Scott Brown's sermon, 'He Is Good, for His Mercy Endures Forever Toward Israel,' focuses on Ezra 3 and the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. Brown draws parallels between the rebuilding process and the foundation of Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone, emphasizing the importance of having a solid spiritual foundation. The sermon highlights the Israelites' journey from captivity and the challenges they faced, encouraging believers to trust in God's goodness and mercy through life's trials. Brown underscores the need to return to 'the old paths' for guidance, advocating for worship and unity as essential components of the journey from point A to point B. The sermon also discusses the significance of acknowledging God's goodness and mercy, using historical examples and biblical references to illustrate the enduring nature of God's love and the importance of praising Him in both abundance and adversity.

Ezra 3, starting in verse 8. Now in the second month of the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, Jeshua, the son of Josadach, and the rest of their brother and the priest and the Levites and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem began work and Appointed the Levites from 20 years old and above to oversee the work of the house of the Lord then Yeshua with his sons and brothers Kadmiel with his sons and the sons of Judah arose as one to oversee those working on the house of God. The sons of Hanadad with their sons and their brother in the Levites. When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals to praise the Lord according to the ordinance of David, king of Israel. And they sang responsibly, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever toward Israel.

Then all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the Father's houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off. Please pray with me.

Father we thank you that you have us here this morning to hear your word in this passage in Ezra 3. Father we thank you that you are good and that your mercies endure forever. Lord all of us who know you know that to be true. Let us praise you and magnify you. Let us open our ears to hear the preaching of your word this morning.

Lord, help us block out distractions, help us to fight fatigue, and to truly be eager hearers, eager learners this morning. We pray for Scott as he comes Lord give him strength give him clarity of mind may your spirit work through him in Christ name we pray amen So here we are in Ezra where the foundation of the temple is laid it's figurative of The foundation of Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone Immovable unstoppable when you have him as the foundation of your life Then you can rejoice and that's what we see here now in Ezra 3. It's very clear that the return captives walked out of one difficult situation and flat right into another one and they came out of 70 years of captivity and they came into a city that was in ruins. You can imagine the expectations they might have had in that four or five month journey across the desert to come and rebuild the temple and really rebuild their lives through worship. But when they got there, they continued to encounter trouble and trials.

Has that ever happened to you? Has the Lord ever led you out of one difficulty, but when you arrived to your new destination, you realize that everything wasn't perfect there. You were so grateful to be delivered from one thing but then you came in to another thing that God had appointed for you but your trials were not over yet and that's what these have found here. And This story has so many parallels for us. One of them is that anyone who wants to trust the Lord through the trials and tribulations of life must have a cornerstone.

They must have a foundation. They must have an altar. It's a story for anyone who really wants to learn how you get from point A to point B. You know, I said that to a young person this morning. I said listen for point A and point B when I'm preaching.

He said what does point A and point B mean? Well point A and point B is going from one place to another. You might be going from age five to age 12. You might be going from one city to another. You might be in one stage of life now.

You might be single. That's point A. Point B is who knows. But we're always going from point A to point B. And here what we find is that when you're navigating this journey, there are ways that you navigate the journey from point A to point B from wherever you are, whether you're little or whether you're big, whether you're going somewhere or you're staying put.

You're always in some ways going from point A to point B. And there's tremendous wisdom here in this passage for anyone who's going from point A to point B right now. Jeremiah spoke of it and it's really the heart of this whole passage. Jeremiah 6 16 tells us how to navigate the journey from point A to point B. And this is what you see happening here in Ezra chapter 3.

Jeremiah said, stand in the ways in C and ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it, then you will find rest for your souls. The way from point A to point B has always been the same. You go back to the old paths and you'll find rest for your souls. That's what happened here. That's why there was such rejoicing.

That's why they said the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever. Because they wanted to make their way by the old way, by the old paths. That's always the answer for the Christian. And so, as you make your way from point A to point B, in one way it's really very, very simple and that is that you walk in the old paths. And you do what they did here.

They kept their eye on the goodness of God. This passage is about the goodness of God, by the way, that God is good. You know that song? God, you're so good. Well, that's what this is about right here.

And it was a celebration in the midst of ruins. There was worship on the one hand, get this for a minute, there was worship in the face of the smallness of the progress. In other words, everything wasn't done. Only a little bit of progress had been made. And there were enormous barriers to more progress, as we'll learn next week.

Because after this, the opposition rises. It gets tougher and tougher. But there was worship in spite of the smallness and there was hope in the midst of the opposition And it bears witness to what has always happened to you and what has always happened to me. And that is that God takes you through life and you get to certain times in your life and you always realize the same thing. It didn't turn out like you thought it was going to turn out.

You didn't end up exactly where you thought you would end up. The picture looked different. In many cases in our lives, The new picture is actually harder than the old picture. But these people, when they gathered together, they declared that the Lord was good and His mercy endures forever. They were laying a foundation.

And that foundation is a figure of the foundation of Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. Because when you have laid the foundation of Jesus Christ, then you have a foundation and a cornerstone that cannot be moved. And though your circumstances might move, you won't be moved. And that is so important to understand. When you're going from point A to point B, as your circumstances change, will you be moved?

And if you are so moved and torn up and destroyed and devastated, it might be that you don't actually have a foundation in Jesus Christ. You have a foundation in this world which will pass away. You build your house upon the sand and it will wash away. But when you build your house upon the sand and it will wash away. But when you build your house upon the rock, the obedience of Jesus Christ, and you go back to the old paths, you'll never be moved.

And you can move through everything that takes place from point A to point B. But you've got to keep your wits about you. And it seems that God gave these people a sense of it. And in that sense, nothing is hopeless when you have the foundation. You know, Deborah was telling me about a book she read recently about a woman whose husband ended up with a terrible condition, didn't recognize her, and she tells the story of going through this.

And she comes to various conclusions, and One of the ones that I remember that so penetrated my thoughts about particularly this passage of scripture, she said that she learned that God was more concerned with her broken relationship with him than he was repairing what was broken because there was a lot of broken stuff in her life and through all that broken stuff and all the difficulty in the trials She realized that God was more concerned about healing her broken relationship with him than he was healing all the brokenness around her. And that will prove to be true in your life for the rest of your life and if you don't understand that you will always be languishing for what is happening in your life on your way from point A to point B. And God does use trials to perfect your faith. That's why they come. Consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials.

Because the testing of your faith is for endurance. In other words, it's designed to fix your broken relationship with God. And that's what we find here. And there's this whole picture of rebuilding worship and The presence of God rebuild and rebuilding according to biblical Guidelines and keeping your eye on the goodness of God So let's go into the text and we're really still answering the question. How do you rebuild your life?

How do you go from point A to point B? How do you deal with the broken things that happen? And the broken situation that you're in right now, how do you deal with that? Because that's exactly what we have here. Now the first point, as you see in your outline, there are three points here.

The first is they built the temple in a wise and orderly way. That's verses 8 and 9. And then secondly, they sang a wonderful life-giving song while they worked. That's verses 10 and 11. And then number three, there were sounds of both joy and weeping.

That's verses 12 and 13. So how do you rebuild? Well, these here stand as an example for us, so that we would build wisely as well. So, they built in a wise and orderly way. Now, I'm going to make seven observations about these two verses to try to get the scope of what's happening.

There's an enormous amount of activity and there's some tremendous principles right here in these two verses. I'm going to give you seven things about it. First of all, they are building a temple. It says they were coming to the house of God at Jerusalem. And the temple was the place where God draws near to his people.

And they have been given a job to establish the nearness of God among the people. And that's what the people of God are always supposed to be doing, to create environments where the nearness of God is a reality and then bring people to see the nearness of God. That was the whole matter of the altar in the previous verses. God designed that they would establish an altar that they would establish the principle that man is sinful and his only hope is for a substitute a burnt offering which is figurative of Jesus Christ who gave himself who shed his blood for our sins so you first must establish You must first establish the altar of God. Acknowledge your sin and come and worship.

That's the very first principle of all reconstruction and rebuilding of your life, as you're going from point A to point B. The cross must be central. If it's not, you won't be rebuilding very well. And then now they're rebuilding this temple and they've been given a job to build the kingdom of God, very much like God has given us that same job here. And this is a long building process.

They were rebuilding from a long time of ruin, and it took a long time to rebuild these ruins. Twenty years later, the prophet Haggai is going to come and he's going to observe the decrepit state of the building. It hadn't gone so far because their fear got a hold of them and they stopped building for 16 years. We'll read about that next week. But These verses make it very, very clear that they began with the worship of God.

First of all, the centrality of the cross, and then the worship of God in the temple. Remember how in the last section it was their fear that drove them to worship they feared the nations around them and what and what they were saying and threatening to do but what did they do their fear drove them to worship and that was the that was the the critical matter and you know it really brings up the question what do you do with your sorrows what do you do with your fears you know there there are 10, 000 ways to drown your sorrows they were drowning their sorrows in the worship of God when the tough thing happened they turned to God and that's really our only hope You know people are often like cows with their sorrows. You know cows, oh yes we do love cows. Cows have seven stomachs. You know they pass food from one compartment to another.

They just keep on it. They just keep on ruminating. Christians are often like that too. There's a problem that comes in one way, they start feeding on it, and They just keep on ruminating over it. They just ruminate and ruminate and ruminate to death.

Are you a four-stomach Christian or a one? Do you move your sorrows straight to the worship of God? Or do you just keep obsessing about them? Well these here were bringing their broken lives before God who would fix their broken relationship with him. And he was doing it through the establishment of the blood sacrifice of really the cross.

And secondly here now in laying the foundation of the temple to have a place where there is a true worship of God. The temple was a physical sign of God's presence among the people And the temple is a type of the body of Christ. And so notice they're building a temple. Also, secondly, notice a time marker. Now in the second month of the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem.

So they built the altar. Some months had passed. And now it's a new year. And it's in the spring of the year. It's after the harvest.

The feasts are all over. It's April or May. And the construction is now launched in a pretty helpful strategic time because the rain will have abated and it's an easier time to build and the pressure of the feasts is off. And we'll notice later that this is exactly when Solomon started his temple. Because when you're rebuilding, you go back to the old paths.

You go back to the good old way. And then the third observation is unity. There's another picture of unity. It says they arose as one and they got to work and They they work together, you know They were really a reflection of Psalm 133 behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. It's a whole picture of working together in unity.

If you have a little family and you work together, one of the sweetest things is to work in unity. But if you have little kids, here's one thing you know, that kids have to be taught to work in unity and to work with joy because kids tend to want to do their own thing. They want somebody else's job. They don't want to do their job, they want to do somebody else's job. So they Sometimes whine and complain.

You have whiners and complainers as workers in your house. Because kids have to learn how to work in harmony. They have to learn how to share the work and take instructions. When you put somebody in charge, do they listen to the person in charge? Or do they do their own thing?

You have kids, you know. So it's such a blessing to work in unity and enjoy. Well, that's exactly what was happening there. You know, this family of people were working in unity, and your little family should do the same thing. You should learn how to work not in selfishness but to encourage one another in the work.

And then fourthly, they were organized. Notice there were two types of leaders here. In verse 8, there was the civil and the spiritual. You had Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel he was the civil leader and then you have the spiritual leader you had Jeshua the son of Josadach and this this was the same this is the the pattern that you'll see in scripture when God is reviving his people you have the civil and spiritual leader That's why you had Moses and Aaron. And you had David and you also had the priests and the Levites.

You always have spiritual and civil leadership in any good work of God. But they were organized. Now, the world is full of people who plan, but they never do. These people were doing. Now, they did get distracted from their doing, as we often do.

More about that next week. See the organization that was there. Number five, the families were engaged. Verse nine, then Yeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmio with his sons and the sons of Judah. So their sons and their brethren, you know, the families are working together.

I think this is a fascinating pattern that you see in Scripture. The families work together. You know, in 1 Chronicles, the families are actually referred to as armies. Your family is like a little army. You ought to tap the resources that God gave you.

Don't let them lie fallow. Do great things with this little army that you have. But the families were always engaged. And here, the micro unit of the family was operating. You know, in scripture, you have this picture.

You have individuals. You have families. You have churches. And you have nations. These are the various organizational structures of society.

And God, you know, God gave you a family probably. If he did, then you know, you ought to think about it this way. The families were engaged in the building of the worship of God. Your whole family should be involved somehow. Figure it out.

How are you going to involve from the littlest one to the oldest in the worship of God? How are you going to expose them and engage them in the building of the things of God? Every kid, every mama, everybody should be involved in the building. And then notice the link with Solomon's temple. If you go to 2 Chronicles 3, 2 or 1 Kings 6, 1, turn there real quickly.

1 Kings 6, 1. And you'll see that this construction wasn't something they made up. They went back to the old paths. They went back to David and Solomon and in 1 Kings 6.1 and it came to pass in the 480th year the children of Israel had come out of Egypt in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel in the month of Ziv which is whoa the second month that he began to build the house of the Lord. Just like verse 8, in the second month.

You know what? They're not making this up. They're going back to Solomon. They're going back to a godly pattern and you can see this in a number of places. They didn't want to do their own thing, they wanted to do God's thing.

That's always a sign of a church that's in a state of revival. It was when Peter wanted to do what God wants to do. They're done with themselves, they're done with their own ways, they want God's ways. They want to pray, they want to sing, they want to do the things that God told the church to do. They want to evangelize, they want to baptize, They want to do all this stuff.

Hey, we're going to have a baptism today. Why are we doing that? Did Mike and I make up this cool thing called baptism, where people get inculcated and brought into the family? Wow, what a great way. Somebody gets wet and everything.

No, we didn't make that up We got we got we got that from the from from the Apostles But that's what they were doing here they were going back to David They didn't want to make it up on their own. And then also notice the ages. They were Levites. This is number seven, the seventh observation, the last one for these two verses. The Levites from 20 years old and above to oversee the work of the house of the Lord.

Now this is interesting because you bump into this number in other places you bump into it in 1 Chronicles 23 and 2 Chronicles 31 and you have these 20 years older and above and you know this and all by the way this they didn't make this up either. This is how, this is how, this is how Israel was numbered earlier on. In Numbers chapter 14, Moses speaks of those who are 20 years and above. Those who complained when they were going through the wilderness were judged and destroyed by God. He says, The carcasses of you who complained against me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered according to your entire number from twenty years old and above.

There is something about age twenty here. We are not really told. You can ask, well what's the perfect time to get married? What age? I don't know.

When are you supposed to get baptized? What age? I don't know. The Bible doesn't say. Now, I just want to say that there's probably a principle.

This is a number from God. This is not a number that Zerubbabel pulled out of the hat and said, hey I'm just going to, looks like we've got some strong 20 year old smart ones out around here we're going to engage them. No, he didn't, he wasn't doing that at all. He took a number from God, from God's Word. And that number was 20.

And I just want to suggest it's an age where a young man ought to be ready to enter into important work and to engage in experiences and exercises that are profitable. And also, they have the ability to actually lead. You want men at 20 to be able to lead. You don't want a boy to turn 20 and he's never led anything and he hadn't ever been going anywhere. And this is something to achieve.

This is an age where Zerubbabel believed You should be able to stand up and be counted among the men. You know, you look at 20 year olds around today and they're, you know, enormous, enormous numbers of them are still playing around. They can't lead anything. They're not ready to rumble. They're not ready for life.

They're not ready to build. They're not ready, they're not mature. And it's really critical that we teach our sons and our daughters to be ready to roll when it's time. And there's something to achieve in parents to prepare their children to stand and be ready to be counted. OK, seven observations.

I'll just repeat them real quickly. They started building the temple, which was a figure of something greater. Secondly, notice the time marker in the second month. They weren't doing their own thing. Number three, notice the unity.

Number four, notice the organization. Number five, notice the families were engaged. Number six, notice the link with Solomon's temple and the previous worship and then notice the ages the Levites from 20 years and above so now when we are finished with this passage The rebuilding of the temple as a subject in Ezra won't resurface again until chapter 6 verses 13 and 15. Because after chapter 3, you read about all the troubles that they experienced as a result of returning to rebuild. Because when you're rebuilding your life, a lot of times you get to the destination that you thought you were going to and it wasn't exactly like what you thought.

There's more to do and the mature person recognizes that and is not destroyed by that reality of life. That is a reality of life and When you're young you might not recognize that but believe me it's true your life is always going to be like that It's not going to be exactly like you thought But the big question is do you have the chief cornerstone immovable or are you just getting moved around by the experiences that you have in this world that God has actually designed to heal your broken relationship with him. So okay point number one they built the temple in an orderly way. Number two, they sang a wonderful life-giving song while they worked, verses 10 and 11. When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord the priest, stood in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites the sons of Asap with symbols and to praise the Lord according to the ordinance of David king of Israel there it is again they're not making it up according to the ordinance of David the king of Israel.

And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever towards Israel. Then the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. So here they are they're declaring that the Lord is good and they are actually doing what the Apostle Paul said, or they are experiencing what the apostle Paul said would happen in Romans 8 28. God causes all things to work together for good for the called according to his purpose. Do you notice that in verse 11?

For his mercy endures forever to who? To Israel, to God's people, to the called. If your foundation is Jesus Christ and you are standing on the chief cornerstone then you need this verses for you. His mercy endures forever for Israel, for Israel. So here they are now they're in a broken down city They've been in captivity for 70 years.

And what do they do? They sing. They sing. And perhaps That's why there's a command for the church to sing, because God has designed that the church would sing their way from point A to point B. In the midst of all their trials.

Is that what you're doing from point A to point B? Hey, when you're going from point A to point B, make sure you're singing. Sing all the way. Sing all the way. I love it when people go through my house and they're singing or they're whistling.

There's somebody in my house that whistles the sweetest songs. I love it. And there are big ones and little ones that they go around and they're singing God is so good He is that's what you want You want to be singing your way through the journey from point a to point B sing the best songs always find better songs oh by the way we're gonna sing a new song tonight and our Sunday night service oh I love the lyrics to this song it's a great song okay so they weren't inventing a new thing we we know that according to the ordinance of David, king of Israel, this is not creative activity. Innovation was not in their DNA. You've got to get innovation out of the DNA of your church and out of your life.

But what's the DNA of American Christianity? Creativity, that's what it is. And it needs to be abandoned, it really does. We need to be Like those who went back to the old paths, the good old way. And you'll find rest for your souls when you go back there.

When you're going from point A to point B, you want to be getting the DNA of creativity and innovation out of your life and go back to God. Go back to the cornerstone, go back to the foundation, go back to the worship of God, go back to the people of God, go back and reestablish that. Now again they're drawing from the past, I'm just going to give you some verses. We're not going to go there. I would love to just walk through these, but in 1st Chronicles 16, 1 through 17, you find the exact same pattern.

They start with burnt offerings and then the priests come out with the spring stringed instruments the harps oh Yes, we love harps the symbols haven't seen many of those recently and the trumpets and they're blowing them before the the the ark of God and And And what do they say? They are making his name known among the peoples, and they're glorying in his holy name. And they say, seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face forevermore. Well, they were doing that there in Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in the same way that they were doing it with Solomon. In 2 Chronicles 5, 11 through 14, you'll find the very same pattern.

But guess what? In this passage, we learn that they actually used this, they actually said, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. That's what they said back in 2 Chronicles 5, 11-14, particularly in verse 13 and 14. They wanted to do the stuff that godly people do. And in 2 Chronicles 7, 1-3 you find the same thing And they cry out, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.

That was the heartbeat of all of what they were doing. You know, is that us? Is that what we're doing? You know, I think it is. I'm so thankful to come and to be able to declare that he is good and his mercy endures forever, every, forever.

Sunday after Sunday we come in here and we do that. What a blessing it is to just give thanks for the mercy of God. Now Psalm 89 also, if you if you look at Psalm 89 there's a very interesting Psalm there's Psalm 136 and Psalm 89 are really interesting because they had this exact same pattern. But Psalm 89 was written by a very interesting individual, Ethan. His name was Ethan.

And he was called Ethan the Ezraite. You know who Ethan the Ezraite was? Well, he actually wrote these words in one of his songs. He was a songwriter in the days of Solomon, and he was a symbol player in Solomon's temple and he was also a singer. That was Ethan the Ezraite.

You know, anybody named Ethan around here? This was Ethan the Ezraite. And he wrote this Psalm. His brother, his brother Heman wrote Psalm 88. He was a descendant of Asaph and the Bible says that he was a wise man but Solomon was wiser than he was.

There's a notation there. But a contemplation, this is Psalm 89, contemplation of Ethan the Ezraite, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall be built up forever. Your faithfulness you shall establish in the very heavens I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworn to my servant David your seed I will establish forever and build up your house, build up your throne to all generations.

So you have this whole matter of singing of the mercies of the Lord forever. It's the same concept. You know all the ethans in the world that's what they ought to do when they're going from point A to point B singing of the mercies of the Lord is the is the best thing they can do and make sure that they have their house built on the rock on the and that they have the chief cornerstone you know you you look around in your life and you see the brokenness you know what you do you really only have two alternatives you can become depressed and bitter at your circumstances or you can declare his faithfulness to all generations. Which one do you want? Which one do you want?

When my kids were growing up, I would say, do you want the happy finger or the mad finger? You choose. Which way do you want to go? Well, you know, I know what I want. And if you're a dad, you ought to take everybody in that direction toward this world of the mercy of the Lord.

You see what's lacking? The fleshly response is to lament. But when you're doing the work of God, you have to recognize what Nehemiah communicated. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah, you know, years later, decades later, when there was trouble in rebuilding the wall, he says, don't mourn!

Don't mourn! The joy of the Lord is your strength. You Get focused on that. And of course Nehemiah is not saying don't ever mourn for your sins. Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn for they should be comforted.

But there's a way, there's a way that we go through trials that's so incredibly unprofitable. And it seems like Ethan the Ezrahyde understood that as well. So they laid the foundation in verse 10, the priests are in their apparel and they blew their trumpets. You can read about their apparel, their vestments in Exodus chapter 28 and in 2 Chronicles 5-12 and in 2 Chronicles 20. You can read all about the breastplate and just the whole way that the priests were clothed.

It all had meaning. Beautiful. And all of it pointed to Christ. So the priests are blowing the trumpets. You see this in Numbers 10, 10.

And it was a sign of gladness in numbers 10, the blowing of the trumpet. But the Lord's people, when they're going from point A to point B, they know that he is good and they know his mercy. Unbelievers though, they don't give thanks. That's what Paul said in Romans 1. They don't give thanks Because they don't see God as good they see God as unpleasable They see his law is harsh And so they can't give thanks while they're going from point A to point B.

They always want more and it's not God that they want more of. And then the builders, they're singing responsibly. I love this part. And they sang responsibly. That's how they sang.

So the Levites are clanging the symbols and they're singing responsively. It's like Psalm 136. If you turn there, go ahead and look at that. You probably have seen this Psalm. I hope so.

Where 26 times the phrase is repeated, for his mercy endures forever. And the whole Psalm is structured like this. God is or does something like this, and then his mercy endures forever. So there's always something new in each stanza but the conclusion is his mercy endures forever and the whole psalm is about who he is and what he's done and what he will do. That's Psalm 136.

And what he, who he is, and what he has done, and what he will do, is all an expression of his mercy. And it endures forever. And that's how you interpret your life. His mercy endures forever. Verse 1, oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.

Oh give thanks to the God of gods for his mercy endures forever." And then he talks about the great wonders that he does in verse four, that he made the heavens in wisdom in verse five, that he he laid out the earth and the waters, he made the great lights, and why? Because his mercy endures forever. He made the sun to rule the day, verse 8, for his mercy endures forever. Here, It's in praise of God for who he is first of all, but then for his creation You know his creation is an act of mercy Like for example, I think most of you Probably have eaten in the last several weeks. I can tell you have Where did the food come from?

Creation. God's been feeding you. He's good. His mercy. He's merciful to you every day.

In fact, he's so merciful that He causes his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. And everybody's eating, pretty much. Creation is an act of mercy. Getting to know the beauty of creation is such a good thing. There were some children in my house yesterday, and I asked them to watch the Moody Science film on bees.

And I asked them several questions. They had to tell me three things about bees, but they had to tell me how bees demonstrate how good God is. Because bees do demonstrate how good God is. Everything in nature somehow points to how good God is. Nature is such a wonderful instructor for all of us.

So that's Psalm 136. It'd be a great read this afternoon, maybe even around the lunch table here today. Now, the focus here really is on what was sung. We know that there were cymbals, we know that there were trumpets, we know that the priests had their vestments on, But the focus here is what they were singing. That's really the heart of it.

And they were praising and giving thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever toward Israel. Now this word praise, praising, occurs a number of times here. Praise is connected to the great Hallel, the great Hallel, the great praising of God. Hallel is a Hebrew word that means praise and the word Hallel appears three times in verse 10 and twice in verse 11 and They're they're using their trumpets to praise God. They're using their symbols to praise God They're using their singing to praise God and they're using their shouting to praise God let everything that have breath praise the Lord do it with that whatever you got and they were praising because of his mercy now this word mercy is a is a is a vast vastly important word very difficult to pin down because it brings in a number of meanings all at once.

And it's translated mercy and loving kindness and love and everlasting kindness. It's a word that is, it's a big word and it's the, it's chesed. You know I met a girl one time whose name was chesed. It was this, her parents named her this because of this beautiful meaning. It's a word that speaks of steadfast love, unchanging love.

What's the Greek equivalent word to this? Agape. The best kind of love you can imagine is loaded up into this word. His mercy endures forever. You know, the Apostle Paul spoke of this.

He talked about in Ephesians 2, 4, God who is rich in mercy with the love with which he loved us. He gave his son as a sacrifice for our sins. That was the greatest act of love that was ever done because it gave you a foundation forever. So that while you're going from point A to point B in this world, you can always be standing on a solid foundation. And you can praise God through everything that you ever encounter.

This is the essence of God himself. He is the God of mercy. You know to know the God of mercy is the most important relational factor in your life. You know if you're convinced of the mercy of God, then you'll love mercy and you'll find yourself having more mercy as You grow in the Lord if you're convinced of God's truth You'll love the truth if you're if you believe in the goodness of God Then you'll want to do good if you If you believe in the love of God, you'll express love. If you believe in the purity and the holiness of God, you'll want to be holy.

Because what you believe about God will shape everything in your life. If you believe he is chesed, full of loving kindness and mercy and everything else good, you want to load into that word. If you believe that, then you'll want Him. And you won't want the irrelevant, unprofitable things of this world. You won't want them.

If you believe His ways and His word is the most beneficial thing, you'll keep yourself from evil. But if you believe evil has anything good for you, you'll go after it. That's the only reason people do it, cuz they think it's gonna help them, and they're deceived. But notice the people shouted with a great shout. We could use more of that.

But whatever is happening in your life from point A to point B, here's what you can always know irrefutably, and that is God is good and his mercy endures forever, toward the called according to his purpose. This word goodness appears, and it's the opposite of hardness, it's the opposite of harshness and severity and cruelty. God is good, he's not cruel. He's full of loving kindness. He's full of generosity and friendliness.

This is God. And, you know, in Psalm 25 David said, all the paths of the Lord are mercy. He says the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. That's Psalm 145 verse 9. And that's why Ethan the Ezraite says, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.

With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations." this is The most critical thing in a person's life How they view what's happening to them from point A to point B? You know if you're if you're waiting for your circumstances to change Before you can praise God you'll never be able to praise God and you'll never be happy. If your joy is contingent upon whether your life happens your way, where everything fits your vision for your life. Your joy will always be on a table of contingency. If your energy for life is dependent upon the things Going your way at any given time then your energy is always going to be regulated By your circumstances rather than the power of God in the midst of your circumstances Because the energy for life is joy.

And that's why these people understood that the Lord is good. And He causes all things to work together for good. It's Because they've asked for the old paths. They want to go back to the good old way. Now, worship, that is worship in spirit and in truth, is based on the fact that He is good.

Not necessarily that I feel good. Worship is based on the fact that he is good, not necessarily that I feel good. Worship is based on the fact that he is good, not necessarily because I feel good. It's not based on the fact that you are good or your circumstances are good. It's based on God's goodness.

And God desires to call his people to himself, into his goodness, into his mercy, into his faithfulness, out of your despair, out of your self-inflicted wounds, as you continue to ruminate over and over and over about your trials. You take it from one compartment in your life and put it in another, and you run it through four compartments and you're just like a cow. You just keep on chewing on the stuff that's destroying you. But because God is good, He's always redeeming your past. He's always securing a good end for your story.

And He is, because of the fact that He is the chief cornerstone, he is securing a good end to your story he is because his mercy is everlasting he is he is going to make this story absolutely stunningly beautiful and on spiring no matter where you are from point A to point B. He's doing that now and you don't even know it you can't see it but he is securing a beautiful story because he's summing up all things in Christ. He's summing up all things in Christ. He's summing up all things in His mercy, even in the times when man does not give you mercy. God will turn it all around.

He causes all things to work together for good. And then thirdly, there were sounds of both joy and weeping in verses 12 and 13. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the father's houses old men who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice When the foundation of the temple was laid before their eyes now we've said before That the people who are alive at this time were all they were in their senior years the first wave of the captives came out at 605 BC and the last wave in 586 BC. So these, the guys that they're talking about are probably in their 60s, 80s, maybe 90s. They saw the old temple.

They were little boys. They were probably 6, 8, 10, 12 years old. And they remember. They were 12 when they saw this and now they're weeping when they're in their 80s or 90s because they remember it. They remember the temple.

Don't think for a second that your children are missing what's going on around here. And when they're 80 or 90, even if they're 6, 8, 10 years old, What do you want them to remember? You want them to remember the glory, you want them to remember the cloud filling the temple, you want them to remember how many times you said, the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever. You want them to remember that. But these old men, they looked back and they wept.

Now why? Now there are various things that have been proposed why they wept. One position that people take is they were stuck in the past. The old temple was so much more impressive and they're just stuck in the past. You know, in other words, quit, get yourself unstuck from the past.

That's not where you live. That's one position that people have taken. And you know, If you take that position, you could quote Ecclesiastes 7-10, do not say, why were the former days better than these? Don't say that. Don't look back.

Don't look back and say, why were the former days better? Or there's the position that they were weeping for joy. It's kind of, that's like when somebody is weeping, a lot of times you don't know whether it's joy or sorrow because, I don't know if that's ever happening. If somebody is crying, you say, are you okay? You say, oh yes, I'm so, and they say, I'm so happy.

Well, you didn't look happy, you look like you're in desperation. So maybe they're just weeping for joy or thirdly you know they were weeping because of the comparison that that they saw Zechariah 410 you know we're going to we're going to speak of this, but Zechariah comes to the people and says, for who has despised the day of small things. It was a small thing. Hey, they showed up and all they got was small. It wasn't as great as, things weren't as great when they arrived.

And they were discouraged because of the comparison. You know, Zechariah says don't despise the day of small things. You know, for us, what does that mean? I think that means maybe what you see around you is small potatoes, but we should rejoice at every milestone, every vestige of God working. You know, You have people who just, they do nothing but work and they never celebrate what God's doing, even though it's small.

Celebrate the small things. Celebrate the day of small things. Because when God is doing it, it's not really small. It might be small to you, but it's not small. It's everlasting.

Or perhaps they were sorry for their sin that led them to captivity. They were weeping because they saw the harm. They saw what had been lost. Perhaps it was that. I don't know who it was who said, you know, sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go, keep you there longer than you ever wanted to stay, and cost you more than you ever wanted to pay.

It could have been that kind of godly weeping. They just saw what their disobedience had done to them. Maybe they were weeping for that. But here's what we know for sure. They were saying the Lord is good and they were saying that God causes all things to work together for good.

And they wanted the old paths where the good old way is and they wanted to walk in it. And we don't know exactly why they were grieved. I think rather it was because of the comparison. The text seems to lean that way. You know, as you're building now, And you look at the small potatoes of your life, you know, are you rejoicing at what God has done?

Fanning it to flame Rather than lamenting, you know everything you could spend your life lamenting You can spend your life counting your blessings and naming them one by one and seeing what God has done. That's the better path. And by the way, that is the good old path. That's the path that David and Solomon took as well. You know, there's so many things to learn from this passage.

You know, the true worship of God doesn't need new paths. You know, it teaches us that our times together don't need to be completely sober. There was shouting and cymbals and trumpets. It was a little bit louder than some might expect. By the way, this line, our times don't always need to be completely sober.

Somebody said that in Bible study. I can't remember who it was. I stole that from someone. Other things that I've said that I have taken from Bible study, forgive me, I do it all the time. But, you know, do we want what they wanted?

Do we want the nearness of God? Do we want the old paths? The temple was always a symbol of the nearness of God for sinful man. Are we praising God in time of abundance and in time of privation? Do we realize that our life is not really about us?

Our life is about proving that God is love. Our life is about proving that God is love. Our life is about proving that God is good. To be a living demonstration that he carries you through the will howling wilderness, that he walks with you in the flood, that He's with you in the fire?" Samuel Rutherford said, Oh, how sweet a thing it is to give Christ His handful of broken arms and legs and distorted joints. Our spilled works, our losses, our deadness, our coldness, our wretchedness, these are the ground upon which the good husband labors.

Their comforts, both sweet and satisfying, laid up for you. Wait on, wait on, wait on. From point A to point B, wait on. The husbandman, the good husbandman labors in the midst of broken things. And he is healing broken things, but he's also healing our broken relationship with him through our trials.

And a mature person understands that. And I just pray that we would be a mature church in that sense. That we would understand all those things. That we would understand that while trials often close doors, they always open new doors, always. That's my experience.

Every trial has always opened up a new door in my life, in every phase of my life. So God takes you through life and when you get there to point B You realize it didn't turn out like you thought it would. It looked different. It looked harder. And you might have been tempted to weep.

But God keeps up His mercies. And they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, O Lord." You know, I was reading a book by Spurgeon this last week, and Spurgeon tells the story of a pastor who was in dire need of funds. He was, he had nothing. He was destitute.

But a wealthy man promised to give him a hundred pounds, but he, but the man didn't want to give it to him all at once. He wanted to dole it out piece by piece. So he received, the man, the pastor received a letter and there were five pounds in the letter and the letter said more to follow. And then the next week five pounds showed up and there was at the bottom it said more to follow. And the next week five more pounds shut up, more to follow.

The next week more to follow. And Spurgeon says that God is like that. There's always more to follow. He says I'll give you grace upon grace. There's more to follow.

You know, I'll uphold you in death. I'll help you in old age. There's always more to follow. And this is what it means to have a God who is full of mercy. Okay, so in our text today, you have those who've returned from the Babylonian captivity and they're rebuilding their lives upon the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the worship of God by declaring that God is good and His mercy is everlasting.

That was the message. So there are just two things I hope we can remember from this text. First of all, that they desired to walk in the old paths. They wanted to walk in the ways of Moses and the prophets. And This is always the right way back.

They desired something that God had created rather than what they had. Secondly, they wanted to rise up in thanksgiving because of the goodness of God. That's how you get from point A to point B. And that's how you rebuild your heart individually. That's how you rebuild your family.

And that's how you rebuild your church. You come to declare that the Lord is good. And his mercy is everlasting to Israel to the called according to his purpose and you can rest in that while you're going from point A to point B. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for this remarkable narrative to show us what you have done in your son to give us a firm foundation that we could stand upon in every single step of our lives from point A to point B and that you are good with every step in every moment and when we get to the place that is not like what we expected we can know oh Lord that you are good and your mercy is everlasting amen