Model Christians
The church needs to prioritize spiritual growth and maturity by cultivating a deep sense of God's presence through prayer and self-examination.
A.W. Tozer emphasizes the urgent need for model Christians in today's church, lamenting the prevalence of faults and abuses among believers. He points out that many Christians fail to exemplify Christ, leading to a generation lacking in true saints to follow. Tozer highlights issues such as carnality, prayerlessness, and carelessness, which hinder spiritual growth and maturity. He calls for a return to self-examination and a commitment to prayer, drawing inspiration from the Moravians' century-long prayer vigil. Ultimately, Tozer urges the church to raise up genuine examples of faith that others can aspire to emulate.
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Then there is the removal of faults and abuses. Where are the faults and abuses? Look around at the religious scene and you will see the faults, the abuses and the desperate need for change. Where are the model saints? We ought to be raising model saints, the kind Christians could take as examples and say, "I want to follow these men and women and be like them as they are like their Lord." But we are simply not producing saints in this generation. Most Christians are bad examples to other Christians.
We work hard to get people converted, and we think we do God's service. Then after we get them converted and they get to know us, we are bad examples to them. I consider this an abuse in the church of Christ. . . . Another fault is carnality. The Apostle Paul talked about the carnal Christians of Corinth, and he labored and prayed and wept over the carnality of those Christians. This describes most evangelicals today: carnal, immature, without miracles, without wonders, lacking a wonderful sense of the presence of the Lord, held together by social activities and nothing else.
Another roadblock to reformation is prayerlessness among God's people. For 100 years the Moravians never stopped praying. They staffed a prayer tower as a factory staffs its machines. In eight-hour shifts the Moravians continued their prayer vigil for 100 years. Carelessness is another fault among evangelicals. Careless Christians do not discipline or examine themselves. Plato once said, "A life that is not examined is a kind of death." People who simply live by their instincts and do the best they can, but do not examine themselves are careless and, according to Plato, may as well be dead.
Sermon Outline
- I. The Need for Model Christians
- A. The current state of the church is lacking in model saints
- B. Christians are not being raised up as examples to follow
- II. The Faults and Abuses in the Church
- A. Carnality among Christians
- B. Prayerlessness among God's people
- C. Carelessness in self-discipline and examination
- III. The Consequences of These Faults
- A. A lack of spiritual growth and maturity
- B. A reliance on social activities rather than a deep sense of God's presence
Key Quotes
“We ought to be raising model saints, the kind Christians could take as examples and say, 'I want to follow these men and women and be like them as they are like their Lord.'” — A.W. Tozer
“For 100 years the Moravians never stopped praying.” — A.W. Tozer
“A life that is not examined is a kind of death.” — A.W. Tozer
Application Points
- Christians need to prioritize spiritual growth and maturity by examining themselves and seeking a deeper sense of God's presence.
- The church needs to cultivate a culture of prayer and self-examination to address the problems of carnality, prayerlessness, and carelessness.
- Individuals need to take responsibility for their own spiritual growth and maturity, rather than relying on social activities or external measures of success.