AMA: Did Jesus Set Boundaries? - Pastor Mike Houck | July 26, 2026

Jesus not only modeled healthy personal boundaries—He also established clear boundaries for His Church. In this message, Pastor Mike continues exploring the biblical convictions, priorities, and practices God calls His people to protect.

Transcript

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We are continuing with our topic on borders, borders and boundaries, primarily boundaries. But let me remind you that a boundary is a real or imaginary line that marks the limits of an area or separates two things. It defines where something ends and something else begins. Whether that is a physical property line, a country's border, a personal rule you set to protect your time and emotional well-being. Also, you'll notice that a border, while it is often used synonymously as a boundary, it is the part or edge of a surface or area that forms its outer uh its outer boundary. Before I begin begin the message, I want to mention, thank you, I want to mention something with regard to the uh border crisis as it's been uh as it's come has come to be called uh for our nation. If you go back and you look, you can just uh Google this, you'll notice that every president um has um has expelled people from the United States. They've deported people, everyone has done that, um, upwards of over a million people during the course of their presidency. Actually, uh, you may also be surprised to know that during Trump's first presidency, uh, he had the least amount of deportations during that four-year period. I'm not gonna say whether what is happening now is necessarily uh right or wrong, um, but I want you to know that in Scripture uh you'll notice the word borders and lines. And it is meant to uh just like in your family or in a church or a business or whatever, you establish those borders, you establish those boundaries so that you can maintain order. In our country, uh, we have not done that very well. We've had a very porous uh border, and so people have come in, um, and the one of the issues with that is we don't really know who's here. Uh one of the interesting things is that while we are having this conflict with Iran, it is estimated that there are some 20,000 undocumented Iranians that live in the U.S. And there's concern that they may create uh terror cells um within the US. We don't know what's who's coming in, and um and so it has created a problem. It has created a bro um it has created problems for our elections, the integrity of our elections, it has created problems for our financial situation. Um there are a number of issues associated with it. It's not a new problem, it's not something that uh President Trump created. It's been going on for uh a number of years. Um and my take on it is that for all those who say that you know we should have an open border, um, the the fact is is that we do have laws, and those laws need to be enforced. Um how they're enforced uh may vary. But one of the things that you don't see on either side of the political aisle is you don't see people trying to help uh these individuals who are here to become legal citizens. The Democrats, they just want to hide them and let them let them live. Uh Republicans want to deport them for the most part. Um there is no there is no uh there's no real good system for helping these people. And so they come and uh and then you have a problem where you have um a president such as Biden who was very hands-off with regard to people coming in, and so people came because it was like an open invitation, and then you have a president like Trump who wants to enforce those laws, and so as a nation we have become very passive-aggressive, depending on who happens to be in office as to how we're going to enforce these laws. The problem is that there are a lot of people and good people who get caught up in the mess. And whether you know it or not, you are caught up in the mess because a good portion of what you are taxed uh goes to pay for this. This is a perfect example, and I'll leave it with this. This is a perfect example of not enforcing proper boundaries. It leads to chaos, whether it's in your family, whether it's in the church, whether it's in the business, whether it's in the nation. If you do not maintain proper boundaries and borders, it leads to chaos. And that's what we have now, as far as our nation is concerned. We have a great deal of chaos with regard to that. Scripture speaks to that matter and tells us that, and and I want you to know that God is a God of order, he's not a God of chaos. And he um instructed his people to maintain borders. The Bible, while it does not use the word boundaries, is full of boundaries, like guardrails intended to keep people safe, keep people moving, keep people safe, um, keep our relationships healthy, keep our relationship with God healthy. And so the Bible is full of those, and we're gonna look at a few of them this morning. So as I was thinking about what I was going to say, the question came up: did Jesus have boundaries? Did he maintain boundaries? And the reality is, yes, he did. He had very strict boundaries. Number one, Jesus knew his mission and didn't let people move him from it. He knew what he was here to do, and he did it. When he hung on the cross, what did he say? It is finished. I have completed the work that I have been sent here to do. In John 6.15, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. You see, people always have an agenda for you. People had an agenda for Jesus. The disciples didn't even understand that. Judas, probably the reason, one of the reasons that he betrayed him was because he was disappointed that he did not overthrow the Roman government. And the disciples really, that's what they thought. When he came, he was gonna set himself up as king, and that the Romans uh they were under Roman oppression, uh, that he was gonna take care of that, that Israel would rise up and they would no longer be under Roman oppression. And that's what they wanted from him. They saw him as a prophet, um, they saw him as a great teacher, they saw him as the Messiah, and so they thought that he was going to bring political freedom to them. And he said, No, that's not what I'm about. And he said a little bit later, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And then in Matthew chapter 10, he sent out uh the twelve disciples. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He knew his mission, he knew who his art his target audience was. He didn't stray from that. As a matter of fact, there's a passage where a Canaanite woman comes and she's yelling out to Jesus because she has a daughter that is demon-oppressed, and Jesus ignores her. And the disciples are like, send her away because she keeps crying out. And she comes to him and she says, Can you heal my daughter? And what does he say? He says, I have come, he says to the disciples, I have come for the lost sheep of Israel. And he says to her that it is not good to give the bread that belongs to children to the dogs. Can you imagine Jesus saying that? Back then, if you weren't a, if you weren't a Jew, if you were a Gentile, you were you were considered like a dog. And he says, hey, I'm not here for you. Now, in that instance, because of her faith, she she replied and said that even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall off of the table. And Jesus rewarded her because of her faith, and he healed her daughter. But the fact is he knew who he had come to minister to. He knew why he was here. He knew what the will of the Father was, and he didn't stray from that. He didn't allow people with their ideas for him to change his mission. He didn't allow the popularity that he might have experienced for a period of time to change his mission. I mean, wouldn't it have been great if he had become king? But that wasn't God's plan. And so he knew his mission and didn't let people move him from it. And then Matthew chapter 16, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord. Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. He said this to Peter in response to Jesus explaining to the disciples what was going to happen to him, that he was going to go to Jerusalem, that they were going to put him to death, and then three days later he would be raised again. And Peter says, No, no, no, no. This isn't going to happen to you, Lord. You shouldn't talk like that. And he rebukes him. And he says, Get behind me, Satan. You have a different agenda than what I have. You have on your mind the things of man, but I am here to do the will of the Father. The second boundary that we see, and there are many, but I'm going to cover a couple. He was not distracted by the request of people. In Matthew 12, 38 and 39. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered them an evil and adulterous generation seeks for signs, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Well, what was the sign of the prophet Jonah? Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, and then he came out. And the sign of Jonah is that Jesus would die and three days later would be resurrected. That would be the only sign that they would get. But I mean, Jesus did all kinds of miracles. But that's not what he did. He didn't get distracted by the things that the people wanted him to do. As a matter of fact, there's a passage of scripture where there was Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and Lazarus had become sick. Now Jesus was really good friends with them, and they sent for Jesus and they said that Lazarus is sick unto death, and could you come and heal him? And what does Jesus do? He doesn't take off and go to him immediately. He continues to minister. And then when he gets there, Lazarus is dead. Now, and they were like, you know, if you had been here, Lazarus would not have died. He had a greater purpose, and the purpose was to show the power of God and to raise Lazarus from the dead. So Jesus didn't do everything that people asked him to do. You know, we kind of uh we do the same thing, really, in our prayers, don't we? I mean, we sometimes treat God or we treat Jesus like a genie in a bottle, like I need this and you need to do it for me. And if you don't do it for me, then we get offended, we get frustrated. But it's not about our will, it's about his will. And number three, he was not controlled by the offense of people. This is a big one. In John 6, 66, I noticed that number is not a good one. From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. That was in response to his teaching. He was some teaching some very hard things and they didn't like it. And so the multitudes left him. And we don't see Jesus running after them and saying, Oh, I'm so sorry that I offended you. Um is there anything I can do to keep you satisfied, to to make you like me? He didn't do any of that. And then there's a passage where it says then the disciples came to him and said, You know the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying. If you look throughout the New Testament, Jesus offended a lot of people. But he didn't change his message. And he didn't take responsibility for their feelings. That's a big deal. Today, the worst thing you can do is offend somebody. I mean, we we have really pardon the expression, but we've really become a bunch of pansies. I mean, everything offends us. We get upset over the slightest little thing. And in churches, it's terrible. We we don't want to offend anybody. A number of years ago, we put up the American flag, and there was concern that it might offend some people. I mean, you live in America. So we're gonna have we're gonna have an American flag. I mean, if that offends you, I'm sorry. Um there's a mosque somewhere in Syracuse, I'm sure you could go there. We're just so worried about offending people. We don't want to offend anybody. Jesus wasn't worried about that. It didn't change his message, it didn't change the way he acted. He came here on a mission to share and to demonstrate the gospel of Jesus Christ. God sent him to die. God sent him to his own people so that he might show them the way. He didn't detract from that. He didn't change. The second thing I want to share with you is that there are spiritual boundaries for God's people. There are spiritual boundaries for God's people. This passage in Exodus chapter 19 is very interesting. It says, For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people, and you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man. He shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. God came to the mountain. His presence was on the mountain. And he told Moses, I want you to set up a border. I want you to set up a boundary around the mountain. And nobody can come onto the mountain, either beast or or man. The mountain is is is sacred, it's holy, because God's presence is there, and you can't cross this line. We don't like that as people. We don't like that. We don't like not having access to everything. But God is holy. So he instructs Moses and he says, so if anybody crosses that line, they are to be put to death. Now it's interesting. God didn't say, I will put them to death. What did he say? You should put them to death. You're supposed to maintain and enforce the boundary. I'll tell you what the boundary is, but you're supposed to enforce it. You're supposed to maintain it. And so they were instructed that if anybody crossed that border, that boundary, that they were either to be stoned or shot with an arrow. It's pretty harsh. We don't like stuff like that. Because we want to be able to do whatever we want to do. But God said, This is the boundary, this is the border, and you are responsible to maintain it. So God expected his people to enforce the boundary. In Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 to 16, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Wow. Wow. God says these are the rules. And if you have a brother that breaks these rules, if you see a brother that's struggling with sin, the Bible says that you're supposed to go to him and talk to him. Now we have a tendency to ignore that. God loves you, and we're just so Happy you're here today. We're so happy that you're in our church. And we just pray that somebody or somehow they might come around to the truth, that they might change their ways. And the Holy Spirit can do that. But yet I'm here to tell you that God says it's the responsibility of believers, it's the responsibility of the church to maintain the boundaries, to maintain the borders, to make sure that there is some integrity within the congregation. But we don't do that. What do we do? We talk about it with other people. And if it gets really bad, then we bring it to the pastor and hope that he'll do something with it. And then when it doesn't go well, and the people end up leaving the church, well, then that becomes the pastor's problem and the pastor's burden, and he has to live with that. And then other people, well, I wonder why they left. What happened to so-and-so? You see, it's the responsibility of God's people to enforce the boundaries within the body, within the church. If you see someone that's struggling in sin, it's your responsibility to go to him and talk to him and say, hey, I'm concerned about you. And if you continue to head down this path, it's going to lead to destruction. So I want to talk to you. But we don't do that because while we don't want to offend them, we'd rather that they like us and we're happy to see them in church. In 1 Corinthians 15, 11 through 12, Paul writes, but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunk, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what I what have I to do with judging outsiders? It is not those people inside the church whom you are to judge. God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. It is our responsibility to maintain the boundaries and the borders within the church. Our concern isn't out there. It's in here. But the reality is that in most churches and for most Christians, there's not a whole lot of difference between our behavior and the behavior of those outside the church. The statistics show that we're very similar. Divorce rates, sexual immorality, you name it, there's not much different between us and the rest of the world. Why? Because we don't maintain the boundaries. Secondly, we are to maintain the integrity of the gospel. Galatians 1, 8, and 9. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. It's okay if they believe a little bit differently than us. It's alright. I mean, God loves everybody. Right? And so if somebody is preaching a different gospel, if somebody's you know always talking about how much God loves you and how much God wants to bless you financially and all this stuff, I mean it's okay. It's just his flavor of things or her flavor of things. Paul says, let them be accursed. The church has a responsibility to maintain the integrity of the gospel, to maintain that message. But we have churches all over the United States that are bending on this issue and bending on that issue, to now, to where now we have great division amongst the churches, and there's fighting between denominations over different principles and different behaviors, and nobody wants to maintain the boundaries and the borders anymore. In 1 Timothy 1, 3 and 4, as I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. Pastor David has a very difficult responsibility to maintain the integrity of the Word of God, and people get offended. He's had a lot of people get offended. And he shares that with me, and I'm glad he does because I'm his dad and I've been there. Something motivational, something encouraging. Don't talk about certain subjects, don't mention certain things. You offended me. You know, the church has gotten to the point, and hear me, this is serious. The church has gotten to the point where we are concerned about offending anybody except for God. We don't care if we offend God. So we're gonna let things slide because we don't want to hurt people's feelings, and yet we break the heart of God, yet we grieve the Holy Spirit, and then we wonder why our churches don't have any power. And why our churches don't grow. You know why our churches don't grow? Because there's no difference, there's not very much difference between what's going on in here and what's going on out there. There's no difference. So people get offended. People have these, and there's lots of good things. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of wonderful ministries, there's lots of wonderful topics. Over the years, I've had people come and say, Oh, you need to preach on this. I had one guy, he insisted on meeting with me before the service started, and which I don't really like to meet with people before the service, you know. Can you wait and I'll talk to you afterwards? But he insisted, so I went in and he said, I want to know, do you ever preach from first and second theologians? And I said, No. And he couldn't believe it. Well, he didn't get the joke because there is no first and second theologians. What he probably meant was Thessalonians. But he said, first and second theologians, and I said, No, no, actually, I'm, you know, in all my years of ministry, I've never preached from those books. You need to. The people need to hear it. And of course, he was, you know, into the end times and everything like that. And there are people that will come in, that's what you need to preach, Pastor. You need to talk about the end times. We need to figure this out. We need to know when Jesus is coming back, we need to know when the rapture's gonna be, we need to know all this stuff. And it's great. If you want to study that, that's fine. But that's not our job. If you have if you're politically motivated and you want to talk about what's wrong with our country and our nation, that's fine. That's not our job. You want to have a you want to have a small group Bible study on a particular topic, on abortion or on something, uh some social issue, that's fine. But that's really not our job. Our job is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if you get offended by that, then I'm sorry, but if it's from the Bible, then that's on you. Now, I mean, I personally can do a lot of things to offend someone, but if I'm preaching and it's from the Word of God and you're offended by that, then that's on you. That's between you and God. And the reality is that a pastor is held to a higher standard. Someday, Pastor David and myself and other pastors will have to stand before God and give an account for everything that we said. Give an account for every message. And personally, I don't want to stand before God and have him say, You knew what the word, you knew what my word said, but you didn't say it because you didn't want to offend so-and-so. God expects us to maintain his borders and his boundaries. And then number three, focus on the mission of the church. In Matthew 28, 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. What is our job? Preach the gospel and teach them to obey. Teach people to obey the word of God. Now, I don't know how you can do that without addressing issues, without addressing problems. If you see someone who's going down a road in disobedience, I don't know how you can teach them to obey by ignoring that. You can't. You have to address it. And they may be offended, but just like Jesus, that's on them. Now, of course, we're to do it in love. We're not to go around beating people up with a King James Version or something like that. But if you're if you have concerned about the direction that somebody is going, we have a responsibility, we have an obligation to maintain that border, that boundary, and go to them and say, This is outside of God's will for you. You need to change. But we don't do that. We don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Ephesians 4, 11 through 14. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. That's what we are to do. That's what pastors are to do. But let me say this to you. Let me describe the Church of America. We are children. We are tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. We are gullible. We want to be entertained. We want to hear what we want to hear. We don't want any hard feelings, any hurt feelings. We want everybody to like us. And it's a disgrace, really. I mean, we call ourselves Christians, which means followers of Christ or Christ-like. Christ maintained borders and boundaries. He knew what he was about. We need to reacquaint ourselves with what we are about. The Bible calls us a peculiar people, which means we're a little odd, we're a little different. Now, some of you are a little odder and more different than others. But as a group, that's who we are. Our job is not to fit in. Our job is not to be liked by everybody. The Bible is full of boundaries. Behavioral boundaries, relational boundaries, you name it, financial boundaries. The Bible is full of boundaries. And as God's people, he expects us to enforce those boundaries. And so, Pastor David or myself, we may not choose a particular topic that you want to speak, that you want to hear about, or you want to study, or your pet project, or whatever. There's a lot of ministries that we aren't going to do. I remember a number of years ago, a woman came and she said, We need to have a food pantry in the church and we need to have a closed closet. And I said, No, we don't. First of all, we don't have the space. Second of all, we don't have the people to maintain that. However, I think that's a wonderful ministry. And if that's what you feel called to do, there are a number of places all over central New York where you can go and you can volunteer your time. And she was upset because she thought that was something that we ought to do, and yet she herself didn't want anything to do with it. We get lots of suggestions about what we should be doing as a church. We should have a choir, we should have a worship team. We should have this or we should have that. We should have Trail Life USA. The reality is we don't have the people to man it. We need to stay true to our mission, which is to preach the gospel. And we can wear ourselves out doing a lot of good things, but not staying true to our mission. God has established boundaries. We need to maintain those boundaries. If that means we ruffle some feathers, then I'm sorry, but you have a problem then with God or the Holy Spirit. Now I'm not uh again, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Pastor David or myself are above reproach and can't be corrected. I'm not saying that at all. But what I'm saying is that we need to main be we need to remain true to our calling. We need to remain true to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not everybody's gonna like us. Not everybody's gonna like that. But someday we'll stand before God and give an answer for what we did. So let me ask you a question. Do you know somebody who's falling away? Do you know somebody that was once um following Christ and then they got off track a little bit? Have you talked to them? Have you gone to them and said, you know what, I I know I know the path that you're on and I know where it leads. And I I I'm just here to caution you that you're headed for trouble. Have you done that? Instead of uh being critical, maybe of a message or whatever, have you checked and seen if maybe it wasn't the pastor that was talking to you, but maybe it was the Holy Spirit? You know, we we have this idea that everything the Holy Spirit does is warm and fuzzy and all exciting and everything. Uh that's not true. That's a lie. Um, the Holy Spirit convicts. The Holy Spirit causes us to look inward and realize where we are off track and where we are sinful. And those aren't pleasant experiences. They're for our benefit. But it's not all warm and fuzzy and kumbaya. As a church, we need to maintain boundaries. We need to remain true to the word of God. That's what Jesus did. And it got him nailed to a cross. It got him whipped and beaten. And who are we to think that we should be able to go through life without disappointments and without hurts and without scars? We need to maintain those boundaries. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the example of Jesus Christ, your son, who knew why he was here, knew why he was sent, knew to whom he was sent, and knew what he was supposed to do. And he did not stray from that. May we hear when we enter into your presence, well done, my good and faithful servant. The Bible tells us that we will either hear that statement or we will hear, depart from me, for I never knew you. And the Bible tells us that the answer to that, God, is that we'll say, Well, we did so many wonderful things in your name. But you didn't know us. So may we be a church that enforces the boundaries of Scripture. May we seek to honor God and not bring offense to Him. May we remain true to what we are called to do. Amen.