FHCC
20250413 Worship
  • All Glory Laud and Honor
  • We Will Glorify
  • Goodness Of God
  • No Longer Slaves
  • I don’t know if there is a more ubiquitous symbol that “at some time a child was here” than a ball hanging from a pole. I’ve seen them in abandoned schoolyards. I’ve seen them pictured in remote villages. I’ve seen them brightly colored on a polished steel pole. I’ve seen them weathered and hanging from a crooked wooden stake. I personally have played with one all by myself. And I witnessed groups of children waiting impatiently to challenge the current winner.
    Regardless of the height of the pole, or the amount of air pressure in the ball, one thing is essential for this activity—the ball must be tethered to a pole.
    Just like Rom 6:1-14 that we studied last week, this section begins with a hypothetical, explores different possibilities, then concludes with a summary statement. Today’s hypothetical is our sin and to what authority are we obligated (under).
    TRANSITION: Today’s hypothetical is asking us, “To what authority are you tethered” or “in whose yard are you playing”?

    Outer Boundaries

    Contain the Valuable

    A couple of weeks ago I drove to Nebraska to sit on an ordination council for a pastor friend. On the way home I noticed something that I would never have thought about before my friend Bill Hatcher explained to me about 4-wire fences. A quick internet search and I learned that the USDA has published a bulletin #LA-382-1 that is 30 pages of fence specifications.
    What caught my attention on the trip to Nebraska is that right on the state border along the side of US-183 I noticed a small herd of cattle grazing a cornfield contained only by a single wire that I presumed to be electric due to the pole connectors.
    While I have never ranched (and I don’t pretend to be one on TV). I presume that there is a fine line between the economics and the labor of installing more rows of wire, and the risk and effort of rounding up strays, due to weak barriers.
    However, I have lost pets due to their ability to squeeze through the smallest gap in a chain-link gate or dig under a solid 6’ stockade fence, and to follow his nose after experiencing “freedom”. For both Wishbone the rat terrier and Scooby the beagle, the loss of restraint and taste of freedom led to both of their deaths.
    Not only do pets need to be contained for their own good, but wild animals have the same need.
    Migrating deer are a danger to vehicles and themselves crossing manmade highways.
    Fowls and mammals who leave protected areas endanger themselves at the hands of hunters.
    The danger to herds and wildlife is seen in the human experience and summarized today in 6:21 –lack of restraint or containment leads to the end of those things is death.
    As we think about firm borders sometimes fences and walls are used to contain humans who wish to roam.
    My earliest recollection of 12’ fences and coils of razor wire was along KS Highway 7 going north into Lansing, KS. Since then, I have noticed this same construction from Oklahoma to Wisconsin surrounding penal institutions and can be observed just 5 blocks due North of our church.
    The setting of White Nights (not the 1848 short story by Dostoevsky, but the 1985 film starring Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov) describes Communists borders that prevented their own people from leaving.
    It is this type of barrier in mind when former President Reagan famously said in June 1987, “Mr. Gorbochev, tear down this wall!”
    TRANSITION: While it is not specifically mentioned in today’s text, Jesus spoke of another purpose for good fences. He used the language of the sheepfold in John 10.

    Restrain the Dangerous

    Sometimes a barrier is not meant only to keep the valuable in, it is used to keep danger out.
    The Great Wall of China was erected centuries ago to protect against invaders.
    2. I have participated in mission trips to South America and Southern Asia where missionaries first required to build tall walls to protect from bandits before developing their property for the Lord’s use.
    3. If Good fences make good neighbors, they also make comfortable parents. A good fence protects from harm in the form of neighborhood dogs or “stranger danger”.
    With the permission of one of our young mothers who has 2 mobile children, I asked her if people want freedom or want established boundaries.
    She told me that without established boundaries her sons make 2 very different choices. 1 would never leave the porch and enjoy the whole yard. The other would never be home and would constantly be 3 houses down the road.
    TRANSITION: If fences are one way of marking safe zones or one’s territory, another is with bondage or a tether.

    Central Values

    Sometimes bondage is a blessing, sometimes it is a burden. Sometimes it seems like a burden but is actually a blessing.
    The 19th century illusionist Erik Weisz known publicly as Harry Houdini established a reputation for freeing himself from chains or a straitjacket in order to escape from death-defying situations like a tank of water.
    In well-publicized situations crowds would watch with anxious anticipation for the celebrity to be freed from his bondage.
    I wish they were available when our children were toddlers, but the oldest example I could find was about 15 years ago of a toddler “harness”. I find it intriguing that if a harness is used on an animal, it is considered a leash, but if the same device is placed on a human it is labeled “fall protection” or a “safety harness”.
    While fences establish outer boundaries, a tether, chain or rope limit distance from a center point. It is this idea of connection that is communicated in a word that our history assigns a lot of negative baggage.

    Slaves to… (8x)

    We may think slave of is a situation to be avoided at all costs. But Scripture uses slaves of God and slaves to righteousness as a positive option.
    Being bound can be life-saving.
    Having been born in Kansas and spending 30 of my first 35 years in Tornado alley, I would be like many of you who respect tornado warnings.  A Couple weeks ago I watched both a documentary on the Joplin tornado of 2011 and the 2024 disaster movie Twisters. Preceding both of these was the 1997 blockbuster film of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic.
    3. In both tornados and shipwrecks, being tethered to something secure can be the difference between life and death.
    4. Today’s Scripture gives us 2 options: tied or enslaved to sin or connected or slaves to God.
    I thought a living example might be helpful. For this illustration I need 3 volunteers. If A is tethered to “sin”, he can roam anywhere within the range B permits, but it ends in death. This is the natural condition of EVERY human being since Adam.
    If A is tethered to (slave to) C, he also can roam as near or far from C as he chooses, but he now has access to the blessings of being near “God”.
    5. If you were C, who would you wish to hold your tether?
    TRANSITION: You might have thought that I forgot today is Palm Sunday. On this day we often think of palm branches because they are strange to our idea of celebration. But on THIS Palm Sunday, let’s take a moment to think about tethering

    Choose Your King

    Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a bar makes you an alcoholic. But if there is something that you wish to become, the choices you make will contribute to your outcome.
    I like to tell young people that you are more likely to find spouse material in the place that aligns with what you are looking for in a spouse.

    A colt tethered (Mt 21:12, Mk 11:2, Luke 19:30)

    All three of the synoptic gospels contribute something to this story, which gives credibility to the eyewitness accounts. Matthew is the most precise as it mentions both the colt and mother and that it was a donkey, not a horse. Mark and Luke both highlight that the colt had never been ridden.
    I think the unridden donkey makes the picture of a beast who still had a wild nature. I believe it is this wild nature that Paul is alluding to when he mentions being set free from slavery to and the wages of sin 6 times in today’s Scripture
    The contrast is seen in the wild colt being tamed by and useful to the arriving King, King Jesus.
    While I used to be tethered to sin, when Jesus takes control, I have a new master and a new purpose.
    When Jesus is given the reins, I am given direction and become useful for a good purpose.
    Are you still tied to a post or have your reins been entrusted to the King?

    The crowd tethered (Mt 21:9; Mk 11:9; LK 19:38; Jn 12:13)

    While Luke does not mention the word hosanna (probably because Dr. Luke writes from a Gentile perspective), all 4 Gospel writers address the hopes in a new deliverer.
    In a couple of weeks NFL teams will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in hopes that some new talent will be their key to success.
    Every 2 years millions of dollars are spent to convince us that a new judge, a new congressman, or a new Governor/President will change our future.
    2. Over the span of Passion Week we discover several options of tethering. The crowd claims that they want to serve the Messiah deliverer. Later we will see Judas tethering to the money of the religious leaders. Peter will tether to immediate comfort by denying a connection to Jesus. The religious leaders with tether to their power structure rather than submit to the Lordship of Christ. Pilate will choose to tether to the religious leaders rather than his own conscience.

    Conclusion:

    Every choice you make tethers or enslaves you to an outcome.
    Romans 6:23 clearly presents the 2 options to anchor your life and the 2 results.
    Your bulletin notes provide Light and Lamp applications, but in my spoken time I’d like to make 2 different applications.
    You can choose to tether to leisure or to productivity. But time invested in one eliminates time available for the other.
    You can choose to tether to spiritual development (participate in rhythms of reading, praying and loving/serving others that are fruit of righteousness) or tether to career, family, sports, hobbies, comfort, social media, etc. But time invested in one eliminates time available for the other.
    As a follower of Jesus Christ, we are each bound to His call for righteousness. None of us need to make a habit of being at the outer limits of that boundary.
    You get to choose once for eternity where your stake is anchored. Will you choose death or Jesus Christ our Lord?
    You get to choose each moment of each day if you will be at the end of your rope, or near to your anchor.
    Psalm 16:11 ESV:2016
    You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
    This week from Palm Sunday until Resurrection Sunday my plea is for all of us to avoid the extremes and stay near to our Savior.
  • Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross
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