Far too many of us want to throw in the towel before we've thrown up the prayers. Dr. Tony Evans says believers need to look up before they give up. Grace is available, but only at the throne, and you can only approach the throne through prayer. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.
Tony Evans. When life gets chaotic, Prayer often becomes an afterthought instead of our first response. But today, Dr. Evans explains why talking to God should be our automatic reaction, whether we're walking through trials or celebrating blessings. Let's turn to James chapter 5 as he explains how prayer connects us to the grace we need and why making it a priority can transform our daily lives.
Prayer is the most... misunderstood and most neglected aspect of the Christian life. God has so constructed the world He is so wired. The world that he has said. There are many things he will not do in the life of the Christian apart from prayer.
First of all, let's look at the priority of prayer. Verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. That is, instead of complaining in verse 9, and instead of swearing, cussing, fussing, and making false oaths in verse 12, open your mouth.
But not for those purposes. If you are going through affliction, that's what the Greek word for suffering means, and it can be used of any kind of affliction. It can be physical affliction, it can be emotional affliction, it can be circumstantial affliction, it can be financial affliction, it can be familial affliction. No matter what the classification of affliction is, if you are going through it, let him pray.
Now, what's very important is that what God wants as he communicates through the Apostle James is that prayer should be the priority. That is the thing you should do, it should be first. It should be, listen to me. When you are going through trouble, prayer should be a knee-jerk reaction. What is prayer?
Maybe we ought to start there. If we're going to prioritize it, what is it that we're prioritizing? Prayer? It's simply Intimate. communication with God.
Far too many of us want to throw in the towel before we've thrown up the prayers. Yeah. When you pray. Prayer. Accesses grace.
Prayer does not necessarily mean the problem will go away. Because the problem won't go away until God has finished teaching you the lesson that the problem was designed to teach you.
So He's not saying. Pray so that you can get a magical disappearance of your problem. What he is saying, though, is in the midst of your affliction, your trial, your difficulty, pray. Pray that you might get the grace of God in order to deal with the problem that you have encountered. Hebrews 4 tells us that God is waiting for us to come to the throne that dispenses grace.
When Paul had a thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he went to God and said, God, take it away. It's too painful. I'm hurting too bad. God said, No, I've got a humility lesson that I'm trying to teach you, Paul, because of the great privileges that I'm giving you. Therefore, I'm not going to take away the thorn, even though it's sticking you, but my grace is sufficient.
What I will dispense to you is the divine energy necessary to deal with the affliction I have you in until such time I decide to remove it. Many of us here are mad at God because he hasn't gotten rid of it. And we haven't utilized the grace he has given us to deal with it.
Now, I don't know what your trial is and what you're facing today, but grace is available, but only at the throne, and you can only approach the throne through prayer. Uh He raises another question. In verse 13, he says. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises.
If things are going well and there is no trauma, And things are smooth right now, praise it. Because if he sends affliction to develop you, that's God. And if he sends deliverance to deliver you, that's God. Yeah. So whether you afflicted Or whether you're cheerful is all God.
And since it's all God, you ought to be praying. or praising. If you're having a bad day, you need grace, pray. If you're having a good day, you ought to be thankful, praise. Either way, you're talking to God all day long, every day of your life.
You see, what he is saying is maintain ongoing touch with God. And I believe most of the people under the sound of my voice today. Knows that you ought to pray more. If I were to ask you, should you pray more? Most folks would say yes.
If I were to ask you, do you pray too little? Most folks would say yes. Mm. And then if I would ask, do you want to pray more? Most folks would say yes.
Then what is the problem? Mass suggests we want to pray, but we don't plan to pray. And if you don't plan to pray, You won't get it in. because Satan will make sure you stay busy enough to keep it out. Satan does not want you praying.
as a lifestyle. He doesn't mind a little. Quickie at dinner. You know, Lord, bless this food to my body in Jesus' name, amen. He doesn't mind that baby stuff at night.
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. No, no. He don't mind that because he knows in either case you haven't said a thing.
What he does not want you to do is cultivate a lifestyle of prayer where you have this intimate communication with God. If you want to go on a summer vacation, You don't pop up. If you want to go June 1st. You don't pop up the morning of June 1st and say, let's take two weeks off. Is that how you do your vacation?
No. You have planned where you want to go, the transportation you want to take, the cost is going to get there. You made reservations for the hotel in which you want to stay. If you want to go on a trip and enjoy the trip, you plan for the trip. Lest the reservations be canceled, the fares be up, the planes be full, the hotels are overcrowded.
You plan for the trip.
Well, if you want to plan for a trip on earth that is here today and gone tomorrow, how much more should we plan to contact heaven?
So let me ask you: what is your prayer plan?
Okay. What is your prayer plan? Plan to pray. Don't just Wait till it hits you.
Now, don't get me wrong. There is such a thing as spontaneous prayer. But there's also planned prayer. And we must plan to pray. Secondly, The people of prayer, verse 14.
Okay. Here is one of our tough verses. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the children. of the Lord.
First of all, we've got to deal with this word sick. The Greek word here for the word sick is the word weak. means weak. It can refer to any kind of weakness. In fact, it is used in the scripture of different kinds of weaknesses.
Certainly, when you're physically incapacitated. The traditional use of the word sick, you're weak, you're weak physically. But I'm sure many of you have said this phrase: I'm sick of being broke. Anybody sick that way today? Uh-huh.
And you really sick too. That's real sickness.
Okay. It can be physical, but it is not limited to physical. It means you are encountering what verse 13 says: an affliction. The difference in verse 14 is what that affliction is doing to you. It's beating you down.
It's beating you down. It's weakening you. You are beginning to buckle at your knees because of what it is doing to you.
Some of us wouldn't call it sick if it was just here today and gone tomorrow. You know, if you sneeze one time, you wouldn't call that, you wouldn't call that being weak. That's an inconvenience. But he's talking about your knees are buckling. The circumstance has weakened you.
He says, if the suffering of verse 13. Yeah. It's beginning. To weaken you in verse 14, then you're going to need support. Help!
Because your knees are beginning to buckle.
Now if you walk and your knees begin to buckle That means you need help to stand back up because you're weak. If you are weak, and it can be any kind of weakness that you're suffering. Then you are, he says, to call the church. In fact, he says, you are to call the elders. of the church.
That is the spiritual leadership who sits as representative over the rest of the congregation.
So it is a representative group. That represents the bigger group because they belong to the church. And your purpose for calling them is because you are weak. You don't believe you're getting through to God. In fact, You may be too weak to even talk to God.
And all of us have been in that situation where things are so bad, we just don't feel like praying. Or we try to pray and we can't even keep our minds on what we're trying to say. We've just been weakened by our circumstances. He says, if you have been weakened by your circumstances, get spiritual help. The tech says when you have been weakened In any kind of category.
You ought to call the spiritual leadership of the church. And they ought to come and buoy you up. Through prayer, they are to pray over him. And that is because... The praying you could do in verse 13, you can't do in verse 14.
In verse 13, you're doing the praying. But in verse 14, you're calling for help in the praying because it doesn't appear that the praying in verse 13 is achieving the goal. And you're finding yourself rather than getting stronger with your own prayers, you're getting weaker with your own prayers. Therefore, you need the prayers of other spiritual people to buoy you up. doctor Evans will come back in a moment with a look at what it means to seek help and even anointing when your own prayers don't seem to be enough.
First, though, what we're hearing today is the start of Tony's powerful compilation series called The Power of Prayer. In these seven eye-opening messages, he'll help us discover why prayer isn't just a religious routine. It's the key that unleashes God's power in our lives, even when circumstances feel impossible. We'd love to send you this complete series as our way of saying thanks when you support the ministry of the alternative. And as an added bonus, we'll include Tony's brand new devotional, Anchored by Prayer.
It's a practical guide designed to help you pray with confidence and stay connected to God, even when you're unsure what to say or feel like your prayers aren't getting through. This special resource package is available for a limited time, so visit us today at tonyevans.org to make your donation and request. Or call our resource team anytime at 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that contact information after part two of today's message. Here's Dr.
Evans once again, exploring the power of prayer as laid out in James chapter 5. And then he introduces us. to another problem or Question. anointing him with oil. Anointing him with oil.
You are weak. Your knees are buckling. You don't know how you're going to make it, and your prayers don't seem to be getting through. Verse 13. And that weakness is getting to you now.
And you need help. Pick up the telephone and You say leadership of the church, I need help. And they ought to come and pray over you. And then they are to anoint you with oils. The Greek word for oil was used of Common day rubbing oil.
It was the same oil that was used to. to refresh a person. When Mary put oil on Jesus' feet and took her hair and massaged his feet with the oil that was to refresh him, it was used of grooming oil. When Jesus told the Pharisees that when you're fasting, Anoint your head with oil. Groom yourself up.
Don't look like you're fasting. It was used up. of the oil Also of medicine because In the Good Samaritan, when he helped the man who had been beaten up by the robbers. He ministered to his wounds, it says, with oil.
So it was to assist him physically. Yeah. That's the word that's used here. You see, they didn't have hospitals on every corner than doctors that you could call up. At the snap of a hat back in the New Testament days.
A lot of the things that you had to do, you had to do. Like your grandmothers used to use castor oil. Remember castor oil? That's called the everything oil. Have a headache?
Go get the cast of oil. Got a back eight? Got some casserole in the in the bathroom. Toenail hanging, get the castor oil. I mean, cast the oil was everything.
In other words, it was an all-purpose kind of thing.
So, what would the elders be doing? Were they walking around with cans of oils attached to their belt? No? That word was a word used. for the refreshing that would be brought.
Bye. the elders to bring to bear taxes. Tangible encouragement, assistance, refreshing, if necessary, grooming could include medicine to the person who was weak. When you made the phone call and said, Elders, I am weak. They came and they prayed over your weakness, but Then they found out what they could tangibly do through the mechanism of the local church to assist your weakness to help make you stronger.
To anoint with oil meant to provide the tangible touch. of that which would help a particular weakness that caused you. to pray now. If somebody wants me to anoint them with literal oil, no problem. No problem.
Okay, no problem because for them that is a symbolism of God, and the word oil was used symbolically of the sovereignty of God when they ordained priests and kings. They would anoint them with oil as a symbolism of God's sovereign choice. That's fine, no problem. But he is talking about the church coming to bear to help the membership that is weak. That's what he's talking about.
And in discussing that, the job of the elders is to bring people to God, but also to make sure that the church has practical ministries that touch the life. Remember what David said in the 23rd Psalm? He anointeth my head with oil.
Now did God come down and pour some heavenly oil on David's head? No. That's not what he did. Nobody said He was talking about what David did with his sheep. When the sheep got caught in a thicket and they cut their head, he would anoint the sheep's head with oil.
He says, God anoints my head with oil.
Well, God didn't come down and anoint David's head with little oil. What God came down and did was he encouraged David in the midst of his suffering. He anointed his head with oil by the encouragement he brought into his life.
So the elders of the church are to come and pray, but the elders of the church also are to bring practical encouragement from the church that they represent to bear in the life of the believer who needs the help. He's bringing the practical ministry of the local church to bear. It could include physical. But It is the practical assistance, a word to the elders at this point. As I mused over this text.
I said, we need to provide a practical way for the body to do that, particularly unless you're in home and you can't come to church. And so, what we will do, men, is provide a way when we're here on Sunday morning for believers who are in this condition. The comm. for prayer as they come to worship. Yeah, it's good.
so that we can surround those believers who are weak. who stagger in here. because they've been beaten down. Sure. They have some elders who can surround them.
and hold up their arms like Moses needed his arms held up when he just got too tired. And sometimes living the Christian life just makes you too. tired. God says somebody ought to hold up your hands. The church ought to be brought to bear through its leadership.
Now How are you to do this anointing of the oil? You're to do it in the name of the Lord. What's the name of the Lord? Is it saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus? Oh, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
No, it doesn't mean repeating the name of Jesus. When the Bible uses the word name, it's talking about the person behind the description. My name is Anthony T. Evans, but those words are meaningless unless you have a picture of the person behind the name. It is the person behind the name that gives the word name significance.
So when he says we ought to Pray and anoint oil in the name of Jesus. It is talking about identifying with a person. What would Jesus do? What would Jesus say in this situation? It is identifying with a person.
It is plugging into his authority that gains access to heaven. It is because of Jesus that we can get grace from the throne. It is because of Jesus we can even get to the throne. And it is our attachment to Jesus. that will bring answered prayers of the need.
For you not to pray, particularly when you're struggling, and for you to try to fix it yourself is like having a bus. that you're trying to push out of a rut when Clark Kent is sitting on it. You're not using the power that's available. The name of Jesus means you have access to a power bigger than your ability to push.
So, the people of prayer, it's the church through the leadership that comes to bear. Then he comes to verse 15, point three. The promise of prayer. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is. Weary.
That's what the word means, sick in verse 15. It means weary. Yeah. Okay, we started off where he's suffering, but he's praying himself. In verse 14, he becomes weak.
So he needs some help. By the time you get to him, he's weary. And there's not a person in here who hasn't been there. Just tired, just wondering, is it worth it? Shouldn't I just go out and do it my way?
Because God's way has taken too long. You're just tired of it. But yet, you still got that faith. You still believe. You're just so tired.
He gives you a promise, and this is one of the great promises of the New Testament. The prayer offered in faith. Will. Will Will, will, will, will restore the one who is sick. And folks, this is why this verse cannot just be referring to physical sickness.
One, because if it was referring to only physical sickness, you'd never die. All you had to do is pray the prayer of faith, and every time you got sick, you'd get well.
Okay. Number two, we know through scripture that it's God's will sometimes. For sickness to occur in the life of the believer for his own purposes, like Job. God took the young lady, Joni Erickson. And she's been in a wheelchair and she's been paralyzed from the neck down.
Would she love to walk again? Yes. But God decided, I have a ministry that I want to give you that's going to be unique. I'm going to let this happen. And now, worldwide, people who have her dilemma are being encouraged by her like never before.
It's not a spiritual problem. It's a sovereign plan.
Now, don't ask me why, because I don't know why God does this with that person and that with the other person. I don't know that's his plan. All I know is we better be able to reach him when it happens. He says the prayer I'm talking about when offered in faith. Will pick up the one who is weary.
That's the promise. God promises you, not necessarily, he may bring the solution to the problem, but what he's promising you is divine encouragement in the midst of the problem. That's the problem. And you know, many of us could go a long way if we just get encouragement. Many of us couldn't do a whole lot if we'd just be encouraged.
And that's what the church is to provide: a place of encouragement. The church can't solve all your problems. Church can't fix everything. People get mad at the church. Uh-uh, you better talk to God.
But the church can help you reach God, it can encourage you, and the Lord will restore the weary one. Dr. Tony Evans, talking today about the underused power of prayer.
Now, remember, today's lesson is just the first part of Tony's powerful teaching compilation on the power of prayer. And right now, we're offering the complete series, plus his new devotional guide, Anchored by Prayer, to help you grow deeper in your conversations with God. It's our thank you gift when you support this ministry. Get all the details at tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222. That's tonyevans.org or 1-800-800-3222.
Now, before I tell you about what's coming up next time, just a quick heads up. A new episode of Stories from the Storyteller will be released tomorrow. In The Great Catch, Kelsey's frustrated when her social media posts aren't getting many followers, until her family helps her see that the most important influence we have is pointing people to Jesus. It all leads to a bedtime story about Peter and his miraculous catch of fish, and how things are empty our way, but full his way. If the kids in your life haven't discovered this fun and faith-filled animated series yet, now's a great time to share it.
Learn more at tonyevanstv.com. That's Tony Evans TV.com. We've all heard the expression, when all else fails, pray. But Dr. Evans says our best efforts begin with prayer.
And tomorrow, he'll explain why some people's petitions seem to carry more weight than others. Be sure to join us.
