Sunday Morning Worship Service
by Anthony McCool
First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Mark 14:32, Luke 22:44

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/anthony-mccool--sunday-morning-worship-service-23
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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If you have your Bibles this morning, if you would turn to the book of Mark, chapter 14, 32. And we're going to read also from Luke 22:44. had the privilege this past Friday evening of ministering at our ALJC Tri-State District Overflow Rally up in Church Hill, Tennessee, right outside of Kingsport. And uh preached a message and pastor uh requested that I minister from centered around that same topic uh again. So if all the students that were that were there uh my that I have in school every day, my apology to you is probably less than sincere, but I love you guys. So uh we'll just call it repetition uh this morning uh for uh the strategy and learning hopefully. So but if you have your Bibles, turn to those two passages of scripture. Mark 14:32 states, "And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane, and he saith to his disciples, sit ye here while I shall pray." Again, this is Jesus speaking. Luke 22:44, "And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly." That's a powerful thought even just right there by itself. Then being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. I want to minister to you from this topic for a few moments this morning. And I would ask you to overlook the inadequacies of the speaker and the faults of my own, but let God's word just sink deep down into your hearts that you put it in application for whatever circumstance you might be enduring or going through this week. But I want to preach to you from the topic crushed for a cause. Crushed for a cause. I'm going to step right into it this morning. It's the year 2025. And if there is one thing, if there's one thing humanity excels at, it is the art of comfortable living. Oh, everybody said, "Amen." Amen. We've engineered a world where inconvenience is practically a profane word. groceries are able to materialize at our front door. And we've heard testimonies of the past where uh somebody bought me groceries and had them uh sitting at my front door. We look in the Bible and uh all of these different uh miracles of deliverance even from the birds that food came. Now we have door dash and even delivery by way of uh modernday birds I guess even in the form of drones. But we hope that God does not make his return if they forgot that special sauce that I also ordered because that could send us into a state where we needed to repent. Direct human interaction is a fading memory replaced by increasingly sophisticated and sometimes hilariously inept AI chat bots. If you've tried to order through the drive-thru at Taco Bell lately, I could get a name man across this house when you try to customize that specific order with the AI chatbot. It just doesn't have that same interaction. And if you needed an opinion, you could just walk by your smart refrigerator and ask it what the weather's going to be today. Our ancestors traversed continents on foot enduring hardships we can barely fathom. I saw a meme of two gentlemen and one guy was saying to the other uh it said uh this is me in heaven explaining to a Roman citizen how I I uh would have broke 80 on the golf course if I wouldn't have double bogeied that last par five and I was explaining this to a Roman citizen who was beheaded for stealing a loaf of bread but we have these juxipositions s all around us of the hardships of the past with modernday conveniences. And we're constantly reconciling uh our everyday trials that we face against this backdrop. And today we break a sweat scrolling through streaming services, paralyzed by the sheer options of entertainment that we have. I just can't pick the right show, the right movie, and the struggle is real. And all of this could send us into a tail spin if our wifi dropped below the correct running speed, the dread and the weariness that fills this house. We navigate life with digital precision, GPS, GPS satellites, and if the slightest technological glitch can send us into existential dread, if we had to read an atlas, some of you 25 years old and under like, what is an atlas? If you had to read a map, my god, we would be forever lost. The horror If you would put that image of the football game, Iowa State and Kansas State, if this game broke out in your backyard, you would shut the blinds. Now imagine Tennessee's scheduled to play at 3:30 and this game goes into overtime and you see that scrolling bar at the bottom or maybe you're waiting for the Penn State game for the cluster and you see that Iowa State and Kansas State are on and you and they go into overtime and you see that scrolling ticker at the bottom that the game is going to kick off on ESPN News. news or some other obscure channel that you are not able to find the the dread, the the panic, the keyboard warriors, the keyboard militia that take to Twitter and curse ESPN or ABC or whatever the the network is. How dare you miss the start of my favorite team? Our kitchens, once sacred spaces of culinary creation, have become mere staging grounds for reheating prepackaged meals. The microwave, a modern marvel, stands as a monument to our collective impatience. We yearn for the food that our ancestors made. If I can just trek out to West Knoxville to a Whole Foods, I will sacrifice and go get it. Cooking from scratch, a quaint hobby reserved only for the Instagram influencers for after we see it. Must be nice to have that much time on our hands to come up with something like that. Oh, let's not forget the fashion industry constantly turnurning out the latest trends in what is now called athleisure wear. Yeah, why wear real pants when you can live in glorified pajamas? And I don't know about you, but in my frequent shopping centers that I patron, they just wear pajamas. So I just I guess that's just leisure wear. I don't see where the athletic comes in. We've blurred the lines between work and leisure so completely now that we now attend virtual meetings in our pajamas. And from the waist up, we look like we could conquer nations. The pursuit of comfort and convenience has become a kind of religion. We worship at the altar of efficiency, sacrificing genuine human connection in the name of speed and ease. And we curate our lives as museum exhibits carefully arranging, making sure we get the perfect lighting, the perfect flawless filter and the envy inducing backdrops. And we want to create this image that we are blessed beyond measure and that we live the good life. And don't get me wrong, I stand here not with a a tongue of condemnation this morning. For I would be chief hypocrite because I am thankful for the modern-day conveniences and I am thankful for the comforts of our day. But I do ask you this question and certainly multiple things can be true. Even though we live in a day of comfort and deficiency, we can still uh suffer suffer trials and still suffer uh incomprehensible circumstances to many around us. And we try to reconcile this with the things we see in the news media and the things that other countries and other humans have to deal with. And and uh certain two things can be true that we still have things that we struggle with, but those things certainly should keep our priorities in perspective about the things that we allow uh to mess up our days. But that's not the point of my sermon this morning. And I ask you, has this aspiration for comfort anesthetized us to the deeper longings of the human heart? Because in our comfort driven world, it's easy to develop a skewed theology, a skewed presupposition and worldview, believing that trials indicate God's displeasure, or believing that hardships are some kind of dictate from God because of his displeasure or unworthiness for ministry. Yet scripture reveals a different truth. Struggles are often the crucible where faith is strengthened >> and purpose is refined. There there's no doubt we live in a world of comfort and ease. And we go through measures to avoid pain. We go through measures to run from hardship and to escape anything that might cause us the least bit discomfort. And again, I reiterate preaching to me. But it is often in the midst of hardship. It's often in the midst of the very place of pressure. The midst of crushing is where we are transformed and refined into something beautiful and useful. Consider the olive, this sacred item, this sacred fruit that you see used in a literal sense and also in a symbolic sense throughout the lids of your Bible, before it can become the lifegiving substance that illuminates. Before it can be that healing agent, before it is able to nourish the human, it must undergo a process of crushing and pressing. And from our key texts this morning, just east of Jerusalem, a common setting familiar to us all, the mounts of olives lying east of Jerusalem lies the garden that embodies this very truth. The literal interpretation of Gethsemane was the place of the press, the oil press. This was an oil factory. This was not just some o other oil factory. But due to its location, right outside of Jerusalem, this is where the oil would have been derived from for the temple. The olives would undergo three different presses. The first press, which was referred to as the first fruits, would be just the olives gathered together. And the remnants and the oil that dripped from them would be referred to as the first fruits. And this oil from the first fruits would be what was used to in religious ceremonies. This is what would be used to anoint the priests and to anoint the kings in the temple of Jerusalem. The first press, the first fruits. The second press, a heavy weighing approximately 500B stone, would crush over the olives. And the oil derived from this crushing and this pressing from the 500B millstone, this is what would be used for food. It would be used for medicine. It would be used for sanitation. It would be used for personal hygiene. And still yet, even after a 500B stone would roll over those olives, there would still yet be a third press, a third press, because there was still some more that could be poured out. And they would place the olives that were left in a basket. And more pressure would be added on that third press just to get the last every single drop out of those olives. And this from the third press would be the oil that was used for lamps to provide illumination. As I mentioned and let me reiterate, this oil produced here was not ordinary. This is the oil that fueled the lamps in the temple. This was the oil that was used to anoint the priests and the kings. This oil symbolized God's power. It symbolized the miracles of God. It it symbolized the very presence of God. all derived from the oil in Gethsemane. And these oils, the olive had to be broken. It had to be pressed and it had to be absolutely crushed. This was the place that Jesus took his disciples in the waning moments after the last supper. the moments before he would be arrested. And it's no accident that Jesus took his disciples to this garden, this oil factory, this garden of Gethsemane, this place of the press, this place of crushing because it symbolizes what was going to happen to Jesus. for the weight of sin and the burden of a broken world would crush down heavy on the back of Jesus. And we read that he took his disciples with him. Oh, these disciples at the last supper, not the supper before last, but the last supper who said, "Oh Jesus, if the occasion would present itself where I will must die for you, oh, I will die for you, Jesus." What powerful words, Peter. Thank you. And only just a few moments later in the garden of Gethsemane, the place of the press, the oil factory, he asked his disciples to watch and pray. And he came back and they were asleep. Oh, I I'll die for you, Jesus. Just don't ask me to pray for an hour. Right? So, he gives him another chance. Second time he comes back, they're asleep again. And this is when Jesus went to pray once again. And it and it said that praying in agony, praying more earnestly, came back a third time. The disciples once again asleep. And many theologians draw parallels from the three different pressing of the olives to Jesus coming back to his followers, his disciples, and them being asleep three times. And this was an addition to the weight that Jesus was carrying. Aubrey Taylor of Lexon Geographical Commentary points out that between Gethsemane and Jerusalem, there was a road that would have been known to Jesus and his disciples. And this road was a way of escape that he could have avoided the Roman guard, that he could have avoided the Pharisees and the high priests. And that road, she points out, was located right between Gethsemane and right between Jerusalem, indicating that while Jesus was praying, while his disciples failed him, while Jesus went back and prayed and prayed more earnestly, while he was in agony, while the sins and the weight of this world was upon his shoulders, be before the crowns were placed on his head, be before the the whip lashed. ed his back. There was a road of comfort and convenience that Jesus could have stepped to and avoided every discomfort. But we read that Jesus in agony began to pray more earnestly. And in that moment in the oil factory, the moments leading up to the arrest of Jesus, the enemy thought they were crushed. He was crushing him. And he was absolutely right. But what the enemy failed to realize that out of that crushing, out of that pressing, there was an oil and an anointing that would begin to flow. And we read the foreshadowing and the prophecy from the Old Testament that every mark on his body would be a healing ointment for us. Every by his stripes we would be healed and the blood that would flow would cleanse us from all sins. This was the place and the significance of Gethsemane not only as the site of Jesus agony and surrender but it also is a depiction and mirrors our own lives. So the question to you this morning, the question to myself this morning and in your own Gethsemane, how is God trying to refine you? For my point is this relentless pursuit of ease cultivates a dangerous theology. It can cultivate a dangerous mindset for us. Because when hardship inevitably arrives, and it will. When the pressure mounts, and it will, the first instinct is to assume we've somehow strayed from God's will. And in our modernday prosperity gospel preaching, we can in a world of comfort equate comfort with divine favor or associate comfort with divine favor and discomfort with divine disapproval. But our Bible says, the word of God says the opposite is true. For in these intense moments of pressure, these are not signs of God's absence, but rather it should be approached from the believer that this is evidence of his deliberate preparation. >> For the challenges we face are not detours, but they're integral parts of divinely ordained pathways. For if God has placed a prophetic word over your life, >> if he intends to use you in a mighty way, wouldn't he equip you for the task? Wouldn't he refine you? Wouldn't he strengthen you? Wouldn't he mold you in a vessel that he desired you to be so you could withstand >> what might come your way? So, as we listen to God's word this morning, the pressing, the crushing is not a punishment. It's a preparation for anointing to come. It's in those very moments of discomfort that our faith is tested. It's in those very moments of discomfort that our faith is forged and our reliance on God deepens. It reveals God's presence in our life because there are always going to be those around you that are going to let you down. But are you going to be able to pray more earnestly? There's always going to be a pathway of escape. There's a pathway of escape in this world in so many different forms. And you will have the opportunity at the crossroads of life to choose that pathway. >> But in the face of those around you letting you down, in the face of a man, that's I could get out of this real quick. Are you able to return to the altar in those moments of agony and pray more earnestly? Notice also today you might feel crushed or pressed due to the mistakes that you've made and the enemy whispers in your ear saying now you're disqualified. your your your calling is over and and you are trying to reconcileing reconcile what this looks like in your life and the the burdens and the weight on your shoulders. When you evaluate them, you say this weight that I feel it's my fault. I brought this upon myself and maybe you did. But those burdens, even if self-inflicted, the weight that you feel crushed by them, that weight can still be the weight that produces the anointing and the flow of oil in your life. Consider the glorified body of Jesus when he reveals himself to his disciples. Thomas in particular, the glorified body of Jesus, still bore the marks of this world. And Thomas said, "I I want to see. I want to to feel Jesus in his glorified body could have had just the perfect image and erased all of the scars, erased all of the hurt, erased all of the markings. But there he is showing those marks to reveal the evidence of what had taken place. So it's no accident that this was an olive grove and an olive press, a place of preion. But I declare that the regenerating power of the spirit that flows and the oil that flows of God has no bounds and his grace extends from everlasting to everlasting. for Jesus the Messiah. Messiah being interpreted means the holy one, the anointed one. Anointed with what? With oil. Oil from the Holy Spirit. From his suffering flows the spirit poured out upon all flesh until he returns. return to the Mount of Olives, bringing healing forever more. And like the olives, God's people undergo a transformation. Galatians tells us that you must pick up your cross and bear bear the weight of that burden. And perhaps today someone under the sound of my voice might feel like in their life due to the circumstances of life that they are on that third press and nothing seems to make sense, crushed by the weight of your burdens. But I implore you today through God's word, would you let that weight, would you let that burden that you feel? Could you let that be proof that there is something mighty that's going to flow out of it? Would you let that be proof that it's not meant to take you out, but it's meant to extract from you just the the last drop. When life's burdens grow heavy, when the pressures mount, I ask you this morning as a believer, what will be your response? Will you drift away and take steps back like the disciples did and slumber spiritually asleep? Will you look for that convenient path road out of the trial? Or will you be like Jesus and say even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of agony, even though the days immediate ahead, it's not going to get any better. But in those moments, can I pray more earnestly to know that there's going to be some oil that flows out of this? God's going to get glory out of this. out of this, there's going to be some healing that takes place. Whether you're a high school student, a young adult facing a career and uncertainty, maybe you're a married couple, a young married couple, having those very spirited conversations about your finances, juggling your schedules, and taking care of your kids and all of these stresses of life. And if you were to describe maybe some of the moments right now, that word pressed and crushed certainly makes a lot of sense. Or maybe you're a mother and you're balancing work and working two jobs, making sure that your family has what you what they need. And it's it seems like a a real task and a a real pressing getting the kids up and getting them ready for for church. and you you get to church and you're like, I don't even know uh what I'm doing here. I spent all morning and it was absolute chaos and you I got them here and it it doesn't really make sense right now why we even showed up. We we ended up being late because this happened and uh we we got here. But those those kids see your faithfulness. It might not be immediate. It might be a couple years, but you've you're establishing a a habit. You're establishing what faith looks like. You're establishing some priorities even when it seems like chaos in the moment. And that that oil that oil is going to to flow. I think of our be free class and the testimonies that you that you hear out of it. You know what you're hearing? You're hearing some oil that that's being that that's come that's coming out of some pressing and some some some crushing. And I'm on my third press and but but there's some there's some healing going to come out of this. There's a a testimony that's going to come out of this. There's some illumination, a a light to others that's going to come out of this. Maybe teachers in the daycare in Christian school Monday morning having a K3 class. Man, when I think of me think here when maybe that's not the stereotypical image if you AI generated of what what does ministry look like? You know, you think of maybe Moses leading the the Israelites over the Red Sea or something is what it would generate. But those three-year-olds, they they get older and you've invested in them. And some days you go home and you feel if you've got the middle school classes, you're going to feel a little pressed and crushed when you get out of here. I promise you that. Now, I never feel like that with the high school students if they're in here. But then you begin to look around here on a Sunday or you you see them come back to to to to visit. You see them out at a a restaurant or something. Some students that you have and they're successful professionals in this world and have families and singing and playing and playing music in church. some oil >> oil that's been >> that's been that's been poured out by the people by the people of God. I think of brother Steve Ham. He gave his testimony at our graduation service and in a a low point in his life, he said he he stepped out of his office and he said he was just down to down to nothing. And he said that's when the Holy Ghost hit him. There was pathways of convenience. There were those around him that may have let him down with their expectations, but when I after that last drop, that third press, God's spirit >> just entered the room. >> I think of the genesis of this church body. As pastor mentioned, we had the privilege to go up to our overflow rally up in Kingsport, Tennessee. in Kingsport is a real significant area uh for the genesis of this church body because there was a a church there and our church and that were the only two churches the only two one God apos one God one Jesus name apostolic churches in this entire area so to fellowship with one another they'd drive two hours two and a half hours back and forth for monthly rallies for different gatherings and everything else pastor said, of course, you know, there's not a BIES like there is now that uh open all the time. Thank God for BIES. I'm not condemning that at all. Bishop drove a school bus to make a living to support the the church. And the the owner of that school bus would let him take it for rally. And pastor said that everybody go and maybe y'all remember this, you'd pack a lunch and about once you got out of town, then you would eat it, which to I was like, "Bishop, let y'all eat on the bus?" So that I might have missed the point there, but I was like, "What? Bishop, let y'all eat on the bus?" They said that next Saturday morning they'd wake up and sweep and have that bus cleaned in order to have it ready for Monday and begin to tell the stories on 123 West Columbia that throughout the week they were not sure whether there would be enough money that would come in through offerings to keep the power on. And now you look in here and we're like, "Yeah, I'll go turn those lights off." Which we're going to be more careful with that, making sure the lights get turned off in here because there's a lot of them. But just you look at now, he said him and Brother Mullins would get together and put their dimes and their quarters together to make sure that there would be enough money to have the lights on for the next service. I I can't even begin to comprehend what that's like. And I'm sure there were moments where you ask yourself, "What am I even doing?" Bishop was an evangelist whose schedule was filled up over a year in advance. But God called him to come to Knoxville. So, I could I could go advance. I could I could get I could take a road of convenience and get out of this place. They told him it was a preacher's graveyard. And even though there was pressing and there was crushing, there was a more earnest prayer in it, there was an oil that began to be poured out. An oil that if you look around today, a an oil that is still still flowing. An oil that's still flowing that we can all we can all look to. It's only been a few years ago that our evening services started at 7:30 p.m. And now we start at 6:30, which is which is great and I'm I'm thankful for. And we even kind of joked about it in church and I think everybody clapped and and nothing wrong. I asked my grandfather, I said, 'Now, where did where where did that start that we even begin to start at 7:30 on on Sunday evenings? He said, "Well, I was preaching on the radio three times a day throughout the week and then had Sunday morning uh Bible study and then our Sunday morning uh television broadcast and then our Sunday evening services." And he said that time in between just gave me a little a little bit more time to prepare another message. I was like, "Let's start at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday evenings. about that. Okay. But it's the oil. It's it's the it's the pressing. He could have taken a road of escape. He could have could have taken there was no home missions funding. But the the only voice here in this re region saying repent of your sins and get baptized in the name of the one who died for you in the name of Jesus. And then he's going to fill you. He's going to fill you with your spirit with the evidence of speaking in another tongue and and other other ministers would get on on the radio and land best him and and take and take shots at him. But but that's okay. I'm going to pray more earnestly. Stand with me. Maybe you're here today and you feel extremely isolated, lonely, work schedule, newness, uncertainty, stresses of life all just weigh down. Let that be proof. Let that be proof that God is moving. Maybe you've suffered loss and it hurts and you don't know how to make sense of it. I believe there can be some oil flow out of it whether physical, mental, emotional. Remember that the road to true victory is not always the easiest or the most comfortable. It's the way of the oil press, the way of surrender, the unwavering faith. No matter the cause of the wounds, even from the depths of our failure, an anointing can flow and a healing ointment can emerge. So even though you feel crushed, even though you feel pressed from every side, God has not abandoned you. In fact, there is a sacred oil that is flowing through you. And the enemy thinks that he's crushing you. The enemy thinks that he's pressing you. The enemy's got in your ear, "Hey, because you did this and because you did that, you're never going to get back to this point or because this is happening in your life. It's because that you're not truly living up to what God has called you to be." That's an absolute lie from the enemy. The opposite is actually happening. There's an oil that's going to flow out that's going to reveal God's presence in your life. There's an oil that's going to flow out that you're going to have words that have more grace in them to others that are going to bring healing to their situation. Oh, there's going to be an anointing over you like the imagery we see of Aaron in the Old Testament where that oil flowed from the top of his head. It ran down his beard all the way to his skirt of his garment. And everywhere you go, there's going to be an illuminating force in this world that oh, there's something different about that person. That person has words of healing. That person is a light. And as I close this morning, I point us to the prophecy from Zachchariah to Zerubabel in the Old Testament. said there were two olive trees on each side. And this just a little bit of context. Zerubable had been assigned to rebuild the temple. And he was down to nothing. But Zachariah told him, he said, "There's going to be an oil from these olive trees that flow." And he said that oil is never going to run out. And this is what leads us up to the common phrase and verse that we use that you'll be familiar with. Not by might, not nor by power, but by your spirit, saith the Lord. >> What's that saying? If you're on that third press when that last drop is being extracted, then that is the place to be because that's when you're going to realize that your particular duty is finished and God is about to step in. your third press, that last drop that's been extracted, that's when God is about to show up. And there's no diminishing return on God's mercy and grace there. The his spirit is not going to run out. He It's not a scarce resource. It's not going to run out. And when you're down to your last drop, that's when God is about to show up. That's when you hear that his uh blood still flows, the cross still stands, and his spirit is going to show up in your life. No matter what you've done, no matter what you're going through, his spirit is going to show up. >> I want to open this altar up tonight, today, to somebody that's on their third press. somebody who said, "I I feel like the last drop has gone out." And I want you to step forward right now with boldness as to say, "Oh, his spirit is about to flow through me. I give myself to you, Lord, and everything I've got, it's gone." And then there's going to be a filling inside of you. And you're going to be filled with his spirit. You're going to be filled with the Holy Ghost from on high and you're going to receive power. No matter what you've done, no matter what you've gone through, his spirit is going to show up today. >> The blood still flows. The work is finished. And hell still knows that that grave is still empty. The stone is still rough and you're still high and lifted up. You're still seated on the thrill stand. The blood still works. still know that the rain is still the still power [Music] [Music] to the name of that's when he's going to show Jesus oil flowing out of you flowing out of you. You're the name I love. [Music] Every voice will proclaim there is no higher name. Hallelujah. There is no higher name. >> We're going to pray together and as we finish praying, I'd like the praise team to go uh into the part where it says there is no one greater. Whatever the words are, y'all know. But I wonder just across this house if we could link together. It said those two olive trees, there was an endless supply. And I just believe in this house today that if we could just just link together and get bound, there's an oil that can flow through this entire congregation. And maybe the oil through your life and through your testimony is going to be a witness to somebody else. And the oil that flows from you is going to be fuel for somebody else. And all of us coming from that heavenly olive tree, the Lord Jesus Christ, for he pours his spirit into us. So could you link up right now and we're going to pray that prayer of unification across this house. Heavenly Father, as we stand here united, Lord, you see those who might be on their third press. You see those who are dealing with the unimaginable circumstances of life. Those who go home today and might feel hurt or isolated by a circumstances or or those that around them have let them down. Oh father, there might be somebody under the sound of my voice this morning through the decisions that they made in their life that it might be a self-inflicted wound, but that's okay. your your mercy and grace still flows from everlasting to everlasting. Uh Lord, maybe there's somebody here under the sound of my voice this morning that needs some joy back in their life, that needs some encouragement and strength back in your life. Oh Lord, I believe your spirit is going to flow through them and give them an infilling of the Holy Ghost that puts them back on the right path. We declare this to be so in Jesus' name. Now, as they sing this song, I want you to lift your hands and worship that great name and acknowledge that there is no one greater. &