The Bible tells us in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation We are therefore Christ ambassadors. As though God were making His appeal through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. We do need to send the light. We are His ambassadors, called to go wherever we are, all over the world, sharing the light. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Well, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to share with you this morning and to be here in chapel. I have looked forward to this for some time and do appreciate the chance to share some thoughts with you from God's Word today. As Dr. Atterbury said, I have the privilege of serving as the International Director for Christian Camp International. Christian Camping International is an affiliation of 19 separate associations around the world that work with the leaders of Christian camps. We have people in New Zealand and in the Philippines and in Kenya. in Brazil, the Philippines, all around the world. We have these associations, affiliations of people who serve the Lord through Christian camping, and we have 58 countries now where CCI members have Christian camps. As you know, Christian camps have been involved with evangelism, discipleship, a lot of recovery work, leadership development, all sorts of ministry activities. in these camps. Last year, 11.5 million, mainly young people, but campers, attended CCI camps around the world. It's great. I was talking to the camp director yesterday. He said they did a major statistical study. An outside firm came and studied their particular camp, and 7% of everyone who comes through the doors makes a first-time profession of faith, and then another 33% make some sort of a major spiritual commitment. commitment to rededicate their life, to go into full-time Christian service, some major decision being made. So 40% of everyone who flows through this one particular camp, and I think that's fairly average, and could be extrapolated across that 11.5 million people, have a major encounter with Jesus Christ. And I'm excited to be a part of that. It's wonderful. And I would like to tell you this morning about all 11.5 million But they haven't given me enough time. So, we're just going to look at three people whose lives were impacted at camp. And this was not a camp in the United States. This is not a camp in Guatemala. Not a camp in Jamaica, or Australia, or Russia. This is, interestingly enough, this is a camp that we find in the Book of Acts. And if you want to follow along, I want to talk about three campers that we encounter along the way in the Book of Acts. And the first young man that we encounter is a young man named Mark. Now, I think that we meet Mark before the Book of Acts. I think that we encounter Mark back in the Gospel that he wrote, Mark chapter 14. Use your sanctified imagination for just a moment and think with me during the Passion Week, you're coming down, it's the afternoon before Passover, the sun is high in the sky on that afternoon, and the disciples are starting to get just a little nervous. Thomas, I assume, started the conversation. Well, he hadn't told us where we're going to have the Passover yet. And the other disciples start to chime in. Matthew, you know, yeah, yeah, I haven't heard a word. I don't know where we're going to meet. Judas. I don't care what he says about Martha. If she were here, this whole thing would be organized. Andrew finally says, well, somebody, somebody ought to ask him. I'll go ask him. So he goes over and he talks to Jesus. And this is where we pick up the story in Mark chapter 14. Verse 13, it says, So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, The teacher asks, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there. Now the unusual thing about this is that Men didn't carry water. This was a task reserved for women. It was a function that was normally carried out by women in their culture and in their society. They would go to the well, take a jar, they would carry it home, usually on their heads, and they would work the well activities and water activities were all part of, in their culture, was part of what a woman would do. So, go back to your sanctified imagination for just a moment. And you can imagine a home that is being prepared for the Passover. Mark's mother is scurrying around. This is the biggest holiday of the year. You can imagine a Thanksgiving Day or a Christmas Day event. This is a big deal and Mark's mother is scurrying. She's cooking. She's cleaning. She's getting all these details ready. There's all sorts of activity. And Mark is probably middle school age kid. He just kind of stumbles into the kitchen. He thinks he's going to get a bowl that he can lick or a spoon that he can clean off or something. He's going to snag a little bit of a treat or a snack. Oh, Mark, I need some water. Run down to the well and get me some water. Oh, mother. Don't make me go get water. Send sister. Mark, don't start with me now. Sister's cleaning. I've got her busy. Go down and get some water for me. Yes, ma'am. And so Mark grabs the pitcher, the bowl, the jar that he's going to carry the water. He goes down. He probably takes a side street or two. He gets to the well. He fills it up with water and he starts to take this big jug of water and carry it home. And Jesus' disciples find him. Now that's unusual. There's a male carrying water. Let's follow him. They come to Mark's home. They meet Mark's father. Mark's father is excited. I mean, Jesus has been the focal point of Jerusalem for three years, but especially these last five or six days. He has been the central figure of the activities in Jerusalem during the Passion Week. And he says, certainly, the upper room is ready, it's prepared. I'd love to have you come and join us. It'd be great. Make yourselves at home. And so the disciples go back and they bring Jesus. Now, if you're Mark and you're 12, 13, 14 years of age, This is kind of an exciting event. Jesus is coming to your house. He's there, I'm sure he's kind of watching as Jesus and the disciples come, as they make their way. I think that was Peter. There's James. Look at those guys, and they all go upstairs, and they celebrate Passover while Mark and his family are downstairs, and they are celebrating. Now, we don't know for sure that this is Mark, but I have a feeling, I assume that this is him. That evening, after the events of the Passover have been concluded, Mark wraps himself up in his sheet that he would normally sleep in at this time. He wraps himself up, and he lays down, and while he's there, he's trying to stay awake, trying to fight the slumber, trying to listen for anything he can hear upstairs as Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he hears activity, and all of a sudden he's wide awake, as he hears Jesus and the disciples begin to leave, and he hears comments about something about a prayer meeting at the Garden of Gethsemane. He says, hey, I'm going to go, I'm going to follow these guys. And so, no time to get dressed, he just wraps a sheet around him, he takes off and follows the disciples up to the Garden of Gethsemane. And there, the events unfold, as we know, that are central to the arrest of Jesus. When the soldiers come and they start to arrest Jesus, there is a big commotion, and as you know, Peter locks the guy's ear off, Jesus puts that back on. One of the soldiers grabs for this young man in the sheet. And we pick up the story in verse 51 of Mark 14, a young man wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. And when they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. Now, if I'm the writer of Mark, and I have the option of leaving my name out, You better believe I do. I think this is probably Mark. I think he's probably the young man carrying the water jar. I think he's probably the young man who is there wrapped in this sheet as he has followed Jesus. But we know for certain that Mark and his family are central to the early church. We know that this upper room where Jesus had the Last Supper is probably also the upper room where Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection. He comes to an upper room that is bolted and barred and walks right through, probably Mark's home, at least possibly. We know that when Peter is arrested and taken to prison, remember James is executed, it seems like it makes some people happy, and so Peter is arrested as well, and they have a special prayer meeting. We know for sure that it was in Mark's home. that story as well, and we know that Mark's family is central to the early days and the activities there. His home is the hub of activities. He's around all of the things that are transpiring. He's right there in the middle of it. He sees the way that God has worked in powerful ways, and he's seen dramatic miracles take place. His home is central, and his cousin, Barnabas, is obviously one of the major donors to the early church. He's a great teacher and encourager. Mark's cousin, Barnabas, is a central player in the activities of the early church. And Mark is there in the midst of all of this activity. Well, Barnabas and Mark, excuse me, Barnabas and his protege, the Apostle Paul, decide that they're going to go on a missionary journey. They say, let's go on our first missionary journey. and say, sure, let's go. They have a wonderful send-off, they're blessed, and as they're getting ready to go, Barnabas says, hey, let's take Mark along with us. Let's have Mark go. He would be a great help to us. He'd be an asset on our trip. We'd have somebody to help us. It'd be good for him as well. Paul says, sure, great idea. Let's have Mark go with us. This would be super. Well, Mark didn't get the memo. He thought it was a short-term mission trip. However, there were problems along the way. We don't know whether there was a theological disagreement between Mark and Paul, or whether he got homesick, or whether he got frightened by some of the challenges and the problems that they were facing. Whatever the reason, Mark's experience on the missionary journey only lasted 13 verses. The first sign of trouble, he heads for the security of home and the familiar surroundings and the support of his parents. There are a lot of campers like Mark. There are a lot of young people in your youth groups, a lot of people sitting in the pews in your churches that are very much like Mark. They've grown up in a family where They've been pillars in the church. They've been active in missions. They have opened their home to activities they've given. And their family has been active in the ministry and supportive of their local church. But it hasn't really filtered down into the life of their kids. John Mark, although he can win at Bible trivia, John Mark here can answer questions and he's learned all of the memory verses. When difficulties of life come along, His Christianity is rather shallow. There's no strength and stability to it. There's some problems that life brings our way. And unless we have a personalized faith that has roots that go down deep and provides stability and strength in our lives, we're going to end up like Mark. We're going to end up turning away from the challenges that face us. Well, what happened, as you know, when you're ready for a second missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas have returned and they've shown their slides and they've taken another offering and they're ready to go. Barnabas says, hey, let's try John Mark again. He'd be great to go with us. Paul says, no way. We're not going to do this again. You'll fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. This kid is not going to go and cause problems for us again. And Barnabas says, oh, come on. We need to encourage him. We need to help him. No way. And so there was a sharp disagreement between them. I love the way that it's recorded. here in 39th verse of Chapter 15 of Acts, that they had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus. Paul chose Silas and left. And then the verse that I love the most, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. This big fight breaks up and the brothers say, okay, y'all go, just be nice to each other and Godspeed. Barnabas needed a difficulty. He needed a failure. He needed a time in his life when he couldn't handle the situation. And that's exactly what God provided for him. Out of this difficulty, he realized that he needed growth. He needed to change from a last name faith that was sufficient to get him through the Bible quiz, but not enough to face life. He'd been hitchhiking on the faith of his parents, and he never allowed it to be central in his life. That's one of the great things that happens at camp. One of the great things that we see time and time again. When young people go to a Christian camp and have the wonderful opportunity to step back and evaluate, is this really my faith or is this my parents' faith? What am I going to do about it personally? Am I going to trust God with the issues of my life and the personal problems and struggles that I have? Am I going to take this last name faith that I've been privileged to grow up with and make it first name faith? Or am I going to continue to ride on the coattails of my family? Or am I going to make decisions that are personal and effective for me? Mark needed a mentor. He needed a challenge. Paul provided that. Paul had the accountability. Paul said no. Paul held him accountable for his behavior. He also needed someone that was going to love him and encourage him and support him. And that's where Barnabas came in. came alongside and loved him and encouraged him through the difficulties. Now that's what mentoring does. It holds accountable and it encourages and it walks with people during the difficult times and brings them to a point where they can stand on their own two feet and they can't have strength and it's wonderful to know that Through this experience and the mentoring that took place in his life, later on at the end of Paul's life in the final chapter of 2 Timothy, Paul says, Hey, bring Mark to me. He'd be useful to me in ministry. And through this difficulty and through their problem, Paul had softened and Mark had toughened, and it came to a point where they could be reconciled to one another, and to where Mark could be useful in ministry. We have a bumper crop of Marks out there. There are lots of kids that need to grow up. Some of them have grown up in terms of age, but continue to slide along on the easy road of Christian life, never with great strength and stability. We need to mentor them, we need to challenge them, we need to walk with them, and hold them accountable in life. There's a second young man in the book of Acts, a second camper that I'd like for us to look at, and he's found in the 20th chapter of the book of Acts, and his name is Eutychus. Eutychus is also a fairly typical camper. Eutychus comes to hear Paul preach. Paul is holding a one-week crusade in the city of Troas. He's there, and this is the last night of the crusade. He's just there for a week, and Eutychus has heard about him, and he may have already been to some of the sessions. He's interested in what Paul has to say. He's excited. He's interested. He comes to the meeting, and he finds a very interesting perch. He sits in an upper-story window, where he can listen and look at Paul, but he can also watch what's going on outside the window. As he listens to the claims of Christ as Paul presents them, he also watches what's going on outside. And there from his vantage point in the window, he's confronted with the claims of Jesus Christ, and he's also confronted with the temptations of the world. As he sits there in the window, Now, he looks out and he sees his friends running by and all of their activities. He sees the girls walking by. He sees business being commenced. He sees all of the activities of the world, and he's attracted to the world. But he's intrigued with Paul. And he's sitting there in the window, back and forth, trying to decide whether he's going to commit his life to what Paul has to say, or whether he's going to jump into the activities that he sees around him in the world. Kids today sit in lots of windows. They have intellectual windows where there are legitimate questions. People ask, is there a God? If so, has he revealed himself to us? And how do we get to know him? And there are legitimate questions that we need to respond to. There are ethical questions, ethical issues as well. We live in a world that is filled with social justice issues and abortion and homosexuality and all kinds of questions that young people are asking. and wrestling with and grappling with. We have the whole window of morality. We have the materialism of our age and the sexual temptation of our age that's drawing people to the outside and away from the message of the truth. But mainly we have the relational window. We have kids sitting in the window going, hey, does anybody really care about me? Does anybody have any interest in who I am? Is my life important? How do I fit in? And Paul preached on and on. Now, Paul had great content. I mean, it was great content. I mean, it's Paul. I mean, this is as good as it's going to get, alright? And what did Paul do? Paul bored him to death. Quite literally bored him to death. Longer Paul preached, the more wobbly Eutychus was, and finally he crashes out of the window, falls down on the ground dead. Well, the meeting is interrupted. Paul quits talking, runs outside, he throws his arms around Eutychus, he prays over him, he engages him in a personal way. Eutychus' life is restored. He comes back to health. He comes back to vitality. His life is saved. When Paul stopped talking, and went over and threw his arms around him. You know, we have kids that sit in the window and they hear our message. They want to know, does anybody care about me? Sometimes it's in the crises of life. Sometimes it's when there's a big problem, someone falls out of a window. When there is a life-threatening issue that comes along. But most of the time, all the things that we have to say, as good as those things are, are not going to break through until we reach out and engage these people in a personal way. We have lots of kids sitting in windows. Lots of kids that are interested, but not quite ready. They need that relationship. They need someone to come alongside and to engage them. We need not change the message, we need not water down the message, we need not abandon any of the truth, but we need to package it in a way that's going to connect. We need to put it in a relational context where the things that we say are matched by the way that we live and we can engage people in the difficulties of their lives. It's one of the things I love about Christian camp. We don't neglect the teaching of God's Word, but we put it into a context where we're there 24 hours a day, an opportunity to eat with kids and play with kids and throw our arms around them and to engage them in a relational way, in a context where God's truth and God's people, empowered by the Holy Spirit, can make a difference in folks' lives and to move them into the circle and away from the things of the world. and lots of eutychuses out there. Kids are sitting in the window that need to be engaged. They need to have the truth of God's Word, but they also need to have someone who's going to jump into their lives, engage them personally, throw their arms around them, and help them work their way through the challenges of the questions that they face. And then there's Libby. We don't know her name. We don't know her real name, but I like to call her Libby. We find her in the 16th chapter of Acts. Paul is there with the whole gang. Silas is with him. Timothy is with him, Luke is with him, and they are having a big push in the city of Philippi. They're trying to establish a church. They have some wealthy women that have trusted Christ. They've seen some converts. They've even baptized a few. And now Paul and his little group of followers, they're just trying to find a nice quiet place to pray. They need to reconnect with God. They need to bring the needs of these young converts before the Lord They're just trying to find a place to pray and then they meet and they meet Libby She is obnoxious. She is annoying. She's irritating She is a pain to be around and let me read the story beginning in Acts 16 verses 16 through 18 once When we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God. They are telling you the way to be saved. Well, that's great content, just kind of out of place and annoying. She kept this up for many days. And finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the Spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you, come out of her. At that moment, the Spirit left her. This little girl, has been exploited, she has been abused, she has been used by men who have enslaved her. They have had absolutely no regard for her welfare and her benefit. Their only interest is in what they can get out of the situation. She is an exploited little girl. Not only is she enslaved to men, but she's enslaved to a demonic spirit that has dominated her life And both the men and this evil spirit robbed her of the freedom and the hope that God intended for her to have. Now every day when Paul would go to pray, this little girl would come out and make his life miserable. She would scream at him, and she would yell at him, and she would ridicule him, and he employed the same strategy that I would have employed. I'm sure that it went something like this. Don't look at her. Just keep walking. Don't make eye contact. We can play death longer than she can scream. Keep going, keep going. And she would yell and they would avoid and try to not even make any kind of acknowledgement that she's there. And they would laugh and she would distract people's attention. She would ridicule them as they went to their place of prayer. Every day it went on, day after day after day. And finally, Paul breaks. Paul can't take it anymore, this annoying, obnoxious little girl who's gotten the better of him. And he finally turns around and confronts her and casts the demon out of her. Now I'm not saying that we have a lot of demon-possessed kids at camp, but little Libby that needs liberation, she's there. She's in your youth groups and she's in your churches. She is that young person that you try to avoid, that person that we confuse for the enemy instead of recognizing her to be the victim of the enemy. She wears funny clothes, she smells bad, she has tattoos all over. She's just the person that we don't want to have to deal with. Life would be so much simpler if Libby's weren't around. Let's just avoid her and walk right past. Well, that's what Paul tried to do for many days, and it's what I tend to do in life, and I'm sure that most of us do. We see those people that we don't connect with, that are obnoxious or irritating or annoying to us, and we pretend they don't exist, and we move right past them. Paul eventually turned. I think it's very significant that he's looking one way, she's screaming at him, and he finally says, I'm going to validate her, I'm going to recognize her, even though it's for the wrong things, the strategy of extinction has not worked, we're going to move and confront this problem, and that's exactly what he does. He confronts it, and it becomes very messy. As you know, when Paul confronts her, and in the name of Jesus casts this demon out of her, Big problems happen. The men that have enjoyed a good living based on this little girl's abusiveness and their exploitation of her, they've lost their income stream. The golden goose has been killed, and so they stir up trouble. They eventually get a riot going, and Paul and the others, they're arrested, they're taken to prison, they're beaten, they're thrown in stocks, and that night they have a wonderful prayer and praise service. In the middle of the night, they're praising the Lord, And I can't help but think that they're praising the Lord over a little girl whose life has been transformed, who's been liberated from the powers of sin, who has new hope, new freedom in Christ. And as you know, the story that Philippian Jailer comes to know the Lord in the midst of this, and the ripple effect continues out of these events. And when we deal with these difficult people, the people that can be obnoxious and annoying and irritating to us. Things can get messy. Things can become difficult. It can cost us something, but we have to risk. We have to be willing to jump into their lives, to turn, confront the issues that they're dealing with, and bring the power of God to bear in their life. You're going to have the John Marks the marks of this world the good kids that grow up in church And they have this wonderful smokescreen around them because they know the answers to the Bible challenges they They can quote the memory verses. You know we think that everything is okay, but deep down inside They're wondering is this thing really real does this thing matter to me is this God stuff Just part of my parents life, or is this something that's important to me. We have a lot of eutychuses we have kids and that are asking tough questions, that are being tempted. They're sitting on the fence, they're in the window. They can come to the inside and join the family, or they can move to the outside and go with the world. They're right there, hanging in the balances. We need to be able to engage them. We have the Libby's. The girls and the young people that are struggling, that are captured by sinful forces, can move them away. They all need love. They all need love. Mark needs the kind of love that's going to hold him accountable and encourage him. Eutychus needs the kind of love that's willing to accommodate the message, package it in a way that's going to connect. He needs the kind of love that will throw his arms around a young person and engage him in a traumatic and difficult time in his life. Little Libbies need people that love them enough to turn around and not ignore them anymore, to risk The messy situations, the difficulties, the pain that comes from engaging them in their lives, those problems. You see, we can have all the right answers, we can learn to exegete the text, we can get all of the answers down right and have all of the accurate responses. If we exegete the scriptures and never learn to exegete the audience, we're going to have different styles, different people that we're going to need to engage. We need to be looking around us at the various campers that come to our camps, the various young people that are in our youth groups, the adults that sit in our pews. We need to ask ourselves, how do I need to love this person? How do I need to bring the truth of God's word to bear in their lives in a significant way? How do I make a difference in their lives? What's it going to cost me? What am I going to have to give up? How am I going to have to accommodate my message, not to change the message, but how am I going to bring it to bear? in the life of a Mark, of a Eutychus, or a Libby, people who need the power of God. Let's have a word of prayer and then back to Dr. Atterbury. Father, thank you that your grace is sufficient for those who are playing the games of Christianity, those who are struggling with questions, those who are entrapped by sinful behaviors and practices. God, we thank you. that your grace is sufficient for each of these situations. Father, I thank you that it is sufficient for us. Whether we are playing games, or whether we are asking questions, or whether we are dealing with sinful behaviors, God, your grace is sufficient for us. Help us to be people who exegete the text well, but also learn to exegete our audiences so that we can make a difference in people's lives. In your Son's name we pray. Amen.