(*The following is a blog post written by Daniel McCoy from Renew.org.)

The 2011 movie The Adventures of Tintin, directed by Steven Spielberg, was based on the popular European cartoon by Georges Remi (Hergé). Early in the movie, we are introduced to Captain Haddock, voiced by Andy Serkis, the pitiable captain whose crew has turned against him. His crew has locked him in a room aboard his own ship, and the only thing he has in order to console himself in his misery are bottles and bottles of beer.

So, he’s drinking bottle after bottle, sulking and depressed. Captain Haddock was already something of a drunk, and it’s getting worse. In this moment in the movie, the hero of the story, Tintin, the adventurous young reporter, has come aboard the ship. He’s trying to solve a mystery. And suddenly Tintin crashes through the window and into the room where the captain is drinking.

They talk a little. The captain tells Tintin all about his troubles. And eventually, Tintin gets tired of the conversation. It’s going nowhere. The captain is just moping around and complaining, and Tintin finally says, “I have to keep moving.”

Tintin goes to the door, grabs the door handle, twists, the door opens, and he walks out. To which the captain says, “Oh, well, I assumed it was locked.”

The captain was so busy moping that he hadn’t considered there might be a way out of the mess he was in.

Something as small as a door handle can have surprising power.

In Ephesians 5, we read about some dark forces. By the way, the Bible is soberly realistic about the depths of human darkness. And reading about the dark things could seem like an invitation to sit there and mope. But in Ephesians 5, we see that, although there are dark things happening, we have way more reason to hope than to mope.

Why? In Ephesians 5, we’re going to see a prayer we can pray that, like the door handle, offers us surprising power in the face of darkness.

Delving into the Darkness

Before we get to the simple prayer that offers surprising power over the darkness, let’s delve into the darkness. Got your flashlights? You’re going to need them, because it gets pretty dark down here.

“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” (Ephesians 5:3-4, NIV)

Why should Christians stay holy (“set apart”) from these ways of darkness? Here’s why, as Paul continues:

“For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.” (Ephesians 5:5-7, NIV)

According to Ephesians 5:5-7, here’s why we’ve got to pursue holiness:

1. Sexually immoral, impure, and greedy lifestyles put you outside God’s kingdom.
2. Sexually immoral, impure, and greedy lifestyles put you under God’s wrath.

If you continually, habitually follow those lifestyles without repenting, then you will find yourself two places you don’t want to be: outside of God’s kingdom and under God’s wrath.

That’s a dark place. And here’s another dark thought: That’s where most of our world is. As Paul summarizes in verse 16, “The days are evil.”

Some days we think about the violence, sexual immorality, greed—all things that modern Western culture is known for either in lifestyle or entertainment—and it’s easy to become discouraged. It makes us want to sit there and mope. Moping is kind of our go-to activity when we hear about darkness. And sitting in the darkness gives the darkness that much more power over our imagination and choices.

The Power of Thanksgiving

But in case you missed it, these verses also gave us a small but surprisingly powerful “doorknob” that opens us to hoping instead of moping. We find it in verse 4, and it’s just one word. And, honestly, it feels like a nice, friendly, dapper word in the midst of a list of dangerous sins. It’s kind of like you’ve got Mr. T in Rocky 3, Ivan Drago in Rocky 4, and, let’s say, Mike Tyson, all together versus Mr. Rogers. See if you can tell which are the dangerous words and which word is like Mr. Rogers:

“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” (Ephesians 5:3-4, NIV)

Did you see the Mr. Rogers word in the midst of the Mr T’s and Mike Tysons? What was the nice, happy, friendly word? Thanksgiving. Giving thanks. Saying “thank you” to God. That’s what’s pitted against some of the most dangerous sins?

The truth is, telling God thank you is a surprisingly powerful and liberating “doorknob” that makes the darkness nervous. Why? Thanking God liberates us from moping in the darkness by shifting our focus from the darkness to the light. This shift is called “thanksgiving” or “gratitude.”

Do you realize that if you say “thank you” to God and mean it, in that moment, sin loses a ton of power over you?

All those sins Paul mentioned before are rooted in wanting what can’t satisfy you: sexual immorality, impurity, greed, and obscenity/foolish talk/coarse joking. If you look to God and think about all that he has given you, and you express gratitude for his gifts, then all those other things that can’t satisfy you lose a lot of power over you.

Prayers of “thank you” to God have surprising power to liberate. If you’re thankful for what God has given you, then you don’t need a bunch of trash to fill you up. If you’re thankful for what he’s provided, you don’t need to be greedy. If you’re thankful for the spouse God has given you, then you don’t need to go searching for romance in an affair or for thrills in pornography.

There is a surprising power in prayers of “thank you” to God. So, why don’t you take a moment today (and tomorrow, and the next day) and list what you’re thankful for as prayers to God. Walk in the freedom of shedding more and more of sin’s power to entice you.

(*The following is an excerpt from Kevin DeYoung’s book “The Hole in Your Holiness.”)

Some Christians make the mistake of pitting love against law, as if the two were mutually exclusive. You either have a religion of love or a religion of law. But such an equation is profoundly unbiblical. For starters, “love” is a command of the law (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:36–40). If you enjoin people to love, you are giving them law. Conversely, if you tell them law doesn’t matter, then neither does love, which is the summary of the law.

Furthermore, consider the close connection Jesus makes between love and law. We’ve already seen that for Jesus there is no love for him apart from keeping the law (John 14:15). But he says even more than this. Jesus connects communion with God with keeping commandments. When we keep Christ’s commandments, we love him. And when we love Christ, the Father loves us. And whomever the Father loves, Christ loves and reveals himself to them (John 14:21). So, there is no abiding in Christ’s love apart from keeping Christ’s commandments (John 15:10). Which means there is no fullness of joy apart from the pursuit of holiness (v. 11).

God’s law is an expression of his grace because it is also an expression of his character. Commands show us what God is like, what he prizes, what he detests, what it means to be holy as God is holy. To hate all rules is to hate God himself who ordained his rules to reflect his nature. The law is God’s plan for his sanctified people to enjoy communion with him. That’s why the Psalms are full of declarations of delight regarding God’s commands. Even with the passing of the Mosaic covenant, surely the psalms set an example for us. The happy man delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night (Ps. 1:2). The precepts and rules of the Lord are sweeter than honey and more to be desired than gold (Ps. 19:10). Yes, the law can incite the natural man to sin (Rom. 7:7–11). But God’s people rejoice in his statutes and behold wondrous things out of his law (Ps. 119:18). They long to be steadfast in keeping his statutes (v. 5). In the eyes of the believer, the law is still true and good; it is our hope, our comfort, and our song.

Let’s not be afraid to land on law—never as the means of meriting justification, but as the proper expression of having received it. It’s not wrong for a sermon to conclude with something we have to do. It’s not inappropriate that our counseling exhort one another to obedience. Legalism is a problem in the church, but so is antinomianism. Granted, I don’t hear anyone saying, “let’s continue in sin that grace may abound” (see Rom. 6:1). That’s the worst form of antinomianism. But strictly speaking, antinomianism simply means no-law, and some Christians have very little place for the law in their pursuit of holiness. One scholar says, about an antinomian pastor from seventeenth-century England, “He believed that the law served a useful purpose in convincing men of their need of a Saviour; nevertheless, he gave it little or no place in the life of a Christian since he held that ‘free grace is the teacher of good works.’”8 Emphasizing free grace is not the problem. The problem is in assuming that good works will invariably flow from nothing but a diligent emphasis on the gospel. Many Christians, including preachers, don’t know what to do with commands and are afraid to talk directly about obedience. The world may think we’re homophobic, but nomophobia (fear of law) may be our bigger problem.

The irony is that if we make every imperative into a command to believe the gospel more fully, we turn the gospel into one more thing we have to get right, and faith becomes the one thing we need to be better at. If only we really believed, obedience would take care of itself. No need for commands or effort. But the Bible does not reason this way. It has no problem with the word “therefore.” Grace, grace, grace, therefore, stop doing this, start doing that, and obey the commands of God. Good works should always be rooted in the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection, but I believe we are expecting too much from the “flow” and not doing enough to teach that obedience to the law—from a willing spirit, as made possible by the Holy Spirit—is the proper response to free grace.

For as much as Luther derided the misuse of the law, he did not reject the positive role of the law in the believer’s life. The Lutheran Formula of Concord is absolutely right when it says, “We believe, teach, and confess that the preaching of the Law is to be urged with diligence, not only upon the unbelieving and impenitent, but also upon true believers, who are truly converted, regenerate, and justified by faith” (Epitome 6.2). Preachers must preach the law without embarrassment. Parents must insist on obedience without shame. The law can, and should, be urged upon true believers—not to condemn, but to correct and to promote Christlikeness. Both the indicatives of Scripture and the imperatives are from God, for our good, and given in grace.

A Christian doctor once ran his race well. But even more importantly, he finished it well. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was his name, and his daughter, Lady Catherwood, adored him. When asked why her father’s ministry was so effective, she gave this answer:

‘He never recovered from the fact that God saved him.’

May we, by God’s grace, see our Christian faith this way. May we never recover from God’s saving work in our lives. May we stumble into heaven still reeling from having been saved. No doubt, while here on earth, we’ll have sour seasons of life, where salvation doesn’t seem all that sweet. But let’s pray we always savor something of its flavor in our hearts. Let’s always work, by God’s grace, to taste and see that the Lord is good. Let’s work to keep enjoying the basics of the Christian life-loving God and neighbor, hearing from God through His Word, speaking to God in prayer, worshiping God with our lives, encouraging our brothers and sisters at church, and sharing the gospel with the lost. After all, brothers and sisters, we never graduate from the basics, and the second we think we have is the second we prove we haven’t. Of course, there’s a wrong way to hear that story about the thankful and effective doctor. The point we should take is that God’s grace ought to amaze us, not how effective we can be on His behalf. The point of this book is to know and enjoy God’s grace more and see how the spiritual disciplines help us to do so.

Our goal isn’t effectiveness or perfection. Our goal is simply to know Jesus, and to join in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means we may attain the resurrection of the dead (Phil. 3:8-11). So, may we finish the race. May we fight the good fight. May we make it home to heaven and be amazed that we’re even there.

‘My soul makes its boast in the Lord,’ says Psalm 34:2. And may the one who boasts boast in this-that he knows God.

Brothers and sisters, may we grow to know Him. And may we never recover.

‘For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation  for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self­ controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.’ (Titus 2:11-14)

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Excerpted from Service – How do I Give Back? by Mez McConnell. Copyright ©2020. Published in 2020 by Christian Focus Publications Ltd.