Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. 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. In verse 6 of Psalm 126, It says heal continually. goes forth weeping.
In other words, He doesn't stop. When the tears start. Welcome to the weekly program, A Call to the Nation, with Carter Conlon. We're so glad you've joined us, and we hope to make this your place each week for a powerful insight from God's Word.
Now, let's join Carter with today's message. Uh Don't stop when tears start because. Tears, sorrow, disappointments, difficulties are part of the world. part of the Christian life, 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. And 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, and for those who are in the middle of the journey, I remember those days so clearly in my life. When I told Pastor Teresa one time, I said, I feel like if I wasn't sighing, I wouldn't be breathing. There was the season.
A long season where it was difficult and then there's 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. Don't stop. When tears start.
Psalm 126. We're going to start there. Verses one to three. When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream. Then her mouth was filled with laughter and her 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. Remember those first days of salvation. I remember When I sat in church and the first time I ever heard Or when the person who won me to Christ, the first time I ever heard the the verse of scripture that If anyone be in Christ, he's a new creation.
The old things are passed away, and behold, all things are 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, Lord, that I could never find in my own strength.
No matter how much I would try, it would always escaped 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. And 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 officers' conference in Speculator. upstate New York. And 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.
Because it was like a dream. And 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. You're singing songs. Unto Christ.
When I first started going to church, I'd open a hymn book, and I wasn't raised on the hymns, so they were brand new to me. It is well with my soul, singing songs, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. And I would stand there, and the tears would come down my face. My mouth is filled with laughter and my tongue with singing. I remember one time my wife said to me, she said, you have to stop laughing when the preacher is preaching.
She said, he's going to think that you're mocking him. I said, I'm not. I can't stop. I'm just so filled with joy that I have this new life that God has promised. I have a hope, I have a future, I have Now laid hold of the possibility of becoming the person that God intended my life to be, and I couldn't stop sometimes.
This, it would bubble out of me like a river. And then people among the nations, they said in Psalm 126, said, The Lord has done great things for them. And the Lord has done great things for us. Whereof and we are glad. People around you started to say, wow, you are changing.
Now, some things change quickly, don't they?
Some things are the 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 there's certain things that change, and other things don't change quite as fast. I know 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, maybe you're not as old as you don't remember the old Western movies, but they get in a gunfight in a saloon and one guy gets shot. And he falls over the table. Then he climbs always a stairway that went on this side of the room, falls, goes over on this side of the balcony, falls over the balcony behind the bar, gets up, falls over the bar. Stumbles out through the swinging doors and falls over the thing you tie your horse to.
And you're watching the movies saying, Is this guy ever going to die? Is this just a low-budget production? They're trying to fill time.
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. May I put it that way? Praise be to God.
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, It starts out, this psalm, 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 held captive.
And God I'm in a season of sorrow now. I'm in a season where tears are taking over. or what used to be joy. And God, would you help us in this?
Now, to understand this, I want to go back. to the actual journey that most agree that this Psalm speaks about. It began with the people of Israel being taken into captivity into a land called Babylon.
Now they were taken there because they played fast and loose with the things of God. And we go into captivity when we don't acknowledge the presence of God or the reason for which we were created. And we choose, as Adam and Eve once did, to follow our own reasonings and go our own way. And that's what these people did for a season. And because of it, they lost the protection of God and they were taken captive, and for 70 years.
They were in captivity. It's almost like it's more than a generation. Many, many, if not most, of these people are actually born in captivity. They knew the story of what God had done in the past. They knew the story of what God is able to do, but they themselves.
had been the victims of a captivity And their lives were short of what they should have been.
Now The interesting thing is, in the book of Ezra, it gives us the history. And in Ezra chapter 1, verse 1, It says, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia.
Now, this is where it really gets interesting. Because about 150 years before Cyrus became king, It was prophesied that Cyrus was going to, a king would be born whose name would be Cyrus. He's 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 knows all of the things that you and I are going to face. And he he foretold Through Jeremiah, that his own people would go into captivity for 70 years, but through Isaiah, that a king called Cyrus would be born who would issue a decree and let the people go back home to rebuild again.
So 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 of that time. And suddenly the news comes that the king A heathen king, a Medo-Persian king, on top of that, has issued a decree saying whoever wants to go home to rebuild can go home.
That's what happened on the cross, folks. That's what happened. 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's will, 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 of 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 that 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, 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 and goods and livestock, besides the free will offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem. This sudden decree comes. In Ezra chapter 1, verses 1 to 4, Where God says you can go home. You can rebuild what was lost.
And all the protection and provision today and tomorrow that you will need is promised to you. Isn't that amazing? That's what God promises you and I through Jesus Christ. He took captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. He gave us everything we need to become the people that 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, a people given abilities and giftings that we didn't naturally have and wouldn't naturally have without the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of our lives.
Now it gets even more interesting. Verse 7. King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem. He was the Babylonian king. conquered Jerusalem, he'd take it from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods.
And Cyrus, king of Persia, brought them out by the hand of Meredath, the treasurer. and counted them out to Shezbazar the prince of Judah. This is the number of them. Thirty 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 Sheshbazar took with the captives who were brought. from Babylon. To Jerusalem. Phenomenal. Fifty four hundred things.
that were necessary for the pure and the 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, nobody melted these things down to use them for their own use. 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, all of a sudden, everything, you're going to need this, you're going to need this, you're going to need this, everything comes out of storage. Nothing has been altered. Nothing has been taken.
God would not let what you can imagine, a foreign king with all this gold. The temptation would have been there to melt it down and create currency for themselves and enrich themselves. But no, everything, 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 they headed back.
And as it says in Psalm 126, it must have been like a dream. I I could I could hear the songs on the way Back into Jerusalem that they were singing, the laughter among the people, the things that as they passed through places where foreign peoples dwelled. The people, as the psalmist says, 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.
Thank God for that journey. But When they began to rebuild. There's going to be opposition. When you get into the kingdom of God, this is real, this is real fight, this is a real battle. And when you start heading into that place, Where your life is going to give glory to God, or ultimately, over the into the end zone is into the kingdom of God.
You see, the people went back and they started to build. And they laid the foundation. They did some other things when they began to build. But in Ezra chapter 4 Verse four to six. It says, then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah.
They troubled them in building it.
So the first thing they had to face was discouragement, people saying things like, you'll never Change. Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Ja, oh, it won't last. I remember being told that, you're excited now, but it won't last. It won't last. I don't know who's ever heard that.
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.
So, not only tried to discourage the people, but hiring people against them to frustrate them, to stand in front of them, to try to block what they were doing. And in the reign of Ahazarus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And Judah. And so they had to face discouragement, frustration, and accusation. And I can only imagine The tears.
When they started to form in some of the people The same God. I didn't think it was going to be like this, you know, and that happens to all of us when we formulate a plan of our lives and our future, don't we? And when it doesn't pan out the way we thought it was going to be, we go back to rebuilding and we form a vision of what this temple is going to look like. Like, it's not hard to imagine when you look at this building here. And so we get the foundation laid, and we get maybe a few things done, and then suddenly discouragement comes in, and opposition, and accusation, and all these.
And I can just imagine the sorrow. That must have touched so many people's hearts because that's what happens to you and I. when we we start out on the journey and we we get to about the middle stage. And suddenly we realize we're in a war. There's going to be difficult days.
And Peter in 1 Peter 4, verses 12 to 14. He says it this way. He says, Beloved, Don't think it's strange. Concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. As though some strange thing happened to you.
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, and 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. Don't think it's 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 might be also glad with exceeding joy. If you're reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and God rests upon you. On their part, he has blasphemed. But on your part, He is glorified.
Now, you'd say well But what if I feel That Jesus Christ is not being glorified. in my life. What if I feel that, yes, people are reproaching me, but maybe they're right. My life is at a standstill. I'm not going from image to image and glory to glory.
I'm not changing as rapidly. as I thought I was going to. And I have a foundation in my life of salvation in Jesus Christ. I feel that I'm saved, but. This marvelous temple that's supposed to be built.
I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. It seems like the walls are not up, it seems like the windows are not in. Everything in my life seems to be at a standstill.
Now, 1 John 3, verse 20, John said, If our heart condemns us to the second part of the verse, God is greater than calling my name. 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. There will be difficulty. That goes.
Now, in the midst of all of this, Two prophets. rose up. Zachariah and Hosea, and they began to prophesy, and 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.
The people are telling us we can't.
Some are saying it's rebellion.
Some are saying that 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. And 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. He made a decree. And if you go back and read the record, He said that this was going to be done. He said it was going to be provided for.
He said the foundations should be laid. He said the expenses would be paid from the king's treasury. That gold and silver articles would be brought from the house of the king and 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 more so in the record, it said, whatever they need, young bulls, rams, lambs, burnt offerings. Heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or 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're 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.
Now this brings us back and I'm going to close with this The Psalm 126.
So all these things We're done for them. But the psalmist goes on, he says, bring back our captivity, O Lord. As streams in the south. It reminds me of David. The king.
In one of his Psalms, he said, God, restore to me the joy of thy salvation.
Somewhere along the line, I don't know. 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 the promises that I have. that it will be done in my life.
Now here's here's where I want to finish because this was the title When the tears start, Don't stop when the tears start. They were so in tears.
So reap enjoy. There's a day coming. My brother, you've got to get through the valley of the shadow of death. Do you understand? 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 when Weaponry will be mounted up against you to stop the work that God has done. begin to do through your life.
But this is where it gets interesting. In verse 6 of Psalm 126, It says heal continually. goes forth weeping. In other words, It 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 you will raise your hands. And you'll 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. Oh God, 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 you've seen the faithfulness of God. And you're able to say, 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.
That's what your life will be. Praise be to God.
Praise be to God.
Praise be to God.
So don't stop. When the tears start. The message today has been brought to you by Carter Conlon from Times Square Church. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc.
Plan to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
