Ephesians 1 - Pauls Prayer - Part 2

and me that needs to be there before God is willing to reveal more of himself to us. And it's to do with our name. Now, I don't mean the name Gareth.

I don't mean the name Peter. I don't mean the name Dan. I mean name in the sense that the Bible speaks of name.

Are you aware that in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament days, the name spoke very much about the character of the person. In fact, if you look through the Old Testament, if you take something like Strong's Concordance and look up the meaning of the names, you'll be struck how often the name really speaks much about the character of that person. Do you remember Jacob's wife actually named some of her sons according to the sorrow that she experienced and some of the hopes that she experienced.

You shall call his name for the angel Jesus, which means savior, because he shall save his people from their sin. The character of the person, the name of the person, is so important. And as Paul writes to the Ephesians, he speaks about the character, and this is what he says about the people for whom he is praying.

I thank God for you, verse 16, because of the faith that you have in the Lord Jesus, verse 14, verse 15, I'm sorry. I've heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and I've also heard of your love for one another. Chapter one, verse 15.

The people for whom he is praying have this characteristic, that they're known for their faith in God and their love for one another. If there was a soapbox that I as a pastor stand on, if there was a message which is most prominent in my teaching, it is the need today for the people of God to love one another. The priority in the heart of Jesus, one of the sessions we shall teach, is for the unity of the body of Christ.

It is one of the greatest tragedies in the church today, is the lack of love that Christians often display to one another. And if you want to know God in a deeper way, I want to suggest to you that the same conditions are necessary in you and in me tonight, for God to reveal something more of himself to us, and that is that we have to be a people of faith, a people who are walking the walk of faith with God, and a people of love, love for one another. John in his epistles made this statement, he said, it's impossible for you to say you love God if you do not love one another.

Indeed you are a liar, that's the word he used. Are you a people tonight here at Cape and Ray who can truly say that when God looks at you, a character, he receives a man, a woman, with whom he is pleased because he knows of your desire to walk in faith with him, and he knows of your love for one another. It is those people I believe that Paul thanks God for, but then it's those people that he is willing to pray for that God will make himself known to them.

We do not often find people today who love their fellow men and yet do not love God, and yet there are some, I suppose you probably heard of the television news just came out yesterday of this man in Boston who went into an abortion clinic and shot two women and injured five others because of his love, quote, for mankind and for the unborn. So he displays that love by killing people. You know, tragic.

What a misplaced love, a misunderstanding. It is very possible, however, to be the other way around it in the Christian church, and that is to say I love God and I serve God without ever displaying true love for one another. In fact, it is a terrible indictment on the church that very often the higher up in the hierarchy of the church you go, the less approachable you are to people.

Isn't it amazing in your denomination and in mine and in probably most parachurch organizations, very, very seldom if ever will you find in the job description of those who reach the top of the ladder that they must love their fellow man. And yet that is what I believe Christ calls us to be as foundational to a Christian walk, and it is those people to whom he is willing to reveal himself. A parish priest of austerity climbed up in a high church steeple to be nearer God, that he might pass his word down to his people.

And in sermon script he daily wrote what he thought was sent from heaven, and he dropped it down on his people's head two times, one day and seven. In his age, God said, come down and die. And he cried out from the steeple.

He said, where are you, God? And the Lord replied, I'm here among my people. It is so possible to be so wrapped up in the things of God that we fail to be a people who love his people. I speak as a pastor.

I know many pastors who fit that criteria. But you need to see it.