The Heart God Moves

Scripture

Ezra 1:1–11 KJV 1900

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 2 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. 4 And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. 5 Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. 6 And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. 7 Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods; 8 Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 9 And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives, 10 Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. 11 All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.

1 – MOVE ONWARD WITH GOD’S STIRRING

2 - MOVE FORWARD WITH GOD’S PROVISIONS

3 - MOVE BEYOND ISSUES OF PERSONAL COMFORT AND CONVENIENCE

4 - MOVE PAST YOUR FEARS TO DO GOD’S WILL

5 - MOVE ON IN THE MIDST OF OPPOSITION

We see how the Holy Spirit moves and blesses people by their obedience to His voice…

I trust that, as we continue to be obedient to Him…

He will continue to speak to people’s hearts…

Change their lives…

And the church will grow…

Jeremiah is known as the “weeping prophet”…

He was called to prophesy a difficult message during a difficult time, to the children of Israel…

And by and large…they never responded…

And, just as Jeremiah prophesied…

God’s judgment came…

And many people lost their lives…

And the ones that lived…

Just a small remnant…

were carried off into exile…

away from their homes…

many times families were broken up…

and they were separated from their place of worship…

the Temple…

and, the Temple was seen as the place where God dwelled….

So, in that sense, they even felt separated from their God…

But, here in Ezra, we see that the judgment has been carried out…

70 years of exile have passed…

And the book of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the people being able to return to their homeland…

And they can begin the work of rebuilding the city….

And even more importantly, rebuilding the Temple.

God Moved Cyrus’ Heart

A. verse 1 on of our text tells us that Cyrus made a proclamation throughout his land…

Something that was prophesied in

Jeremiah 29:10-14 “10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 14 And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.”

Isaiah also prophesied about it…

And he mentions Cyrus by name!!

Isaiah 44:28 “28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, And shall perform all my pleasure: Even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; And to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”

And in Isaiah 45:13 “13 I have raised him up in righteousness, And I will direct all his ways: He shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, Not for price nor reward, Saith the Lord of hosts.”

These prophesies were written probably 100 years earlier…

And then, here in the book of Ezra…

We read about the fulfillment of those prophesies.

So, Scripture tells us that God moved Cyrus’ heart…

And Cyrus issues this proclamation so that Jerusalem can begin to be restored…

It is fascinating that God is able to use a man who is not following God…

But he seemed willing to be used by God.

Some commentators think that one of the Jews showed this prophesy to Cyrus…

And he was willing to see it fulfilled.

Some commentators think it might have been Ezra…

But others point to Daniel.

In Daniel 6:28 “28 So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”

However it happened…

Cyrus could have had the exact opposite attitude…

“well, so what if God says that…

I won’t do it”…

But, instead, he was willing to be used of God…

Or, I could even say, he was obedient to the moving of the Holy Spirit…

And he set into motion the events so that Jerusalem could be rebuilt.

Cyrus not only issued the proclamation…

But he also supported the work financially…

And opened the way for others to support the work financially.

In verse 3, as a part of the proclamation…

Cyrus says, “ANYONE may go”.

So the Lord opened up the way for the entire Jewish people to return to Jerusalem

Everyone Whose Heart God had moved v. 5

A. You’d think that everyone would start packing

And be chomping at the bit to get back home.

But then comes the response to the proclamation in verse 5,

“Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites--everyone whose heart God had moved--prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem”

What a minute…

What about the tribe of Gad?

What about the tribe of Reuben?

What about the tribes of Zebulun, Dan, Joseph…

Naphtali, Asher, Simeon and Issachar?

There are 12 tribes of Israel…

And only a portion of 3 of the tribes decided to go…

Judah, Benjamin, and the priests descended from Levi

In Ezra, chapter 2, we see that about 50,000 people decided to go…

So quite a group decided to return…

But there are many, many more who decide not to go…

They decide to stay in the land of their exile.

Why is that?

Well, Scripture doesn’t tell us for sure…

But we have some pretty good ideas…

For one thing, the trip was 4 months long…

And it wasn’t an easy journey…

It was largely “uphill”…

When Cyrus says in verse 3, to go “up” to Jerusalem…

He wasn’t kidding…

Jerusalem was at a much higher altitude than Babylon…

So there would be climbing involved…

There would be the possibility of danger

The book of Ezra actually tells the details of 2 trips of people returning to Jerusalem…

The first one, led by Zerubbabel, detailed in Ezra 1-6…

And the second one, led by Ezra, detailed in Ezra 7-10.

In Ezra chapter 8, when Ezra himself is preparing to make this same journey…

He prays for safe travel…

This is a 900 mile journey, mostly on foot…

Across difficult terrain…

With the possibilities of attack by bandits…

And we see from some of the details in Ezra chapter one…

They were carrying some wealth…

Which was intended for the Temple.

But the difficult journey isn’t the only reason…

We also understand from ancient Persian writings…

That many of the Jews in captivity had acclimated to the society of their captures…

And they made a place for themselves…

Many of them had accumulated a measure of wealth…

They had new homes…

Their children had grown up there and married into that society as well…

Returning to Jerusalem would have meant giving up everything they had and starting over…

And most of the people just couldn’t bring themselves to do that

And, of course, once they actually get to Jerusalem…

It’s not like they have a house already built…

They would have a lot of hard work ahead of themselves…

Rebuilding their lives…

Rebuilding the city…

Rebuilding the Temple.

So, a great majority of them decided to stay behind.

But, thank the Lord…

There were some whose hearts the Lord was able to move to action…

There were some who heard the voice of the Holy Spirit…

And they responded.

So, what does this mean to us today at Restoration Community Christian Church, in 2022?

First of all, we need to believe upon the words of prophesy…

The Bible still speaks to God’s people today…

There are many prophesies that have already been fulfilled

Like the ones we looked at today…

But there are others…

Like prophesies about the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ…

Prophesies about the end times…

Many prophesies that have yet to occur.

Secondly, God still moves….

He is trying to move the hearts of men and women…

Boys and girls…

And teenagers…

And, just like in Ezra’s day…

Sure, some will respond to the moving of the Holy Spirit…

But many more will not.

God is trying to move in the hearts of people…

And my fear that, by percentage

It will only be a small group of people that responds.

Closings

Last week, we saw the movement of the Holy Spirit

I’m sure there were others that enjoyed the Spirit’s closeness…

But the Holy Spirit wasn’t speaking to them to do anything else but to enjoy His blessing in their life…

And that’s good too…

I’m certainly not looking to manipulate the Spirit…

I don’t want people trying to do things that the Spirit isn’t leading us to do.

But, I fear that there is also another group of people…

A group of people who refuse to move…

They have hardened their hearts to the voice of God…

They have committed the sin of “quenching the Holy Spirit”…

I see these people out in the world…

I see people whose hearts are hardened…

I see people who know right from wrong…

But they glory in doing wrong…

I see people who know the direction that God would have them to go…

And they will intentionally and purposefully walk the other way.

And my great fear is, not only are those people OUTSIDE the walls of the church…

But my great fear is…that that attitude is making its way INSIDE the walls of the church.

God wants to build His church…

Just as much today….

As He did in Ezra’s day…

And God is trying to move the hearts of His people….

He is trying to get people to respond to His call….

And obey the Spirit’s leading and guiding in their lives….

He is speaking to His church…

And I know that some people will respond…

They have already…

But I fear that we are at a dangerous crossroads…

Because I fear that we have people…

And I don’t know that you realize how much it pains me to admit this

This morning, I want you to realize that the Lord is here

He is trying to move the hearts of men and women…

Teenagers…

Boy and girls…

And my question for you is…do you have a heart that God can move?...

Or have you hardened your heart?

Do you plan to travel along the journey to the New Jerusalem…

Or do you plan to stay in Babylon…

Do you desire to join in the building of God’s Church…

Or do you just want to focus on your own comfort…

Your own accumulation…

Becoming acclimated to the great sin of society?

In Ezra chapter 1, we see that God moves the heart of a pagan king…

And he issues a proclamation allowing the rebuilding of the Temple…

We see that God moves the hearts of the people in the tribes of Benjamin, Judah, and Levi…

And they follow God to see that the Temple is rebuilt…

But, we also see that there was a great number of people whom God could not move…

People who were probably good people…

Successful people…

But they refused to respond to the Holy Spirit’s leading…

Do you have a heart that God can move?...

Or will you refuse to respond to the Holy Spirit’s voice?