Sermon: Overcoming Our Annoying Habits
Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to a desert. There He was tempted by the devil. Jesus went without food for forty days and forty nights. After that He was hungry. The devil came tempting Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to be made into bread.” But Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man is not to live on bread only. Man is to live by every word that God speaks.’” Then the devil took Jesus up to Jerusalem, the holy city. He had Jesus stand on the highest part of the house of God. The devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. It is written, ‘He has told His angels to look after You. In their hands they will hold You up. Then Your foot will not hit against a stone.’” Jesus said to the devil, “It is written also, ‘You must not tempt the Lord your God.’” Again the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain. He had Jesus look at all the nations of the world to see how great they were. He said to Jesus, “I will give You all these nations if You will get down at my feet and worship me.” Jesus said to the devil, “Get away, Satan. It is written, ‘You must worship the Lord your God. You must obey Him only.’” Then the devil went away from Jesus. Angels came and cared for Him.
We often excuse our behavior, our annoying habits that are destructive to our relationship with others, by saying that this: God made me this way. In this statement that is often made, we find the biggest barrier to change – our stubborn unwillingness to do anything different. We are often very comfortable with who we are and what we do and don’t want to consider how our actions hurt others. If we are going to improve so that we can be a greater blessing to others, we must first desire to change.
W.F. Harley, Jr. talks about how important it is for married couples to be willing to change our annoying habits when he writes the following: “The bottom line is that a couple who want to stay in love must pay close attention to the way they affect each other. A marriage just doesn’t work if either spouse ignores that reality. Whether they’re intentional or not, habits affect the love they have for each other. So if one spouse finds some of the other’s habits annoying, they simply have to go. Otherwise, their marriage won’t be what either one wants it to be.” The truth is this can apply to any relationship that we have – unless we are willing to change our annoying habits, we will not have the type of relationships that we want with others.
So when we decide we truly want to change, how do we do this? We will talk more about this on Sunday, as we examine how Christ overcame the temptation and the influence of Satan in the passage above. Hope to see you then!
