Wisdom Lit - The Psalms w/Scott McConnell

I'm just Scott.

Yeah, Scott.

Nobody loves you like Scott.

Oh, thank you for the enthusiasm this morning.

Good morning.

Happy Sunday.

If you'll go ahead and stand up,

I'd like to read a passage.

For the ones that can't stand up.

It's from Psalm 77.

I know, it's always ironic for me to get up here

and tell everybody to stand up, but that's what we do.

Psalm 77.

I cried out to God for help.

I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord.

At night, I stretched out on tiring hands

and I would not be comforted.

I remembered you, God, and I groaned.

I meditated and my spirit grew faint.

You kept my eyes from closing.

I was too troubled to speak.

I thought about the former days, the years of long ago.

I remembered my songs in the night.

My heart meditated and my spirit asked,

will the Lord reject forever?

Will he never show his favor again?

Has his unfailing love vanished forever?

Has his promise failed for all time?

Has God forgotten to be merciful?

Has he in anger withheld his compassion?

Let's pray.

Father, we face these words to start today.

They're hard words.

But we know that sometimes our hearts cry them out.

We know that there is wisdom in them

and we pray that you would help us to find hope today

and find encouragement as we go through this Psalm.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Amen. Please be seated.

Don't worry, Psalm 77 gets better.

And we'll finish it here soon enough,

but I want to start there.

We find someone who wrote this Psalm,

who can't sleep because of the stress that they're facing.

They can't pray because when they do, they feel faint.

And when they think about God's love, they question it.

They're discouraged.

And we find this theme often in the Psalms.

It's not a one-time thing.

And I think it is part of the wisdom

that we find in the Psalms,

that at times it's okay to complain.

And at times it's even okay to lift our eyes and complain.

The trick is that the wisdom of the Psalms

is that it doesn't leave us there.

It takes us somewhere better,

but before we can get to the better,

we have to start with the honesty of where we are.

Now, I don't assume everyone's in that place this morning,

or everyone's feeling that.

I certainly hope not, but we do all face those seasons.

And a rhythm that we often see in the Psalms

is someone who is facing those challenges and voices that,

and then recognize and remembers what God has done,

and then finds hope in that.

And that's where we're gonna go this morning.

The challenges that we face,

the remembering of what God has done and who He is,

and the hope that that gives us for the future.

Now, it would be great if we could hear that once or twice

and move forward and sink that in.

But the truth is that we run into that again,

and again, and again,

and have to work through it in each situation.

There are things that I've been through,

health challenges and stuff like that,

and I thought when I got through those,

now that I've been through these things,

I don't know if anything's gonna rock my faith again.

I think I'm good now.

I've spent months in a hospital,

I've gone through these surgeries.

Surely my faith is in a place of strength now.

Then my WiFi went out for eight hours this week.

And I felt like God had abandoned me.

How can a God of love allow me to go

without WiFi for eight hours?

And it was funny to me because every time I passed the router

and the little red light was still on,

I got a little more annoyed.

And then I went out for a drive

and I saw that they were working on the lines.

And so I knew it wasn't an act of God's anger

or punishment toward me.

But there was still a part of me

that felt a little bit bitter of this,

I shouldn't have to deal with this.

It's 2025.

I shouldn't have disruptions in my service of internet.

And it's a silly example, but I like it because

it's a reminder that even though we go through big things

and face big things, and we work through those,

we can find little speed bumps that trip us up.

And that caused us to stop and have to go through that again.

That feeling of discouragement, that feeling of frustration,

that questioning of faith and even of God

that caused us to say, okay,

what's the deal here? What's going on?

Has anyone had a hard time sleeping this week

because of something you were thinking about

or something that you were facing?

Has anyone found it difficult to pray this week

because of some type of discouragement or lack of focus?

Something going on?

I think a lot of us face that.

And have some of us wondered,

how am I going to get through this situation?

How am I going to get through this?

Now, when you think back through your life

and all the situations that you've been through,

you could probably take a moment and reflect.

But when we're facing something, we don't do that, do we?

We don't study for a test and feel the stress of that

and think, well, think of all the things in my life

I've been through.

Surely I can get through this test.

In that moment, that's the immediate thing.

That's the pressure that we feel, and that's what consumes us.

I think of my brother, JC, up front.

I'm sure there were a few times here in the last week

where you felt some pressure

and you felt some moments of stress

as you were hanging out there in the hospital

watching things unfold and so much excitement,

but so much fear at the same time.

The possibility of things

with the birth of a child, just so much,

and such a lack of control, I would sense that.

You see so many things happening.

You care about so many things that are happening.

Now, God's brought you through things before,

but in those moments, you still feel that.

You still feel that pressure.

And I'd like to share a little bit.

I usually try to leave personal things

out of my sermons somewhat.

The reason for that being is because,

I think especially early on in my preaching,

I didn't mean to, but as an inexperienced preacher,

I used my own life so much that the focus could become me,

even if you don't mean it to be that.

And that's an uncomfortable feeling

because you don't want to leave and feel like your story

or your experience is what people walked away with,

is the memorable part of what you shared.

So that's something that I try to be cautious about.

I want it to be something beyond the limitations

of what I've been through,

but this morning I am going to share some of something

I've experienced even in the last few months.

So it's a little unusual for me,

but I wanted to share that,

that it's something I'm cautious about,

but I felt like it fit with this passage well.

And there were some other things about it that I thought,

you know, I think this is a good place for this,

or an appropriate place, maybe I should say.

As many of you know, Zayla, our daughter that we adopted

in November, we have, we picked her up from the hospital.

She came to us through foster care,

and we had been told pretty much outright

that the chances of us getting an infant were very low

because, and I felt like my disability had something to do that,

and I try really hard to be cautious not to assume

that people consider limitations or make judgments about that.

But in this situation, even though it wasn't right,

and probably wasn't even legal,

it did seem that the assumption was that

I would be better off caring for an older child.

And so when we got a call for a newborn,

we were somewhat surprised.

In fact, we hadn't even had a call from foster care for a while.

It seemed like our relationship with them was a little bit strained

after some things that had happened.

So when we got a call for an infant, we were really excited.

So I told the person on the phone who was asking,

they called about it, and they said,

well, you're one of several families we're considering,

so thank you for saying yes to this,

but we're still not sure what the right place for her to go is.

And I said, oh, it's our house.

We've got a crib set up.

We've got things ready to go.

Our house is the place for her to be.

We're ready any minute.

And so they go ahead and gave the yes,

and we came and she'd been in the NICU,

the special care for babies, for little kiddos, for several days

due to some health concerns when she was born.

And so she had wires and different things hooked up to her,

and they started unhooking those for us to take her home.

And that was a terrifying moment.

I was afraid to hold her there, partially because she was so small

and things, but also partially because I didn't want them to question

whether I could hold her right or whether she was going to be safe with us.

So when we did go to leave the parking lot,

we were looking around thinking, is somebody going to run up and say,

you can't take that child?

Because when you're leaving the hospital with someone else's child,

it's a really scary feeling and it's such a tender thing,

such a vulnerable thing.

But we got home and nobody chased after us.

And we've cared for her, but throughout her journey,

we've noticed moments where something was a little bit different.

Her development was slower.

It took a while for her to sit up.

It took a while for her to crawl.

It took a while for her to do a lot of different things.

It took a little while for her speech to come into place.

And so we were so excited when she started to say words,

and when she was making progress in that area,

and she had about 25 words that she was saying.

But then we slowly noticed those words were slipping away.

Her memory didn't seem to be able to hold on to them.

And not only was she learning new ones, not learning new ones,

but some of the ones that she had been saying were fewer.

And so she would go up and she likes to pull up on my foot plate

and stand and put her hands on my knees and look up at me.

And every day we would go through different words.

What animal says meow, cat?

What animal says woof, dog?

Think about that, I'm not sure why.

What's my name, Dada?

What's your name, Zayla?

And we noticed that some of those words began to become more slurred.

And slowly but surely those words became less.

Until there was just a confused look on her face when I asked her

what animal says meow?

What animal says woof, woof?

And so I stopped asking.

It was sad, it was hard.

You could see her thinking, but the words just weren't there.

And so we'd already been, had a geneticist at University of Iowa.

We had a neurologist because from the start there were concerns of,

hey, what's causing some of these delays?

Eventually they call it global development delay,

which means it's not a specific diagnosis,

but there's something going on that's causing some delays

and they weren't sure what that was.

But I started pushing for genetics a lot harder because things were slowing down

and not only were things slowing down, but there were things going away.

And even with some of her physical things, things like climbing the stairs

that we'd worked on were getting harder for her.

One week she would be able to do them,

and then the next week it was like she'd never done it before.

And so we ran more genetic testing and different things,

and we'd been looking up online possibilities.

And then one day I got a call from the geneticist and she said,

we know what it is.

And I was surprised just at that call because for two and a half years

we'd been hearing, we're not sure, we're not sure, we're not sure.

And so then to hear someone say, yes, we know what it is,

and she told us Rett syndrome, R-E-T-T,

and we'd done a little bit of research on that.

And it's not considered degenerative, which is a little confusing,

that it's not considered something where health continues to decline for sure,

but there are setbacks.

A lot of times kids around two lose language, which is what we'd seen her do.

And a lot of times kids with Rett never gain that back.

A lot of times kids with Rett are, and there's a spectrum,

just so many, like so many things, right?

But you have to kind of work within what's normal within that.

And what's normal within that is that most kids with Rett don't ever walk

completely on their own or normally.

You've seen her using her little walker around here.

And sometimes, a lot of times, kids with that syndrome regress over time.

So we began thinking about that there may be a point where she's restricted to a wheelchair.

Oftentimes the seizures become worse and worse, so they're not controllable.

A lot of times, over time, children with Rett syndrome lose ability in their hands

to where an eye gaze machine is their best way to communicate.

So there were a lot of things that I'd suspected and had a sense of

that now we had a clearer picture of.

And of course, that was very hard news.

And you could say that the words in Psalm seventy seven rang true.

I cried out to God for help. I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord at night.

I stretched out on tiring hands and I would not be comforted.

I remembered you, God, and I groaned. I meditated in my spirit group faint.

You kept my eyes from closing. I was too troubled to speak.

I thought about the former days, the years of long ago.

I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated in my spirit asked,

Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again?

Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time?

Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he an anger withheld his compassion?

Now I'm going to read that was verses one through nine. Now I'm going to read ten through sixteen.

Then I thought to this, I will appeal.

The years when the most high stretched out his right hand.

I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.

Your ways, God, are holy. What God is as great as our God.

You are the God who performs miracles. You display your power among the peoples.

With your mighty arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

The water saw you, God, the water saw you and writhed. The very depths work in vaults.

And verses 19 and 20, it finishes. Your path led through the sea.

Your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.

You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Now there's some parts in there right away that we probably connect with, and there's some parts in there right away that we're not sure or may not be sure what to do with.

Why does it talk about waters? Why does it talk about Moses and Aaron?

What do those have to do with the message that's being written here?

And I'd like to share a little bit about that. The person who was writing that Psalm, it tells us Asaph.

We're not sure who that was, but a lot of times in Psalms and including in this one.

The Jews, the people of Israel, looked back on a certain point in their history to remind them and assure them that God was on their side.

And that was when he brought them out of Egypt. They could always point back to that and say, we know that God acted on our behalf.

We know that he loves us because he brought us through that.

We remember when he brought us through the Red Sea, when he parted the waters, and that's where why it talks about the waters.

If God brought us through there, then he can get us through this.

And they could point back to that time and time again. I might be losing sleep tonight.

But I know that doesn't define who God is, and I know that doesn't define my journey.

And we see that is true today. And I want to point to three places where we find that true.

And one might connect to each of us more than others. The first one is in scripture like we were reading.

Some of you may know those stories well and may point to that and remember it.

I think to me, one of my favorite stories is that of Joseph in Genesis.

His story had so many peaks and valleys.

There were so many moments where he could have said, I'm forgotten and I'm abandoned when he was in a jail cell,

when he was stuck in a well, when he was stuck in these different situations.

But he chose to keep faith and God brought him to a place of favor and redemption.

We also think of Jesus and who he is.

And probably the biggest moment of that where we recognize God's love and God's action is where Jesus gives his life on the cross and is resurrected and reminds us all of that.

That's an anchor moment. That's a landmark moment that we can put in our faith and remember when we're facing challenges.

Another place that we see that is within our own lives and with the lives of those around us that we can continue to look back.

And I encourage you to do that, to cement in your mind those moments, those places where God is showed himself true.

What are they? Think about that. Reflect on that and grab a hold of those.

Those moments where you felt forgotten, but God brought you through.

For me, those are nights in the hospital.

The night in the hospital is a horrible time in a horrible place, in my opinion.

It is so lonely.

The only sound is oftentimes beeping of monitors, eventually or occasionally someone calling out because they need help.

Someone coming in when you finally do fall asleep to do something.

But God brought me through those lonely places and nights in the hospital, and I remember that if he brought me through those, he could bring me through other things.

The last one I'll mention is our church family that the see the things we see here in our church.

And to me, those are the ones I hold on to most.

I look around our church and I see other people parenting children with disabilities.

I look around our church and I see people dealing with health issues.

I look around our church and I see people dealing with all kinds of stuff.

Loss. Loss of a loved one and choosing to persevere through that.

And when I see that faithfulness and love, I look around and say.

There's people still in this, and if they're still in it, I'm still in it, too.

I'm going to hold on.

That's my favorite.

We've got three great places there. We have the scriptures.

We have our own lives and we have the witness of our community.

And I'll take a moment to say that's why I think it's so important that we show up.

Because when we see each other's faces, it tells a testimony.

I showed up today.

Might have been a great week and I chose to show up.

Might not have been that great a week and I chose to show up.

And when I see the different faces and I know the different stories and even the stories that I don't know.

We chose to come together and sing some songs, pray some prayers and listen to someone share something.

And that says a lot.

And sometimes that's the testimony is feeling those parts of the beginning of that, right?

I cried out to God for help and I didn't hear anything back.

But then I showed up and I saw the other people that did.

And I thought, OK, this story is not over.

It's not done yet.

And I know for for my family.

Our story is.

It won't be defined by this moment, it won't be defined by Rett syndrome.

But I ask you, as you hear other stories.

It's OK to be sad with people, too.

Please don't forget that.

It's OK to mourn with people, too.

There is loss in this.

There is sadness in this.

It's not all there is, but it's there.

And that's OK.

And I think sometimes the the world is so busy trying to move on to other things and to not sit in the feelings of stuff that we give a platitude of kindness or niceness and keep rolling.

And I hope that God's people are willing to sit down and say this is tough.

But we know it's not all there is.

All right. I like where we're at.

Before we do communion.

I'd like us to do something.

We we tried this one other time and I want to again stress that this.

I'm going to invite you to share something at your table for someone at the table to share.

I don't want you to feel pressure.

If you talk about what you're going to have for lunch after this, nobody's going to know and nobody's going to judge you.

Don't feel guilty. Don't feel bad.

And there's not time for for each person to share.

So don't feel that pressure either that you have to come up with something.

But if you're willing, if you feel OK with it, to share something that God has brought you through.

Could be small.

Could be bigger, but I want to encourage you.

Someone is your table to share something that God has brought you through.

And we'll give about two minutes to do that.

It's a short amount of time.

One person shares two person share.

That's fine.

But I want us to take a moment to do that and have that chance to share something and and hear that.

So I'm going to pray first.

I'll get two minutes and then we'll wrap up with some communion.

Let's pray, Father, I thank you that.

You bring us through your Psalms, give us wisdom.

They give us a prayer to pray when we don't have one, when our when our prayers even are angry.

When our prayers are prayers of hurt, feeling abandoned.

But your prayers don't leave us there.

They point us to who you are and what you've done beyond our present situation.

And they give us hope.

Help us to remember that today and walk out with the sense.

Of that hope of who you are in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen. All right, go ahead.

And if you feel inclined, share something that you've been through with your table.