Late one afternoon, a 13-year-old boy in a motorized wheelchair rolled through the front door of a Marine recruiting office. Sergeant Robert Minki was on duty that day. He asked the boy, "What can I do for you?" And the boy said, "My name is John Zimmerman, and I want to know all about the Marines." Now, he loved the Marines. In fact, his room was plastered with Marine recruiting posters. He had Marine stickers on his wheelchair. He even had a Marine haircut. And you have to understand that he also had a rare neurological disease that stole his muscles away from him. And if it wasn't for this rigid sort of wrap he wore, he would have slumped over in his wheelchair and even slid out of it. Breathing was more and more painful for him, because his spine was pressing in on his lungs. The sergeant didn't say a word about his body. Instead, they talked Marine stories. He told him all kinds of war stories, and about the courage that Marines showed. And afterward, when John rolled out the front door again in his motorized wheelchair, Minki kept up the relationship. Every time new recruiting posters came, he personally delivered one of them to John's home. On a family trip to Hawaii, they visited Punchbowl, the very famous cemetery for military personnel. And when they came to the Marine section of Punchbowl, John, knowing full well where this disease was leading, whispered to his father, "When I die, can I be buried with the Marines?" And his father, his eyes glistening, said, "We can try. Yes, we can try." Shortly before his eighth-grade graduation, his condition worsened. But John was determined to get his diploma personally and to roll across that stage in his wheelchair. And so when he showed up for his graduation, to his surprise, Sergeant Minki was there. And Minki said, "I've come to personally escort you across the stage as you receive your prized diploma." And when John rolled onto that stage in his wheelchair, with Minki in his full Marine dress uniform, the audience erupted in applause and cheers. Two weeks later, he was rushed to the hospital with respiratory failure. Everyone knew that he only had days, maybe a couple of weeks, to live. So his Marine friends showed up at his hospital bed and presented him with an official government document that made him an honorary Marine. Three days later, he died. But just minutes before he died, he scrawled one word on a piece of paper for his dad. And that word was "Punchbowl." And his dad nodded to him. "We can try." The VA refused his request. They said no: "You're not a Marine." And so his Marine friends appealed directly to President Reagan. And by executive order, Reagan overruled the VA and said, "Yes, he can be buried with the Marines at Punchbowl." At the funeral, Marines removed their Marine emblems and placed them on the casket. And when the chaplain gave the eulogy, he said this: "Courage is not limited to war. There are other forms of courage besides physical courage. The Marines are looking for a few good men. They found one in John Zimmerman." Where do you need more courage in your life? Everyone here, at some time or another, needs more courage, because fear is such a poor decision maker. Courage is not being fearless. It's not "not being afraid." It's being afraid, but doing it anyway. That's courage. You know, it takes courage to break off a relationship with someone you love, when you know deep down this is not the right person for you. It takes courage to take a risk financially. It takes courage to live the Christian life in America today. Never before has it taken so much courage to live Christianly in America. C. S. Lewis got it right when he said all virtue requires courage. There can be no virtue without courage. Every moral virtue requires courage first. And that's why people who believe in certain morals don't live them out: because in the end, they don't have the courage to stand up against the backlash. All morality depends first on having moral courage: to say no to a boyfriend, or even to a spouse; to refuse to compromise morally in order to be popular. When you must compromise your Christian morals for the people around you, it's time to change the people around you. Anything that costs your integrity is too expensive. But people, legions of people, sacrifice their integrity for popularity. It is a huge temptation. Sometimes obedience to Jesus requires extreme courage. You've heard of extreme sports, and we marvel at the courage of the people involved. Well, let me tell you, living the Christian life requires extreme courage. And that's why Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the most courageous woman in the Bible. Esther is a close second. But Mary is number one. Usually, preachers focus on the angel's answer to Mary when she asked how a virgin birth is possible. The angel says, "Nothing is impossible for God." And that's a great verse, and it's very encouraging to put up on your mirror. But the next verse is equally great. It's when Mary says, "I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to God's will." "God, do with me what You wish." "Whatever Your will is for me, Lord, do it." That took enormous courage. Because her days are not our days. And in her day, to be pregnant and unmarried meant you would immediately be stoned to death. She knew the risks in letting God use her, as a virgin, to bring the Son of God into the world. It was an extreme risk: her very life. And she knew that. Nazareth was a tiny village in her time. Through the graveyards there, scholars and archaeologists have found that no more than 150 people lived there. 100 to 150 people. And almost all of them were related to one another. They came after the Persians allowed the Jews to return to their country. And they were all from the Davidic line, David's line. So this was a very orthodox village, very strict religiously. Mary's in that tiny village, where everybody knows everybody else's business, and where she knows everybody's strictly Orthodox, and death by stoning is going to be it. She could not keep this from them. Everyone would quickly know that she was pregnant, and only engaged, not married. What about Joseph, her fiancé? Try to imagine the scene when Mary goes to tell him she's pregnant. It went something like this: "Honey, sit down. Take a seat. Because what I want to tell you is that the angel Gabriel, the big guy, the big angel, appeared to me. He came, and he talked to me. Do you know what he said? He said I'm going to have a baby as a virgin. No man involved, not you. But I'm going to have a baby, and that's why I'm pregnant. It's because God did this to me." What do you think? What do you think Joseph said? Right. In fact, the Bible says that same angel needed to come and appear to Joseph, because Joseph had made up his mind to put her away quietly and to break off the marriage. And the angel had to come to him and say, "Everything she's telling you is the truth. Here I am." Only then did he marry her. Terry Bradshaw is a four-time Super Bowl winner, and he's in the Hall of Fame. And he says that the best players and the best game plan are not enough to win the Super Bowl. Imagine that. He said, "You can have the best players money can buy. You can have the most brilliant game plan. But if your quarterback lacks courage, you're not going to win the game." He says that when a quarterback drops back into the pocket to pass, he has 3.2 seconds to get it off. And during that time, huge, 300-pound men are clawing their way towards him, and their only goal is to rip him apart. And he's got to ignore them and focus on his receivers and the routes that they're running. With all this racket going on, he's got to stand in that pocket and launch the pass. And if he doesn't have the courage to do that, the team will lose. Even in pro football, courage is the ultimate foundation for winning a game. Where in your life are you flinching? Where are you hesitating? That happens to everyone, sooner or later. Let me ask you: What would you do if you had more courage? What would you do if you had more courage? Mary shows us how to have more courage. She says, first of all: focus, focus, focus on God. Focus is everything. Our life expands or contracts according to our courage, or lack of courage. Because the fact of the matter is, there are some things that will not happen if we let fear make our decisions. There are some things that will only happen if we stand up against fear and have the courage to do it anyway. G. K. Chesterton famously said, "Morality is like art. You have to draw lines somewhere." But to draw moral lines as a Christian takes courage, when most of the world around you is not drawing moral lines. To be obedient, as Mary was, took courage. It took courage, because if you're obedient and draw moral lines where God draws them, you're going to be different. You're going to be different from other people around you. And most of us don't like to be that different. We like to fit in. And that's why you see styles change, hair, the clothes people wear, according to some football star or some model. And that's why, a decade ago, the thing was "Be like Mike." Michael Jordan was at the top, so you wanted to dress like Mike, wear Mike's tennis shoes, be like Mike. That's why people just don't like to be that different. But when it comes to being a Christian, you need to get used to being different, because following Christ will make you draw moral lines where the rest of the world is not drawing them. Einstein famously said, "Even a dead fish can go with the flow." It takes no courage to float with the crowd. No. A few months ago, a commentator for ESPN said he disagreed with an NBA star who came out as gay. He said that as a Christian, the Word of God says to him that the gay lifestyle is not a moral lifestyle in God's eyes. And he said that as a Christian he has to go with the Word of God, not with what popular sentiment says. ESPN disciplined him. They used the word "diversity." ESPN said, "We are for diversity, and that means you are not, when you draw moral lines." Now, "diversity" is the new politically correct word. In the last three or four years, we have just been deluged with "diversity," "diversity," "diversity," again and again. And it's really very hard to say you're not for diversity. But what does the word "diversity" mean? Morally, diversity means nothing is immoral. Nothing is immoral or wrong. It's just simply diversity. Diversity means whatever you think is right is right for you. It's just diversity in moral standards. In the end, that means everything is moral. Nothing is immoral. Now, the fact of the matter is, nobody can actually live out that moral theory. Think about it. You've got someone who's saying, "I'm for moral diversity, and I'm not judgmental of other people who have different morals than I do." And then they get scammed. What do they say? "Well, thieves are just part of the diversity of America"? No. "Throw the scumbag in jail." You're standing in line for the theater, and somebody cuts in. "Well, that's just diversity"? No. You throw rocks at that person. In the end, no one is morally neutral. No one is. You can't live that way. George Orwell is brilliant here, in his novel 1984. The hero is Winston. And in this novel, which everyone in America should be reading at this time, Winston is resisting the government, which is called Big Brother. A lot of Orwell's nomenclature has come into our language. We talk about Big Brother. That's the government, mandating, watching. He calls it Big Brother. And Big Brother mandates that everyone believe 2 + 2 = 5. 2 + 2 = 5. Winston says, "No, it doesn't. Every fourth grader knows 2 + 2 = 4, not 5." But Big Brother comes back to him and says, "No. If I say 2 + 2 = 5, it equals 5. And next year, if I say 2 + 2 = 6, that's the new truth." In other words, truth is malleable. It's flexible. It's whatever the government says it is. Big Brother. Winston has a profound question. He asks, "If everyone says 2 + 2 = 5, does that make it true?" Big Brother says, "Yes, it does." It's truth by the numbers. The Gallup poll. It's truth by whatever the government and popular opinion say. That's the new truth. I can't think of anything more relevant today. Not for a Christian. Truth is what God says. Even if the Supreme Court and the Justice Department and the Gallup polls say that most Americans believe abortion is right, that the gay lifestyle is only diversity and not immoral, if God says it's wrong, it's wrong. End of story. And God only says something is wrong in order to protect us. He's saying, "Go down that road, and it's not going to end well." That's what God's definition of wrong is. It's protecting us from thinking this is going to lead to abundant life. 2 + 2 does not equal 5, even if the Supreme Court and every one of our friends says it does. God has the last word. At least for a Christian. So what does that mean? If God has the last word, and the Supreme Court doesn't, and your friends don't, what does that mean? Well, it means sometimes you have to be "wrong" to be on God's side. People will be telling you you're wrong. You're going to be on God's side. If you want the praise of God, you've got to be willing to receive the judgment of other people. America desperately needs Christians who will be a voice for Jesus, and not an echo of the people around us. Not an echo. To stand up when most are bowing down. To speak up when so many Christians are silent. That takes courage. And what really concerns me today is that so many Christians are silent. They are not standing up against so much that is wrong that's happening. Honestly, America's last hope is churches like Compass, with Christians like you, who will speak up and say 2 + 2 = 4, no matter what the government says. Edmund Burke famously said evil advances when good people are afraid and silent and do nothing. It's just so true. If we stay silent, we are going to lose our country. Science has discovered that fear can actually become a rut in your brain. An actual, physical rut. That's amazing. It says that if for years you think a certain thought, if you have a certain feeling, it will actually make a rut in your brain. And you know, it's like dirt roads. If you go on dirt roads, there are ruts in the road, and it's really hard to stay out of the ruts. And this is why so few Christians really change. Because they have different ruts: being judgmental, gossiping, but especially fear. Because they've been fearful for so many years, it's actually made a rut in their brain. And now it's the easiest place for their thinking to go, because it's a rut. And so for us to change, we have to recognize, "I've got a rut. I can't see it, but when I die, they're going to see a rut in my brain. I've got to get out of the rut." And that takes courage, and it takes effort. The Bible says we can have this courage if we'll do what the disciples did in Acts chapter 5. You remember that? Jesus had risen from the dead, but until then, the disciples had been hiding out in a room in Jerusalem. They were afraid they were next. And then Jesus appears to them in the upper room, and they've got courage. Jesus is alive. And in a few days, you find them on the steps of the temple preaching that Jesus is risen, that He's God and He's Savior. Even though they're beaten up, they've got courage. And the religious elite look at them, and the Bible says they "saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled." The word in Greek is agrammatos. "A" is a prefix meaning "not." Grammatos: grammar. They're not "grammared." They are untaught. They're unschooled. And then it says, "and ordinary men." The word for "ordinary men" in Greek is idiotai. Can you guess the translation of idiotai? It's where we get our word "idiots." "They haven't been in any good school. They're idiots." They realized, though, that they had been with Jesus. And I'm telling you, there are people… and it's happened to me. Despite all my education, if you're a deep believer in Jesus, you're an idiot. They can't really call me uneducated, because of all my degrees, but they can call me an idiot. You've got to get used to that. Don't be shocked or stunned by that. You're an idiotai if you believe in Jesus. Well, I'm an idiot, and I'm proud of it. But how do you get more courage? You be with Jesus. That's how you get it. Just like they did. And that's why I urge all of us to be in life groups. Because the life groups will eventually take this sermon, quotes from this sermon, and discuss it. And as you're in a life group and you're discussing quotes like the ones I'm giving you right now, it goes deep into you, and it does give you courage. And that's why I just urge you to sign up for our life groups out there in the lobby. Patricia Heaton is a Christian, and she was a star in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. A few years ago, she walked off the stage in the middle of the American Music Awards ceremony, because she said the humor had crossed the line into vulgarity, and she didn't want to be any part of it. She got a firestorm of criticism and judgment for being judgmental of other people. She was accused of being self-righteous. Reggie White was a great athlete. He spoke at a convention, and he called out immoral behavior that's become acceptable in America. NBC canceled his multi-million-dollar contract as a sports commentator. Do you know what Reggie said? "Jesus owns me, not NBC." I just love that. And when you read that, you've got to ask, who owns you? Does anybody own you? Without courage, nothing changes. Sometimes you have to be criticized in order to be praised by Jesus. You have to be criticized by other people to be praised by Jesus. Third, Mary teaches that we need Christian friends from whom to borrow courage when we are wobbling. And sooner or later, everybody wobbles. Things come along, and we wobble. And why do we wobble? Because we all leak. That's why I love to come to worship, because I leak during the week, and I need to come and be filled up. And you leak, too. And so we need friends we can borrow from when we're leaking. Notice, the angel leaves, and what's the first thing Mary does? She goes to Elizabeth, who's 6 months pregnant with another miracle baby. He's going to be John the Baptist. Why does she go to Elizabeth? Because Elizabeth is older in the faith. She can borrow faith from her, and she can borrow the encouragement that God is doing miracles. "Here's one of them, right there." She goes to her to borrow. And sometimes the only therapy we need is a Christian friend from whom we can borrow faith and courage. Not a counselor. We just need a Christian friend to talk with us. You have friends, but do you have a deep, spiritual Christian friend? You know, there are Christians who believe in Jesus, but they're not deep spiritually. They don't eat meat spiritually. They eat donuts. [laughter] You don't want a donut Christian to be your counselor. You want somebody who's chomping on the real meat. Somebody who knows the Bible. Somebody who actually prays, and doesn't just say "I'll pray for you" and then doesn't. Somebody who actually prays. You need somebody who has experience walking with Jesus, who's been through the valleys and seen the faithfulness of Jesus. Too many of you don't have a Christian friend. And if you do, it's a donut Christian friend. And that's not what you need. I read, "There's nothing better than a friend, except a friend with chocolate." Is that true? Mary was going to face harsh gossip, verbal terrorism. The Bible says that until her dying day, she was judged as being unfaithful to Joseph and having Jesus out of wedlock. To her dying day. She never got beyond it. I love what Eleanor Roosevelt said. She said, "Great minds talk about ideas. Average minds talk about events. Small minds talk about people." So, as I wrote this message Friday, I thought of all you prisoners in Soledad, and also those who are in prison in Salinas. You know, I get your letters. All of your letters, I get them. I've been getting a lot of letters from you in Salinas lately. And I want to tell you, you encourage me. The courage you show in prison, the optimism you have about your future, just builds me up. And you know, I just had to laugh this last week. Prisoners encouraging a pastor. I think that's great. I just want to thank you for doing that. Paul's a spiritual giant, but in 2 Timothy 4, he pleads for Timothy to come, and to bring Mark, as soon as possible. He's in Nero's dungeon. He's discouraged, and he needs Christian friends. And if Paul needed Christian friends, how much more do you? Dr. David McClelland is a professor at Harvard. I read this last week: he did a 25-year study of several thousand people. He followed their marriages. He followed their careers. He followed their personal decisions. He followed everything in their lives. And at the end, he concluded, and I quote, "We become the average of the attitudes and behavior, even the income, of the five people we spend the most time with." Wow. Friends rub off on us, one way or another. He says, "If you want to play better golf, play with golfers better than you. If you want to be more successful, hang around people who are very successful. If you want to be a judgmental person, make your best friends judgmental people." Friends are contagious. Jack Canfield is a pretty famous author. He wrote that whole Chicken Soup series. Chicken Soup has sold 500 million copies. That means it made him a billionaire. Do you know how it happened? He was a schoolteacher. And his income wasn't anywhere near what he wanted it to be. And a friend of his said, "If you want a bigger income, you've got to start getting in a group of people who have bigger incomes. That's how you get a bigger income. You get ideas." And that's what he did. He cultivated relationships with people who were highly successful financially. And during those friendships with these other people, the idea of books about inspiring stories sprouted. You could say friends made Jack Canfield a billionaire. Dr. McClelland summed up his 25 years of Harvard research with this. And I'm not making this up. He said, "If you want to fly like an eagle, don't hang out with turkeys." Did we need Harvard to tell us that? We already knew that. You want to fly like an eagle? Stop hanging out with turkeys. Go find deep Christian friends. Not donut Christians. Fly like an eagle. Lord, help us. Help us to take action. And help us, Lord, to do what would really set us free and break chains, as we sing about breaking chains. Help us. Amen.