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.

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 — bega