Having Your Cake and Eating it Too
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Hebrews 12:4-17
Hebrews 12:4-17
Pray
Issac favored Esau.
Issac was preparing to bless Esau as the firstborn.
Rebekah favored Jacob.
Ficus on Esau.
We will deal with Jacob later.
Just summarize verses 1-33
When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!” But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.” Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”
Remember Esau sold both his birthright and along with it the blessing to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of stew and some bread.
Genesis 25 gives us this account.
After Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, the text tells us that he despised the birthright.
The word despise in the Hebrew means to show contempt toward.
Contempt means to show lack of reverence for something because it is seen as inferior.
It can also mean to regard something as being worthless or dishonorable.
Esau sold his blessing because he considered it worthless.
It was of no use for him at the time.
We talked about Esau functioning according to greed.
He functioned according to temporal needs.
Summarize gen 27:37-40
This is the fulfillment of the Word of the Lord spoken over the twins while they were still in the womb.
Isaac is foretelling the type of life Esau would live based in Esau’s character.
Because Esau despised his birthright.
Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
The bitterness held within Esau
Esau wanted to have cake and eat it too.
That does not make sense if I have cake a natural response to to eat it.
I don’t know anyone who has cake and does not want to eat it.
Meaning of the phrase eating cake
Having your cake refers to keeping it with you. This means you want to preserve the cake for the future. But you also want to eat it. This is contradictory. The moment you eat your cake, you can’t have it because it is finished. Conversely, if you decide to have or keep your cake then you can’t eat it.
This proverb highlights a very valuable lesson which is that you cannot have it both ways. When you are presented with two choices that are mutually exclusive, you have to choose one. You cannot choose both. Either you have to eat the cake or have it. If we examine the wording, we find that ‘eat your cake and have it’ sounds more logical.
Another interpretation of the phrase: To have or enjoy the good parts of something without having or dealing with the bad parts.
You may be thinking: What are you talking about all of the sudden?
The point I am trying to make as this account relates to us is that
Click #1 and #2
1. With faith comes responsibility.
With faith comes expectations from God to walk according to our faith.
Click #2
2. We are to be disciples.
Our faith requires that we respect our promised birthright or the promised blessing given by our Heavenly Father.
We are His.
Think back to Esau for a moment.
We must reject functioning in a way that resembles Esau.
Like Esau, he wanted the food when he wanted it.
He wanted his belly to be full according to his demands.
He despises the future promise.
He disregarded it and considered it worthless.
Until the day came to receive the blessing.
Then suddenly he changed his mind.
Suddenly he begged his father to bless him even thought he despised it.
Turn with me to Hebrews 12
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
We have not come to the point where we recognize how vile sin is.
The writer is speaking about persecution and martyrdom specifically.
But for us, do we recognize how
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4. Have you put things that you struggle with on the altar to be completely destroyed?
5. Jesus went to the cross for your sin.
He shed HIS BLOOD FOR YOUR SIN.
Quoting from the book of Proverbs.
Faith comes with discipline.
God corrects us.
This is a blessing.
The correction of God indicates our position.
In correction we can recognize that we are sons and daughters.
Resist sin, so that we do not forget who we are.
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.
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6. God disciplines us.
7. God treats us as children, because this is what we are.
Connect with earthly parents.
What parent does not discipline their children out of love.
Love requires disciple.
It is not loving to allow someone to walk to their destruction.
This is not loving.
This is weakness.
Love comes with discipline.
Love requires that we correct as God corrects us.
God corrects through conviction.
Conviction rather than condemnation.
God convicts.
Conviction involves exposing a wrong in the hope of making it right.
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8. Conviction from God will always liberate us from a struggle and lift us up.
Condemnation on the other hand is from the devil.
Condemnation will tear us down.
9. Condemnation will cause us to dwell on negativity and claim we are not nor will we ever be good enough.
It is important to recognize the distinction between the two.
Respond to conviction from God.
Reject and pray against condemnation thrown at us from the enemy.
We must respond to correction.
If we reject correction our hearts hardened.
To be honest with you, it is a blessing that God speaks into our hearts to offer correction.
Because as the writer of Hebrews states, this is because we are children of God.
Look at verses 9-13
Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Click #10 1nd #11
10. God disciplines us for our good.
11. To uplift and deliver us from sin.
No discipline is pleasant, in verse 11.
But the discipline brings a harvest of righteousness and peace for thise who are trained by it.
What does it mean to be trained?
We practice so that we can respond correctly and in accord with God.
God trains us in our faith so that we can trust in Him.
He reveals His love to us.
As He reveals Himself to us, we can have confidence that He si with us.
Look at verses 14-17
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
Allow the presence of God to shine through you so that others can now holiness.
The writer in verse 15 talks about a bitter root.
Things that we hold onto.
They can be things that have happened against us.
They can be mistakes we made in the past and we dwell on them.
I am making general statements.
I know that each situation is different.
But it is important that we do not intentionally hold onto bitterness.
Holding into to bitterness will cause us to act on bitterness.
Rather than allowing the presence of God to shine through us, the bitterness can at times be the motivation.
This is a topic that we should probably spend more time developing.
So often especially in our world with the plethora of sin, things happen that have the potential to bring bitterness into our heart.
I am not trying to be dismissive.
The things that each and everyone of us deal with are very real.
They can be very hurtful.
Our past often informs how we function in the now.
The topic of bitterness is probably best discussed in a small group setting where we can address situations individually.
In making the statements about bitterness, I am speaking in general terms.
But I do say this, we have no control over what others say or do against us.
And these things can hurt.
But we do have control over how we react.
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12. We must do our best to not allow situations to cause us to become bitter.
13. Bitterness leads to a hardening of our heart.
It is important to ask God to help you identify the source of bitterness.
Ask Him to intervene.
If bitterness is not addressed, it will grow and take root.
How hard it it to pull out a weed?
We need to seek God to prevent us from allowing bitterness to take root.
In closing, I say this.
We must choose.
Are we going to respond to the correction of God?
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14. Are we going to act on our calling as a disciple?
With discipleship comes correction.
15. With faith comes responsibility.
There will be things that we need to let go.
There will be things that we need to separate from in our walk of faith.
WE CANNOT function like Esau, who sold his birthright to satisfy a temporal need.
Then he tried to to receive a blessing even though he despised his birthright.
We cant have our cake and eat it too.
We are to be set apart.
Benediction: Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.