“Mama, There Is Oil In The Pressing!” / Pastor Lucy Kyllonen / Mother’s Day 2026

So I came to tell somebody this morning that there is oil in the pressing. There is oil in in the pain that you're going through, in the pressure that you have, in places where it feels like life is squeezing everything out of you. I truly believe that we're going through some pressing moments because God wants to extract something beautiful out of us and that's what today's message is. That we're gonna be going through pressing moments, but God has something beautiful in store. [00:00:49]

So I'm on the floor and I reached a point in my life where I was just like, what's going on here? I thought, am I being punished? What did I do? And I said, father, why have you forsaken me? And no sooner than I said those words, I got this image of Jesus. Jesus was in the garden. He was in a garden and the night that he was betrayed, the night that he knew that there was upcoming suffering, he said, if if this cup can pass, but yet not my will, yours be done. [00:05:27]

And in that moment, I realized that if the savior of the world cried out to God, he was having a pressing moment. He was in despair. If our savior cried out to God and asked him the same question, then I'm in good company. Then I I can't worry because I know that God will see me through. He may not take the pain away but he's gonna give me the strength to be able to overcome. So my prayer switched and I think the shift happened when I realized, okay I didn't get the immediate healing that I wanted but that means God's gonna give me the strength. [00:06:12]

This this imagery of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Right? Gethsemane means oil press in Hebrew which suggests that it was an olive grove. So an olive grove has olive trees and olives get crushed to produce oil. It's not an accident. It's not a coincidence that Jesus that night was literally praying and and and calling out to his father at an olive grove, but he submitted to the Lord's will. He submitted to his father's will. He requested that this cup, this coming suffering would pass or be removed, but he still submitted to the father's will. [00:10:35]

but he still submitted to the father's will. So if the savior of the world faced his pressing point in an olive garden, you're not abandoned, you're not forsaken, you're not being punished, you're being pressed. You're being pressed maybe from every side, but what if I told you that your pressing points can be a gift from God that feels like no gift at all? What if I told you that Jesus knows all about your pressing point that you're desperately trying to avoid? And what if I told you that the kind of breakthrough that you experience all depends on how much you allow God to press out of you? [00:11:15]

So I know that I'm not the only one in a pressing season. I know that there's people in this room that you're going through some pressing right now. I know there's people that are participating watching online, you're going through your pressing season as well. There's men and women who love deeply, who serve faithfully, who show up consistently and quietly and silently, they're feeling the pressure of life. Feeling the pressure, this weight that they didn't ask for and the Lord sent me here today to remind you that you may be pressed but you're not crushed. [00:12:02]

You may be pressed but you're not crushed. When we're being pressed then we know that the oil is coming. If you're being pressed right now in your life, just know that the oil is coming. So tell your neighbor right now, the oil is coming. If you're online, put it in the chat, the oil is coming. And I know that every mother in this room has had something forced on her. Maybe a broken relationship with your children, a body that quits on you, a schedule that collapses, and you've been calling it failure, but I'm here to tell you it's extraction. It's not failure, it's extraction. [00:12:39]

So we may be like fragile jars of clay, but God still gives us the power to do his work. And Paul, what he's saying here is that you may feel like you're at the end of your rope, but you're not. Our bodies are gonna be subject to sin and to suffering. We're gonna be hard pressed, but we're not crushed, and there's a difference between the two. Hard pressed means active, relentless pressure from outside, and I know that some of us can feel that every day. [00:15:04]

So think of the olive in a press. The pressure is real. It's not imaginary. It's not in your head. The weight is there bearing down from all sides. There is financial pressure, there is relational pressure, there is health pressure and the demands won't stop. The expectations keep multiplying. So hard pressed means that you're under genuine sustained weight. It's not weakness to feel it. It's not faithlessness to name it. Paul is validating that the pressure is real. [00:15:43]

There is one point that I was sharing with someone that I love, what I was going through and they said, oh don't say that, don't claim that. God, you you got this, you keep moving. And I thought for a second, I'm not claiming this but I'm not gonna dismiss the physical pain that my body is in. Why? Because I know God's gonna get the glory somehow. So yes, I'm in pain. Yes, you guys are in pain. That's not imaginary. Sometimes God allows pain and pressure but that's only because he's gonna extract something beautiful out of it. [00:16:23]

Not crushed, so we're we're hard pressed, but we're not crushed. Not crushed means the pressure doesn't destroy your essence. The olive gets pressed hard, but it doesn't disintegrate into nothing. Something emerges, oil comes out. So when we're not crushed, what that means is you survive the pressing. You will survive the pressing. You're changed by it, but not destroyed by it. So hard pressed acknowledges the reality of the pain, Not crushed, promises the sufficiency of God in it. So one's gonna validate the experience and the other one sustains your hope. [00:17:01]

So I know that some of us that's where we're at today. We're under pressure, we're feeling squeezed, we're carrying weight that we never asked for, and we're wondering why life feels so heavy. But what if? What if what feels like crushing is actually God extracting something holy out of you. Because what's the point of a breakthrough if you don't have the capacity to enjoy it? What's the point of a breakthrough if you don't have the discernment to carry it well? What's the point of a breakthrough if you can appreciate the pressing points that shaped you for it to begin with? [00:17:48]

Sometimes brokenness is just disappointment. You're disappointed with how life has worked out for you, things that you've prayed for that were unanswered, doors that just keep closing in your face, plans that have unraveled and dreams that are just shifted away. And your heart is breaking under the weight of what could have been, but here's some truth. Some olive oil truth. An olive must be broken open before the oil can flow. [00:20:16]

So an olive must be broken open before the oil can flow. Sometimes God's gonna allow things that break our heart so that he can reveal what's in us. So that he can reveal what he's placed inside of us. There's brokenness is going to humble us. It's going to soften us. It's going to strip away self sufficiency and pride and shallow faith. It's going to cause us to lean closer to him otherwise we wouldn't. When things are going well, we don't even think about him at times, but in our deep moments of despair we cry out to the Lord and so brokenness can allow us that intimacy with God. [00:20:47]

So what's the extraction? What's the extraction here? Sometimes he extracts your greatest oil through the break. Through it. He doesn't remove it, it's through it that he extracts your oil. So through brokenness, he produces a new level of compassion that you didn't have before. He he extracts this this wisdom that you didn't have. The wisdom came because of the brokenness. There's a tenderness towards others and a tenderness towards God's word and there's a deeper dependence on him. [00:21:29]

And so people that are in here and you've been broken, then you have inside of you this healing oil that can help minister to others who are wounded and broken as well. That's what's inside of you and here's the beautiful part of it is that God doesn't have to fix all your broken relationships in order to use you. No. There's just a there's a holy exchange that takes place. It's a holy extraction. He says, give me your brokenness and I'm gonna give you healing oil. [00:22:06]

So today, we are exhausted. We're exhausted emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually, financially. Right? Mothers we carry this invisible load. There's decision fatigue, there's care giving fatigue, there's compassion fatigue, there's spiritual fatigue as well. And then we carry this pressure of not enough time, not enough energy, not enough of me to go around. How many of you guys would like to clone yourselves sometimes, right? We've been there. [00:22:59]

Mothers in 2026 are being asked to be present, productive, passionate, and peaceful all at the same time. It's crazy. So in other words, love Jesus, clean your home, make money, save money, meal prep, workout, keep your marriage spicy, drink water, hit 10,000 steps, answer your text messages, serve at church, pray for those who cut you off on the highway and smile like you got all this. [00:23:32]

Meanwhile, we're running on coffee and the grace of God. That's why we're so exhausted ladies. But here's some truth, here's some olive oil truth for you. An olive that's pressed too fast, too soon produces bitter oil. So an olive on its own is already bitter and so it has to go through this very lengthy process to remove the bitterness so that it can become edible. [00:24:09]

So if you're here and you're waiting for a breakthrough, but you're bitter, then you're not ready for your breakthrough. God's extraction process has a pace and the problem isn't so much that we're running on empty, is that we were never meant to be the source. God is our source. We're never meant to be superwoman. We're never meant to have all the answers. God is our source. He's Jehovah Jireh and so there are things that sometimes we have to let go of and let God be God. [00:25:37]

Rest is not a bad word and mothers, you have permission to rest. As a matter of fact, you're required to rest. It's a necessity. This here is an invitation. This is an invitation from the Lord, come to me, bring me what you have, all this running on empty, all this exhaustion, this running around that you're doing, bring me everything that you have because I'm going to extract something out of you And what he wants to do is extract rest and peace in our lives. [00:28:40]

Extraction happens in the quiet places. It's in the quiet places of our lives. It's rest while being pressed. So if you're exhausted, I want you to know that it's not a character flaw, it's a sign, it's a signal because God can't draw out from shallow wells. He can't draw out of you if you're dry. He has to extract from depth, from deep depth. [00:29:13]

from deep depth. And here's the crazy thing, so some of some of us maybe have a word for the year, right? Sometimes we know it, you know, the year before. I kind of knew it the end of last year, beginning of this year. My word this year is deeper. That's my word deeper. God knew that I wanted to go deeper with him. I had no idea that it was going to look this way. I had no idea that this is how he was going to move in my life with this way. But he helped quiet the noise in my life and helped me beneath get me beneath the surface. You can't go deeper if you're always moving fast. You can't go deeper with the Lord if you're always moving fast. [00:29:41]

Pressed by never feeling enough. We constantly feel like we're not doing enough, like we're not spiritual enough, like we're not pretty enough, not thin enough, not successful enough, not patient enough, not present enough, not praying enough. Always this pressure of comparing ourselves to others, other standards. And what's the verdict? Not enough. What's the conclusion? Insufficiency. And that's so far from the truth because the truth is an olive doesn't compete. It simply yields to what it carries. [00:30:38]

It simply yields to what it carries. Whether it's a small olive, whether it's a big olive, they're all gonna extract the same thing, they're gonna extract oil. So an olive is not gonna apologize for being an olive. When an olive is with its other fruits, with its other friends, right, you see the olive there, the olive is not competing with the orange, The olive doesn't wish it was a pomegranate. The olive knows it's an olive and it knows what it's going to extract. [00:31:20]

And so, stays in its lane, it stays where it's at, and it yields to the pressing, and it yields to what God has placed inside of it. And somewhere along the way ladies, we've forgotten because we start measuring our worth by what we're doing, what we're carrying, how well we perform, and how we compare ourselves. That's exhausting in itself. Even that, that constant comparison is exhausting. [00:31:52]

You don't have to become someone else in order to be valuable. You don't have to try to pretend to be someone else in order to be valuable. You only need to faithfully yield to what God has placed inside of you and that's enough. That's enough. However he's shaping you, whatever he's forming in you, whatever he's gonna extract out of you, that's enough. [00:32:19]

So when my body broke beginning of this year, when I couldn't produce the way that I normally produce at my pace, when I couldn't show up for my daughter the way that I wanted to as a mom. Yeah. I was pressed by not feeling enough. I was pressed with some of this pressure here, but then the holy spirit reminded me. My sciatic injury didn't diminish my worth. [00:32:45]

My sciatic injury didn't diminish my worth. My inability to produce didn't make me less than. My inability to show up for my daughter the way that I wanted to didn't make me less of a mother. So God is calling us back to a place of peace and rest with him. Philippians four eleven says, I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances. [00:33:09]

Not everything that's happening around me, not just where I'm at right now. I am content with what's happening in this place. So it's not because everything's perfect, it's not because everything's the way that I wanted to, but because I trust God. Because what Paul is saying here is, he learned that sufficiency is not found in quantity. Sufficiency is found in Christ. So when we have this good solid foundation that we know Christ is my rock, Christ is my source. [00:33:36]

Christ is my rock, Christ is my source. When you know who you are in him, then you can stop competing and you can stop comparing yourself to to others. You can stop striving and then you can live secure. You can live secure and confident and and content. So mom, you're not behind, you're not failing, you're not less than, you're being pressed. You're being pressed but God is extracting something beautiful. [00:34:03]

You're being pressed but God is extracting something beautiful. God is extracting this holy confidence, not your own confidence, it's a holy confidence that you can't make yourself, that you can't produce yourself. It only comes from God. God's extracting this deep contentment, a deep contentment that you know beyond the shadow of a doubt he's got you. God is extracting this settled identity in him. I don't have to be anybody else but me. That's your oil. That's the oil that he's extracting out of you. [00:34:32]

It just that's the only difference. This one had things added to it. And so moms that are in here, I know what it feels like to have things added to your life that you didn't expect. You didn't expect to raise a child with with disability, but you're still here, you're still standing. You didn't expect to become a single mother, but you're still standing. You didn't expect to receive that health diagnosis, but you're still standing. [00:36:07]

You didn't expect your child to walk away from the family or from church or from God, but you're still standing. You didn't expect the heartbreak or the grief, but you're still standing. You're here and you're still standing. So these things that were added to your life that you didn't expect, they didn't make you weaker, they didn't make you less than, they didn't make you less valuable, they didn't make you less chosen or less beautiful. Instead, it's teaching your soul a new song. [00:36:40]

So moms, you carry a sound of wisdom inside of you, you're carrying a sound of resilience, you're carrying a sound of strength, you are carrying oil inside of you. And so I ask you today, what is that oil? What is God extracting out of you? What is that sound or what is that song? And whatever it is, carry it. Whatever it is, pour it out. Whatever it is, write it. Whatever it is, sing it. Because mama, there's oil in the pressing. There's oil in the pressing. [00:37:47]