{"id":33523,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/deeply-moving-religious-experience\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"deeply-moving-religious-experience","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/deeply-moving-religious-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"A Deeply Moving Religious Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/18857.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">It\nwas Pentecost Sunday and I had been invited to speak at Washington Cathedral on\nthat occasion because my background has something to do with earthquake, wind\nand fire. I suspected that I had been invited in anticipation that we could\nhave at least a simulation of what the Pentecostal event had been. But halfway\ninto the sermon it became very clear to me that background not withstanding, I\nwould not get very much going in the National Cathedral of the Episcopal\ntradition. In fact, as I tried to rev up things for that moment, it would\nalmost appear the people could not hear. There was not laughter in response to\nmy jokes. I saw no gesture of anticipation of the fire of the Spirit. In fact\nthe building itself seemed to conspire against my Pentecostal aspirations. It\nwas almost as if I could hear the cathedral saying, &#8220;Slow down, Jim. You&#8217;re not\ngoing to get very much going in here today.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Anyway,\nI gave it my best. Nothing much seemed to happen. Except at the end of the\nservice, a man came up in the line along with those others who nodded a head of\napproval as they passed by. But he stopped. And extended his hand to me. And he\nsaid to me, &#8220;I want you to know that was the most deeply moving religious\nexperience I&#8217;ve ever had in my life.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">That\nresponse stuck with me and I want to preach on a deeply moving religious\nexperience. I&#8217;ve chosen the text from Genesis 45 because there a man has a very\ndeeply moving religious experience and it appeals to me. It appeals to me\nbecause in my work as minister and professor, I look at knowledge that the more\nrationalistic orientation of the seminary life renders me less and less\nsusceptible to the kind of deeply moving religious experiences I used to have\nin the back woods of North Carolina. Somehow the visitations are not as\nfrequent in that somewhat stilted atmosphere as in my Grandpa&#8217;s church down in\nWilliamston, North Carolina. And quite frankly, every now and then, I too like\nthe man in the cathedral would like to have a deeply moving religious\nexperience. I could stand one now.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nin a more serious vein, as I seek to proclaim the Good News across the land, I\nhave become convinced that not only do we need deeply moving religious\nexperiences as individuals, but the Church, all of them, those who are called\nmainline churches and those who were called the cults and those called sects,\nthose that were the old centers of power, almost every denominational group I\nshare with, there seems to be a need here and there for a deeply moving\nreligious experience. For churches sometimes strain at being places where people\nexperience the living God with power for transformation. I think we need not\njust a little stirring up, a little upbeat in a song or just a little more\nlively revised liturgy, I think churches all over need a deeply moving\nreligious experience.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nwhat of our nation? As I look at the mandate of the Christ to do justly, to\nlove mercy, to walk humbly with our God, and to love others as God has loved\nus, to plead for those for whom no power has been made possible, to hear the\nhigh calling of the Kingdom of God and then to look at our nation and the\nerosion of humanitarian idealism, the loss of a sense of caring for others and\nan increasing rugged individualism whether expressive or utilitarian, somehow I\nget the impression as I preach that I&#8217;d be wasting my breath unless this\nnation&#8217;s churches and individuals in the nation can somehow happen upon a\ndeeply moving religious experience. Otherwise we seem to proclaim in vain.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But let&#8217;s go back to Joseph, you know the one\nwith the coat. <\/span>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nold book used to say &#8220;with many colors.&#8221; That&#8217;s the Joseph I&#8217;m talking about. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nwant to talk about him because in our text he had a deeply moving religious\nexperience. So deep was the experience that it became necessary for him to\nbanish from his presence those who were in official capacities in Egypt. And\nwas left there and felt something powerful going on inside himself. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nwant to speak of that Joseph. For something happened there that day for him\nthat I keep wishing would happen for myself. Before I come to the heart of what\nI see revealed in the 45 chapter, let&#8217;s just take a quick backdrop and look at\nthis Joseph. Perhaps we can pick up some clues about what went into this\nextraordinary experience he had, an experience that moved him so until he was\ncrying aloud. And folks even who were outside of that room, way down at\nPharaoh&#8217;s house could hear him and wondered what on earth had happened to\nbrother Joseph.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Joseph&#8217;s\ndreams of power and significance were deferred by a life of ups and downs<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nquickly let me review his life. I see two forms. First is that he was a person\nwho had a dream of power and a real sense that he would make a significant\ncontribution in the world. You remember his dream. And he had little enough\nsense to tell the dreams to his brothers. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;We\nwere in the field and my sheaf of wheat that I had gathered, well it stood up\ntall and the sheaves of wheat that you had gathered bowed down to mine.&#8221;\nAnd the brothers looked at him. &#8220;So you&#8217;re going to be in charge of us,\nhuh? So you&#8217;re going to have dominion over us?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nthe dream was stronger than that. For he dreamed again. And this time he\ndreamed that the sun and the moon and the eleven stars or constellations of\nstars had somehow bowed down to him. This time his daddy thought that it&#8217;s time\nto tell that boy a little something about sibling rivalry. &#8220;Listen, if\nyou&#8217;re going to have those kind of dreams, you are making it look like mother\nand father and your brothers are going to bow down.&#8221; But there was nothing\nthat Jacob, the father of Joseph, could do about this dream. It was deep in\nhim. Something inside himself that <em>You are a person of power. You are going\nto make a very significant contribution. The world will be a different place\nbecause you passed through it.<\/em> That was in him. It was in him as he walked\naround. It was with him when he went to sleep. There was this deep dream in\nhim. Keep it in mind because I think it is going to have something to do with\nwhy he was so deeply moved.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nthere&#8217;s something else about him. Not only was there this great dream of power\nand of significance, but his dreams as far as the story goes seem to be\ndeferred. It appeared to reach fulfillment and then it would back up on him. He\nwas almost there and yet he would miss it by a leap. In other words, the\nunfolding of his life was not according to an instant fulfillment of the dream.\nHis dream was deferred by a life of ups and downs. A dream of standing up tall,\nbut the reality was that his life like everybody else&#8217;s was up and down. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Here\nhe is a boy who stands high up in his father&#8217;s admiration. But his brothers\nalways looked forward to an opportunity to put him down. Daddy sent him down to\nthe field to check on the brothers one day, riding high up on his beast of\nburden. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And they said, &#8220;Look at him. Here comes this\ndreamer. Let&#8217;s put him down in the ground. Let&#8217;s destroy him.&#8221; But one brother\ncame up and said, &#8220;No. Let&#8217;s don&#8217;t destroy him. Let&#8217;s not spill his blood.\nLet&#8217;s just put him in a pit.&#8221; So there he goes, down in a pit. And would have\nperhaps stayed there until another brother came to rescue him, but along came\nsome traders. They now take him up out of the pit. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nno sooner than he&#8217;s up out of the pit they sell him down into Egypt. And down\ninto Egypt his history continues. He arrives with power in the service of\nPotiphar. That man in charge, the captain of the guard, in fact became a chief\nsteward in Potiphar&#8217;s house. And he was so efficient, so successful was he,\nthat his natural charm began to be irresistible for Mrs. Potiphar.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nbrother said, &#8220;I will hold up high my virtue,&#8221; and ended up down in\nprison. She managed to find a way to get him. She claimed that he had made the\nimproper advances on her. She managed to take his coat. She said he did the\nwrong thing and so he was put into prison. And he did time. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\nknow the story, how he interpreted the dream of the butler and the baker. And\nalthough down in prison, he even rose high up there. Every time it looks like\nhe was about to make it, something seemed to go wrong. As he said to the\nbutler, &#8220;You&#8217;re going to return to bear the cup of the king and when you do, by\nall means, remember me for I have been unjustly condemned and placed in this\ndungeon. Remember me, will you?&#8221; he said to the butler. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nbaker of course was executed. He could not speak. And guess what. The butler\nlet him down. People do that even today. They let you down. Two years there he\nwas in that rotten stinking dungeon and the butler didn&#8217;t even think of him\nuntil Pharaoh had his dream. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nPharaoh had his dream, the dream disturbed him. And nobody in all of Egypt\ncould interpret the dream of the king. And it was then that the butler said,\n&#8220;Oh yes, I remember. A guy down in prison named Joe. Yes, I remember Joe. Oh\nKing, I believe Joe will be able to somehow interpret your dream.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nso it was that he got himself all straightened out and went to stand before the\nking. And he interpreted the dreams. &#8220;Okay it is not my interpretations;\ninterpretations belong to the Lord,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but the dream that you had of\nseven fat cows eaten by skinny cows and the grain, seven ears beautiful eaten\nup by lobby grain of corn as if the east wind had parched them, the dream is\nthat there are going to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of\nfamine. And it would be wise, oh King, to manage to save, to conserve, to\npreserve that there might be food in the time of famine.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nthe king pressed, &#8220;Where can we find such a man?&#8221; Well my brother Joseph had\nset it up so well and so they did not need to look for a wise man. The king\nsaid, &#8220;Here he is. Let&#8217;s give him the job.&#8221; And so his reign began. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">His\nups and downs seemed to stop at a high point. The king took off his signet ring\nand put it on him. Then put the medallion around his neck, and furthermore gave\nhim new attire. He looked somewhat official now. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nhis chariot went down the road, they would say, &#8220;Bow the knee!&#8221; Feels almost\nlike the dream that&#8217;s about been fulfilled. And the king gave him a brand new\nname. Named him ZPaaneah. And in addition gave the beautiful,\nintelligent, resourceful Asenath to be his wife. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">God\nblessed and added to this union of ZPaaneah and Asenath two beautiful\nbouncing boys, Manasseh and Ephraim. And even the name suggests <em>I&#8217;ve made it\nnow. I&#8217;ve reached the pinnacle of my anticipation. My dream has been fulfilled\nfor God has caused me to forget all of the hardships in the land of my father,\nand has allowed me to be fruitful in the land of my afflictions.<\/em> It almost\nseemed like he had reached the point. He had almost fulfilled the dream. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nfact things turned out just as he said: seven years of plenty followed by seven\nyears of famine. And yet he had conserved wisely and was distributing daily.\nAnd I suspect that in the evening when he finally got home to Asenath and\nManasseh and Ephraim he could speak in his mind, &#8220;Oh the Lord has brought me\nfrom a mighty long way. Look where I&#8217;ve come to. Look what God has done for me.\nIf I can be prudent, I can live out my life and they will tell stories about\none Hebrew boy who went down in the land of Egypt and done good.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nyet you are waiting for the time when it begins to be unclear as to whether the\ndream is completely fulfilled. For there was a day when those brothers, yes\nthose same brothers who sold him into slavery, came before him for distribution\nof food, for times were tough in Canaan. He was moved because he recognized\nhim, but they did not recognize him. And after a little playing around, testing\nthey say, maybe expressing some of his residual resentment at what had been\ndone to him, sent them back, called them spies, put them up for three days in\nprison, demanded that they bring back their younger brother whom he had\ninquired about skillfully. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then he says, &#8220;I am going to keep that young\nbrother Benjamin with me and the rest of you may go.&#8221; And the brother had\npromised old man Jacob that we cannot let them take Benjamin. But if we take\nBenjamin the old man says, &#8220;I&#8217;ll die.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So\nit was Judah who gave that report that I was reading to you. It was Judah who\ncame to him. And I like the way Judah did this. He said to him, &#8220;Now sir, we do\nnot wish to show you any disrespect, but we can not leave Benjamin here.&#8221; All\nof this was said through an interpreter, for he was now speaking impeccable\nEgyptian and had on the attire of royalty. But Judah asked, &#8220;Let me get close\nenough to say, &#8220;We can&#8217;t leave this Benjamin with you because our father\nwould go down to his grave, for he has already lost one son of his wife Rachel\nwhom he loves. The son of his old age, and if we don&#8217;t take him back, father will\ndie.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">To\nhave a deeply moving religious experience we need to tell the truth about who\nwe really are<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">It was at\nthat point that this deeply moving experience that I was talking about happened\nto him. Which I wish could happen for me, maybe for you. As Judah got close to\nhim and began to speak, he felt something deep down inside himself. It was as\nif how Judah was speaking to him, God recognizing that the dream had been\nblurred through the years, began to stir up the dream. And after the dream had\nbeen stirred that he felt something that was happening inside of himself that\nwas bigger than himself. He felt a power at work that he was no longer able to\ncontrol by imperial decree. He felt that he was in the hands of something\nbigger than himself. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nhe didn&#8217;t know what was going to happen. So he decided to clear the house. He\nsaid, &#8220;Everybody else other than these men who are standing here with me, you\nall leave please.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nas everybody had left, then he really let it all hang out. He started yelling\nto the top of his voice. The text says, &#8220;He could not control it.&#8221; I do not\nknow what it sound like. I do not simulate it. But out of the depths of his\nbeing, the place where his longing for fulfilledness had somehow been put on\nhold, but he began to cry to the top of his voice. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nthese brothers didn&#8217;t know what to do about it. They were dumbstruck. What is\ngoing on with this man who is in charge? <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">He\nfirst of all said to them, &#8220;Listen y&#8217;all. I&#8217;m Joseph.&#8221; They didn&#8217;t understand\nthat. He probably said it with an Egyptian accent. They didn&#8217;t understand that.\nBut he then came out at them again, &#8220;Look I&#8217;m your brother Joseph.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">That&#8217;s\nthe first thing I see happening that I can say quickly that I wish would\nhappen. You see, when he said &#8220;I am Joseph&#8221; I wonder when was the last time he\nhad said those syllables &#8220;Joseph&#8221;? Do you think he told Asenath? There are men\nof power who cease to bare their souls. They can&#8217;t afford it. Do you think\nEphraim and Manasseh knew of the days back when? You see when you come into\nroyalty, it is not always convenient to have the closets clean as completely as\nthey might need to be clean. I do not know when the last time was that he said\nanything about Joseph. And that&#8217;s one of the things that moved him. I think the\nhand of God moved him, first of all, to tell the truth about who he really was.\n<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">How\nmany of us live our lives halfway between ZPaaneah and Joseph? How many\nof us live our lives behind the roles we play? Behind the faade of public\nreputation? How many of us carry the heavy load of an assumed character and\ntell me how deeply moving it is to just go ahead and be yourself? <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I&#8217;m\nspeaking to ministers tonight. One of the afflictions of ministry is that\nsomebody puts a &#8220;Dr.&#8221; or a &#8220;Reverend&#8221; in front of your name and all of a sudden\nyou&#8217;ve got to act like somebody about two or three feet off the ground. Oh that\na meeting like this could revive the opportunity for us to be just who we are. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Yes, we are both ZPaaneah and Joseph.\nBut it ain&#8217;t no good trying to pretend that we&#8217;re only Zaphnath. We are the\nwhole thing, multiple roles, multiple responsibilities, multiple dimensions of\ncharacter. We are not as holy as we would like to be. We have not come as close\nto perfection as we like to claim. We have not lived up to all that we announce\non the day we said &#8216;yes&#8217; to the call. Wouldn&#8217;t it be wonderful if we could just\ngo ahead and be who we are? Wouldn&#8217;t it be wonderful if we could just say &#8220;this\nis who I am&#8221;? <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nhad to learn it the hard way. I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. I was\ninvited back to be a speaker at the Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel. When I was\ngrowing up we couldn&#8217;t even go in that hotel except to serve. But I got a\nchance to back in there to speak. But I spoke. I did the best speech I could.\nAlmost to say, &#8220;Y&#8217;all see what you missed keeping me out of here?&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Them\npeople were shaking hands, shaking hands, and at the end there was a woman who\nbeen a member of my daddy&#8217;s church for many years. And she stood in line while\nall these people said, &#8220;Oh Dr. Forbes this&#8221; and &#8220;Oh Dr. Forbes this,&#8221; &#8220;Oh Dr.\nForbes this.&#8221; And they were just holding up the line, holding up the line. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nthe sister couldn&#8217;t stand it any longer. She broke out of the line, ran up in\nfront of the lady that was getting ready to shake my hand, and say, &#8220;You come\non down here and shake my hand. You ain&#8217;t no Dr. Forbes to me. You ain&#8217;t nobody\nbut Jim Forbes. I know you.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">It\nwas a liberating moment to stop being so uptight with titles, so saturated with\nan elevated sense of self, to just be deeply moved to be just who we are. Both\nthe role as well as that individual that we are beneath that role. The center\nof power<strong>.<\/strong><\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">To\nhave a deeply moving religious experience we need to affirm our solidarity with\nour people<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Something\nelse happens which is very serious. And that other thing was that somehow he\nwas moved to affirm his solidarity with his people. He had forgotten that. Even\nnamed his son &#8220;I forgot that.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nimportance of being deeply moved, and the real reason why I speak of deeply\nmoved, we have come to a point as a\nnation and as people in a nation where the  nuclear family is becoming\nalmost as detrimental to the kingdom of God as the nuclear power is in general.\nAll our concern is about my nuclear family. My wife. My child. And my close\nrelatives. That brother Joseph looked out for himself. Zaphnath, Asenath,\nManasseh and Ephraim and thought that that was what God was interested in:\nsatisfying his life at that level. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">No!\nGod moved him that day. I&#8217;m so glad. God moved him to say, &#8220;Man, I have not\nraised you up primarily that you should be able to enjoy yourself. The\nresources I&#8217;ve given you, the opportunity I&#8217;ve given you, even the dream I gave\nyou was not about you standing tall for yourself, but standing tall that my\npeople might survive.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\ntherefore in that context, he recovered a sense of caring. He asked, &#8220;Is my\nfather yet alive?&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nthen furthermore, he said, &#8220;I want you to get ready to tell them that God has\nhonored me here in Egypt. And tell them to go get ready to come. They must be\nwith me.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nsome of us, when we get it made, forget about the rest of the folks. And we\nlive in the shade while our brothers and sisters die from a lack of basic\nsubsistence needs. Oh, how I wish Proclamation 86 would be an occasion that folks\nwould be deeply moved. So deeply moved that they decided not to forget about\nthe folks in East Tennessee, just because they lived in West Tennessee. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So\ndeeply moved that they would not decide to forget about the people in Central\nAmerica just because they lived on the main line. So deeply moved that they\nwould not forget about my African brothers back in South Africa, and your\nAfrican brothers and sisters back in South Africa, both black and white. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Oh\nthat God would deeply move us so that we in the United States of America would\nlearn how once again to promote liberty and justice and freedom for all the\nbrothers and sisters in the various lands of salvation around the world. I am\nnot just for excitement. Oh that we would be deeply moved, deeply moved. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">To\nhave a deeply moving religious experience we need to find a cause to give our\nlives for<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The last\nchapter in Genesis has a funny ending. The last thing that I see is that\nJoseph, having grown old, having brought the brothers and the sisters down to be\nwith him, to stay in the land of Goshen and raised up children&#8217;s children, and\nyet at the end&#8212;and this is the thing that excites me&#8212;at the end Joseph says to\nthem, &#8220;I want you to make me a promise.&#8221; He said, &#8220;I am about to die. But God\nwill visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to\nAbraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.&#8221; Then Joseph took an oath, saying, &#8220;When God\nvisits, you shall carry up my bones from here.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Oh, that&#8217;s\nwhat I&#8217;m looking for. You see, I have decided to be myself. And I have decided\nto serve community, not only my black brothers and sisters in the United\nStates, but I&#8217;ve decided to be concerned about Native Americans. And I decided\nto be concerned about other minorities in my own land. I decided to be sensitive\nto the needs of the oppressed. It does not matter what form of oppression,\nwhether it is oppression by virtue of sexual orientation, whether it is\noppression by virtue of choice. I&#8217;ve decided to do that. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nthere&#8217;s more, don&#8217;t you see. For what I&#8217;m looking for is not a series of either\nconservative or liberal causes or bandwagons to get on. Something deep inside\nme is close to what was in Joseph. I&#8217;m tired of being on one bandwagon and then\nanother. And something in me wishes to find a call that&#8217;s strong enough and\nserious enough and important enough and noble enough that I could not only work\nhard when I live, but when I come down to die that I&#8217;d be so confident that\nthis call is the winning call that I would like to offer my bones. Lord, I&#8217;ve\ngiven my blood. Lord, I&#8217;ve given my sweat. Lord, I&#8217;ve given my kids. But now\nI&#8217;d like to dedicate to you my bones, my charred remains. Take my bones.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">How\nmany of you have found something strong enough, clear enough, that you were\nwilling to suffer for, to bleed, to die for, to give your life and then what&#8217;s\nleft for? Have you found it? If you haven&#8217;t found it you haven&#8217;t been moved\ndeeply enough yet. If you haven&#8217;t it, you really don&#8217;t know what it&#8217;s all\nabout. Joseph found out that he had been chosen by God to be a connective link\nbetween God&#8217;s promise and God&#8217;s fulfillment. That was where his satisfaction\nwas. That was where his dream was going to be fulfilled, when he found the\nopportunity to stand between the promise and the fulfillment.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">That&#8217;s\nwhat I&#8217;m looking for. I do not care what title they give me. That won&#8217;t help\nme. I don&#8217;t care what the books say about bowing the knee. That won&#8217;t help me\nthat much. I don&#8217;t care so much about the honor on the face of the earth if I\ncould just find my spot, my spot between promise and fulfillment, that spot in\nthe will and plan of God, that God earmarked for me, that God gave me a dream\nfor, that God buried down in my heart, it&#8217;s to die for. If I ever find that,\nthen I know I&#8217;m on my way. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nwhile I talk about that, Jesus is gonna say, &#8220;Hey man, what you talking about\nfinding? Didn&#8217;t I find a spot for you? Didn&#8217;t I hang on the cross, suspended\nbetween earth and heaven for the sake of the kingdom? Didn&#8217;t I stand there and\ndeclare that God&#8217;s reign is at hand? And didn&#8217;t I invite you to become a part\nof it? What you looking for? I gave my blood didn&#8217;t I?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nsaid, &#8220;Yes, Lord.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;I\ngave my tears, didn&#8217;t I?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Yes,\nLord.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;And\nwhen I didn&#8217;t have anything else, I gave blood and water, didn&#8217;t I?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Yes,\nLord.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;And\nthen, I gave my body.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Yes\nyou did, Lord.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;And\nin my giving, I found the fulfillment of my dream. That&#8217;s why on the third day\nmorning, I got up feeling good.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nwish that would happen for you. And to tell the truth, I feel it coming on now.\nI feel it! I feel a new sense of readiness to find my place, to fulfill my\nresponsibility to live out the full meaning of the dream of God in my life.\nWhat I hope is that God would somehow move in on us, begin to make it so clear\nthat you&#8217;ll be able to say with Joseph of old, now it was not anything of the\nworld that did it for me, but it was the purpose of God working out. We can\nfind the capacity to say, &#8220;Lord, take my life and my hands and my feet and when\nthese have been consumed, take my bones.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nby the way, the last chapter in the book of Genesis&#8212;it&#8217;s an awful thing for me\nto mess up by saving such a low note for the end, but here&#8217;s the way the\nchapter ends, and then I&#8217;m through&#8212;so Joseph died, being a hundred and ten\nyears old. And they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. And\nthat&#8217;s the way the first book ends. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nif you turn the page, at the top, what do you think you&#8217;ll see? Exodus.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">James\nForbes is senior minister of The Riverside Church in New York City. <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">(c) James Forbes<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Preaching Today Tape\n#59<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n      <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A resource of Christianity Today\nInternational<\/span>\n    <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[307],"tax_ctp_authors":[1800],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[3458,3525,3621,3828,3921,4184,4250,4315,4972,5005,5056,5244],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33523","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-james-forbes","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-authenticity","tax_ctp_tags-brotherhood","tax_ctp_tags-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-dreams","tax_ctp_tags-experiencing-god","tax_ctp_tags-human-worth","tax_ctp_tags-injustice","tax_ctp_tags-justice","tax_ctp_tags-significance","tax_ctp_tags-social-action","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-passion","tax_ctp_tags-visions-dreams"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Deeply Moving Religious Experience - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/deeply-moving-religious-experience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Deeply Moving Religious Experience - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was Pentecost Sunday and I had been invited to speak at Washington Cathedral on that occasion because my background has something to do with earthquake, wind and fire. 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