What Grieves God

Nehemiah 1

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Intro – I said the last time I preached I felt compelled to preach on the book of Nehemiah. However, I had some hesitation regarding attempting to do a book sermon series. Preaching once a month, I was hesitant about the idea.  After talking the idea over with Pastor he told me two things. One that if I felt I should, go for it! The second thing was cautionary in nature. That allot of preachers don’t like preaching on Nehemiah. Because they he started his ministry was very different than how he ended it in chapter 13. Now I will admit, when I said to Pastor that I want to preach on Nehemiah. I hadn’t finished studying the text. So the next day listened to it as I was driving into work, and I can see why it makes people feel uncomfortable. And two, I’m excited! We’ll see it later, but Nehemiah was a type of Christ. Like I can tell you now, it’s gonna be absolute FIRE! I can feel it! The Holy Spirit is about to do something really cool. 

Sensitive – Grieve what Jesus Grieves

VS 1-4 

Its probably just me, but at a certain point I became insensitive to wickedness that didn’t affect me. Like certain things have become the accepted norm in modern day society. At a certain point the middle east attacking Israel became normal. Since I can remember the Palestinian Liberation Army has bombed buses, and done other similar attacks on Israel.  So for a moment I would like to consider what things grieve God. What angers Him. So if we were to look at Exodus 20:2-17 the first three of ten commandments. We start to see a trend. So for the purposes of this sermon we are gonna look at them 3-2-1. 

3rd Commandment - You shall not take the name of the Lord you God in vain. 

It should be noted that God is NOT God’s name. However, it is intentional that the author of Exodus imparts the idea that we are not to use His name in vain. Most commentaries would say refrain from speaking flippantly. Like the name of God isn’t that big of a deal. JESUS the KING OF HEAVEN IS A BIG DEAL!! HIS NAME IS HOLY! It should make your skin crawl when you hear people use it in any other way than to bring glory to Him. 

2nd Commandment – You shall not make for yourself a carved image. 

The most convenient, and readily available analogy is the Catholic church. I want to be clear. My intention isn’t to bash on the Catholic church. Thomas and the Deacons have been reading the book Worship – and the ear of God. It brings out the idea that Worship is a physical act. Almost always bowing down to prayer is a requirement in this. So, it is a big deal to bow down and pray to an object that claims to represent God. Or act as a intercessor of God. The one true God has said how we are to Worship Him. Shameless Plug, Church family be looking for the Harvest Podcast “Foot Notes”, Coming January 2026!

1st Commandment – You shall have no other gods before me. 

If we were to look around in 2025. This one is quite clear. False gods are everywhere. Looking at American culture only. We place people, and things in places of priority higher and more important than God. So you could say if Jesus sits second seat to anything else in our life. Let’s be clear this includes time. When we place our time before the desires of what’s important to God. It grieves God as well. We should be very careful when we stop being useful to the Father. I knew a man who had been involved in church ministry, but had stopped going to church. I saw him, and I asked him why I he stopped going. He gave several reasons, but the last one was telling. He said I work six days a week, and so the one day I have off I just want to relax. I want as mine. About a week later he died.  

Summary of What Grieves God  - We can summarize this by saying, If there things, or people in our lives that take a higher priority over God it grieves him. And therefore should also grieve us as well. The warning we should take from this however, is that when we look at what was going on in the time of Nehamiah. God had scattered His people because of their sin against Him. You could even say because of their sin against Him in first three commandments. So we should be sensitive to the same things that grieve God. These things should drive us to weep, to mourn, to fast, and pray. 

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