Yes and no is an idiom that we use when a question is being asked and we might want to answer it with mixed feelings. We might have ambivalent feelings about it. There might be a positive side to something and a negative side to something, so we might answer it like someone asks you, are you happy at your job? And you might go, well, yes and no. Or maybe you took a trip, you went on vacation. Hey, did you enjoy the trip to the mountains? And there were parts of it that were really good, and then you had a flat tire, and so you might go, well, yes and no. It indicates ambivalence. Maybe someone might say, are you happy that the temperature is cooling down outside now? And you might legitimately say yes and no, because yes, you're not crazy about the high heat and humidity of summer, but you also aren't crazy about what you know is coming in December. So it indicates ambivalence typically. But in the title to this sermon today, which is Yes and No, there's no ambivalence. It's not intended to say that there are mixed feelings about it. What I mean by that, and will become clear as we look through our text, is that if you are going to live a life that pleases God, that honors Him, that is what He wants for you, there are some things that you will have to say yes to. And there are some things that you will have to say no to. So let's turn to Hebrews chapter 12, verses 12 to 17. We are preaching through the New Testament letter of Hebrews, have been since the spring, and now we're coming down the home stretch the last few weeks. We come today to verses 12 to 17, and let's read the passage. Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Let me stop right there before I read the rest of it. The word, therefore, that starts this passage sets the stage for what's coming. It sets the context of the passage for us. It helps us understand. In fact, it on your outline sheet, you will see a little thing that says context. The word, therefore, is pointing back to the verses that just came before it. Verses 4 to 11 explain the benefits of God's discipline in the lives of believers. And now that He has said to believers, accept it, welcome it, embrace God's discipline. Now, this passage, therefore, in light of the fact that God does bring discipline, God does bring and allow hardship in your lives, but he's training you to become righteous. In light of that, let me give you some practical ways to respond to that. So, 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. 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 to it 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. This is the word of God. And today we're going to find out what we're called to do as we respond to God's training of us. We indeed are going to look at some things that we need to say no to and some things that we say yes to. So let's walk through the passage. The first thing we need to say no to is despondency. That's in verses 12 and 13. 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. Remember that this passage, this letter, this epistle was written to people who were experiencing a lot of hardship and persecution for their faith. they had difficult circumstances. And one of the most common responses that we have when we undergo difficult circumstances is discouragement. We can become despondent. We can give up emotionally and spiritually. And yet, the writer here is saying, there's something I want you to do yourself. And there's something I want you to do for others. In fact, as we're going through the, it's easy for me to say, as we're going through this, this morning, think about the individual responsibility we all have, but also think about the responsibility we have with each other. I think in many ways, verse 12 is more individual responsibility and 13 is corporate. So strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. receive whatever discipline God brings to your life. This passage or this language comes from Isaiah 35, from a prophetic passage that also was written to people who were going through very difficult trying circumstances. And the writer there, Isaiah, wanted to give them hope in God in the future. Isaiah 35 3 says, strengthen the feeble hands, Steady the knees that give way. Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong, do not fear. Your God will come. He will come with vengeance, with divine retribution. He will come to save you. receive God's discipline so you can be on the right path, you can make a level path for your feet. And part of having a level path for your feet is for yourself, but it's also for others. Because people who are disabled People who are lame, they have a harder time. All of us have a hard time walking on a crooked path, especially if there's a physical disability. And yet, this writer is saying, level the things out, level the path out, not only for yourself, but so you can help others in the body, those that need spiritual help. And it's using this figure of lame. Say no to despondency. Rather than just wallowing in it for yourself, remember that how you respond affects your brothers and sisters. It encourages or discourages them, too. Now, there's a yes. We're just walking through the passage. It goes back and forth between yes and no. The yes is say yes to harmony. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone. Make every effort. When I first started taking Greek in college, this word was one of the first words, it's one of the most common words. It's used often, it means to persecute, to pursue, to run after. And the NIV is rightly translated as make every effort. Make every effort. Think about hunting dogs chasing down their prey. That's how we need to chase harmony and chase peace with each other, to make sure that we are living in oneness in the body of Christ. Psalm 34, 14, turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. And Romans 14, 19, let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. As Raymond Brown says, a sense of rich corporate unity in the local congregation will do more to create the right atmosphere for healing than almost anything else. Another character quality to seek after, to say yes to, is here in the same verse. He says, make every effort to live in peace and also to be holy. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. And that reminds me of what Jesus said in the Beatitudes, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. We had the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are this, blessed are this. And he said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Being pure, being holy is necessary to see God. Now, ultimately and finally, we will see God in heaven, literally. And I think that could be implied here, that that's the ultimate final, that those who are saved and made righteous by Jesus Christ will ultimately see God. That's true, and that may be the emphasis. I tend to think it's leaning more towards right now. to perceive God, to understand God, to know God, to walk with Him, to communicate with Him. If you want that close relationship with God, it is necessary to be holy. Make every effort for it. Verse 15, another thing to say yes to is grace. 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. Falling short of the grace of God might refer to what the author has been talking about all throughout this book, that the temptation for the people who had put their faith in Jesus Christ, they had made a profession of faith at least, the temptation was to turn back and to commit apostasy, which was a permanent and willful and final rejection of Jesus Christ. It's turning their back on something they had once professed, and the book has been warning about that over and over and over and said, if you're a real, true, genuine Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ, your faith will remain and you will persevere because God will hold you. But there's this warning, make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God. And here's where I think we're looking out for each other. It's not just make sure that you don't fall short of the grace of God, but make sure that nobody, the people that sit around you, the people in your community group, other brothers and sisters in Christ. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God." There is an emphasis on the responsibility we have in the body of Christ for each other. And similarly, the other thing in verse 15 that we should say no to is the other side of the coin and it's bitterness. Right? See to it no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Now, let's think about that word, see to it, for a minute. It's a very, very interesting word. It means to take care. to see to it, to oversee, to care for. And this word is only used one other time in the New Testament. And it's used in a different form, but the root word is only used in 1 Peter 5, 2, where Peter says to the elders of the church, And he's calling them overseers. He says, be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers. There's the word. Not because you must, but because you're willing as God wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve. And so in 1 Peter, it's an actual, it's a, it's a, it's a, a role that God has called some people to be elders in the church. And part of that responsibility is to be an overseer over people, to care for people, to shepherd them, to know them, to pray for them, to love them. And it's something designed for elders. And it's really clear in 1 Peter chapter 5. But here's what's interesting here in Hebrews 12. He's not talking to elders. He's not talking to pastors. Who's the audience? The body of Christ. All believers. So, all believers are called to see to it. In other words, to take care of or to oversee others. This helps us understand that overseer is not about, you know, authority and, you know, What's that chart in business that explains who you answer to? Not a flow chart. Organizational chart, that's it, yeah. An org chart, yeah. Okay, you know, you got the arrows here and this one answers this one and you got these five people, you know. Okay. Spiritually, oversight is caring. Because even, you know, pastors and elders who have a position that God has given us, we're just brothers and sisters with people too. And the point here is if your mindset of church has been, okay, we'll come in and sit and listen and, you know, give our money and we'll serve, And — but the pastors and elders, yeah, we're — and staff, we're going to let them do all of the caring, real caring for the people in the church because it's their job. No, it's — if you're a Christian, it's your job. We have to do it with each other. And what we do — we do it as well. Pastors and elders, we do it as well. And part of what we do is we equip others to do it. And that — I think that's the point here. See to it. Give oversight to each other, care for each other. Now, almost all modern translations render verse 15 that as a verb, see to it, as if it's a command. And it's not wrong to do that, but it's a participle. And so you've got main verbs and then you've got participles that help support those main verbs. The main verb in this passage, you have to go back to verse 14, it's make every effort. That's a main verb. And so you, how do you make every effort to live in peace? How do you make every effort for there to be holiness? You do it by seeing to it. by caring for, and so it supports that. Do everything you can by caring for others. Bitterness is bad for you, period. If somebody or some group has hurt you, Whether that's a human or God in your mind, bitterness is bad for you. But not only is bitterness bad for you, bitterness is bad for everybody you rub shoulders with. Because it will rub off on your kids. It will rub off on your parents. It will rub off on your sisters, your brothers, your literal ones and your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. It will rub off the people in your community group. It'll rub off with other students in the middle and high school group. It'll rub off on others. It's like a root, like, you know, you got those bad roots, those weeds. And, you know, boy, in my yard, I got some bad roots of bitterness back there. Sometimes I'm just pulling, but I think I'm just pulling the top part and I'm not getting the root. And so, guess what? Eventually, now it's over here, and the root goes over here, and now it goes over here. And that's what bitterness does. I've seen good godly people. become bitter against other Christians and against Christian leaders. Because one of their friends, maybe for instance, became bitter against those people or leaders, and then they just started. And now the other people over here who had no reason No problem with these other people or leaders, but the bitterness of their friend affected them. And now, it just spreads. That's what he's warning against, this root of bitterness. It's true of bitterness in general without question, but in this context, bitterness might also be linked with apostasy, which again is the complete and final rejection of the truth. And the reason why I say that is because of the Old Testament passage that's being alluded to here, Deuteronomy chapter 29. Verses 18 to 21. This passage deals with idolatry and apostasy away from the community of God's people. Look at the warning. Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves thinking, I will be safe even though I persist in going my own way, they bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. This bitterness spreads, right? The Lord will never be willing to forgive them. His wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. The Lord will single them out from all the tribes in Israel for disaster according to the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law." Rejection of truth disturbs people and not only yourself but others. Say no to bitterness. Say no to immorality and defilement, verse 16 and 17. See that no one is sexually immoral or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance right as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, it was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done. Now, verse 16 continues the thought with the understood, not written word, see to it, we might translate it, lest anyone is sexually immoral or godless. And the writer gives us a sad but powerful example, the man Esau. And he says, you know about it, the writers of Hebrews were very familiar with the Old Testament, so they would have known who Esau was and what he did. But I want to remind us of that, so I want to invite us to turn our attention to Genesis chapter 25 and verse 21. I want us to read this account of Esau and try to get an understanding of what he's being, what he's warning against. Don't become godless, don't be sexually immoral, and don't become godless like Esau because Esau did something. And I don't want you to repeat it. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her and she said, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you will be separated. One will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger. That's not the normal way it works. When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment, so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau's heel, so he was named Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. The boys grew up and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Esau's out there hunting and fishing and doing all of that, and Jacob's in there with the game boy in the tents. He doesn't say that exactly, but you get the point, you know. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau. But Rebecca loved Jacob. Parental favoritism is not good, but that's not the main point of this passage. Once, when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country famished. He said to Jacob, quick. Let me have some of that red stew. I'm famished." That is why he's also called Edom. Now, this parenthetical statement here is a play on words. In the original language, the words for red and Edom are almost identical. So Esau is the progenitor of the nation Edom. Why didn't Esau just go back to his father Isaac and say, I'm hungry. Can you give me some food here? We don't know exactly, but the indication is that they're not at home base anymore. They're out somewhere. And so he's out in the field and it's like, oh, I'm hungry. Oh, I'm famished. I've got to have something right now. Have you ever felt that way? This is, I hope you're not feeling that way right now. I mean, it's only 1138. That's why we start our service at 1030, not at 11. You know, the ordained time for church has been 11 o'clock forever, but we don't want anybody to be famished. So Lord willing, we'll get you out before you become famished. We don't want any more Esau's. But Esau's famished and he has to have it right now. Now, was he really about to die? Was he really about to starve to death? Or did he just feel that way? I don't know. I think it was the latter, though there's no way we can be 100% sure. What good is this birthright to me? Right? So, watch what he says. I'm famished. I've got to have it. And Jacob, scheming Jacob says, first, sell me your birthright. Well, look, I'm about to die. What good is this birthright to me? This spiritual thing is important, but what good is it to him? I'm about to die. And Jacob said, swear to me first. So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Birthright appears four times between verse 31 and 34. It's very important in this passage. But what was a birthright in that day? What does that mean? We don't talk about it much today. Esau was born just before his twin brother Jacob, right? Meaning that he possessed the rights and privileges of the firstborn. He was the older one. He was the firstborn. Deuteronomy 21, 17 indicates that the firstborn would receive a double portion of all that the father has. So in this case, for instance, when Isaac is going to pass away, he would divide his inheritance up into thirds. There'd be three parts. And the oldest one with the birthright would get two parts, and the other one would get one part. Is it fair? Look, there's a lot in that culture that is not right. This is just the way it was. I'm just reporting the facts. Don't get mad at me, okay? But there was honor. It wasn't just financial possession. There was an honor. It was something special about owning the birthright. So the reader would really be shocked to hear Esau ask that question. Verse 34, then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank and he got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. That's an important word. It's the same Hebrew word that's used in 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 10 when King David devalues the Lord by committing adultery with Bathsheba. God said to him, therefore, after he had committed adultery, now therefore the sword will never depart from your house because you despised me. and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. So, Jacob is now legally the firstborn and Esau has sold his birthright. He's valued filling his hungry stomach over the birthright. He treated the birthright as worthless. He chose a temporary satisfaction over something more important. I brought something very special with me today. And this is very, very special to me. This was my grandfather's cane. My grandfather passed away in 1962. What's that, 61 years? So in all through his life, in the latter part of his life, he had to use a cane. This is his cane. It's not very strong. You see there's some tape on it here they had to add to it. The handle's kind of worn out, but this is my grandfather's cane. And my grandfather had, they had a family of nine, six brothers and three sisters. My dad was one of six brothers. And when my grandfather passed, this got passed down to my grandfather, I mean, to my father. My father passed in 2014 and now this cane is in my house. It's not just a piece of wood, it's something very, very special to me. Can you imagine If we have a fire pit in our backyard back there, can you imagine we go down there, we want to have a fire and we don't have enough wood? And somebody says, well, how about this cane? Why don't we put the cane in the fire and start the fire with it? And how would I be valuing my legacy if I did that? You see, that's what Esau did. He had a birthright, but rather than honoring the birthright, he's like, man, I'm hungry. I want it now. I got to have it right now. So here's the point. Don't choose like Esau. to satisfy physical longings and in the process sacrifice more important spiritual realities. That's the point of this passage. Notice I said sacrifice more important spiritual realities. It's not wrong to satisfy all physical longings. God gives us some physical longings like food and rest and sex and God gives us a proper way to satisfy them. There's a proper way to satisfy your hunger, and it's to eat in moderation, right? There's a proper way to fulfill the longing for sex. It's for a man and a woman to be married and have sex in their married life with each other, period. Not before, not after, not with somebody else, not with somebody of the same sex. It's clear. God gave us not only the longing but a way for it to be fulfilled and to honor him. But when we sin is when we choose to satisfy our longings in a way that disobey God. So for instance, sex outside of marriage or maybe satisfying your sexual curiosity through porn rather than through your marriage. Or maybe it's watching hours and hours of TV and movie and playing video games to relax, but not spending quality time with your families to open the Word of God with them and pray with them. Nothing wrong with watching TV. But again, how do we use it? Maybe it's sleeping in to the very last minute so you can get up just in time to get out the door to go to work or school and letting your Bible just sit over there all alone. Maybe it's habitually eating certain types of foods or volumes of foods. and ingesting other substances to satisfy your body, drugs, alcohol in excess, that would be bad for it. These are ways, I think, that we can sell our birthright, right? Well, back in Hebrews 12, in verse 17, we get the tragic result of what Esau did. 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. And later in the story, he starts regretting that and he tries to get it back. So here we go. There are things If we want to honor God, there are things to say no to, like despondency and bitterness and immorality and defilement, and things to say yes to, like harmony and holiness and grace. And again, some of these things are individual, and some of these things affect all of us, and we serve each other and help each other with them. That's what the church is about. That's why we have a church, so we can help each other in these ways. And that's why I summarized God's word this morning this way, we are called to respond to God's training of us by watching out spiritually for ourselves and each other. We read that out loud with me. Let's read this together. We are called to respond to God's training of us by watching out spiritually for ourselves and each other. That story of Jacob and Esau really points us forward to Jesus Christ. It shows us how broken we are. We're all like Esau. We make sinful choices and we need somebody to rescue us. And thank God that Jesus said, I'll do it. I'll choose to come rescue them. I'll make all the right choices. I'll live a perfect life and I'll sacrifice my body on the cross that we sang about this morning. Hebrews 12. lets us see that. And I hope that today, again, if you've never bowed before the Christ of that cross, that today would be the day you would do it and open your heart to him by faith. Hebrews 12, 12 to 17. is speaking to us about matters of ultimate value, things that really, really matter, things to say yes to and things to say no to. All of us face temptations that at the moment really appear to just have a strong grip on us. But if we give in to them, we're giving up something more important. The bowl of stew that I can see and touch and smell and maybe taste right now will come at a cost. I might give away something more enduring, something more important, something more valuable. I want to close by listing a few questions that Lee Ekloff asked. He says, is there anything you'd take over your Christian birthright? Would you give up the Lord if all your money troubles could be over? Would you sell your Christian identity to get your health back? Have you looked at your marriage and said, I can either be happy or I can obey God and I'd rather be happy? Do you find yourself thinking, what good is it being a Christian if I've got to live this way? And then he tells this brief story. A military chaplain took his family to see the Easter festivities in a great cathedral in Manila, Philippines. And out there in the square, They were all kind of vendors, they were selling everything. Rosaries, candles, incense, veils, jewelry, prayer books. And among the vendors, they saw a man who had both of his hands full with crucifixes. And around his neck, he had a handwritten sign. that said, cheap crosses for sale. Think about the irony. Cheap crosses for sale. And he says, Esau would have bought one of those crosses. What about you? Let's bow our heads together, please.