A Necessary Skill
10 Mar
I Corinthians 10:1-13
Soon the West may face a massive shortage of skilled laborers. That is what makes the WorldSkills Competition so interesting. It is a competition, incidentally, in which the US mustered only two silver medals last year. WorldSkills? It’s basically blue-collar Olympics. In Calgary, 2009 the US medaled only in Welding and Auto repair. We seemed to be a lock in sheet metal fabrication but Chinese Taipei really brought it in.
WorldSkills 2011 is in London and our Pastry Cook team is vowing to bake up a gold. This is no joke. The biannual trade-athalon is actually a serious international showcase of skills on which our societies and civilizations depend.
In 1946, skilled laborers were in demand in Spain, but the labor pool was shallow. Jose Antonio Elola Olaso led a campaign convincing students and their parents, teachers and prospective employers that the path toward future opportunity ran through the trades. He created a skill competition featuring 4000 Spanish trade apprentices
That first even has now evolved into the international WorldSkills Competition held every two years Participating nations send their best and brightest 17-22 year olds to compete in a litany of “who-knew-that-was a sport?” event.
It is like rolling shows from the Food Network, DIY Network, Lifetime and Discovery Channel all into one weeklong competition.
Imagine the Hair Styling competition and yes it exists.
“Okay contestants. You have 20 minutes to accomplish the following: Give a tantrumming toddler a haircut, recommend product to the soccer mom with split ends, perm Granma for bingo night and buzz-cut this platoon of soldiers.”
As Christians we don’t have to face our skills competition, thank goodness. But, just like the competitors in these events we have to develop some necessary skills for life. Today I want us to look at one of them, the overcoming of temptation.
I. Temptation is totally unoriginal. There is really nothing new under the sun in the area of temptation. The same stuff Israel faced is ours today.
Satan is boringly predictable in trying to make us fall into sin. There is nothing new in the history of temptations. He uses the same old stuff that he has used from the beginning of time. John sums this fact up in his letter. He says that the temptations of life are desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes and pride in our riches.
These are the same ones that he has used from the beginning of time. Adam fell to the desires of his eyes. David fell to the desires of the flesh. Satan attacked Jesus with all three.
The problem is that although these are not new attacks, they work. And the saying is “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” We fall to all of these temptations, new or not.
II. The problem for us is not that we are tempted, but that we choose to sin. The temptations are the same but we choose to yield to those temptations. We choose sin.
The offer of sin and the acceptance of the sin are two different things. It is not a sin to be tempted. But choosing sin is different.
There is a difference in feeling hungry (temptation) and eating the forbidden fruit (sin.) Difference between yawning (temptation) and sleeping (sin.) It is different to be called by the telemarketer (temptation) and ordering the item (sin.)
We choose to say yes and choose to yield to the temptation. Sin is never forced on us. We make the choice to sin. We decide to accept the offer of sin. We choose to eat, buy etc. In the Chronicles of Narnia Edmund is offered Turkish Delights by the White Witch if he will bring the other three members of his family to her. He could have said no, but he chose to yield and gave them away.
We decide to accept the offer of sin.
III. So we need to develop that skill of temptation resistance. We are told of ways throughout Scripture to overcome.
First we are told that we are not alone. Paul tells us that in the middle of temptation God is with us. He is there in the battle. He is not sitting back in his recliner with the remote clicking from one person to the next to see how we are doing. He doesn’t get bored with our channel and move on to someone else. He meets temptation with us, fighting alongside of us. We don’t face temptation by ourselves
God also limits our temptation. Many people have used this verse to say that God will not put more suffering on us than we can bear, but that is not Paul’s meaning. Paul is saying that with God we can overcome temptation, nothing other than that. God knows what we can endure. He understands our limits. There is never a no-win situation. There is always a way to say “no”. Sin is always a choice. That means the “devil made me do it” is garbage theology. Sure, he tempts you. But he can’t tempt you so much that you are “made” to sin. It is always a choice.
And God provides the way to resist. That gut check of conviction reminding us of what is right and wrong. Natural consequences to be avoided. Memory of the pain of our past failures. Accountability through seeking help. Memorized
Scripture to combat temptation. Prayer. These are all ways God have given to us to overcome temptation. We don’t have to sin.
Seldom are any of us tempted by the blatantly bad things of this world. No it’s those evil things that masquerade as good that cause us the most difficulty. Philip Dormer Stanhope, Fourth Earl of Chesterfield, wrote back in the 1700’s, “Vice, in its true light is so deformed that it shocks us at first sight and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue. That process by which we turn vice into virtue in our mind is called rationalization. “I’m not committing adultery; I’m just finding the love I need.” “I’m not acting unethically when I cheat my customers; I’m just following the laws of the marketplace.” And on we can go.
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