And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and 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. It would be wonderful to say that about the things you have tried to do, wouldn’t it? Not one thing has failed! No F’s on the report card, no mess-ups in the piano recital, no arguments on the school playground, no scoldings from Mom? I am thinking about my junior high school days, when they made us jump over high hurdles. I never did get the hang of that. Hanging up, yes, but not the hang of how to hurdle. Wow, if I could have said then, “Not one thing has failed,” wouldn’t that be a Wahoo?!
Joshua, about whom you learned so much this week, was now old. He knew it, he felt it, in every bone of his body. Joshua knew that he did not have much time left. He could no longer lead Israel into rigorous battle, as he had once done. Our Avalanche Ranch students know that as a young man Joshua had been named by Moses to take the people into the land of promise. And Joshua had worked hard. He had rallied the people behind him. He had summoned all their energies, he had won stunning victories.
But now Joshua was a senior citizen, and he was measuring the years that had gone by. He was taking stock of what he had done. Joshua was asking, “Has my life been a failure?” Once he had shouted, “Wahoo!,” but Joshua was now murmuring, “Who, me?”
Avalanche Ranch was filled with young people. When I came over here on Thursday night for the closing session, I knew that I hadn’t seen so much youthful energy in one room in a long time. Jumping and shouting, whooping and hollering, even dancing! In a Baptist church! Wahoo! And that’s just the adult leadership!
What a good thing all of you are doing with your lives! You are learning, you are positive, you have good things to do, probably some of you have dreams about what you want to do in the years to come. That’s super. In fact, that’s a Wahoo!
But you will not always be young. You will not always be a child. You will not always even be a grandmother whose moves make her look years younger! Some day, in the providence of God, you will be at the other end of life. You will be a grownup, and then a senior citizen. And so today, I want to think with you about this man Joshua – the young man you studied this week – and I want you to go with me to the end of the story, when Joshua grew old . What did he feel? I think he, like many of us, was asking, “Has my life been a failure?” Too many people wonder that. Too many feel nothing but emptiness as the days grow shorter.
So I want to bring some good news this morning to young and to old. The good news is that it is never too early nor too late to succeed. It’s never too early nor too late to get a life! In the immortal words of that esteemed theologian, Yogi Berra, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over. If we are asking, “Has my life been a failure?” Joshua has something to teach us!
I
First, when Joshua asked whether his life had been a failure, he could answer, “No,” because Joshua had learned to live by faith and not by sight. Joshua had learned that if you live knowing that God is real and that God is involved in this world, you will be a success. But if you thinking that you have to make everything happen on your own, you will never succeed! If you live without believing that God is involved with us, you will feel a failure. You will feel a failure if you measure your life by what you have done on your own. But you can be a success if you will live within the purposes of a great God, a God who is not just an idea, not just a theory, not just a nebulous notion, but a God who is real. Wahoo! Listen to Joshua:
You have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the LORD your God who has fought for you.
You have seen what God has done. You have been a part of God’s plan. Discover that God’s will includes you. Find out that God is real. Wahoo!
Does anybody know the name of the man in the Bible who lived longer than anybody else? Methuselah! But here is the sum total of the biographical sketch on Great-Grandpa Methuselah: Thus all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years; and he died. He lived and he died. Ho-hum. So what else? Not much. Just living lots of years means nothing. But, in the story of Joshua, you learned about the woman Rahab. She had a lot to lose by protecting Joshua’s spies and letting them in the city. She could have died for what she did. But in living by faith in a God who is real, she made her life count. She lived large and made a difference. God is real, Wahoo!
II
Second, when Joshua asked whether his life had been a failure, he could answer, “No,” because Joshua knew that he had not done it all by himself. Joshua knew that he was not a failure because he worked in partnership with the people he led, and in partnership with a God who was with him every step of the way. Joshua knew that he had not failed because he felt both the support of his friends and the presence of his God, a God who is always with us. Wahoo!
The LORD your God will push [your enemies] back before you, and drive them out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as the LORD your God promised you.
Some people like to work with others, and some people like to work alone. If you are going to make something, do you like to have others’ hands right in there with yours? I am a person who hates to have others look over my shoulder. I prefer to work alone. If I know you are watching over my shoulder when I play that organ, I’ll hit a wrong note. Just remember that when I get one wrong, and I do, it’s their fault, right? No Wahoo!
Do you know what that says about me? Do you know the meaning of the word “perfectionist”? My wife will tell you that I am so afraid that somebody will think me a failure that I hang on to things and am not willing to trust somebody else. I get defensive – please pardon all these psychobabble words! – I get defensive and spend too much energy worrying that other people will think I didn’t do well. If I had been Joshua at the banks of the Jordan River, knowing that I was supposed to get everybody across to the other side, I would have gotten flustered, I would have sent everybody away, and I would have started to soak up the waters all by myself! I would not have wanted anybody to see me fail.
But Joshua commanded the river to dry up because Joshua knew that he was not alone. He knew that God is with us, Wahoo! Anything any of us has ever done that was a success is something others contributed to and, most important, is something God was involved in. God is with us whenever we did something well. If you do well in school, it was because you have a good teacher, and because God is with you, giving you a mind to think with. If you know how to make friends, it was because your parents taught you friendship skills, and because God’s loving Spirit is with you. God is with us, Wahoo!
When Joshua became old, he could see that the reason he was not a failure was that he had done his work with the help of others and with the presence of God. God is with us. Wahoo!
III
Now, again, for the third time, when Joshua asked whether his life had been a failure, he could answer, “No,” because Joshua had learned that God is strong. Wahoo! God is strong and even though Joshua was weak sometimes, he felt no sense of failure. He learned to depend on a God who is strong enough to defeat all enemies.
One of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the LORD your God who fights for you, as he promised you.
You cannot live long without learning that there are some things that are too big for us. There are some problems that are so large it seems futile even to try to solve them. Global warming … terrorism … the spread of AIDS … world hunger. Who can solve any of these things?
And yet I know people who are tackling those issues. I know people who are giving their lives to working out answers to these problems, even though they know that what they are doing looks like a mere drop in an ocean of difficulties. Why are they doing this? Why are they putting their very lives on the line for problems that they are never going to solve on their own?
Because they know that there is one who does have the answers, there is one who can empower them, there is one who can lead them to the solutions. There is God, and God is strong. Wahoo.
A God whose strength tumbled down the walls of Jericho can tumble down other walls too. That God can pull down the pinnacles of prejudice. That God can destroy dangerous diseases. That God can grow great grains for those who are starving. That God can do whatever is needed, for that God is strong. Wahoo!
But that strong God wants us to work with Him and His strength. That strong God wants us to find a wound and heal it, to find a hurt and soothe it, to find a hunger and feed it, to find a thirst and slake it. That strong God wants us to find an ignorance and teach it, to find an itch and scratch it. You will never do all that might be done; but what you do with God’s strength will make a difference. You will live larger than you could on your own, and you will make a difference, if you partner with a God who is strong. Wahoo.
IV
Has my life been a failure? Has your life, however young or old you are, frustrated you? It seems too small, it seems as though it is going nowhere? I remind you of the good news of which I spoke at the beginning of this message – that it is never too early nor too late to do something that will bring you success and let your life be larger. Whether you are at the beginning of your life, somewhere in the middle of it, or up in your senior years, you need to open your eyes, as Joshua did, and see that our God is in charge, that our God is an awesome God. That’s a double Wahoo, Wahoo! Our God is in charge and our God is an awesome God.
Our God is in charge. Not only one who could lead Joshua and his people into the land of promise, despite huge obstacles, but more than that, one whose truth is beyond dispute. Joshua encourages us,
Therefore be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left.
In other words, do what God says. Pay attention when the Bible is being taught. Listen when God speaks to you. He knows what He is doing and He wants you to know what you are doing. Our God is in charge, Wahoo.
And, boys and girls, men and women, most of all, our God is an awesome God. He does nothing that is not awe-inspiring. He is the one who flung the very stars in space, He is the one who gives flight to the birds of the air and depth to the denizens of the sea. He is the one in whose hand is the breath of every living thing. He is the one who made us the very crown of His creation and who said, when He created us, “That’s good. That’s really good.” Our God is an awesome God, Wahoo.
But never more awesome than when He holds in His hands power over life and death. Never more awesome than when He confronts the bitterest of our enemies, the most intractable of our foes. Awesome when He blew back Jordan, yes; and awesome when He blew down Jericho, of course. But I tell of a yet more awesome moment. I tell you not of Joshua of near four thousand years ago, but of his namesake Jesus of two thousand years ago. For in Jesus God met that last and most awful of our enemies, death. Not armies, nor walls, nor obstacles, nor arrows, but death. Death which lingers like a shadow over every elderly person; death which robs young people of the company of those they love. Death, our last and bitterest enemy.
One day they took Jesus to death. One day they marched Him up a hill, thinking that they would take Him down forever. One day they beat Him, they mocked Him, they cursed Him, they did all they could to destroy Him.
But they forgot. They forgot that God is real, Wahoo. And real Gods are not to be played with like rag dolls. They forgot that God is with us, Wahoo. And the God who dwelt among us full of grace and truth would not be so easily evicted. They forgot. They forgot that God is strong, Wahoo. Weak and lonely though Jesus looked, carrying that cross and stumbling through the streets, in Him was a strength, a terrible strength. And they would see that though we are weak, He is strong, Wahoo.
Oh, they crucified Him all right, and killed Him. Were you there? And left Him. But His friends lovingly laid Him in a tomb, forgetting that our God is awesome and our God is in charge, Wahoo. Were you there? That was Friday. But came Sunday and no tomb could hold Him, for He was raised from the dead! No stone could stop Him, for He lives! Nothing, not even death itself, could stand before His victory! Our God is an awesome God, Wahoo. Our God is in charge, Wahoo. Were you there?
It is neither too late nor too early to get past failure. It is neither too late nor too early to succeed. Whatever your age, if you will love Him, He will take you to heights you have barely dreamed and will crown you with victories you can scarcely imagine. You will not fail because God will not fail.
Joshua said it best:
Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God.
... 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.
