I don't think a lot of people realize that courage is the only reason that Christmas happened in the first place. Mary's courage. The birth of Jesus required more than the miracle of a virgin birth. It required the courage of Mary to be willing to become the mother of Jesus via a virgin birth, because nobody was going to believe her. That's why the angel Gabriel said to Mary, "Do not be afraid, Mary. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name Him Jesus. He will be called the Son of the Most High." In other words, her baby is going to fulfill Micah 5:2 and all the other prophecies in the Old Testament about the coming of the Messiah, but it's going to be by a virgin birth. That's why he says, "Do not be afraid, Mary." Gabriel said that because Mary had every reason in the world to be afraid of a virgin birth. It would take courage to be the mother of Jesus. You see, she was engaged to Joseph, but the wedding had not happened. She was not yet living with Joseph. But in the first-century culture of Israel, if you were engaged, the woman would be called your wife. Even though you weren't living together, she was considered your wife. And the only way to break an engagement was by divorce, even though you hadn't had a wedding yet. So if Mary became pregnant, she would be considered an adulteress, unfaithful to Joseph. And the punishment for being unfaithful as a wife was death by stoning. And you see this in John chapter 8. You remember, a woman had been caught in adultery, and she is brought by men and thrown at the feet of Jesus. And then they circle her and Jesus, and all of them have rocks in their hands. They fully expect Jesus to follow the Mosaic law and lead them in stoning this woman caught in adultery. But that's when Jesus gave this memorable line: "Whoever is without sin, you be the first to cast a stone at this woman." And all of the men drop their stones. And it's interesting that the Scriptures say they began with the oldest. He was the first to drop his stone. Christmas depended on Mary having the courage to become Jesus's mother, knowing full well no one was going to believe the virgin birth, and it was likely she was going to be stoned. And keep this in mind: the village of Nazareth, where Mary lived, was a tiny place of only about a hundred people. It was so tiny that it's not mentioned in the Old Testament, and it's not on any ancient maps of Israel. That meant that everyone knew everyone else's business. And it also meant that it was going to be impossible for her to hide the baby in her tummy. That tummy was going to grow, and it would give her away, and everyone would know she was pregnant. And then add the fact that Nazareth was an ultra-Orthodox community of Jews. Everyone in this village, we know from the historical record, was a fervent follower of Moses and his law that said, "Stone an unfaithful wife." What this added up to was the likelihood, almost the certainty, unless God protected her, that she would be stoned to death for becoming the mother of Jesus. And that's why Gabriel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary." She had every reason to be afraid. Most people don't notice what's missing in Gabriel's speech to Mary. Did you notice what was missing? Gabriel gives her no guarantee of safety. You probably didn't notice that, but I guarantee you Mary noticed it. Courage. The first Christmas only happened because Mary had the courage to become the mother of Jesus without any guarantee of safety. And then what about Joseph, her fiancé? Have you thought about how she'd explain to him that she's pregnant? I kind of imagined how that went this last week. I think it went something like this: "Joseph, I have something to tell you. It's really great news. I'm pregnant with the Messiah. And it's a miracle pregnancy. I'm pregnant, but I'm still a virgin, and the Messiah is coming through me. Isn't that great news?" And Joseph said, "Right. You expect me to believe an angel appeared to you?" We know from the record that an angel had not appeared in Israel in 400 years. And now this peasant girl, 12 or 13 years of age, claims that the greatest of angels, Gabriel, came and told her she's going to have a baby by virgin birth. The angel had to go to Joseph himself and tell him that Mary was telling the truth, that she was still a virgin, even though she was pregnant. And he only believed it because an angel was standing in front of him. Only then did he marry pregnant Mary. Courage. Mary. Mary's courage made Christmas possible. Courage is being afraid, but doing it anyway. And that was Mary. Oh, she was afraid. But she did it anyway, with no guarantees. So what would you do if you had more courage? My guess is that everyone in here is flinching from something because of the risk, because it would take courage to do what you're thinking about doing, and there's a lot of fear. Where do you need more courage in your life? To start a business? To say no to someone who wants you to do what is wrong? To say no to what is popular, what everyone else is doing? Well, it could mean you get ostracized from a group. If you don't say yes, you could be put out of the group and not be so popular. It takes courage to be moral in our country today. Paul Tournier, the wise Christian counselor, said marriages fail when they do not have the courage to face problems or challenge behavior. It's been my experience that that is so true. Marriages fail and begin to come apart because one or both do not have the courage to raise an issue that really needs to be raised, to say no to some behavior that needs to be said no to. The lack of courage. Surely there's a marriage in here where you wish you had more courage. C. S. Lewis was right when he said Pilate was merciful and fair with Jesus until it became risky. Do you remember? He was going to set Jesus free, until the Jewish elite, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, said, "If you do that, we will report you to Caesar." And that scared him. He lost his courage. And because of that, he ordered Jesus crucified. Jesus was born because of one woman's courage. Jesus was crucified because of one man's lack of courage. Honesty, faithfulness, love, justice: all depend on courage. Courage is the fundamental, basic virtue that all other virtues depend on, because without courage, the other virtues will fail. And that's why I say the opposite of courage is not cowardice. The opposite of courage is conformity and compromise. Conformity and compromise. Those are actually forms of cowardice. Compromise can be a form of cowardice. I have many biographies of Winston Churchill. He had enormously big weaknesses, but he also had big strengths. And courage was at the top of his strengths. It was courage that made him such an effective opponent of Hitler in World War II. He said many memorable things, but one of my favorites is something that he said during the war, when there were politicians arguing against standing up to Hitler. He described how, when he was a boy, he loved to go to the circus and to the sideshow called the Boneless Wonder. And the Boneless Wonder was a person who was so flexible that they could twist themselves into all kinds of shapes and really take on a different look. Churchill said that now, 40 years later, as an adult, he did not need to go to the circus to see a boneless wonder. He said he could go any day to the British Parliament and see many boneless wonders. Politicians who would compromise and do anything to stay in office and in power. Who would vote for things not because they were good for the country, but because of the prevailing winds of opinion. Boneless wonders. I've always wondered what he would say about our politicians in Washington. The fact of the matter is, courage is in short supply, and in much need, in America today. Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers challenged racism by recruiting and playing Jackie Robinson. That took courage. It's Jackie Robinson having the courage to walk out onto the field despite death threats, being spat at. It's Martin Luther King Jr. marching against racism and snarling dogs. So many things will not happen in your life or in this country unless we have more courage. It's Moses against Pharaoh, Elijah against Jezebel, David against Goliath. It's Mary, a 12- or 13-year-old girl, an illiterate peasant girl, saying to Gabriel, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be done to me according to God's will." That's courage. Christmas only happened because of the courage of Mary. Did you know that? The truly big question is, how do we get more courage? Because my guess is there is something in your life that is calling for courage, but your temptation is to flinch. So many things will not happen unless we have courage. But how do you get courage when your inclination is to be timid and to play it safe? Courage is being afraid, but doing it anyway. Courageous people aren't fearless. They just do it anyway. And I know what some of you are thinking: "Why would I want courage? I don't want to take risks. I like to play it safe." And you know, those really are good questions. Why not play it safe? Well, because everything you really want is outside your comfort zone. If you play it safe, you will never know what could have been. When we play it safe, we shrink the possibilities of what could have happened in our life. We've got to take seriously what the Bible says in Proverbs 6:2. It says people are trapped by the words of their mouths. I just don't know anything truer than that. People are trapped by the words of their mouths. So many people are defeated by the words they speak. They speak negative, pessimistic words, and so they're defeated. They don't do what they could have done. Or they think angry thoughts. And when you think angry thoughts, what happens? Well, it makes you an angry person, and you forfeit so much of life because of that poisonous attitude of anger. Speak pessimistic words, and you will be a pessimist, and you'll be afraid to do much of anything. It will shrink your life much smaller than what your life could have been. It is impossible to have faith in God if the words we are speaking are pessimistic and full of doubt. Isn't that true? That's the opposite of faith. If you're speaking pessimistic, negative words, it's impossible to have faith that lives above that. Michael Jordan was right when he said, "You will miss 100% of the shots you don't take." That's true. And that's the description of a person who plays it safe and who is pessimistic. They'll miss 100% of the shots they don't take. Pessimism keeps us from taking shots. But you can't win in life if you don't take shots. But taking shots is always a risk that you'll fail or miss. If we do not take risks, we'll never achieve our dreams. If we play it safe, we will never do anything outside of our comfort zone. And there are things that will never happen because they are outside of our comfort zone. And that's what I think when I hear people say, and I hear this so much, "Well, I'm just not comfortable doing that." You've just shrunk your life. We have to be able to do things that are not comfortable for us, because the things we really want in life are outside our comfort zone. And that's why I think everyone here, someplace in your life, needs more courage to move out of your comfort zone and take a risk. What is that for you? With what, or with whom, do you need to take a risk and have the courage to take a shot? Because if you don't take a shot, you'll never win. I have this on my mirror at home: "Take the risk or lose the chance." Take the risk or lose the chance. I talk to myself, and I say, "Mike, if you're not willing to take a risk for this, then you don't want it that badly." It's so true. If we're not willing to take a risk, then we really don't want it that badly. Everything that we really want requires the courage to take a risk. Even asking someone out on a date, you risk being rejected. But the reward is worth taking the risk. So what risk do you need to take? Honestly, from what are you flinching? You need to take the risk, even though you're afraid. Don't leave today without answering that question, because it could change your life. Secondly, Mary teaches us that we need friends who live courageously, so that sometimes we can borrow courage from them. Borrow courage. Notice, when Gabriel leaves, what's the first thing Mary does? She goes to Elizabeth and stays three months with her. Because Elizabeth is past childbearing age, but she has a miracle baby. And she goes to Elizabeth because Elizabeth has lived some of this. And she needs to borrow courage from Elizabeth about what's going to happen to her. Friends are contagious. Dr. David McClelland is a professor at Harvard, and I have a book about a study he did. It was a 25-year study of several thousand people. He followed their careers, their marriages, whether they became positive or negative people. And after all these years of studying people and following their lives, his conclusion was this: we become the average of the attitudes and behavior, even the income, of the five people we spend the most time with. We become the average of the five people we spend the most time with. I can tell you, in years of ministry, that's exactly what I've observed. Tell me who your closest friends are, and I'm going to tell you your destiny, the kind of person you're going to become. Because friends are more contagious than COVID. They affect us. And you know, the proof of it is: ask any parent what they're most worried about with their eighth grader. What is it? Who their friends are. Always who their friends are. Because every parent knows the most contagious thing in the world is a friend. Not COVID. A friend. If you want to be more courageous, then don't hang out with pessimistic, fearful people who are always talking about what could go wrong. You've got to start hanging out with people who are always talking about what could go right. Those are the friends you need. Maybe the courage we most need is to make some new friends. To go out and make some new friends. Because the easy thing is to stay with the old crowd. But what we really need to do is develop new friends who will elevate us. So St. Paul is a spiritual giant, and he's in Nero's dungeon. He writes most of the New Testament. And in Second Timothy chapter 4, he begs Timothy to come. He's in Nero's dungeon. He needs Timothy to come and be with him, and to bring Mark, too. Why? Because this spiritual giant still needs some other spiritual friends who are going to juice his courage. Even Paul. Whether we have courage or not, whether we are positive or negative, whether we are judgmental or grace-filled, has a lot to do with who we spend the most time with. Friends rub off on you. They're more contagious than COVID. So who are your closest friends? And really, how have they rubbed off on you? Jack Canfield was a struggling schoolteacher. He wanted a better income. He took seriously this idea that friends affect us. So he began to develop friendships with people who were far more successful than he was. And as he developed these friendships, they gave him the idea of writing books full of inspirational stories. And that's how the whole Chicken Soup for the Soul book series developed, out of those friendships inspiring him with ideas. It's made him more than $1 billion. Friendships are worth a lot. His friends were more contagious than COVID. They always are. Of course, the most important friend to spend time with is Jesus. You knew I'd say that, didn't you? Because I'm a preacher. You expected that. But I needed to say that to you, because so many Christians spend so little time with Jesus. If I really asked you how much time you've spent with Him this last week, I mean really focused time, it may not be very much. Spending time with Jesus is what gives us courage, but we're also busy. C. S. Lewis wrote that the devil does not have to make us evil. Just too busy to be with Jesus. That'll get the job done. You see, spirituality is like vitamin C. You've got to take it every day. I mean, you can't gobble it down on Sunday and wait two weeks to take some more, because it leaks out of you in one day. You've got to keep taking vitamin C. But a lot of Christians think, "I can go to church once a year, and I've got enough spirituality." No, you don't. You leak. Everything around you is clawing at you and drawing it away from you. You need to spend time with Jesus regularly in order to have courage, or it's going to leak right out of you. I can't compel any of us to spend time with Him. All I can do is point to Acts 4. Remember the situation there. Jesus has been crucified, and all the disciples are hiding out in Jerusalem, for fear that they're the next to be crucified. And then suddenly they change, almost overnight, and they're found preaching on the temple steps, even though the Pharisees threatened them with harm. It doesn't deter them. They keep right on preaching. Why? Because they had been with the risen Jesus. They had spent three weeks with the risen Jesus. That accounts for the transformation from cowardice to courage. And so it says in Acts 4:13, the Pharisees saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they had been with Jesus. That's how you get courage. Choose carefully who you spend time with, and spend the most time with Him, because nobody can give you courage like He can. It's in the Bible somewhere. I couldn't find it this week, but "If you want to fly like an eagle, don't hang out with turkeys." I'm sure that's in the Bible somewhere. So who are your closest friends? And honestly, how are they affecting you? Lord Jesus, help us. Help some of us to make new friends. Help us. Some of us need to put some distance between ourselves and some people, Lord, who are not good for us. Lord, whatever it is, help us to make decisive decisions and take action on the basis of this sermon. We pray it in Your name. Amen. Well, we're going to take an offering. You know, in two weeks, we're going to take the special offering, which is a birthday gift for Jesus. You know, of all the people we ought to be giving birthday gifts to at Christmas, it's to Him. But today, you know, it's just our regular offering. I just want to say that we are behind in budget, as usual, because the ministry of this church is so rich to you. And so I hope you'll give generously. And I'm sure the devil, who's always going to church, is here this morning. Yes, he is. He's been walking the aisles. He's put into somebody's head, you know, that "church is always asking for money." No, it isn't. If anybody's saying that, you haven't been to this church very much. But it takes money, actually, to run a church. So give back for how much has been given to you. Thank you for helping the church be strong.