Tony Evans - Finding Help in Times of Need
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Summary
Based on James 5, the preacher stresses that in times of deep suffering, sickness, or overwhelming burdens, believers must pray specifically and earnestly to connect with heaven—cute, rote prayers won’t cut it when life weighs you down. If the pain is too great to pray alone, call the church elders to pray over you and anoint you with oil, symbolizing both spiritual intercession and practical support from the body of Christ. Drawing from the paralytic in Mark 2 whose friends lowered him through the roof, the key point is that we all need the local church’s faith-filled community to carry us to Jesus when we’re paralyzed by life’s trials—because one day, the pallet we help carry for others will be our own.
The Inevitable Pallet Day
One day you’re going to be on a pallet. You’re going to be in a paralyzed situation, and you won’t know how to get to God on your own. Well, you better be connected with the local church that has some folks in it who still have faith when your faith is weak to lift you up and deliver you to Jesus for spiritual and physical healing as the need arises. Because one day, that pallet that you help will be the pallet that you’re on.
When Burdened: You Must Pray
Is anyone among you weighed down, burdened? He says, interestingly, he must pray. He didn’t say you should pray; it would be nice if he did. Pray! Aren’t you a Christian? You’re supposed to pray. No, he says you must pray.
So we pray generically, but now he’s talking about praying specifically tied to the sickness of suffering and the burden of weight. This is not «Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, pray the Lord my soul to take.» That’s a cute prayer. That’s like what you’re going to do this afternoon: «Lord, bless this food. The nurse, remember my body. In Jesus' name, amen.» You know, you kind of say it rote; you’re not thinking about it. There’s something about the burden of life that cute prayers don’t work. When the weight overwhelms you, when the tears flow, when the heart aches, and the body is grimacing in pain, or whatever the suffering happens to be, he says he must make contact with Heaven. This is a requirement, an expectation, a demand. This is not the time to run from God; it’s the time to run to Him. He says you must pray; you must make contact in the difficult circumstances of life.
When Sick: Strong Commands to Pray
He says, «Is anyone among you sick? The body is frail, hurting.» He must. These are strong terms.
So we’re told throughout Scripture to pray about all things generally, but then he calls us in these particular weights of life to make sure history makes contact with Heaven and time makes a link with eternity, that you call down the programming that has been pre-decreed but is waiting for a call. He says you must pray.
When You Can’t Pray: Call the Elders
Now, there are times in life when the burdens get so big, the weight gets so heavy, you don’t feel you can call. You don’t want to pray. You don’t have the strength to read the Bible. The needs, the pain, the ache, the hurt, the tears, the stress, the struggle are just too much. He says then, you must call the elders of the church, and they ought to pray over him. He says if you can’t pray, you better get some folks who can. If the weight and burdens of life are so heavy and you can’t make contact, then he says you do in the first suffering; but then he says, «Okay, well, if it gets that deep, you call the elders of the church.»
The Church as House of Prayer
Now, why the elders of the church? Well, that gets into ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church. God has a central institution in His kingdom program in history: the Church. The church is not just a place where you come for preaching, singing, and praise—it’s all of that fellowship and all of that—but it’s Jesus who says you shall call my house the House of Prayer. He never said, «Call my house the house of preaching.» He never said, «Call my house the house of singing.» He never said, «Call my house the house of fellowship.» The house has all that, but He says if you want to give my house a title, give it the house of prayer.
The main thing that the church should be known for is prayer because He has chosen this place that is a biblically based church to be a support mechanism to help people get to Him who can’t get to Him by themselves. That’s why every Christian is expected to be a meaningful member of a local church so that they can become a support system. Because you may not need it now, but I bet you your bottom dollar there will come a time in your life when you’re going to need somebody to pray for you and with you because you can’t pray for or with yourself because the burden is too great. He says call the elders of the church; that should be the spiritual leadership to come alongside and lift you up in a place you can’t go on your own.
Practical Prayer in the Church
Every Sunday morning, the elders gather before the first service, and people scheduled to meet with us who are overwhelmed with a burden that they can’t handle, that they can’t get to God, feel on their own, and we surround those by appointment with prayer so that they know that we’re not just here for them to come to church; we’re here to pray with them in the burdens of life because this is the specific task that He’s given the church. But He’s also giving it to believers one to another; that’s why He talks about confessing one to another. So, there is this horizontal thing, not just by the leadership but from believer to believer.
The Paralytic and His Friends
In Mark chapter 2, verses one to five, you have an interesting story. It’s the story of the paralytic, which means he can’t stand up; he’s paralyzed. He’s lying on a pallet; his get-up-and-go has gotten up and gone, and he has no capacity to get up on his own two feet. But he has four homeboys, four posse, who come along and lift up a man who couldn’t lift himself up because he had been paralyzed. Because sometimes the burdens of life paralyze you; you don’t know what to say, what to do, where to go, or who to talk to because you’re stuck in your place.
Well, they saw their buddy paralyzed. Jesus was down the street teaching; he was in a house. The house was jam-packed; nobody could get in or out because everybody had shown up to hear Jesus’s teaching. But the paralyzed man, the paralytic, is in a crisis; he wanted to get to the house, but he couldn’t get there because he was stuck in his condition. So, his four buddies grabbed this pallet and went to the house. When they saw they couldn’t get in, they climbed up on the roof of the house.
Mark chapter 2 says they cut a hole in the roof and lowered the paralytic down. The Bible says when the paralytic was lowered down in front of Jesus—so Jesus is teaching out here, he looks up, and here comes this pallet coming down in front of him. The Bible says when Jesus, watch this, saw their faith, he healed the paralytic. When Jesus saw their faith, because sometimes life gets so hard you don’t have any faith, you’ve got to piggyback on the faith of other folks who do have faith who can take you to Jesus because you can’t get there on your own. And it says the four took him, lowered him down, and when Jesus saw their faith, he healed the man and forgave him of his sins.
Spiritual Healing Before Physical
Now that tells us a lot. That means he was paralyzed because he messed up; he was paralyzed because there was unaddressed sin in his life. So, they took him to Jesus for two reasons: to heal his spiritual life so Jesus was free to heal his physical life. Because sometimes, if your spiritual life is out of whack, your physical life is going to be torn up from the floor up. But if you can get the spiritual addressed, then God is free to address the physical or circumstantial because now you’re dealing with the whole person.
You’re not just getting a blessing to fix the external without concern about your relationship with God on the internal. But my point is they picked up his pallet. One day, you’re going to be on a pallet. You’re going to be in a paralyzed situation, and you won’t know how to get to God on your own. Well, you better be connected with the local church that has some folk in it who still have faith when your faith is weak to lift you up and deliver you to Jesus for spiritual and physical healing as the need arises. Because one day, that pallet that you help will be the pallet that you’re on.
Active Membership in the Church
So, you want to make sure that you are a part. That’s why every believer in a local church is not just supposed to be a Sunday morning-only attendee; they are supposed to be an active servant of the kingdom of God, serving the family of God so that needs are being met.
Anointing with Oil: Practical Help
That’s what it means when it goes on to say anointing them with oil. He says you ought to pray for them, anointing them with oil. Y’all remember castor oil? When I was growing up, castor oil was for everything. Everything! You had a headache? Get some castor oil. You had a stomach ache? Get some castor oil. Your arm is dislocated? Get some castor oil. You have a groaning toenail? Get some castor oil. My mama had castor oil for every single thing. It was that one-stop shop for whatever was wrong in your life.
When he says anointing them with oil, he is using that symbol of oil to bring health and healing. In other words, the church, once it prays for you, is to come alongside and anoint you; that is, bring practical assistance as it is able to improve your life. It’s not just to say, «Be warm, be filled, and God bless you.» It’s to use the ministry of the church, the ministers of the church, and the kingdom servants within the church to come alongside as the church in order to bring practical support, whether it’s counseling, encouragement, or correction.
The Church as Hospital, Not Hospice
Because the church is supposed to be a hospital.
Last time I checked, sick people are welcome at a hospital, but when sick people show up at a hospital, it’s not supposed to be a hospice. A hospice is where you die. A hospice is just making you comfortable in your demise. The church is not supposed to just make folks comfortable while they die, but to be a hospital to birth life, hope, help, meaning, and healing in their life. And that sometimes means surgery and medication and other things. When he says bring the oil, that symbol of giving the oil is a symbol of coming to the assistance in the healing process if they can’t get it on their own. And so what he says is I want you to pray. I want you to pray, and then I want, if necessary, the church to be involved in prayer and in oil; that is, in the support systems in order to bring about well-being in life.