We are able to overcome the temptation towards autonomy when we invest in close community...

This week, we are looking at an event from history that reveals a timeless temptation that we all face as we live out our life here on earth, along with a timeless principle that enables us to overcome temptation.  So far this week, we have looked on as the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be enticed by the Devil toward evil was so that Jesus could prove and demonstrate His allegiance to God by demonstrating His obedience to God.

We looked on as the Devil enticed Jesus to satisfy His physical needs and desires through His own supernatural means and power. The Devil is enticing Jesus to take control and be autonomous. The Devil is enticing Jesus to meet His desires in a supernatural way that demonstrates that He does not need anyone, but that He is needed by everyone. The Devil is enticing Jesus to meet His desires in a way that demonstrates how relevant and necessary He is for all humanity.

We talked about the reality that this is a temptation that many of us constantly face. We are tempted to demonstrate that we are relevant, that people would take us seriously. We are enticed to be driven by a desire to demonstrate that we are needed and necessary. We are enticed by the desire to be autonomous, to be in control and in charge of our lives. We are tempted by the desire to demonstrate that we have everything under control, that we are self sufficient, independent people. We are tempted to demonstrate that we are dependable, not dependant.

However, while we are often enticed to satisfy our desire for control, for autonomy, for relevance; while we are often tempted to demonstrate that we are needed and necessary, the reality is that control and autonomy are a myth. Control and autonomy is a trap. The goal of control, autonomy, and self sufficiency are unworthy goals because we are never really in control; we are never really autonomous and we are never really out of community. They are unworthy goals because we were never designed to be in control, to be autonomous, to be outside of community. We see this reality revealed for us in Jesus response to the Devil, which is recorded for us in Matthew 4:4:

 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"

Jesus responds to the enticement of the Devil by quoting from an event from history that has been preserved and recorded for us in a section of a letter in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 8:3, we see Moses preparing a generation of Jewish people to enter into the land that God had promised them after they had spend forty years wandering in the wilderness as a result of the selfishness and rebellion of their parents.

And as part of that preparation, Moses reminded this new generation of Jewish people of a lesson that the Lord had tried to teach the previous generation of Jewish people. And that lesson involved manna. As the Lord led the Jewish people out of slavery and into the land that He had promised them, the Lord provided manna for them to eat on their journey.

The Lord also provided specific instructions when it came to how they were to collect the manna. The Jewish people were commanded by the Lord go out every morning and collect just enough manna for their needs that day. The Jewish people were to trust that the Lord would provide the manna every day as they went out every day to collect the manna for the day.  However, the Jewish people rebelled against the Lord by refusing to follow the commands of the Lord. The Jewish people gathered more that what they needed for a day. And it was this disobedience to the Lord that demonstrated their selfish desire to be autonomous from the Lord. It was this disobedience to the Lord that demonstrated their desire for control and their desire to self sufficient instead of depending on the Lord.

The Lord responded to the disobedience of the Jewish people by causing the excess manna to rot in their tents and become infested with worms. That is why Moses said what he said in Deuteronomy 8:3. While Jesus only quoted the last part of the verse, here is all that Moses said to the Jewish people in that verse:

"He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.

You see, Moses was calling this new generation of Jewish people to remember that they were to trust in God's promise to provide for them daily provision, not in their ability to provide for themselves. Moses was calling this new generation of Jewish people to remember that the Lord humbled the previous generation of Jewish people so that they would not trust in their autonomy and self sufficiency apart from God but to trust and live in an obedient relationship that depended daily on the Lord.

And Jesus quoted this verse in response to the Devil to remind the Devil that He was going to respond to the temptation towards autonomy by trusting and depending on God daily. And in the same way today, we need this reminder. We need this reminder because every one of us has the potential to do the exact same thing. Every one of us has the potential to be enticed to fulfill our desires toward autonomy, self sufficiency, and control by trusting in ourselves independent of God. Every one of us has the potential to be enticed to fulfill our desires to be needed and necessary in a way that refuses to acknowledge our daily need for the Lord.

And it is in this event from history that we discover how we can overcome the temptation towards autonomy, self sufficiency, and control. In this event from history we discover how we can overcome the enticement to fulfill our desires to be needed and necessary in a way that refuses to acknowledge our daily need for the Lord. We discover the answer all the way back in verse 2.

Notice how verse 2 begins: “After He had fasted”. Now I am not saying that the solution is simply to engage in a fast, although fasting is an important spiritual discipline. I am saying that the solution is in what happened while Jesus was fasting. As we talked about a few minutes ago, when we fast we are giving something up in order to create space for God. But why do we create space for God? We create space for God because we want to spend time in communion with God: We fast because we want to create space where we can hear from God.

You see, Jesus fasted so that He could be in communion with God in community with God. In addition, after this event from history, after Jesus was enticed in three different ways by the Devil, notice what happens in Matthew 4:11:

Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began

to minister to Him.

You see, Jesus was in community and communion with God in a way that prepared Him for the temptations that He would face and Jesus experienced community where He was loved and served by others after He faced the temptations that He faced. While Jesus was isolated and alone during His temptation, the consistent pattern and practice of His life on earth was to be in community with others.

Shortly after this event from history, Jesus would select His twelve closest followers. And it was those twelve closest followers that Jesus lived in close community with.  And after Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus closest followers continued the pattern that He had given them as an example to follow. Jesus earliest followers gathered together corporately for times of worship and also scattered into smaller groups that met in homes throughout the week.

And it is here, in this event from history involving a timeless temptation that we discover a timeless principle that enables us to overcome that temptation. And that timeless principle is this: We are able to overcome the temptation towards autonomy when we invest in close community. This morning, that is what we are such big believers in community groups at the church where I serve. That is why we have as a goal that everyone who attends the church where I serve would be investing their time in a community group.

We believe that the circles that are community groups are betters than the rows of corporate worship gatherings because transformational spiritual growth occurs in community with others where those supportive and encouraging relationships can be developed where people can take that next step in their relationship with Jesus wherever you are at in that relationship with Jesus. And when you are in close community as part of a community group, community is already there for you when you need them to be there for you.

Community groups have the potential to keep you from getting enticed toward a life of autonomy because somebody can see what you can’t see. When we are in close community that close community can see the signs that we are being enticed to be driven by a desire to demonstrate that we are needed and necessary. And that close community can encourage us to see our need for God on a daily basis.

When we are in close community that close community can see the signs that we are being enticed by the desire to be in control and in charge. And that close community can encourage us to see our need to let God lead our lives. When we are in close community, that close community can see the signs that we are being enticed by the desire to live independent of God and other people. And that close community can encourage us to see our need to live in daily dependence upon God and in interdependent community with others.

So with all that in mind, here is a question to consider: When will you take the step to get into the close community that you need by being a part of a community group? Or are you going to continue to expose yourself to be enticed towards our selfish desires of independence, autonomy, self-sufficiency, and control?