Deja Vu, Temptation part II

"I can resist anything except for temptation." -Oscar Wilde

This is week is both week two of the series as well as the second part of the message regarding Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Using the generic discussion template below (which is useful for any resource you are reading or watching together) try and find ways the members of your group are living in a belief that life is found in constant ascent. In turn, see what it might look like in the near term and the long to follow Christ back down the mountain into vulnerable, powerful living.

This will be a potentially confusing topic for those that believe in a literal upward trajectory for faithful people. This discussion may have the side effect of helping people to hold hyperbole and metaphor less tightly in order to appreciate the deeper meaning.

• What most stuck out for you about Sunday morning?
• What were the key points for you in the message?
• What was the "one thing" you took away that seems applicable in your own, personal life?
• What did you learn:
• *About God?
• *About yourself?
• *About others?
• What changes in thought and in style-of-relating might be necessary in light of what you've learned?
• What are the hindrances to transformation, and what do we do about those?
• What role can this group play to help you take steps this week and beyond?

Passages for discussion.

• Matthew 4:1-11
• Matthew 16:13-23
• James 1:12-21

Deja Vu, Temptation

This series is all about that strange sense where you feel like this isn't the first time you've come across this. Whatever this is. 
In the context of direction for the next several weeks, we want to recognize where this pertains to Jesus and his life as depicted in the Gospels. Sometimes it's his words. Other times just where he is standing. A familiarity not only with having read that part of the gospel, but with the setting itself, can come over you.
Sometimes Jesus sounds a lot like Moses.
Sometimes like Israel herself.
Sometimes like people or circumstances in your own life.


This week, wrestle with the wrestling Jesus did in the desert. These first two of the three temptations were not just for Christ to pass a test, but to further show his solidarity with his own familial history and with all those that would come after him.


Thaw

• Where you are from, what is fall like?
• What most stuck with you from Sunday morning and why did it seem important to you?

Read

• Matt 4:1-4
• Thoughts?
• What key words are your eyes drawn to?

Read

• Deut 8:2-3
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• Taking the imagery further, how does this temptation speak to our lives now in the modern west?

Read

• Matthew4:5-7
• Thoughts? 

Read

• Psalm 91:9-13
• Thoughts?

Leader note; You may want to point out that the tempter leaves out in his quote of Psalm 91 the line where the Cobra (a serpent) and the Lion (one of the euphemisms for sin) are crushed under the heel of the One spoken of. This also pertains visually to the promise in Genesis 3 where the seed of Eve will, eventually, crush the serpents head, even though being injured in the process. Obviously this part was not beneficial to the tempter, so it was omitted.

Read

• Deut. 6:16
• Thoughts

Leader note: Make sure and guide the conversation to an understanding that it doesn't anger God when we test him. We all do it. More than God's irritability is at stake. We who are constantly testing and making contingencies on God's performance are establishing a relationship based on what God does. This puts us in control as well as makes the miracles, the answers and the sense of safety that come with our assurances our master.  Not God himself. 

Discuss

• What does this second temptation have to do with us?
• Why has God always been using a chosen few, Israel or Christ himself to show what trust (regardless of external circumstances) looks like?
• How does it help or hurt to consider that Christ is showcasing God's goodness and trustworthiness, while aware that his ministry and life would be cut short by a brutal crucifixion?
• Why is it difficult to see God as worthy of trust when things can go so badly with or without that trust in him?

Apply

• How can this group, or even just a few members of it, help you be a person of trust and peace no matter what temptations to the contrary come around?

A book named Action

"Those are good problems to have."

This is the retort of many people outside the Crosspointe community when they hear the challenges we face.  The logistical difficulties with parking and routing children and adjusting service times. The constant need for volunteer leaders in LifeGroups, student ministry, first impressions, etc. The sheer number of people and what it means to be their church home. The alternative to all of this of course is staring out the window, wondering why the same number of people slip in and slip out every weekend with no effort to or by them. Yawn.

Yes, we have some challenges. But they're good ones.

Use this group time to not only discuss the particulars of being part of a church that has grown so much in so relatively little time. But also recognize that the principles, countercultural as they are, help us experience fullness of life in every respect.



Thaw

• Besides sports or a favorite TV show, what seems to be on your mind the most as the fall season gets underway?
• How is your attitude about all this and why?
• What has most stuck with you from Sunday morning?

Read 

• Acts 20:35
• Though Paul is speaking directly to funding the mission and remaining generous with money, the principle for which he quotes Jesus, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’, is applicable more generally. How have you found it to be true in your life?
• In what ways is our culture learning that to give your self to something is nobler than to take from it?
• In what ways do our lives find confusion in being a Communer vs a Consumer?

Leader note: The idea here is to help members grow in awareness that we often mix the giving and taking roles. When we do this, the taking role is disguised as a giving role but is actually dominating the person's life. Such examples might be giving money mostly for a tax write-off, saying kind things to your spouse to earn sex, cleaning the house to assuage vocalized disappointment, making promises to garner promotions or votes. These and countless other ways appear to be giving, and are even celebrated. But, as always, the heart of the one acting, not their actions, is Christ's concern.

Discuss

• Within the context of Crosspointe, how might the individuals better exhibit being part of the story?

Leader note: This is no guilt trip. Some people can't serve any more than they already are, can't at all, or just shouldn't. There is a phenomenon where the same few people keep taking on responsibilities, wearing themselves out. Like a football game with 22 people sweating and exhausted and 40,000 spectators sitting and watching. This question doesn't represent this kind of scenario being perpetuated. It's simply about people who have predominantly received other's effort instead jumping in and saying "I want to be part of this!" Should interest be expressed, regardless of the area (parking lot, children, students, cafe, info team, etc.) have the person email volunteers@crosspointe.org

• Within the context of Crosspointe, how might this group better exhibit being part of the story?

Leader note: Dinners at DRM. Mission trip. Serving together as an entire volunteer team for children on Sunday morning, etc. Again, contact volunteers@crosspointe.org for more information.

• Outside the context of Crosspointe, what are some ways that you can live the kind of story where you give yourself to others more than you hold expectations and demands on them?

Meditate and Apply

• Many times when a challenge for volunteers and "doing" go out from a church leadership, it just sounds like manipulation and coercing. Hopefully, what is being conveyed and heard is instead an ongoing invitation to be part of a better story. To leave the tired narrative about predominantly taking, expecting, consuming and evaluating based on personal benefit, and embrace sacred difficulty as a new way of life. Read Acts chapters 1&2 to yourself, and allow the Spirit to kindle, or rekindle an excitement about being part of something bigger than a Sunday event going well. We're all invited into the story of the one who gave Himself, and called it more blessed.