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0:20 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray. 0:27 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 0:31 Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. 0:35 Remain here and watch with me. 0:37 And going a little farther he fell on his faith and prayed, saying, My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. 0:44 Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. 0:48 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, So could you not watch with me one hour? 0:55 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. 0:58 The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 1:01 Again for a second time he went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. 1:09 And again he came to them and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 1:13 So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for a third time, saying the same words again. 1:18 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, Sleep and take your rest later on. 1:23 See the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 1:27 Rise, let us be going. 1:29 See, my betrayer is at hand. 1:33 So in this passage, the Apostle Matthew describes true and ultimate crushing. 1:39 All week this week I've repeated this quote from Chuck Swindall, who was quoting Alan Redpath When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him. 1:49 Leave room in your life for the crushings, because that's part of the curriculum that very few people will tell you about. 1:54 And the reason I've been focusing on that all week is because I know you all know what crushing feels like. 1:59 I myself know what crushing feels like. 2:01 For some of you, someone very important to you died. 2:05 For others, you got a bad diagnosis from a doctor. 2:08 For others, your children have gone prodigal, they've rejected you. 2:11 For others, someone very close to you betrayed you and hurt you in a way that you didn't think was possible. 2:16 For others, as it pertains to earthly riches, you've lost everything. 2:20 But listen to me, you have to know this. 2:23 Your crushing has a purpose. 2:26 And I promise you, I'm not saying it's easy to go through, and I'm certainly not claiming that it is pleasant, but it is purposeful. 2:34 So let's actually go back to the Garden of Gethsemane. 2:37 Many of you are familiar with what happened there, and what many of you likely remember is that Jesus was in such a place of distress that he was actually sweating drops of blood. 2:45 So Luke 22, 44 records, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 2:54 So my buddy Titus Kennedy, who is a Christian archaeologist, he actually said this the condition Jesus experienced has a precise medical name, and that's hematedrosis. 3:03 So this is derived from two Greek words. 3:05 It's hematos, which means blood, and hydros or hadros meaning sweat. 3:10 And this is how T.W. 3:11 Hunt describes it. 3:12 When a person experiences trauma, the capillaries in the sweat glands just under the skin's surface dilate. 3:18 And if stress is intense enough, the blood vessels pressing against the sweat glands burst, causing blood to exit through the sweat glands rather than remaining contained. 3:28 So it's almost as if Jesus was being crushed by his own anguish. 3:32 And it was manifesting as drops of blood coming straight out of his forehead, which gets us back to the word Gethsemane. 3:38 It actually comes from two Hebrew words, one being gat, which means a place for pressing oil or wine, and shamanim, which means oils. 3:48 So Gethsemane literally means an olive press. 3:51 And I've heard Bible scholars describe the definition of Gethsemane as the place of crushing. 3:56 And in Jesus' day, the olives that were designated for the production of oil were placed into a large crushing basin where the olives would be crushed into pulp. 4:05 So there would be these, you know, these large stones or these large pillars that would be placed on top of the pulp, and this would gradually squeeze the oil into a pit or a vat that was sitting just below. 4:16 And hopefully you can see the clear spiritual symbolism here. 4:20 Jesus wasn't just under the weight of his circumstances and his forthcoming betrayal. 4:29 And just like the large stones that are squeezing the oil out of the olives, the tremendous amount of pressure that Jesus was under because of our sin was literally squeezing him so much that his blood was coming out. 4:41 Like, and isn't it so interesting that it was his blood that provided the sacrifice to pay for the sin debt that was crushing him? 4:49 And even though Jesus was under this pressure, even though Jesus was being crushed, he submitted completely to the will of the Father. 4:57 So that's what I'm going to tell all of you to do. 5:00 In the midst of your crushing, submit completely to the will of the Father. 5:06 Some of you are still being crushed under the weight of your own sin because you have not repented of your sin and given your life to Jesus. 5:12 So if you have not done that, I compel you to do so right now. 5:16 Transfer your faith for your salvation from yourself onto the finished work of Jesus on the cross. 5:22 And for others of you that are Christians, you're allowing your crushing circumstances to affect your faith in a deleterious manner. 5:29 You can't find the point or purpose in your crushing, but just know that God always has a purpose in your crushing. 5:36 God crushed his own son because he loves you so much that he wanted you to have the opportunity to be in his presence for eternity. 5:43 Do you not think that God is crushing you or allowing you to be crushed so that his good, perfect, and sovereign will can be done on the other side of your crushing? 5:51 Again, remember the point of Psalm 23 is not that God delivers you from the valley of the shadow of death. 5:56 That's not what it says. 5:57 It's that when you are in the valley of the shadow of death, he is there with you. 6:01 If you are being crushed right now, know that you are not alone. 6:05 God is with you and there is a point to your crushing. 6:09 So for the last time this week, when God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him. 6:17 Leave room in your life for the crushings. 6:20 Thank you all for your attention this week. 6:23 Stay sharp.