This question came in after last weeks talk.
"Dave I would say 'we should' pray and that we 'must' is legalism rather than 'we should' statement. Thoughts?"
This is a great question and one I thought A LOT about before giving the sermon (2 Sam 6 & 7) so as you'd imagine I have a few of thoughts:
1. The nature of communication
Communication is a funny thing. What you say is not always what is heard. So when I say we should then it could easily be heard as you must. So on that basis happy to say the perceived lighter thing, in that we can prayer, rather than command it just made more sense to me.
2. Motivation by grace not by command
I still have the outline of my talk on my whiteboard and I written next to the section on prayer - motivate by grace. I think I could have easily said you must - you must - you must but rather I wanted to have the motivation that we can and see prayer as a wonderful thing that we can now do because of Jesus' work. So in light of this I really wanted to steer away from laying a burden upon people. One of the really great things this week at preaching conference was seeing how Paul motivated people towards obedience to Christ, he doesn't command but rather appeals to people on the basis of Christ's work.
This is a great question and one I thought A LOT about before giving the sermon (2 Sam 6 & 7) so as you'd imagine I have a few of thoughts:
1. The nature of communication
Communication is a funny thing. What you say is not always what is heard. So when I say we should then it could easily be heard as you must. So on that basis happy to say the perceived lighter thing, in that we can prayer, rather than command it just made more sense to me.
2. Motivation by grace not by command
I still have the outline of my talk on my whiteboard and I written next to the section on prayer - motivate by grace. I think I could have easily said you must - you must - you must but rather I wanted to have the motivation that we can and see prayer as a wonderful thing that we can now do because of Jesus' work. So in light of this I really wanted to steer away from laying a burden upon people. One of the really great things this week at preaching conference was seeing how Paul motivated people towards obedience to Christ, he doesn't command but rather appeals to people on the basis of Christ's work.
For example Rom 12:1
'Therefore, I appeal to you in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices.....' And again in Philemon 8-9,
'Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do I appeal to you on the basis of love.'
So, my goal is to get people to pray - how do you do it? By a command or an appeal on the basis of Christ's work? I chose to make it an appeal on the basis of Jesus has done and his grace and this I think is the vibe of the New Testament.
3. Prayer is not necessary for salvation.
Praying is an outworking of our faith so therefore it is not a should or a must. And since as I said already the language of should and must is not always heard as distinct people may hear you saying what you don't want to say about praying and salvation. When we are converted it is solely through the work of Jesus - not by praying a prayer at the end of a talk but by faith. Once we are saved we have the opportunity to bring things to him in prayer
3. Prayer is not necessary for salvation.
Praying is an outworking of our faith so therefore it is not a should or a must. And since as I said already the language of should and must is not always heard as distinct people may hear you saying what you don't want to say about praying and salvation. When we are converted it is solely through the work of Jesus - not by praying a prayer at the end of a talk but by faith. Once we are saved we have the opportunity to bring things to him in prayer
