Fear and the Presence of Jesus

Dr. Philip Camp: My name is Philip Camp. I'm the director of choirs and best friends and teach
music and glad to be here with you this morning. When I was in college all of my
college days were spent at Camp Blue Haven as a counselor. Anybody been to
Camp Blue Haven before? I've seen a few t-shirts out there from Camp Blue Haven.
I was a counselor in the 80s and the early 90s for four summers, skipped a
year in there so it actually went into graduate school and some of the activities we did
worshiping outside and i worked with middle school boys that picture me there
uh with some middle that was actually the first session of my very first summer in 1987
20 years old now you can do the math worked with seventh and eighth grade boys for two complete
summers for 10 weeks really learned a lot we had dress-up days as well as you can tell
We were really happy about the dress-up days.
Hawaiian day there, that's actually on the right is a picture of my, on the left rather,
a picture of my wife before we were dating and before we figured that one out.
And then later on, we sort of figured it out.
We started dating, got married at 92.
But really an amazing place, an amazing experience I had in those summers counseling in those years.
If you've been to Camp Blue Haven before, maybe other Christian youth camps or any summer youth camp,
a common thing that we do is cook outside for one meal and then also an evening to sleep out under the stars.
We would cook out and sleep out.
Those weren't pictures from my days, but rather more recent pictures.
In fact, on the left there is a picture of my daughter, Lauren, serving Rice Krispie Treats when she was a counselor.
And we had just amazing time.
Well, after that happens, we have a sleepout.
This particular session I want to tell you about was when we had the cookout.
It was the time for the boys to sleep out.
We sent the girls back to their cabins.
We were probably maybe a quarter mile, if that, from camp.
On the campgrounds, 1,100 acres at Camp Blue Haven in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range near Las Vegas, New Mexico.
We were sleeping out, and what did we do?
We'd had our devotional already with the girls.
We sent them back.
We start to tell scary stories.
In fact, the legend at Camp Blue Haven is of a man named Ramon.
Anybody know the last name?
No? Well, I won't tell you the last name.
I thought maybe there might be some old-time Blue Haveners out there
who might remember the stories of Ramon Rodriguez was his last name.
Ramon, I'll call him Ramon.
He had lived, supposedly, maybe just in legend.
There may not be many facts about this.
There may be actually all made up, but we're not sure exactly.
1900, around 1900 in the area of Mineral Hill where Blue Haven sits.
It used to be a village called Mineral Hill.
There was a man named Ramon who was a crazy lunatic,
and he went around terrorizing communities with his axe
and murdering people with an axe.
Yeah, it just sounds like a great Christian story to tell at Christian Youth Camp.
But that's what we told.
We told these stories about Ramon, appearances of Ramon who was going to come back.
They caught him back in the early 1900s, and they actually hung him.
I don't know if there was a trial or not.
It may have been a vigilante group.
This was out in the sticks in New Mexico.
Who knows what they did?
But they hung him, but they never retrieved the body.
The community, after they lynched him on the tree, they came back.
I mean, rather, they went back to their homes.
They went the next morning to check on the body and do what you do with the body.
And the body was gone.
So from then on, no one knew what happened to Ramon.
From then on, there were these stories about Ramon terrorizing communities,
especially summer Christian youth camps.
especially on sleep out nights.
So I told them all the stories
that were told to me as a counselor.
The evening started getting late.
The fire was dying down.
Telling about these 9 or 10, 7, 8 grade boys
all about this character who was terrible.
Finally, it started getting really late.
I'm sure it was past midnight.
When you're out by yourself in the woods
and it's dark.
It's very scary.
I was 20 years old,
but I was in charge of these 7th and 8th grade boys.
It was a scary time.
Suddenly, my hearing was,
I was hearing things.
I'm sure those sounds were always in the forest,
but when you're quiet, and you're scared,
and you're not sure, you hear everything,
and it's all amplified.
I heard things that shouldn't have been sounding.
I would look out,
Didn't turn on my flashlight, but I would look and it was just black shadows
It was scary
Finally this little boy came up to me and as it turned out none of my campers were asleep
We were all still awake just being quiet
Too too proud to admit we were scared and I was scared with him
I'd freaked myself out. So the this little boy came up to me and says Philip
I'm trying to sleep but every time I close my eyes all I see is this crazy man with an axe coming at my head
And so there was that visual image that I had in my mind
Put put your marker there. I'm gonna come back to this story in a minute
There's a story in John chapter 6 where disciples
Cross over the Sea of Galilee without Jesus with them
John records it this way.
When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started to cross the sea to Capernaum.
It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.
When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.
I imagine that's an understatement.
They were frightened.
They saw something.
They all agreed they saw something.
Matthew says they saw Jesus.
It was Mark and Matthew, rather, John says they saw Jesus.
Matthew and Mark mentions they thought they saw a ghost.
I got to be on the Sea of Galilee a couple of years ago with Drs. Jesse and JoAnn Long.
I was able to make that trip a couple of summers ago to Israel and Egypt and Jordan.
We spent a day on the Sea of Galilee.
a number of us were surprised i had seen maps and kind of knew how big the sea of galilee was
but you can see the other side from the sea of galilee it's more of a big lake maybe 14 15 miles
long seven eight miles across something like that but if you're in the middle of the lake it's much
too far to swim across unless you're just an amazing long distance swimmer uh it much too far
swim, but imagine if they were right in the middle of that lake. That would be a pretty scary place
to be. Matthew says the boat was a considerable distance from land. Mark says it was in the middle
of the lake. Matthew is more specific on the timing. He says it happened shortly before dawn.
Shortly before dawn, I've noticed that's the coldest time. It's really cold and really dark.
Matthew and Mark, the disciples think he is a ghost.
Mark, he was about to pass them by when they saw him.
In Matthew, it records that Peter was walking on the water.
That's that story there.
It seems to be the same story.
Matthew and Mark state that the wind died down after it's all over.
And then all three accounts all talk about this happening right after the feeding of the 5,000.
So from that, it seems to be the very same story.
But Matthew and Mark, as I mentioned, they think, they mentioned that the disciples believe he is a ghost.
And the disciples, Mark says, are terrified.
They have legit, I didn't have much of a good reason to be terrified on the mountain.
It was my own imagination playing tricks, and I had set it up, and it worked on myself.
They actually saw him.
People don't walk on the water.
That's never happened before nor since.
It had to have been, they saw him.
We know it was very dark.
He was close enough.
They saw him.
I don't know all the rest of the details.
But one thing that's unique to John, there's no mention of the storm calming, of the windstorm.
But instead it ends this way.
He said to them, it is I.
Do not be afraid.
Then they were glad to take him into the boat.
Immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
Immediately it just appears where they're there.
John's the only one who records it that way.
Matthew adds, and they worshipped him.
Some good lessons to there.
Some general observations I would make, very simple observations.
The presence of Jesus seems to chase away fear.
Not just his presence, but our acceptance, our love of him, our love of the Lord seems to chase away fear.
42 times in scripture we're commanded, do not be afraid.
I've heard people mention before how fear and faith are diametrically opposed.
I've even heard it said that fear will kill your faith.
Well, John has something to say about that in 1 John 4 when he says there is no fear in love,
but perfect love casts out fear.
Perfect love casts out fear.
The love of Jesus will deal with your fear.
I was terrified on the mountain.
The kids were around me.
No one was saying anything.
We were just trying to sleep.
And finally I realized, I said, guys, just look up.
Look up at the sky, at the stars.
This photo, I love to say I took that photo at that time,
but this was in the mid-'80s.
This photo was taken about three years ago from a professional photographer
just steps away from where we were sleeping out.
On the same hill, up just behind the dining hall of Camp Blue Haven,
maybe about a quarter mile up the hill.
It was taken in that same place.
I said, guys, just look up.
I said, do you realize who created those stars
for us to see right now?
Well, God, yeah.
God, your father, who wants to be your father,
he's called you to be his child.
God created those.
We talked about how far the stars are from the earth.
I just remembered from a rare moment of clarity.
I remembered from science, maybe in junior high or high school.
You know what the closest star system to the earth is and that they didn't know?
I think it's called Alpha Centauri.
I'm not sure if we could see it there.
I don't know what hemisphere it was in.
Didn't know anything else about it other than I remembered it was just over four light years away from the earth.
I said, four light years?
You know what a light year is?
Well, no, they weren't sure what a light year was.
I said, well, the distance that light travels in a year, and light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles per second.
I don't know why I remembered that.
I remembered that then.
I just did.
186,000 miles per second.
Multiply that to make it a year, and that's how far light travels.
That's in the trillions, I'm sure.
Trillions of miles per year.
my calculator wouldn't probably go that far
and that just blew our minds
and so we
we laid there and we were in
awe of the stars and I remembered
some psalms that I had memorized
in the singing groups I was in college
and so
I said this psalm and we all prayed to
God and we worshipped
we thanked him and we worshipped
as I remember this psalm
from Psalm 8, Oh Lord, our Lord
how majestic is your name in all the earth. When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have established, what is man that you are mindful of,
or the son of man that you care for him? Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. And our posture was
different than we've ever been in worship because we were laying down on our backs,
looking at the sky and praying to God. We all took turns, a seventh and eighth grade boy taking turn
telling God how amazing he is because of the creation around us and that he would call us
to be his children. I reminded them the same God wants to be your father gave everything
to know you for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him
would not perish but have eternal life.
I want to encourage you all today,
the presence of Jesus is here on this campus.
He's here.
You can find whatever you're looking for on this campus.
I'm sure you could probably find it if you look hard enough.
And some of that could be trouble.
But you don't have to look very hard
to find the presence of Jesus here on this campus.
He's here.
I want to encourage you to lean into the presence of Jesus.
Learn to accept his love.
Love him in return.
Find out what that means.
I love God.
I want to know more about the Lord.
Not that you'll have every answer decided for you.
Everything will be resolved immediately.
But you know what?
You trust God and you trust his son.
Suddenly priorities shift just a little bit.
It's a blessing to not have to be afraid because our Lord is with us.
Matthew ends the story this way,
and those in the boat worshiped him saying,
truly, you are the Son of God.
They didn't fully understand, I'm sure, but they recognized the Son of God.
We're going to end with a brief video.
This is actually of LCU Choir, Praise Choir, about 15 years ago.
singing Psalm 8.
How majestic.
And on top of that is,
this is synced with an amazing video
by the BBC called Creation Calls.
And I hope you are encouraged.
I want you to watch this
and let your heart worship
with the words that we hear.
And then with that, we'll be dismissed.
Ben, go ahead and start.
Thank you.