Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
July 2, 2006 - W0627

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov. 14:34).

Interestingly, what disgraces a nation is something that comes from within. In wartime, they call it friendly fire. The Pentagon has given a report with respect to deaths in World War II. It states that 16% of our own troops died due to friendly fire the result of miscued or misdefined targets. Those casualties numbered 21,000 men and women. The Vietnam War listed 14% or 8,000 soldiers; the Gulf War and Afghanistan wars reported death tolls from friendly fire at 23 and 13 percent respectively. Just by human error, we have a tendency to kill our own.

Yet the percentages are even higher in our own country – our churches and families. Are churches destroyed by a demon-possessed pastor? Not likely. Are fathers forced to leave their families at gunpoint? It is more common that families, marriages, and churches are destroyed by choice from within who want control and power, those are supposed to be on the same side try to destroy one another. In politics, it won’t be terrorism that will destroy our country it will be fractured philosophies where groups begin to slander and defame one another.

I wondered after 9-11 why terrorists would do such a thing. It’s really for power and control. They think they are right and therefore to them, it justifies everything they do. This is a military tactic in which they fracture a country so that they are no longer united and all they need to do is one attack and the whole country falls apart. That’s exactly what’s happening today; the country is polarized. And Satan knows it is far easier to destroy a country, a family, a church, or a life from within not by an enemy but by a friend. We see this example in Shakespeare when Caesar is betrayed by his friend Brutus. Even King David said when he realized that he was betrayed from within: “But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship…” (Ps. 55:13-14). Friendly fire! We as a nation have to be alert to that otherwise families will break apart.

The Great Wall of China is 25 feet high, 25 feet wide, and 4000 miles long and is fiercely fortified. It was designed to keep the Mongols out, but it was breached when the Mongols bribed a gatekeeper to let them in -- an inside job that threatened China. Pat Tillman was a professional football player that left his lucrative career to answer the call of military duty after 911. Due to confusion of who the enemy was and was accidentally killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

So one of the things I want to talk about today to help limit and decrease the friendly fire that is happening in our own homes, churches, and our country. The first thing we must do is …

1.     OVERCOME CONFUSION ABOUT WHO THE ENEMY IS.

This is important because if we are confused as to whom the enemy is we then tend to attack each other. Some time ago, scientists experimented with white rats by periodically electrifying the bottom of rat cages. This caused the rats to turn on each other because they didn’t know where the pain was coming from. We are like that sometimes.

The Bible tells us that King Jehosophat’s enemies joined forces against him and were more than his match. So he prayed to God for help. God told him to send singers and dancers instead of soldiers to the front line in the battle with the enemy. When his enemies saw the singers and dancers they became confused and began fighting amongst themselves! “The armies of Moab and Ammon turned against their allies from Mount Seir and killed every one of them. After they had finished off the army of Seir, they turned on each other” (2 Chr. 20:23 NLT). Often the opponent is vulnerable to confusion. Sometimes even we confuse the identity of the enemy and end up fighting our own ally, friend, or spouse instead of our true enemy. The Bible says, “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realm” (Eph. 6:12 NLT). Though the devil does not have the power to destroy our lives, he can get us so confused about who the enemy is that we will destroy ourselves. That’s his tactic so we must never be confused about who the enemy is. “He who robs his father or mother and says, ‘It’s not wrong’ – he is partner to him who destroys.” (Prov. 28:24) In other words, when we are hurting one another, the devil has us doing his work.

Another pertinent example happened one day while I was jogging. I came to a 5-foot fence and all of a sudden two giant blood-crazed Doberman Pincers came charging at me only to crash into the fence. So crazed by their lust and frustration they began biting the fence and then each other!

We are just like that. When we don’t know what’s hurting us, we turn on each other. That’s why we must be alert to the enemy’s tactics and realize that it’s not those around us who are causing pain, it’s the enemy trying to work through them and we must refuse to let him have victory.  

Remember, we are not fighting against flesh and blood so we must overcome any confusion as to who the enemy is in order to reduce friendly fire. Then the second equally important point is…

2. UNDERSTAND FORGIVENESS & REPENTANCE.

All of us have made mistakes: “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:8). In addition, “…forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ. Since you are God’s dear children, you must try to be like Him” (Eph. 4:32-5:1 TEV). We must forgive others or God will not forgive us. In fact, we need forgiveness all the time so we should be abundant in forgiving others.

Now we must not think that forgiveness is a way to legitimize what we’ve done wrong or to remove consequences. Forgiveness is not an excuse to commit the same sin again. When the Bible says to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, it means that forgiveness ignites change. And if we catch that, we understand what forgiveness is. Each time we are forgiven, the more we change. If we are forgiven fifty times, we are fifty times better. The truth is if we don’t change, we will never understand forgiveness and repentance. Forgiveness must ignite change if we are to decrease friendly fire in our homes and lives.

Then the final step in reducing friendly fire within our own family is …

3.     TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED.

It’s so easy to let things that were once so precious become common. When that happens, it becomes expendable – lives, marriages, churches. That’s why the Bible says, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18). So constantly give thanks and be grateful throughout your day and life. God is more concerned with our gratefulness than almost anything else. It’s God’s will for us to be grateful.

I used live in a very modest house and have a very rundown car, but we got into the habit of saying things like, “what a nice house” and “what a great car” and eventually we began to feel grateful about what we did have. And gratefulness is a spirit that adds so much to our home. So get in the habit of saying and thinking nice thoughts about what you do have. You will be cultivating the spirit of gratefulness.

We can live in the most beautiful place like Hawaii, but if we take it for granted then it can become dull to us. The reality though is when we stop being grateful, we begin to see everything that’s wrong. It’s actually part of our physical makeup. We see what we are looking for. So if we are looking for the absence of God’s presence, that’s what we’ll see. On the other hand, if we look for evidence of His presence, that’s what we’ll find – we’ll see His colors, His fingerprints, and His artistry everywhere. One of the things we must do in our families is to cultivate a spirit of gratitude.

How do we know when our gratitude attitude is lacking? Two of the telltale signs that we are losing a spirit of gratefulness is…

The Symptom:

·        WE GET ANGRY EASILY.

When anger begins erupt, it gives way to arguments and fights and we begin to destroy one another. It’s the beginning signs of friendly fire. The Bible advises, “But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20).

The Solution:

·        RESOLVE RATHER THAN GRUMBLE.

There’s a big difference between resolving something and grumbling about it. “We must not complain, as some of them did – and they were destroyed by the Angel of Death” (1 Cor. 10:10 TEV). Let me tell why grumbling is so dangerous. There was a season in my life when I was getting upset with something going on in my life. I found myself grumbling a lot. After about three weeks, I found that even though I thought I was right, I was becoming someone I did not want to become. You see grumbling is a spiritual thing that happens on the inside or another tactic of the enemy. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6)

I also learned that it’s hard to deal with and issue when we’re wrong, but what’s even harder is dealing with it when we’re right or when we think we’re right. It’s dangerous because nothing becomes off limits. We then tend to believe we are justified in having no boundaries on our behavior. However, if we do not steward our righteousness correctly, then we are in error. Our distorted feelings of righteousness can make us dangerous.  Wrong becomes right. The criminal becomes the hero in his own eyes just like the terrorists.

Recently, people protested by desecrating our flag believing they had the right to do so. Some believe it is just a piece of cloth, but to me it means the blood and lives of many who have bought our freedom so that we can live in relative peace today. And there was a vote recently saying congress shall have the authority to ban the desecration of the American flag and it was voted down on the premise that people should have the freedom to express themselves. Former president John Adams said it this way: “The freedom of America was purchased by people who have lost their sons and their daughters, their families, their farms and their property to purchase freedom for the red of our flag runs red because of the blood that was shed. Posterity, you may never know what it cost my generation to gain your freedom. Guard it wisely.”

So today, let us reduce the friendly fire within our nation and within our families because danger from within is more of a threat to us than being attacked externally. To accomplish this, we need to first: overcome confusion about who the enemy is. Second: understand forgiveness and repentance. And third: take nothing for granted. Realize that the true enemy is the devil not our loved ones. So if we begin to notice symptoms of anger and grumbling, it should prompt us to look for resolutions. Learn to steward righteousness well to bring restoration instead of grumbling, to help so that we are not killed by friendly fire.

Study Questions.

1. Have you been victim to “friendly fire”? How did the enemy confuse you?
2. Understanding forgiveness and repentance is essential to insure we are not making the same mistakes over and over. Has forgiveness ignited a change in you?
3. Do you readily forgive others as God has forgiven you? If not, why do you suppose it is difficult?
4. Do you tend to see the absence of God’s presence or the evidence of it?
5. How can you start to train yourself to be grateful everyday for everything?
6. When you are right, do you tend to justify your actions even if it’s wrong?
7. How will you begin to steward rightness well?

Summarized by: Leighton Loo