MAKING MISTAKES

MAKING MISTAKES
From the sermon “Gibeon: Learning from Mistakes”
Joshua 9:1-27

Many years ago, I was pastoring a church that did not have a building. We met in a rented shop house. We also planted several daughter churches meeting in homes and borrowed premises.

In 1978, the government issued an announcement that residential premises could not be used for religious worship. We knew then that the time had come for us to look for a permanent place for worship.

Moreover, we had outgrown the places where we were meeting, with young families and a growing number of children.

In 1980, we took a decision to look for land to build. We tendered for a piece of land at Pasir Panjang, but we were unsuccessful. Then we saw a bungalow somewhere near West Coast Road.

We made enquiries and learned that there was a possibility of converting it from a residential property to one for religious use. We started negotiating with the owners. They were open to sell.

We were really excited. Our building fund started with only $10,000 but when money was needed for the down payment, people just gave. Within a few months, we raised $400,000 ready to buy the property.

So we put down 10% deposit and signed a contract to buy the house, on condition that our application for conversion of use was successful. If our application was not successful, the deal would be off, and our deposit would be returned.

We prayed and prayed. However, our application was not successful. We were discouraged by the bad news. Then someone suggested, “Let us appeal.” So by faith we appealed to the Minister.

When the owners learned that we had been unsuccessful and had appealed, they wrote to tell us they were forfeiting our deposit of $40,000. They argued that the contract did not provide for appeal. If our application was unsuccessful, the deal was off.

We were shocked so we sought legal counsel. We decided to sue the owners to get our deposit back. The whole matter dragged on for months.

Meanwhile, more discouragement: the appeal was unsuccessful. We still could not get our $40,000 back. We didn’t know what to tell our members who had given sacrificially to the building fund.

Finally, we decided to get our lawyer and their lawyer together. In the meeting, we finally admitted we were in the wrong. We apologised, and they returned us the deposit, minus all legal costs.

We made a mistake, and almost lost $40,000 of our church members’ hard-earned money. It was a mistake we would never forget.

Today as we come to chapter 9 of the book of Joshua, we come across a mistake made by Joshua, the leader of the people of Israel. He was led into striking a deal with the people of another city.

It is clear that Joshua had made a mistake in what he did. What should he do? What should we do when we realise we have made a mistake? What can we learn about mistakes and how to deal with them?