Don’t Stop When Tears Start

In this message, I walk through Psalm 126 and the story of Israel's return from Babylon to show that tears, opposition, and difficulty are a normal part of the Christian journey — not a sign that God has abandoned you. I want to encourage you that everything you need is already in God's hands, and he will carry you to the finish line if you don't stop when the tears start.

Show Notes

Don't Stop When Tears Start

Don't stop when tears start, because tears, sorrow, disappointments, and difficulties are part of the Christian life and part of the Christian journey. A lot of people start into this journey thinking that the presence of God means the absence of trouble, and that isn't true. Jesus Christ himself said, In this world you will have tribulation. You'll have difficulty, there will be trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome this world. In other words, I have overcome this world's power to overcome you. When you opened your heart to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God took up residence inside your physical body, and the Christ who won that victory on the cross — defeated the power of hell and darkness — lives inside of you now and will carry you to the finish line in this journey. You will be opposed, there will be difficulties along the way. For those who are in the middle of the journey, I remember those days so clearly in my life. I told my wife Teresa one time, I said, "I feel like if I wasn't sighing, I wouldn't be breathing." There was a season — a long season — where it was difficult. There are individual moments, but then there's a long season where long-suffering has got to come into your life, and God gives you the power.

The Joy of First Salvation — Psalm 126:1–3

Psalm 126, we're going to start there, verses 1 to 3: When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad. I remember those first days of salvation. I remember when I sat in church the first time and the person who led me to Christ shared the verse of Scripture that if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. I remember sitting and wondering, is that reality, or is that just a pipe dream? Can it actually happen? God, can you come and give me a future that I could never find in my own strength? No matter how much I would try, it would always escape me because I wasn't capable of fulfilling it. And then one day you begin to realize that you've been forgiven your sin, and the Holy Spirit has come and indwelt your human body. It's like a dream. Life begins to change line upon line, precept upon precept. From place to place, God begins to work a work that only the Holy Spirit can do, and you become aware of it. I remember the first time I ever went to a Christian police officer's conference in Speculator, upstate New York. For the first time ever in my life, I saw grown men weep before God for joy — Texas Rangers, people from all over the country, tough guys too, a lot of them, tenderized by the presence of God. I cried for three days. I couldn't stop crying. I don't know how many boxes of tissue I went through. I actually felt foolish at one point because I simply couldn't stop crying — it was like a dream. I know many of you remember those days, especially if you're in the middle of your journey now. Your mouth is filled with laughter. Your tongue is filled with singing. When I first started going to church, I'd open a hymn book — I wasn't raised on the hymns, so they were brand new to me. "It Is Well with My Soul." "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine." I would stand there and the tears would come down my face. I remember one time my wife said to me, "You have to stop laughing when the preacher is preaching. He's going to think that you're mocking him." I said, "I'm not. I can't stop." I was just so filled with joy that I had this new life that God had promised. I had a hope. I had a future. I had now laid hold of the possibility of becoming the person that God intended my life to be. It would bubble out of me like a river. And then people among the nations — as Psalm 126 says — began to say, "The Lord has done great things for them." People around you started to say, "Wow, you are changing." Now, some things change quickly, don't they? Some things, the very day you come to Christ — maybe your vocabulary changes. You stop using the words you used to use, or if one slips, you're quick to apologize for it. And then there are certain things that change, and other things don't change quite as fast. I speak from experience. There were some things I was able to put away almost day one, and other things that took forever. Have you ever watched one of those old Western movies on television? They get in a gunfight in a saloon, and one guy gets shot and falls over the table. Then he climbs the stairway, falls over the balcony, stumbles behind the bar, gets up, falls over the bar, stumbles out through the swinging doors, and falls over the hitching post — and you're watching the movie saying, "Is this guy ever going to die?" Well, I don't know about you, but some things in my life went that way. They were shot, in a sense, by the blood of Jesus Christ. They lost their power, but they took time. Don't get discouraged when things in your life take time. They are dead. They might be still standing like the fig tree when Jesus and the disciples went back into Jerusalem, but they've lost their power to dictate your future. Praise be to God.

A Season of Sorrow — Bring Back Our Captivity

Now the psalmist goes on and he says, Bring back our captivity, O Lord, as streams in the south. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy, and he who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. So this psalm starts out with such victory, and then it has a transitional point where the psalmist is saying, "God, do it again for me. Do it again for us. Bring back that joy that I once knew of my captivity being released. God, I'm in a season of sorrow now. I'm in a season where tears are taking over for what used to be joy. Would you help us in this?" To understand this, I want to go back to the actual journey that most agree this psalm speaks about. It began with the people of Israel being taken into captivity into a land called Babylon. They were taken there because they played fast and loose with the things of God. We go into captivity when we don't acknowledge the presence of God or the reason for which we were created — when we choose, as Adam and Eve once did, to follow our own reasoning and go our own way. Because of it, they lost the protection of God and were taken captive. For 70 years they were in captivity — more than a generation. Many, if not most, of these people were actually born in captivity. They knew the story of what God had done in the past, but they themselves had been the victims of captivity, and their lives were short of what they should have been.

The Decree of Cyrus — A Picture of the Cross

Now, the interesting thing is that in the book of Ezra, it gives us the history. In Ezra 1:1 it says, In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia. This is where it really gets interesting, because about 150 years before Cyrus became king, it was prophesied that a king would be born whose name would be Cyrus. He is actually called "my servant" in the Word of God, and he would issue a decree letting the people go home to rebuild. It's phenomenal. God knows everything. There's nothing that happens that he doesn't know. Everything is in his control. He knows where you are today. He knows where you'll be tomorrow. As a matter of fact, he's already in your tomorrow before you even get there. He foretold through Jeremiah that his own people would go into captivity for 70 years. But through Isaiah, he declared that a king called Cyrus would be born who would issue a decree and let the people go back home to rebuild again. That's the context, really, of Psalm 126. Can you imagine being there? All you've ever known is captivity. You're in a society that's probably marginalizing and mocking the faith of the people of God. And suddenly the news comes that the king — a heathen king, a Medo-Persian king — has issued a decree saying whoever wants to go home to rebuild can go home. That's what happened on the cross. We were in captivity. We were short of the glory of God, no matter how virtuous we thought we were. But when Jesus Christ said "It is finished" on the cross, a decree was written that whoever wills — whoever wants to — can go back to God and rebuild that life that had fallen into disarray because of sin. That's who you and I are. We have the right to rebuild a life. We have the right to become the children of God. Whoever believes in him has the right to become sons and daughters of God. It's amazing to be carried by the Spirit, to be brought into a place where we begin to give honor to God by allowing him to change us into the persons he had destined us to be before we were even formed in our mother's womb. 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, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing, saying, "Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May 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 God, which is in Jerusalem. And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem." — Ezra 1:1–4 This sudden decree comes where God says: you can go home, you can rebuild what was lost, and all the protection and provision you will need today and tomorrow is promised to you. That's what God promises you and me through Jesus Christ. He took captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. He gave us everything we need to become the people he has called us to be — a people who are not just an argument, but, as the Scripture says, a people to be wondered at, a people supernaturally changed by the Spirit of God, given abilities and giftings we didn't naturally have and wouldn't naturally have without the presence of the Holy Spirit inside our lives.

5,400 Articles in Storage — Nothing Has Been Lost

Now it gets even more interesting. Ezra 1:7 says, 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 Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar, 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 of a similar kind, and 1,000 other articles. All the articles of gold and silver were 5,400. All these Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem. 5,400 things that were necessary for the pure and true worship of God had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, brought into Babylon — and then Medo-Persia came in and conquered Babylon. And the interesting thing is none of these kings melted these things down to use them for their own purposes. They were not altered. They were in storage for 70 years. God has everything that you need in storage when you decide to go back and rebuild. Everything you need is already in storage when you decide to get up and go back and rebuild the life that God has for you and for your family. You can imagine a foreign king with all this gold — the temptation would have been there to melt it down and create currency to enrich themselves. But no — 5,400 instruments of gold and silver were kept in storage for the day that the people of God would get up and go back and rebuild. And so the people got up and headed back. As it says in Psalm 126, it must have been like a dream. I can hear the songs on the way back into Jerusalem — the laughter among the people — and as the psalmist says, the people they passed through would have said, "The Lord has done great things for them." And their testimony was, "The Lord has done great things for us, for which we are glad."

Opposition Comes When You Start to Build

But when they began to rebuild, there was going to be opposition. When you get into the kingdom of God, this is a real fight. This is a real battle. The people went back and started to build. They laid the foundation and began to do other things. But in Ezra 4:4–6, it says, Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building. So the first thing they had to face was discouragement. People saying things like, "You'll never change." "Oh, it won't last." I remember being told that — "You're excited now, but it won't last." And they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah. So they had to face discouragement, frustration, and accusation. I can only imagine the tears that began to form in some of the people — "God, I didn't think it was going to be like this." And that happens to all of us when we formulate a plan for our lives and our future, and it doesn't pan out the way we thought it was going to. We get the foundation laid, we get a few things done, and then suddenly discouragement comes in — opposition, accusation — and sorrow touches so many people's hearts, because that's what happens to you and me when we start out on the journey and get to about the middle stage. Suddenly we realize we're in a war. There are going to be difficult days. Peter, in 1 Peter 4:12–14, says it this way: Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified. It's not a strange thing that you're going through. It's prescribed. In this world you will have tribulation. It's not going to be easy. You will be opposed. There really is a devil. There really are powers of darkness. There really are people, unfortunately, who are in league with some of these powers of darkness. They are jealous of what God is doing in your life. They're skeptical of God because they have an inner despising of God — at least at this point in their life — and they will attack you just as the people attacked Christ when he was here. He was the Son of God, and yet they called him Beelzebub, the son of the devil. Now you might say, "But what if I feel that Jesus Christ is not being glorified in my life? Yes, people are reproaching me, but maybe they're right. My life is at a standstill. I'm not going from glory to glory. I'm not changing as rapidly as I thought I was going to. I feel that I'm saved, but this marvelous temple that's supposed to be built — I am the temple of the Holy Spirit — the walls are not up, the windows are not in. Everything in my life seems to be at a standstill." 1 John 3:20 says, If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. If your heart is condemning you, God is greater than your heart. He sent you to rebuild a life that is a testimony for him. You will be opposed. There will be accusations. There will be times of discouragement and difficulty.

Rise Up and Keep Building

In the midst of all of this, two prophets rose up — Zechariah and Haggai — and they began to prophesy. They said, "God sent you to do this work. Therefore, no matter what anybody says, get up and keep building this testimony." And the people said, "But you don't understand — people are telling us we can't. Some are saying it's rebellion. Some are saying the king of this world is going to command us to stop." And these two prophets said, "No, God has commanded you to do this. No matter what anybody says, no matter how they come against you, you rise up and you begin to build." And the people did that. When they started to build again, their enemies one more time came against them and said, "Who gave you this authority to do this thing?" Their answer was, "Search the records." King Darius had made a decree. And if you go back and read the record, he said this was going to be done — it was going to be provided for. He said the foundation should be laid. He said the expenses would be paid from the king's treasury, that the gold and silver articles would be restored and taken back to the temple. He warned the people along the road: keep yourselves away from these people and let this work of the house of God alone. God warned your enemies not to try to hinder the work that he is determined to do in your life. And moreover, in the record it says, Whatever they need — young bulls, rams, lambs, burnt offerings, wheat, salt, wine, oil — according to the request of the priests who are in Jerusalem, let it be given to them day by day without fail. Day by day. What did Jesus say we were to pray? Give us this day our daily bread. Not this month our monthly bread. Not this year our yearly bread. But, "Oh God, give me this day what I need to get through this day as I'm building a testimony for your glory through this life." Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.

Don't Stop When the Tears Start — Psalm 126

This brings us back, and I'm going to close with this. In Psalm 126, after all these things were done for them, the psalmist says, Bring back our captivity, O Lord, as streams in the south. It reminds me of David the king, who said in one of his psalms, "God, restore to me the joy of your salvation." Somewhere along the line — I let the accusations, I let the failures, I let the struggles take over from who I really am in Christ, from what I've really been called to do, and from the promises that I have that it will be done in my life. Now here's where I want to finish, because this is the title — don't stop when the tears start. They who sow in tears shall reap in joy. There's a day coming, my brother, where you've got to get through the valley of the shadow of death. There's a day coming when there might be a weeping. There's a day coming when things will be said that hurt, when oppositions will be fierce, when weaponry will be mounted up against you to stop the work that God began to do through your life. But this is where it gets interesting. In Psalm 126:6 it says, He who continually goes forth weeping — in other words, he doesn't stop when the tears start. One day you'll come back to this house — or if you're online, you'll come back to some place where you choose to worship God — and you will come in and raise your hands and say, "God is faithful. God is good. God is just. Every promise he made to me, even when I doubted him, even when my own heart condemned me, he proved that he was greater than my heart." The wine at the end of the wedding feast is better than the wine at the beginning. The joy is deeper than it was. There's a joy of youth, but there's another joy of age when you've walked with God and seen his faithfulness. Don't give up. Don't quit when the weeping starts. You will be opposed, but you will make it to the end by the grace of Almighty God, and your life will be everything that God said your life is going to be. Praise be to God.

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Don't Stop When Tears Start

Don't stop when tears start, because tears, sorrow, disappointments, and difficulties are part of the Christian life and part of the Christian journey. A lot of people start into this journey thinking that the presence of God means the absence of trouble, and that isn't true. Jesus Christ himself said, In this world you will have tribulation. You'll have difficulty, there will be trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome this world. In other words, I have overcome this world's power to overcome you.

When you opened your heart to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God took up residence inside your physical body, and the Christ who won that victory on the cross — defeated the power of hell and darkness — lives inside of you now and will carry you to the finish line in this journey. You will be opposed, there will be difficulties along the way. For those who are in the middle of the journey, I remember those days so clearly in my life. I told my wife Teresa one time, I said, "I feel like if I wasn't sighing, I wouldn't be breathing." There was a season — a long season — where it was difficult. There are individual moments, but then there's a long season where long-suffering has got to come into your life, and God gives you the power.

The Joy of First Salvation — Psalm 126:1–3

Psalm 126, we're going to start there, verses 1 to 3: When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.

I remember those first days of salvation. I remember when I sat in church the first time and the person who led me to Christ shared the verse of Scripture that if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. I remember sitting and wondering, is that reality, or is that just a pipe dream? Can it actually happen? God, can you come and give me a future that I could never find in my own strength? No matter how much I would try, it would always escape me because I wasn't capable of fulfilling it.

And then one day you begin to realize that you've been forgiven your sin, and the Holy Spirit has come and indwelt your human body. It's like a dream. Life begins to change line upon line, precept upon precept. From place to place, God begins to work a work that only the Holy Spirit can do, and you become aware of it.

I remember the first time I ever went to a Christian police officer's conference in Speculator, upstate New York. For the first time ever in my life, I saw grown men weep before God for joy — Texas Rangers, people from all over the country, tough guys too, a lot of them, tenderized by the presence of God. I cried for three days. I couldn't stop crying. I don't know how many boxes of tissue I went through. I actually felt foolish at one point because I simply couldn't stop crying — it was like a dream.

I know many of you remember those days, especially if you're in the middle of your journey now. Your mouth is filled with laughter. Your tongue is filled with singing. When I first started going to church, I'd open a hymn book — I wasn't raised on the hymns, so they were brand new to me. "It Is Well with My Soul." "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine." I would stand there and the tears would come down my face. I remember one time my wife said to me, "You have to stop laughing when the preacher is preaching. He's going to think that you're mocking him." I said, "I'm not. I can't stop." I was just so filled with joy that I had this new life that God had promised. I had a hope. I had a future. I had now laid hold of the possibility of becoming the person that God intended my life to be. It would bubble out of me like a river.

And then people among the nations — as Psalm 126 says — began to say, "The Lord has done great things for them." People around you started to say, "Wow, you are changing."

Now, some things change quickly, don't they? Some things, the very day you come to Christ — maybe your vocabulary changes. You stop using the words you used to use, or if one slips, you're quick to apologize for it. And then there are certain things that change, and other things don't change quite as fast. I speak from experience. There were some things I was able to put away almost day one, and other things that took forever.

Have you ever watched one of those old Western movies on television? They get in a gunfight in a saloon, and one guy gets shot and falls over the table. Then he climbs the stairway, falls over the balcony, stumbles behind the bar, gets up, falls over the bar, stumbles out through the swinging doors, and falls over the hitching post — and you're watching the movie saying, "Is this guy ever going to die?" Well, I don't know about you, but some things in my life went that way. They were shot, in a sense, by the blood of Jesus Christ. They lost their power, but they took time. Don't get discouraged when things in your life take time. They are dead. They might be still standing like the fig tree when Jesus and the disciples went back into Jerusalem, but they've lost their power to dictate your future. Praise be to God.

A Season of Sorrow — Bring Back Our Captivity

Now the psalmist goes on and he says, Bring back our captivity, O Lord, as streams in the south. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy, and he who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

So this psalm starts out with such victory, and then it has a transitional point where the psalmist is saying, "God, do it again for me. Do it again for us. Bring back that joy that I once knew of my captivity being released. God, I'm in a season of sorrow now. I'm in a season where tears are taking over for what used to be joy. Would you help us in this?"

To understand this, I want to go back to the actual journey that most agree this psalm speaks about. It began with the people of Israel being taken into captivity into a land called Babylon. They were taken there because they played fast and loose with the things of God. We go into captivity when we don't acknowledge the presence of God or the reason for which we were created — when we choose, as Adam and Eve once did, to follow our own reasoning and go our own way. Because of it, they lost the protection of God and were taken captive. For 70 years they were in captivity — more than a generation. Many, if not most, of these people were actually born in captivity. They knew the story of what God had done in the past, but they themselves had been the victims of captivity, and their lives were short of what they should have been.

The Decree of Cyrus — A Picture of the Cross

Now, the interesting thing is that in the book of Ezra, it gives us the history. In Ezra 1:1 it says, In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia. This is where it really gets interesting, because about 150 years before Cyrus became king, it was prophesied that a king would be born whose name would be Cyrus. He is actually called "my servant" in the Word of God, and he would issue a decree letting the people go home to rebuild. It's phenomenal. God knows everything. There's nothing that happens that he doesn't know. Everything is in his control. He knows where you are today. He knows where you'll be tomorrow. As a matter of fact, he's already in your tomorrow before you even get there.

He foretold through Jeremiah that his own people would go into captivity for 70 years. But through Isaiah, he declared that a king called Cyrus would be born who would issue a decree and let the people go back home to rebuild again. That's the context, really, of Psalm 126.

Can you imagine being there? All you've ever known is captivity. You're in a society that's probably marginalizing and mocking the faith of the people of God. And suddenly the news comes that the king — a heathen king, a Medo-Persian king — has issued a decree saying whoever wants to go home to rebuild can go home.

That's what happened on the cross. We were in captivity. We were short of the glory of God, no matter how virtuous we thought we were. But when Jesus Christ said "It is finished" on the cross, a decree was written that whoever wills — whoever wants to — can go back to God and rebuild that life that had fallen into disarray because of sin. That's who you and I are. We have the right to rebuild a life. We have the right to become the children of God. Whoever believes in him has the right to become sons and daughters of God.

It's amazing to be carried by the Spirit, to be brought into a place where we begin to give honor to God by allowing him to change us into the persons he had destined us to be before we were even formed in our mother's womb.

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, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing, saying, "Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May 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 God, which is in Jerusalem. And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem." — Ezra 1:1–4

This sudden decree comes where God says: you can go home, you can rebuild what was lost, and all the protection and provision you will need today and tomorrow is promised to you. That's what God promises you and me through Jesus Christ. He took captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. He gave us everything we need to become the people he has called us to be — a people who are not just an argument, but, as the Scripture says, a people to be wondered at, a people supernaturally changed by the Spirit of God, given abilities and giftings we didn't naturally have and wouldn't naturally have without the presence of the Holy Spirit inside our lives.

5,400 Articles in Storage — Nothing Has Been Lost

Now it gets even more interesting. Ezra 1:7 says, 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 Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar, 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 of a similar kind, and 1,000 other articles. All the articles of gold and silver were 5,400. All these Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.

5,400 things that were necessary for the pure and true worship of God had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, brought into Babylon — and then Medo-Persia came in and conquered Babylon. And the interesting thing is none of these kings melted these things down to use them for their own purposes. They were not altered. They were in storage for 70 years.

God has everything that you need in storage when you decide to go back and rebuild. Everything you need is already in storage when you decide to get up and go back and rebuild the life that God has for you and for your family. You can imagine a foreign king with all this gold — the temptation would have been there to melt it down and create currency to enrich themselves. But no — 5,400 instruments of gold and silver were kept in storage for the day that the people of God would get up and go back and rebuild.

And so the people got up and headed back. As it says in Psalm 126, it must have been like a dream. I can hear the songs on the way back into Jerusalem — the laughter among the people — and as the psalmist says, the people they passed through would have said, "The Lord has done great things for them." And their testimony was, "The Lord has done great things for us, for which we are glad."

Opposition Comes When You Start to Build

But when they began to rebuild, there was going to be opposition. When you get into the kingdom of God, this is a real fight. This is a real battle. The people went back and started to build. They laid the foundation and began to do other things. But in Ezra 4:4–6, it says, Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building.

So the first thing they had to face was discouragement. People saying things like, "You'll never change." "Oh, it won't last." I remember being told that — "You're excited now, but it won't last." And they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah.

So they had to face discouragement, frustration, and accusation. I can only imagine the tears that began to form in some of the people — "God, I didn't think it was going to be like this." And that happens to all of us when we formulate a plan for our lives and our future, and it doesn't pan out the way we thought it was going to. We get the foundation laid, we get a few things done, and then suddenly discouragement comes in — opposition, accusation — and sorrow touches so many people's hearts, because that's what happens to you and me when we start out on the journey and get to about the middle stage. Suddenly we realize we're in a war. There are going to be difficult days.

Peter, in 1 Peter 4:12–14, says it this way: Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.

It's not a strange thing that you're going through. It's prescribed. In this world you will have tribulation. It's not going to be easy. You will be opposed. There really is a devil. There really are powers of darkness. There really are people, unfortunately, who are in league with some of these powers of darkness. They are jealous of what God is doing in your life. They're skeptical of God because they have an inner despising of God — at least at this point in their life — and they will attack you just as the people attacked Christ when he was here. He was the Son of God, and yet they called him Beelzebub, the son of the devil.

Now you might say, "But what if I feel that Jesus Christ is not being glorified in my life? Yes, people are reproaching me, but maybe they're right. My life is at a standstill. I'm not going from glory to glory. I'm not changing as rapidly as I thought I was going to. I feel that I'm saved, but this marvelous temple that's supposed to be built — I am the temple of the Holy Spirit — the walls are not up, the windows are not in. Everything in my life seems to be at a standstill."

1 John 3:20 says, If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. If your heart is condemning you, God is greater than your heart. He sent you to rebuild a life that is a testimony for him. You will be opposed. There will be accusations. There will be times of discouragement and difficulty.

Rise Up and Keep Building

In the midst of all of this, two prophets rose up — Zechariah and Haggai — and they began to prophesy. They said, "God sent you to do this work. Therefore, no matter what anybody says, get up and keep building this testimony." And the people said, "But you don't understand — people are telling us we can't. Some are saying it's rebellion. Some are saying the king of this world is going to command us to stop." And these two prophets said, "No, God has commanded you to do this. No matter what anybody says, no matter how they come against you, you rise up and you begin to build."

And the people did that. When they started to build again, their enemies one more time came against them and said, "Who gave you this authority to do this thing?" Their answer was, "Search the records." King Darius had made a decree. And if you go back and read the record, he said this was going to be done — it was going to be provided for. He said the foundation should be laid. He said the expenses would be paid from the king's treasury, that the gold and silver articles would be restored and taken back to the temple. He warned the people along the road: keep yourselves away from these people and let this work of the house of God alone.

God warned your enemies not to try to hinder the work that he is determined to do in your life. And moreover, in the record it says, Whatever they need — young bulls, rams, lambs, burnt offerings, wheat, salt, wine, oil — according to the request of the priests who are in Jerusalem, let it be given to them day by day without fail.

Day by day. What did Jesus say we were to pray? Give us this day our daily bread. Not this month our monthly bread. Not this year our yearly bread. But, "Oh God, give me this day what I need to get through this day as I'm building a testimony for your glory through this life." Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.

Don't Stop When the Tears Start — Psalm 126

This brings us back, and I'm going to close with this. In Psalm 126, after all these things were done for them, the psalmist says, Bring back our captivity, O Lord, as streams in the south. It reminds me of David the king, who said in one of his psalms, "God, restore to me the joy of your salvation." Somewhere along the line — I let the accusations, I let the failures, I let the struggles take over from who I really am in Christ, from what I've really been called to do, and from the promises that I have that it will be done in my life.

Now here's where I want to finish, because this is the title — don't stop when the tears start. They who sow in tears shall reap in joy.

There's a day coming, my brother, where you've got to get through the valley of the shadow of death. There's a day coming when there might be a weeping. There's a day coming when things will be said that hurt, when oppositions will be fierce, when weaponry will be mounted up against you to stop the work that God began to do through your life.

But this is where it gets interesting. In Psalm 126:6 it says, He who continually goes forth weeping — in other words, he doesn't stop when the tears start.

One day you'll come back to this house — or if you're online, you'll come back to some place where you choose to worship God — and you will come in and raise your hands and say, "God is faithful. God is good. God is just. Every promise he made to me, even when I doubted him, even when my own heart condemned me, he proved that he was greater than my heart." The wine at the end of the wedding feast is better than the wine at the beginning. The joy is deeper than it was. There's a joy of youth, but there's another joy of age when you've walked with God and seen his faithfulness.

Don't give up. Don't quit when the weeping starts. You will be opposed, but you will make it to the end by the grace of Almighty God, and your life will be everything that God said your life is going to be. Praise be to God.