Annoying People

Do you have any annoying people in your life?

A spouse does not count because in the “for better or for worse clause” we accepted certain irregularities.

Shelby shared a video with me this past week that I would like to share with you this morning. This video is of a South Carolina mother that has just begun the Summer Break with her daughter and as you will see, only three days into the break; she is already getting annoyed.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3kZQ1nN_kE

In our text this morning from I John we are reminded of the power of love. We are admonished to “love one another because love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God.”

I read a poem on the internet this past week. “To live above, with the saints in love, Ah! That would be glory! To live here below, with the saints that we know, now that is another story!”

Have you ever wondered or thought about why we get annoyed with people though? It is important to try to understand why we get our nose bent out of shape with people who drive us crazy.

I. I think that we get annoyed with people because we value the wrong things in life.

A. People matter- not things!

1. We read in the gospels that everywhere Jesus went the people were hanging on him. He touched lepers and bleeding women, he ate supper with tax collectors, the scum of society and He even spoke to a despised Samaritan woman –an outcast because she was not “one of us.”

2. Jesus surrounded Himself with annoying people, because people matter – not things!

3. We need to be concerned about “the things” in our life. The care of planet earth, the preservation of plants and animals, the art, literature and history of the human race all need to be honored and protected. But, Jesus did not come for mother Earth and though every creature is valued by the Creator, the crown of God’s creation is human kind not a spotted owl.

4. We know the destiny of the things on earth, II Peter 3:10 and following: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?

5. God looked at His creation in Genesis 2 and He said “It is good!” And He looked at humanity in John 3 and put His words into action: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

6. Every human being matters to God. Some of us may have been a surprise to our parents, but not to God. Only two things last forever according to Scripture, The Word of God and the Human Soul.

7. This morning, what has your attention, your devotion? What are the priorities of your life? If you value things more than people then you probably have a bumper crop of annoying people in your life because you value the wrong thing.

II. But we also get annoyed with people because they make us face our own insecurities – our own weaknesses!

A. We often times highlight the faults and failures of others that we want to hide in ourselves.

1. In I Corinthians 6 Paul asks us to look at our true selves and in so doing to

“Cut others some slack” for their failures. Then he lists some sins in verse 9 that those who practice will not inherit the Kingdom of God; fornicators, idolaters, adulators, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, etc, but he concludes the chapter with this sobering truth, “And such were some of you…”

2. Maybe one reason we get so easily annoyed with people is we see in them a reflection of our own weakness and shortcomings and we want to distance ourselves from that truth, so we place on others the disdain we feel about ourselves.

3. Jesus died for every jerk you know and for the biggest jerk of all, me. Isn’t that what Paul was emphasizing in I Tim 1:15, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”

4. But wait, Paul is not finished. Listen to verse 16, “Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”