that our physical powers begin to fail. Eyesight wanes. Now my eyesight has been bad since I was twelve years old, but likely as I age it will get even worse. At least I will know when it is time to quit preaching -- when I can no longer see who’s up in the balcony and how they are behaving! And physical strength wanes too. So I will know when it is time to quit teaching Sunday School -- when I can no longer climb to that third floor classroom the Building and Grounds Committee assigned to my class, thank you very much. Physical failure.
Or mental failure. Isn’t it true that in our senior years we worry about the loss of our mental powers? The woods are full of terrible stories about older people and memory loss. For example, there’s the one about the two old ladies who were sitting one day, reminiscing about the past, and the one said to the other … the one said to the other … uh, she said … um, I forget what she said! Memory loss, or even worse. Anybody who has ever visited in a nursing home and has listened to people babbling on about everything and nothing knows what that looks like. And we don’t want it. I don’t know how many people have said to me that they would rather die suddenly than to linger in a confused and bewildered condition. We dread it when everything is failing, body and mind.
The senior years. It seems that everything is failing. Body, mind, finances, patience, time. We are running out of everything. But there is good news for us – good news for seniors and good news for all. That good news goes like this:
… you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed.
Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised. Can you repeat that with me?
Do you know what kind of person said that? Do you know what age he was? That word comes from a senior citizen. His name was Joshua. We’d better find out how he got to the place where not one thing had failed of all the good things that the Lord had promised.
I
Joshua was making a retirement speech. He was old, and that’s a part of it. But he had also realized that he had finished the particular task that the Lord had set before him, and so he was ready to retire. Let me hasten to comment that being old and being retired are not one and the same thing. There are younger people who have resources that make it possible for them to retire from their jobs, and I bless them. I resent them, but I bless them.
And then there are older people who keep on working, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s because they won’t have a decent retirement income, but sometimes it’s because they just don’t know how to let go. It’s pitiful to see a senior who toils away at a job just to hold on to power or prestige, or maybe just because there isn’t anything else in his life. Sad to see. Strom Thurmond, are you listening?
But some retire not so much because the calendar calls for it, nor because they can afford to, nor even because they feel their strength failing, but because it’s just time. Because God has other things in mind for them. Because they have fought the good fight and have finished the course. And that was Joshua. Joshua was ready to retire but not ready to die. Ready to acknowledge that he had completed a particular life task. And so as Joshua is making this retirement speech, he is rehearsing his own failings; but, more importantly, he is remembering that whenever he took the Lord at His word, whenever he trusted the promises of God, God kept those promises.
Remember with me just a little about the life and career of General Joshua, and let’s get a feel for how God kept all His promises.
a
God had promised that there would be safe passage through the deep waters. Joshua was to lead the people of Israel into Canaan, on the west side of the Jordan. The Jordan River is deep and wide; but God promised Joshua that his army would cross on dry land. So when Joshua took God at His word and moved out, the waters rolled back, and Israel crossed over.
How many times, during the course of your life, have you been in deep waters? How many times deep in debt, deep in legal problems, deep in a troubled marriage, deep in too much to do? How many times have you felt overwhelmed, drowning? Oh, I tell you, I have whole days and weeks when I don’t see how I am ever going to dig out of everything that needs to be done. The meetings to attend, the lessons to teach, the sermons to preach, the people to visit, the stuff to write – I just want to go home and hide!
But I found out a long time I ago that there is a way through. There is a way when the deep waters threaten to drown you. And that’s to turn to the Lord for His strength. When I pray, and there’s too much, as often as not I find that there are some things I don’t really need to do. Somebody else can do them better. In fact, if I keep on praying, I find some things that it would be better if nobody did them at all! And slowly but surely I find myself able to get out of the mess and put my feet on higher ground – but first I have to trust the Lord. His promises are for those who trust Him first.
How many times, but you prayed, you sought the Lord, you listened to His promises – and did He fail you? Did He forget you? How many times, in the immortal words of the first George Bush, we were in deep doo-doo – but here we are! Here we are, alive, alert, surrounded by those who love us, honored in this community. Here we are! Can we not say, with Joshua, “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.”? He brings us through the deep waters.
b
God had promised Joshua, too, that no one would stand against Israel as they penetrated the land of Canaan. God had promised that each enemy would fall before the armies of the Lord. The first and most important place to fall was Jericho. That ancient walled city, we are told, is one of the oldest inhabited sites on earth. Jericho was impregnable. Jericho could not be taken. Yet Joshua trusted God; and around and around the city they tramped, never giving up, blowing their horns and shouting their shouts, and you know what happened, don’t you, when Joshua fit the battle of Jericho? What? The walls came a-tumblin’ down. How?
Oh, you know what that’s about. How many times have you met an absolutely unsolvable problem? How many times have you run up against something that would not yield to your persuasion, your arguments, or your logic? That son that went wrong and just would not come back. That daughter that went wild and embarrassed you. That boss that rode your case and rode you hard. That habit that took you over and would not let you go. How many times have you run up against a complete barrier; there was no compromise, no way around it? But you went on marching in the name of the Lord; you went on doing what you knew to do. You went on singing the praises of God, and the impossible happened. You kept on going, and the barriers came down. You kept on marching, and the unsolvable got solved. It happened! It happened! If you were standing on the promises rather than sitting on the premises, you are here today to testify to Joshua’s truth, “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.”
Joshua’s retirement speech. He had come to the end of his task, knowing that God had kept every one of His promises. Is it time to take an inventory, brothers and sisters? Is it time to count our blessings, name them one by one, for it may surprise you what the Lord hath done? “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised”
Now, yes, we’ve failed; our energies fail; we fail to trust the Lord as we should; everything is failing, it seems. But oh, stay by this. “Great is His faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see.” Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.
II
But now what intrigues me about Joshua at this point in his life is that he has not only taken inventory of all that God has done, he has not only counted his blessings. But Joshua is also, despite his age, making commitments toward the future. Joshua is not focused only on the past; he is also squarely faced toward the future, and on what has not yet been accomplished. Old as he is, Joshua is not stuck in the past; he is thinking creatively about the future. And the way he does this is very instructive. It’s a model for seniors.
Joshua’s idea of facing the future is not just to dream about it, not just to fantasize about it, not just to wish for it. Joshua’s way of facing the future is to claim it. To reach out and to claim it. To insist that what hasn’t been finished is going to be done. It will be done by another generation, maybe, but it will be done. If it is the will of God, it will be done.
Joshua tells the people about some key decisions he has made:
I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. The LORD your God will push them back before you, and drive them out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as the LORD your God promised you.
Now, are you hearing this? Joshua’s legacy to those who will follow him is not a finished product. It is a vision. It’s not a land of milk and honey, carpeted, air conditioned, and with an elevator installed. It’s a vision. Joshua’s legacy is a vision of a nation that will do all that God wants them to do. And Joshua has claimed that vision. I’ve given you not only the cities we have conquered; I give you also the cities we have not conquered, as your inheritance. I’m assigning them to you as if they were already yours. And God will do for you what God has done for us; trust Him. Trust Him.
Seniors, do not hold back from sharing with young people both your accomplishments and your failings. Inspire them not only with your successes, but also by your losses. Tell them that much remains to be done, that the fight is not yet over. Tell them that there’s a whole lot of mess out there that we never got to; in fact, we helped make some of that mess. Tell them that this is a community that has its problems, but that we who are in Christ have claimed this community for God. By the way, I’d love to do a Joshua march around this neighborhood and witness to our confidence that the Satan’s strongholds will fall!
Oh, seniors, tell the youth that this is a nation that is still plagued with racism and suspicion and hatred. No, these are not the heady days of the 60’s, when right was right and wrong was wrong, and you knew exactly what to do. But tell them there is plenty left to do. Brothers and sisters, tell the youth of Takoma that the same God who gave us many a victory will give them the rest of the victories, if they but trust and obey, for there’s no other way but to trust and obey.
We as a church have accomplished much. When I look back, I can see so much that has been done. Programs, people, facilities, so much. And yet no one is more conscious than I of all that remains to be done. Ministries that need to be started, outreach that needs to be strengthened, classes that need to be organized, music and arts groups that need to be stimulated, building that needs to be constructed, property that needs to be managed. So much that needs to be done. Some of us are older and will not have the time or the strength to do it all. But we can bless a whole generation of young people with a vision. We can claim for them the blessing of God, we can give them a victorious vision.
On Pentecost Sunday, a month from today, I intend to share a refreshed vision of what I believe the Lord expects us to be and to do. I will say nothing more today about the content of that vision, except to say that it will be built on this great truth: “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.” I will ask you to claim for a generation to come a vision of victory. Why? “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.”
III
Joshua had a namesake. There was one who came after him, by many years, but whose name is essentially the same and in whose spirit there lives the same sense of victory. Joshua had a namesake; we call him Jesus.
This Joshua named Jesus was also full of the promises of God. He spoke of a God who would heal our diseases. And they brought Him the sick, and they were healed. “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.”
This Joshua named Jesus was full of the promises of God. He spoke of a God who would forgive sin. And when they came to Him in their brokenness, He sent them on their way rejoicing. “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.”
This Joshua named Jesus was full of the promises of God. He spoke of a God who would call Him to suffer and to die, but in three days to raise Him up from the dead. Sure enough, high on Calvary’s hill, flung against an eastern sky, they nailed Him, and thought they had done their worst. But “an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. And because He lives I can face tomorrow.” “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.”
A God whose promises are that good will keep me to the end. A God whose promises are that solid can be trusted. And though life and limb fail, though arm and flesh fail, though eye grow dim and ears be stopped, though mouth be closed and mind be clouded, still will I trust Him. Still will I serve Him. Still will I work and give and pray and plan, for it’s a sure thing. “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.”
Come to the Table where He affirms His promises. Come to the Table where the bread promises that though our flesh fail, His strength is ever fresh. Come to the Table where the cup promises that though our lives ebb out in weakness, His life is eternal. His risen life witnesses to this above all: “Not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised.”
