The sermon 'Moved to Obedience: Going and Helping' by Jason Dohm explores how God stirs the hearts of His people to fulfill His will, specifically in the context of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. The sermon begins by referencing the biblical passage where King Cyrus of Persia, acknowledging God's sovereignty, allows the Jewish captives to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The call to obedience is twofold: some are moved to physically go and rebuild, while others are called to support and help those who go. Dohm emphasizes that God is the central character orchestrating these events, moving hearts to obedience and illustrating a pattern seen throughout scripture where family heads are mobilized to lead their families in worship and service. Through examples like Abraham and Joshua, the sermon highlights the role of family leaders in guiding their households towards God's purposes. Additionally, the sermon stresses the importance of unity and diversity within the body of Christ, warning against despising others who serve in different capacities or have different spiritual inclinations. The journey from Babylon to Jerusalem is depicted as one of significant sacrifice and toil, requiring divine motivation, as the people leave behind familiarity and security for a challenging mission.

We'll begin reading in verse 5 and going to verse 11 which is the end of this chapter. Then the heads of the fathers houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites with all those whose spirit God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem. And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered. King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the House of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods. And Cyrus, king of Persia, brought them out by the hand of Mithridah the treasurer and counted them out to Shev's bazaar the prince of Judah.

This is the number of them 30 gold platters, 1, 000 silver platters, 29 knives, 30 gold basins, 410 silver basins, and a similar kind, and 1, 000 other articles. All the articles of gold and silver were 5, 400, and these Sheshbazar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem. The title of the sermon this morning is, Moved to Obedience. Going and helping. It's right back up where we left off from the text last week.

And we're seeing again as we saw in the very first verse that God is moving on hearts, and in this case He is moving on the hearts of His people to obey Him for the fulfilling of His will. So, He's going to move some to go and He's going to move some to help. In the text last week we had the proclamation from Cyrus, King of Persia. He's known as Cyrus the Great. And he conquered the Babylonian Empire and became the king of it.

In verse 2, which is the first verse of his proclamation, there are these two acknowledgments. The first acknowledgment is that everything that God has given him, the kingship that God has given him, and the kingdoms that he's ruling have been given to him by God. He didn't do that, but God gave him those kingdoms. The second acknowledgement was that God has commanded him to do something very specific, which is to build a house for the worship of God in Jerusalem. And so the proclamation is intended to obey something that God has commanded Cyrus to do.

Then in Verse 3, which is the second verse of Cyrus' proclamation, we have what he's telling the captive Jews to do. Go. Let him go. It's permission to go, it's encouragement to go, but it's not a command to go. In other words, they're not in trouble if they don't go.

But he wants people whose hearts are turned towards this work to go and do it. To go rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. And then in verse 4, the final verse of Cyrus' proclamation, we have what all the other captives are to do. They're to help. So if you're the neighbor of someone who's going, you're to help them.

You're to load them up with resources so that they have everything that They need to go and do the work that Cyrus is commissioning them to do, which really God is commissioning them to do through this king, whose heart is in the hand of the Lord. God is treating that heart like a water course. He's directing it wherever he wishes. This week we see again that God is the central character. So it wasn't Cyrus in week one and week two.

Cyrus wasn't the central character. God is. God has Cyrus doing, fulfilling his will. And in this week it's the same thing. The people of God are going to be doing certain things.

They're going to either be going or helping, but God is the central character who is causing all the movement that is happening in our text. Now here's the structure of our text this week. It follows so very closely the structure from our text last week. In other words, last week was the proclamation of this Gentile King, and then this week we're seeing in exactly the same order and in many of exactly the same words, the fulfillment of the proclamation of this Gentile King. Last week we have a proclamation where he says, go or help.

This week we see those who are going and those who are helping. So Ezra follows the same structure as the proclamation of King Cyrus. As we come to the text, let's pray. Oh God, in view of the mercies of Christ, we ought to be an obedient people. You have proven the kind intentions of your will to us by sending Christ to take upon Himself our sins, to pay the penalty for them.

So you've proven yourself to be a faithful father and we have every reason to obey you, to follow you, to know that everything you've commanded is for our good and for your glory. So we should be obeying you. God, I pray that you would use this text to stir us up to obedience, even as the people in the text are stirred up to do your will. May it be so of us. May you be working mightily in our hearts to move us forward in obedience.

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's begin by looking at just verse 5, those who went. Ezra 1 verse 5. Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.

So here specific tribes are named. Benjamin, Judah, and Levi. These are the tribes that are in view. Israel had split into Judah and Israel. Sometimes Israel is called Ephraim.

Frequently Israel is called Ephraim in the Old Testament after the split. So when The people of God come into the promised land, they're a unified people. The twelve tribes are unified, they conquer the land. But in time, a rift, a deep rift develops and there's a civil war. So we're not the first country who's ever had a north versus south civil war.

Same is true of Israel. So you have a northern kingdom that has a capital, and that capital is Samaria. And the northern kingdom is made up of ten tribes. And 200 years before the Southern Kingdom goes into captivity at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, two hundred years before that, the northern kingdom, the ten tribes are taken into captivity because they lead the way in apostasy. They lead the way in falling away from God and idol worship.

And so God judges them sooner because they've been more unfaithful than the southern kingdom. So you have the northern kingdom, Israel or Ephraim. It has a capital city named Samaria. It's made up of ten tribes. Then you have the southern kingdom.

It also has a capital. Jerusalem is the capital. That's where the temple is. That's where the temple worship is. And it is the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and many Levites.

So Levi, as a tribe, didn't have their own territory. God was their inheritance. They were in charge of spiritual activities, particularly temple worship. They were sprinkled throughout the other tribes. When Israel became more and more unfaithful, and the temple worship being in the southern kingdom, many of the Levites ended up in Judah because that's where the more pure worship of God was happening.

There was less idolatry there. So many Levites migrated to be part of Judah. So that's why they're the third tribe mentioned here. And then a subset of the tribe of Levi is this family within the family of Levi, the descendants of Aaron who are the priests and who are tasked with the most holy, the most separate work of worship in the temple. So you have Benjamin, and you have Judah, and you have Levi, and within Levi you have the priests.

So those are the tribes and the families that are called out. Here's what we see in verse 5. We see family heads mobilizing the Lord's people for obedience. You see that? Heads of families, mobilizing their families to obey God and to follow after God.

And this is a blessing. God doesn't have to work this way. Sometimes God doesn't work this way. Sometimes God works through other channels. That's true.

But often God is pleased to work this way. To stir up family heads, to mobilize their families to follow wholeheartedly after God. We see that in this text. And it's a blessing. So God doesn't always work this way, but often God is pleased to work this way.

To take the head of a household and say, you and your household are mine. And that head says, okay family, we're serving the Lord together, and the things that please God are going to be the things that we're about, and this is our God. Not just my God, but our God, and we're going to worship Him, and we're going to serve Him. So we see this happening in Ezra 1 verse 5. Here are two instances in the Old Testament where we see exactly the same thing.

And I just want to bring these quickly to show this is an established pattern. God stirring up family heads to mobilize the family to worship and serve God is an established pattern. He's often pleased to work that way. The first is in Genesis chapter 18 verse 19. In Genesis chapter 18 verse 19, God is speaking of Abraham.

And here's what we see. For I have known him. This is God speaking of Abraham. For I, God, have known him, Abraham. Some of the good translations render it for I have chosen him.

So known, God has known Abraham or God has chosen Abraham. Both are good translations. In order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice. It's a very interesting language in Genesis 18 and 19. God says that he knew Abraham or he chose Abraham in order that for the purpose of Abraham mobilizing his family to do righteousness and justice and to follow after God, to be worshippers of God.

So God raised Abraham up so that this family would be mobilized to worship and honor and serve and follow after God. Abraham is really the ultimate head of a family, isn't he? We don't call him Father Abraham for no reason. He's kind of the prototype, the example of a head of a family. God says there was a specific purpose why he raised Abraham up.

It was so that he would command his family. He would mobilize his family to worship God. The second example, which you're expecting, and now you're getting, is Joshua. At the very end of the book of Joshua, in Joshua chapter 24 verse 15, Joshua at the end of his life has called the nation of Israel together, and he's exhorting them, and he says in Joshua 24 verse 15, And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua was the head of a family like we see in Ezra 1 verse 5.

The head of a family who God raised up to mobilize those under his care to worship and serve and honor God. So this is a pattern in the Old Testament. And often God is pleased to work in this way. Fathers, If the application to us isn't obvious here, I don't know what application will ever be obvious. We ought to be this.

Fathers, we ought to be men who God stirs up to mobilize the people who God has put into our families and should be cared for so lavishly by us for what purpose? That God would be worshiped, that God would be served and followed and honored. May it be that the fathers here are raised up, stirred up, moved, our hearts are moved by God to mobilize our families so that God would be great in our homes. So that we would be pockets of the worship of God and little congregations who exist to serve Him and live to His glory. God would make His name great because we're mobilizing our families to worship Him and serve Him.

So who went? Who went? Some people are going to hear the proclamation of King Cyrus and are going to say, we want to do that. Who was it? Verse 5 tells us, all whose spirits God had moved.

That's who went. The ones whose spirits God had moved. God is the source of people leaving Babylon and going back to Jerusalem to raise up a temple for the worship of God. God is the primary cause. So Cyrus is a Gentile king and he's doing things.

He's not the primary cause, God is. Cyrus is the secondary cause. So family heads are pulling their families together and saying, family we're going to go do this. They're not the primary cause, they're the secondary cause. God is the primary cause.

And he is moving the spirits of certain ones of his people to pick up everything after 70 years of sending roots down and building communities in Babylon. Maybe these were born there, maybe their parents were born there, Maybe their grandparents were born there. After 70 years, you certainly have all of the above. God is uprooting people because His Spirit is moving on the spirit of His people. We see the same word used as in verse 1.

The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. Those are the exact words in verse 1. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. And the exact same Hebrew word is used here in verse 5. All whose spirits God had moved.

Same Hebrew word, a different rendering in the New King James. But the point is the same. Cyrus was a man stirred up by God to do his will. And the people in Ezra chapter 1 verse 5 are people whose spirits are moved by God. Same Hebrew word.

We need to notice this. This needed to be a move of God. Why? Because The people are leaving a lot. They're leaving their life.

They're leaving the place where most of them grew up. They're leaving a level of safety. They're leaving for less safety. They're leaving a level of prosperity for less prosperity. They're leaving an easier life for a harder life.

They're leaving less toil for more toil. They're leaving security for enemies. That's what we are going to see in Ezra and Nehemiah. When they get there, not everybody is going to be happy that God has sent them there to build a house for His name. They are going to be encountering enemies who are going to want to physically, violently part them from their mission.

Here's what Matthew Henry says, Had God left them to themselves, and to the counsels of flesh and blood, they would have stayed in Babylon. But he put it into their hearts to set their faces Zion-ward. In other words, good sense would have had them staying in Babylon. It was just up to the councils of flesh and blood. It would have stayed in Babylon.

But God had something else in mind and He put it into their hearts to set their faces Zionward. Staying was the safe play. Staying was the safe move. And in going, They were signing up for long term toil and hardship. So this is not hooray, we get to go home, just this light hearted, we'll just skip back to Jerusalem and everything will be well.

In going back, there is no skipping back to Jerusalem. This is a three to five month hard journey. That's just the starting line. It's uprooting everything and traveling for three to five months. They are signing up for long-term toil and hardship.

Most of them who go are going to be dead before the work is done. Do you get that? They're not going to just go back and spiff up the temple. There is no temple to spiff up. You're going to have to rebuild it.

The walls are broken down. There's no security there. So God moves on the spirits of his people. In spite of the toil, the long term toil and hardship that they're signing up for, moves them to do it anyway. God does all sorts of things this way.

He inclines his people towards all sorts of things. What is the implication for us? Here it is. Be careful. Be very careful about how you think about your brothers and sisters and the things that they involve themselves in, and the life choices that they're making.

How easy would it have been for those going to despise those who are only helping. Have you seen that? Have you ever felt that in your own heart? So I'm going. I'm signing up for long-term toil and hardship.

I'm hardcore. But you're just helping us a little. And to create a first-class, second-class system among the people of God. And God says, no they are going because I stirred up their hearts. You are staying and helping because I didn't stir up your hearts to do that.

I didn't move your spirit to go back to Jerusalem. And yet, it's very tempting to look at other people and the things that God's doing in their life and because it's different than what God has inclined you towards to despise them. May it never be. Paul deals with this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is all about this.

He's talking about spiritual gifts, and he speaks of unity and diversity. And he says our unity is in Christ. We are one body, but we are not one body made of only feet. A body made out of only feet is a freakish monster. And so Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 says, The foot, because it's not a hand, shouldn't say I'm not part of the body.

And the ear, because it's not an eye, shouldn't say I'm not part of the body, because bodies need more than feet. And bodies need more than eyes. A body with feet but no hands is not a body. A body with ears but no eyes is not what is needed. So Paul talks about our unity in Christ, being the people of the Lord but having very different functions, very different places.

It doesn't mean that we get a pass for everything just because God told me so. That is the language of evangelicalism today. God told me, and sometimes it is in contradiction to the Word of God. So it's not a free pass to just baptize things by saying God told me this. But, on the other hand, we need to be very careful and not think because someone is not inclined towards the things that you're inclined that they're A compromiser.

You have to recognize what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. That there is unity in Christ, diversity, and the diversity is needed, and God is at the heart of the diversity. God is doing this. He's inclining certain ones towards certain things. What's the classic example of this?

The classic example of this is the young, zealous person who has the gift of evangelism. Ever met one of those? If you're not all over everyone you meet, and street preaching isn't part of your repertoire, then you're second class. This can happen. This is why it happens.

There is not an appreciation yet that comes with more maturity, seeing more, that there are different parts of the body. That doesn't mean that we don't all have a responsibility for evangelism, but it looks different in the life of someone who has the gift of evangelism. They do it easily. They're inclined towards it, and it's harder for the rest of us. So when you see people who aren't operating very well in your area of gifting, you just need to understand that this is what Paul is talking about.

That it's easy for you and you're inclined towards it because of God. So it's not a reason to despise your brethren. So here is an example. The book of Ezra begins with the talk of the fulfillment of God's words through the prophet Jeremiah. Here's another helpful place in Jeremiah that helps us understand how God moves on the spirits of His people to drive them to do his will.

It comes from Jeremiah chapter 20. In Jeremiah chapter 20, Jeremiah is fed up with being an ignored prophet. God is telling him what to say. He's thundering forth the words of God and all it ever buys him is reproach and derision. In other words, people hate his guts because of what God has told him to say.

So in Jeremiah chapter 20, what he decides he's going to do about this is just stop saying the words that God has given him. Jeremiah chapter 20 verses 7 through 9, O Lord, you induced me, and I was persuaded.