Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Living A Life That Lasts

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

As a new year begins, maybe you consider the brevity of life and have a renewed desire to live a life that lasts. Our life is fleeting and fragile and yet, there is, within the heart of the believer a burden to invest and steward the time allotted to them by God.  C.T. Studd once said, “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.“ As we begin a new year , Jonny Ardavanis is going to point us to the scripture and provide for us “Five Hallmarks Of A Life That Lasts.” If you desire to leave a legacy, you’re not going to want to miss what the Scripture says in this regard. Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey folks, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. I want to do one thing by way of announcement before we jump into our episode and that is to inform you that we are hiring a key position for Dial In Ministries. As some of you know, in recent weeks and months, Dial In is becoming a 501c3 and one of the first positions that we are going to hire for is the director of video and creative. This position will be a unique hybrid role between Dial and Ministries and the church that I pastor, which is Stonebridge Bible Church in Franklin, Tennessee. So I'm looking particularly for someone who is a gifted videographer and photographer

that can help create excellent resources that bless the people of God, both in our local church and across the globe through Dial and Ministries. In both cases, the director of video and creative will work alongside me, live in Franklin, Tennessee, and I'm praying that the Lord would provide the right man for the job. You can find the full job description for this position on our Instagram page and can contact us through there. Furthermore, just for a moment, I want to discuss our new rhythm in regards to our

podcast. Our episodes will now be published every Tuesday morning. So you can come to expect those every Tuesday. You can set reminders and alerts for that. Now in this episode, here's what I want to discuss. One of the realities that we see constantly throughout scripture is that your life and my life are mere vapors. We are a mist that appears for a moment and then vanishes. Our life is transitory. It's fleeting. Your life is unpredictable and we will all soon be gone. One generation comes and another one goes, but the world wages on.

And there may be in your heart a desire to leave a legacy. Even as we begin a new year, this may be on the forefront of your mind. You want to live a life that lasts. It was C.T. Studd who said, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And in this episode, what I want to do is I'm going to observe the only legacy that truly matters. And in doing so, I want to look particularly at Psalm 145. Let's dial in. Psalm 145 is the last Psalm of David and the last of the eight acrostic Psalms in the Bible, whereas each verse begins with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Out of the 150 Psalms, 75 of them are ascribed to David, the shepherd king. And for this reason, Charles Spurgeon's commentary on the Psalms is appropriately entitled, The Treasury of David. For through the Psalms, David becomes the worship leader of the Bible. Psalm 145 is David's psalm of praise. And although you may think that all of the psalms are psalms of praise, here in Psalm 145 is the one time in the entire Psalter that we read this introduction, a psalm of praise. David saves his best for last. This is David's swan song. This is his final anthem, his magnum opus. And in this psalm, David is concerned with leaving a legacy that lasts. And he wants to do so for one main reason.

He is consumed with the glory and greatness of God. And in this episode, what I want to look at is five hallmarks of a life that lasts. Five hallmarks of a life that lasts. David is enthralled by who God is. And in light of this, he wants to live for something that goes beyond his immediate years. He wants to squeeze all that he can out of the life that God has given to him. Can I ask you, just as we begin, do you want to live a life that matters? Then listen to the scripture. The first hallmark of a life that lasts is in Psalm 145 verse one, and that is humility. David says in Psalm 145 verse one, I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Maybe you're wondering, where do you see humility in this verse? Well, to extol means to exalt. It means to lift high.

It means to elevate. And only those who are brought low can lift high the name of God. Think with me. David is the most powerful king on planet earth. It is sung of him. Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. The halls of history will know David to be a mighty warrior, a poet, and an artist. And yet this great king does what? He acknowledges that God and God alone

is the true king of the universe. David says, I will extol you, my God, my king. David understands that he rules because he has been anointed by God, but God rules because he is the creator, sustainer, and orchestrator of all things. This is where a life of legacy begins. No man can praise God. No man can lead his family in the ways of God. No man can live a life that matters without this proper footing. That is humility. David says in Psalm 145 verse 1b, I will bless your name forever and ever. To bless in the Hebrew is the word barak. It means to praise. It means to adore. But the word bless here also means something else. That is the word barak. We see that word Barak in Psalm 95 verse 6. It says,

come let us worship and bow down. Come let us, watch this, kneel before Yahweh our maker. The word Barak not only means to praise, it not only means to bless, it means to bow down. Because you cannot worship God if you are high. You must be brought low. God is not at your level. He is lofty and exalted. So David says, I will kneel before God, my maker. Humility is where a life of legacy begins. God does not use the proud. He uses the humble and he gives grace to the humble. So the first hallmark of a life that lasts is humility. And the second here is resolve. I'm going to read for you two verses in just a moment, but I want you to understand something before we proceed. Humility does not mean that there

is a lack of determination to live exclusively for God. Watch this in Psalm 145 verses one and two. David says, I will extol you my God, oh King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. Four times in these first two verses, David says, I will, I will, I will, I will. This is resolve. This is determination. And David says he is determined for one main reason, because God's greatness is unsearchable. I've been deep sea fishing a few times. I'm not much of a fisher, but I love the ocean

and the bluefin tuna tastes great. A fathom is the measurement that is used to measure the ocean's depth. One fathom is 1.8 meters or six feet. And this term derives itself from a man's outstretched wingspan. And at times you'll be on the boat and the monitor will tell you that the ocean beneath you is 100 fathoms deep. That would be 600 feet. This is a massive number, but fathomable nonetheless. The greatness of God, however, in verse three, David says is unsearchable. It's unfathomable. You cannot measure it. You cannot quantify it. You could

never plumb the depths of the greatness of God. And because God is so great, David is resolved and David is determined to live exclusively for God. In the fall of 1722, Jonathan Edwards, when he was just a teenager, began to write his resolutions. And by the following year on August 17th, 1723, he penned his 70th and final resolution. And these resolutions would provide the framework for his entire life. He knew that if he was going to live for God and

be changed by God and used for God and his kingdom, he must be resolute in his commitment to live exclusively for him. And I just want to highlight a few of those resolutions. Number four, resolved never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, but what tends to the glory of God. Number 17, resolved that I will live so I shall wish I had done when I come to die. Number 53, resolved to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus, to trust and confide in him and consecrate myself wholly to him. George Marston in his his biography of Jonathan Edwards, observed, Jonathan directed his resolutions toward plugging every gap that would allow distractions from what he saw as his only worthy activity, and that is to glorify God. Here is what you need to understand. No one lives a godly life on accident. No one lives a life that matters for Jesus Christ and his kingdom.

Incidentally, it must be pursued. Leaving a legacy that honors God and causes others around you to press on is something that must be done with a degree of intentionality. With this being said, before Edwards ever penned his first resolution, he offered a prefatory word. He said this, being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions so far as they are agreeable to his will for Christ's sake. This preface undergirds the 70 resolutions that follow. Resolutions without God's grace and power are vain, but resolutions accompanied by grace and girded by power and enabled through the Holy Spirit availeth much. So the first hallmark of a life that lasts is humility.

The second is resolve. And the third here in verses four through nine is stewardship. David says in verse four, one generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. Maybe you're familiar with the quote that's attributed to Nicholas von Zinzendorf. He said this, he said, preach the gospel, die and be forgotten. This is a well-loved quote because it reveals the heart of a man who just wanted to live for God and didn't care about pumping up his own kingdom on earth.

He wanted to live for God's kingdom and for the pumping up his own kingdom on earth. He wanted to live for God's kingdom and for the advancement of the church that Christ was building. But here's what I want you to understand. Those who revel in the greatness of God understand that they are stewards of influencing the next generation so that that next generation does know, love, follow, and serve God all of their days. You will inevitably be forgotten, but that does not mean that what you lived for is forgotten by the generation that follows you.

That much needs to be obvious. I'll explain, but for a moment, let me give you a little bit of my family history. My grandma, her name is Myrna Joan Artavanis. She's a legend. Her maiden name is Dunlap, but she married my grandpa, whose name was Christy Artavanis. My grandpa was full Greek, and his dad, which would be my great-grandfather, was named Athanasius. Athanasius Artavanis. I know, baller name. I've never met my great-grandpa. Athanasius had six children, and after immigrating here from Athens, Greece, he owned a bakery in Baltimore before moving to start and manage a restaurant in Santa Monica, California called The Spaghetti House.

It is a Greek-owned Italian restaurant, or was, I should say. On my wife's side of the family, Katie's great-grandma, her name was Winifred Klosterman she was born in 1894 in 1942 she wrote an article for Reader's Digest entitled 15 babies are not enough and the article she reflects on her 30 years of marriage and the 15 babies that she bore and raised during the Great Depression great-grandma Winifred says that we pulled through those depression years better than most families not in spite of our children, but because of them. One insurmountable problem has always been the bathroom. With one bathroom and 17 Klostermans, we had to be on a precise schedule.

Here's what Katie's great grandma said in the article. She said, of time I got supper for the family, did the dishes, put the children to bed, and had a new baby the next morning. Twice, when the roads were deep with mud or snow, the babies would arrive before the doctor. Her last sentence of the article she wrote in 1942 reads, but when I try to think of the things I have done for my children, I find myself thinking of what they have done for me. I wish I had a dozen more like them. Well, anyway, at least one more. Now at this juncture, maybe you're wondering, Johnny, why the family history? And here's why. Other than the fact that my great grandpa started a restaurant in Santa Monica and came here from Greece as a stowaway

in a ship. And other than the information that Katie and I know about her great-grandma from this article in the Reader's Digest in 1942, we know nothing else about our great-grandparents. You listening right now to this podcast know as much about my great-grandparents as I do. My daughter, her name is Lily, and the reality is Lily's grandchildren will likely know very little about me. And her great-grandchildren, which would be my great-great-grandchildren, they won't even know my name.

This is one of the great themes of Ecclesiastes. You will be forgotten. And there is only one thing worth passing down to the next generation. There is only one legacy that lasts, and that is that each generation passes down the truth of the greatness of God. Every generation's responsibility

is not merely to pass the torch of truth, but to model for them what it looks like to know God intimately and personally, to model for them what it looks like to know God intimately and personally, to show them that God is still changing you, even in your old age, if you may be there. In Psalm 146, David says that in a world where men speak of finances, fitness, 401ks, David says that real men understand the stewardship they have of passing down this truth so that even if they are forgotten, their God is not. Psalm 145, 6 says, men shall speak of the power of your awesome acts, and I will tell of your greatness. I wonder if you are going to ask a young child,

hey buddy, what do men talk about? What do they always speak about? I wonder if you were going to ask a young child, hey buddy, what do men talk about? What do they always speak about? I wonder if they would say the greatness of God and his power and his awesome acts. So in verse six, men speak of God's greatness. And in verse seven, they shout joyfully for all that God has done. Why? Well, because not only do godly men and godly woman understand that stewardship is a hallmark of a life that lasts, but because they are floored and captivated by the character of God. And so they shout joyfully and pass this truth down to the next generation. The truth that

we read in verses eight and nine, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great and loving kindness. The Lord is good to all and and his mercies are over all of his works. Every generation understands it is my stewardship to pass down the truth of the God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness, the God who is good and the God who is merciful. Now we come to the fourth hallmark of a life that lasts, and that is gratitude. In verses 11 through 13, David says that men shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power to make known to the sons of men your mighty acts and the glory of your

majesty and of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations. Can I ask you as I already have so far, do you want to leave a legacy? Then let gratitude propel you to proclaim the excellencies of God to those around you. Look back with me if you have your Bibles at what the passage says that the godly ones speak about.

They speak about God's mighty acts, the glory of his majesty and his everlasting reign. And because you are so thankful that these words that we read in scripture are not just ideas or figments of our imagination, but rather the revelation that God has given to us as the sufficient, clear, authoritative and necessary word, you are filled with thankfulness. And therefore, you desire to share that with the world around you. If you're a father and you want to leave a legacy to your sons, then you need to ask them with great degrees of joy. Hey, son, where is the Assyrian empire?

Where is the Babylonian empire? Son, it's in the dust. But look with me, son, at Psalm 145. It says God's kingdom. Yes, God's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. And not only is our God great and exalted, it says in Psalm 145, 14, that he is a king who comes down and lifts up the faint of heart. He is a God who is near. He is lofty and exalted, but he comes down and he picks up the crushed in spirit and he feeds us from his hand.

If you're thankful for these truths, you're going to inevitably want to disseminate these truths to everybody else around you. This is a key component, a hallmark, a distinguishing feature of living a life that lasts. David is thankful not only because of God's kingdom and his majesty, but grateful because in verse 16, God satisfies the human soul. He's thankful in verse 17 that God is altogether righteous. David realizes that a God who is loved without being righteous is mere sentimentality.

And he then realizes conversely that a God who is righteous without love gives us much reason to dread. But he is grateful that there has never been a single thing God has ever done that is not altogether loving and altogether righteous. And for this reason, he is grateful. And the overflowing of his life then is going to desire to impress this truth upon the following generation. Now we arrive at our fifth and final hallmark of living a life that lasts. And that fifth hallmark is a nearness to God's presence and a nearness to God's word. In verse 18, David says,

The Lord is near to all those who call upon him and to all those who call upon him in truth. In verse 18, David says, The Lord is near, but he is not near in this sense to all. David says that he is near to who? To those who call. And he's not near just to those who call. He's near to those who call upon him in truth. Now, if you want your life to matter, if you want to leave a legacy, then you must be a man or woman who is devoted and dedicated to living near to God because your life's priority is to live near to his word. As we live near to God's word, we arrive and grow in our fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is the key that

unlocks the door to a life of fulfillment. And this fear here, as I've said before in other episodes, is not the fear of God in a servile way, which is like a prisoner before his torturers, but the fear of God is the child who looks up at their father with a sense of awe and respect and love. Can I ask you, are you committed to living a life of praising and glorifying God? Have you been struck by his majesty? Have you ever considered, what do I want my legacy to be? Let me just ask you this as we close. Do you want your legacy to last?

Well, if you do, then your life needs to be one that meditates upon the greatness of God as revealed in his word. And in doing so, your life will be marked by these five hallmarks, a humility that comes from beholding God's greatness, a resolve and determination to honor God. Third, a stewardship, knowing that God has only given you one life to live. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Fourth, your life will be marked by gratitude because of who God is and all that God has done for you. And fifth and finally, your life will be marked by a nearness to God because your life is near to his holy and precious word.

Ultimately, if you want to live a life that matters, you won't live your life for yourself. You will live for the glory of God, the advancement of his kingdom, and you will pass down the truth of who he is to the next generation. Stay dialed in.