Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast where we're all about sound doctrine for everyday people. My name is Cossi Hinn and I'm your host. And on today's episode, I have invited my friend and one of our key contributors here at For the Gospel, the man, the myth, the legend, Johnny Artavanis. You just did the attributes of God, bro. We're going singleness now. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00I'm ready. Thanks, Cossi. I'm grateful to be back on.
SPEAKER_01Wonderful. I will just rabbit trail briefly. I had such a great time with you this past week. We were together at the Masters University on Wednesday and then Shepherd's Conference and then Hume Lake. I have never been there. I'm aware of the storied history and legacy of that place. And you and I got the chance to preach a retreat together about uh God's design for biblical romance, sex, purity, all of the like. It was done, I think, in a very biblical, tasteful, and clear way. And so shout out to all of you young adults that were at Hume Lake and Johnny. It's so fun to see the Lord using you up there, man.
SPEAKER_00Oh, thanks, bro. It was fun to do it with you. I love uh love that place and love getting to partner with you. It's uh it's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01And congratulations on having me eat my first corn dog in like 10 years.
SPEAKER_00I was a little surprised that you went straight for the caloric intake of a corndog, but I'm just glad you didn't put any mayonnaise on it.
SPEAKER_01You told me that that place has the best milkshakes, and then one of the other guys like, and the corndogs. And so um I am I am stewarding my temple well on most other weeks and days. I ate a lot of salad, had a salad yesterday after church, but man, that corndog, it was worth it. The corndog would be worth it.
SPEAKER_00The dressing on your salad might have more calories than the corndog, so uh we'll see.
SPEAKER_01Oh man. Well, hey, I wanted you to come on for a conversation about singleness. What inspired this episode is just recently talking with an awesome guy at our church here, Shepherd's House in AZ. And we were talking about singleness, and there were some other people involved in the conversation. And what I could be guilty of, I'm sure many people in the conservative world would agree, is looking at young people and being like, all right, what are you waiting for? Let's go get married, come on. And that's great for those that are just courting, dating, hanging out, and you're like, well, you know, what's the plan? I don't know. And you're like, all right, come on. You guys love each other, yes. Your parents are supportive, yes. Are you being pure and humble and godly? Yes. Well then let's go. But for many other people, they feel a pressure when they're 25, 28, 30, 31. And the question is, oh, so are are you married? No. Are you dating anyone? No. Oh, I have this friend, or oh, we'll be praying for you. Don't worry, God's got someone for you. Bless your little single heart here in the church world where it's all about marriage and babies. Yeah. They're patronizing, perhaps well-intentioned, but ignorant. So I want to talk to you about singleness in a biblical way. You want to take us down the runway and let's start heading towards cruising altitude?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I like that pilot analogy. Um, yeah, I would love to talk about it. You know, I think this is an important question to answer from a biblical perspective for people in the church. You know, if you look back 100 years ago, Costi, 3% of the adult population was single, 1% would have been widowed, and 1% would have been divorced, meaning that 5% of the adult population 100 years ago was single. But if you look at modern day statistics, that stat goes from 3 to 30% of adults being single, 10% widowed, and 10% divorced, meaning that roughly 50% of the adult population today is single. So when it comes to the topic of singleness, we're not singleness, we're not speaking of a fringe minority. So this is an important discussion for the church collectively. I think one of the first things that like I'd want to consider regarding singleness is how the world defines it. I looked it up in the Webster's dictionary, and the word single means unmarried. But to define something by what it's not doesn't really give us biblically a great sense of what it is. And so I'm super glad the Bible gives us a better understanding of singleness than just not married. I think there are often two extremes that we have to consider uh fundamentally. And one is that we live in a world where there is both the idol of the family and the idol of the individual. And so what we need is the scripture to instruct us and to teach us how to have both an exalted view of marriage, but also an exalted view of singleness, where both marriage is a life of service and where singleness as well is a life of service. Uh, the best way I've kind of thought through how to condense this is to just talk about three biblical realities regarding singleness. I'll focus mainly on the first one. Three biblical realities regarding singleness, and then three misconceptions. Does that sound okay?
SPEAKER_01Oh, totally. And I I want to add in a quote really quick, one that I have thought about deeply as a married man with four kids and uh due consideration to more as we look forward to the future. Brooks Bucer, one of our favorite friends. The in my opinion, a lot of talk about manhood these days online, a lot of guys running around, you know, rah-rah, pounding their chest about how they're warriors because they tweet, you know, 180 characters about something and then go back to their their happy little life in America. Brooks Bucer is an absolute warrior, reached the Yembi Yembi tribe, left a corporate America job on the shores of La Jolla in California, and took his wife Nina, his son Bo, and hit the road, uh, more like hit the river, up the Amazon, so to speak, to the Yembi Yembi. Reach and unreach people group. He's the president of Radius International now. The guy is the real deal. And one of my favorite quotes from him, we've had him on the show, it's early on in the podcast list. If you want to go check it out, it's Brooks Buser to the ends of the earth is the name of the episode. He said the last acceptable form of idolatry in the West is the family. And really what he's referring to is the church, the Western church. The family can be an idol, not just the comfort of family, but the idea of you gotta get married and have a family, or else you haven't achieved the pinnacle. And I heard you say something at this retreat this past weekend about biblical sex and romance, and you said we need to be very careful, believing that the experience of having sex even within marriage as a Christian is the ultimate. That we've reached the pinnacle because you're gonna get there and there's no there there. There's a whole bunch of other elements, and Christ is our ultimate treasure. So it is with the family and marriage, and on the other side, singleness and living it up our way, and independence, and freedom, and the uh you know, the whole YOLO, you only live once, and I'm just I'm enjoying my life, and I'm I'm doing me. That can also be the idol of self. So I love that you bring up that initial balance where the family and singleness can both be be slippery slopes. So, with that in mind, take us there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I think three main just biblical realities regarding singleness. I love what Brooke said, and I love that wisdom because it's the truth. But I think number one is we have to understand biblically both singleness and marriage are a gift from God. We know biblically that marriage is a gift from God. It's the grace of life, Proverbs 1822. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. You know, I feel that personally. I love my wife. I'm thankful for my wife. And this is largely affirmed. But when it comes to singleness, many people are quick to believe that they have not received favor from the Lord if they have not received a spouse in this life. And it would be disastrous to conclude that because Genesis 2 says it is not good for man to be alone, that a single person is outside the will of God if they are alone. Um, this does not mean that we're outside the will of God. Jeremiah the prophet was single in the Old Testament. Daniel, the line of conviction, was single as far as we know. So we know we can be single and be inside the will of God. But the scripture is going to go beyond the scope of the permissibility of singleness and go as far as saying that the gift of singleness is advantageous for the glory of God. And for some, this might be hard to swallow, but if we believe everything that the Bible says about God, that He is wise and good and abounding in loving kindness towards His children, we are going to come to believe what the scripture says about singleness. And I want to look at just one passage of scripture because that's the only way we know that it's not rooted in our opinion and that it's rooted in God's perspective. 1 Corinthians 7 is kind of the go-to passage for this, and it might be familiar, but I want to hopefully draw out some unfamiliar elements to it. 1 Corinthians 7 7 says, I wish that all of you were as I am. This is Paul writing, but each one of you has your own gift from God. One who has this gift, another has that gift. And then verse 27 is really where he's going to talk about singleness and custody. I just want to, maybe these few verses will be helpful for us. Verse 27 says, Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such commitment? Do not look for a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned. Now, this is funny. I'll just pause there, meaning, like he's now looking at marriage, going, if you get married, it's okay. Which is funny. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you. What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on, those who have wives should live as if they do not, those who mourn as if they did not, those who are happy as if they were not, those who buy something as if it was not theirs to keep. And those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them, and this is key, for the world in its present form is passing away. I would like for each of you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs, how he can please the Lord, but a married man is concerned about the affairs of the world, how he can please his wife. And his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs. Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit, but a married woman is concerned about the affairs of the world, how she can please her husband. And then this is kind of how he wraps up the section. He says, I am saying this, verse 35, for your own good, and to not to restrict you, but so that you may live the right way in an undivided devotion to the Lord. So Paul here, and I know that's a lengthier section of scripture, but this is so important. Paul here is going to describe singleness in a way that it's so far from being a second-class citizen in the kingdom of God, but through the Holy Spirit and through the pen of Paul, he's describing singleness as a gift. Now, I think what we need to do first and foremost here is we need to understand biblically what a gift from God is. Because when we think of gifts, we think of presence. And when we think of presence, we think of what we want. But gifts from God are not always presence that we prefer. When God gives his children gifts, what he has first and foremost in mind is his own glory, the advancement of his kingdom, and then our good, not necessarily our personal preferences. And I think this is where a lot of people get hung up. But uh I think if uh then where the question would be, well, if God give me a gift, why would anyone give me the gift of singleness? God take this gift back. And I think that question is answered in verse 35. So he's saying, I'm saying this for you, so not to restrict you, but so that you may live in the right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. God gives us the gift of singleness so that we can live the right way, which is an interesting way to think, but that's what the Bible says. What's the right way? Well, the right way to live and the right way to think is undivided, unhindered, unreserved devotion to the Lord. God tells us that some people go through a season of singleness and a lifetime of singleness, and it's not a curse, it's a gift. And it's a gift that God gives in order that he might champion in his children a way of thinking and to cement a mindset within us, in which the context when we live, and in the context in which we live. And then we have to ask, what's that way of thinking? If God is giving us a to promote, he says something that is right, what's the way of thinking that he gives us? Well, it's undivided devotion to the Lord in verse 35, but we only live in undivided devotion to the Lord if we understand verse 31. And that says, for this world in its present form is what? Passing away. Paul is saying that marriage, relationships are not the ultimate story of life. Yes, they matter, but that's not what this world is ultimately all about. And I wouldn't like to pause here and say God cares about dating and marriage and relationships. You know, Acasti, one of the things I love is Genesis 1.16. It says that he made the two great lights, and then it says, comma, and he made the stars also, like just this nonchalant, flippant, um, oh yeah, God made billions of stars and galaxies. The longest chapter in Genesis is Isaac's pursuit of Rebecca, that God cares about the way that we relate to one another and he cares about all these things. And this is not an aspect of life where God is indifferent, but God, through his word, wants us to consider a certain reality. That even though singleness or dating or marriage might be our main preoccupation right now, it's not what the story of life is ultimately about. The main storyline of the Bible is that God is building his kingdom. And that's why Paul says this world in its presence form is passing away. And that's where we are called to live a life of undistracted devotion to the Lord. And so while loving God, uh sometimes it's just a buzzword we throw out. Loving God is never an ambiguous or obscure reality. It's objective. And our love for God is manifested in evidence as we engage with God in his kingdom work. And so what Paul is saying is if you're married, you're to think like you're not married. If you're single, you're to think like you're not single. If you mourn, you're to think like you don't mourn. If you're happy, you're to think like you're not happy. It doesn't matter. What matters, Paul's saying in 1 Corinthians 7, is time is short, hell is hot, and Jesus saves. And regardless of whether or not you're married or single, this is your main preoccupation in life. Don't pine away, uh, waiting for what's not happening to you and miss what God has put right in front of you. I love Jim Elliott's journals. And he's you know one of his most famous lines is wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt of every situation. And just saying, wherever you are, be fully invested. And the question is, how do we live all there in our singleness? Well, it's answered in verse 32. The single person is anxious about the things of the Lord, which means that we can only view singleness as a gift when we live our single life pedal to the metal, leveraging our time and freedom for the glory of God. And so we don't spend our singleness waiting for or watching everybody else's life. We spend our singleness um investing in God's kingdom. And I think you can speak to this too, Costy, but I am who I am today because I think by God's grace, I leveraged my singleness. I got married in my late 20s. I went, I took jobs and I preached there or did ministries and I started preaching in juvenile hall because I was single. I then took a job at a ministry in the woods, and I could do that because I was single at Hume Lake. I spent I went all around the world and seeing what God was doing because I was single. My wife Katie is today who he she is because she leveraged her singleness. And today we serve together because we both individually leveraged our singleness. Paul's saying that this person is free from concern if you're single, of the expectations of marriage. And it's not just so they can live their own life, it's that they might double down uh for the glory of God. And I think I'll pause here and then I'll I want you to speak into this, Costi, uh, just asking a couple questions. What's the gift of singleness? The gift of singleness is not some sort of higher form of spirituality where the person that says they have this gift have never desired physical intimacy. That's not what this is about. The gift of singleness is a season that God allots for every single person that's ever been born because we're not born married. And so then we can ask the question, and I think this will be hopefully freeing, because many people ask it how do I know if I have the gift of singleness? You know if you have the gift of singleness, if you're single right now. Because God has given you a gift in this season to steward for a moment in time. I've never heard a 27-year-old or 31-year-old tell me that they're confident they'll be celibate the rest of their life. I think those people are out there for sure. But what I do know is people that are unmarried going, I don't think I have the gift. Well, you do have the gift because God has given you a season to leverage your time and freedom for the glory of God, a season which you are called by God to live holistically and undividedly for Him. Um, singleness is not bad luck, it's not chance, it's a gift from God.
SPEAKER_01So good. Okay, a couple of questions. You got me all fired up. Number one, really quick, the gift of singleness and that season, could it last longer? Because I think of Paul, he was single all the way. Um I I'm always hesitant to bring up Jesus in this conversation, not to say that his singleness is not notable, it's just the fact that he's Jesus, puts him in sort of an other otherworldly category. I I just I he's holy, holy, you know. I H O L Y N W H O L L Y. He holy and completely he is otherly. So I want to be careful there. Um the the Virgin Mary used vitally by God, but again, a very immaculate conception, supernatural. But we have examples. Like Paul the Apostle is not otherworldly, he's not divine. It's Paul, it's Paul the guy. So is when you say the gift of singleness is what people have when they are single, is there an extended season? Some people have that gift for their entire life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, totally. I think that they'd be called to that, and I think you can uh say, Hey, I'm called to a life of singleness. But I think people that are unmarried get fixated when people say, Do you think you have the gift of singleness? Um, but we know that God gives us a season of singleness and that each moment in our life is a gift from him, because God is a giver of good gifts, James 1. And so I think that because they're going, hey, I think called the celibacy and the gift of singleness can be two different things that we need to distinguish. And so for a conversation on singleness, um, I would say, yeah, those things might be different for sure. Paul, you have John the Baptist, and Jesus is gonna say in Matthew 11, of men born of women, there's no one greater. No one greater. Um, so absolutely um you can have different callings. But I think, you know, when you think about a woman in her 30s who wants to be married but single, but get at gets asked if she has the gift of singleness, um, I think she can start viewing it as a gift because it's the season she's in, and that's all I mean by that.
SPEAKER_01Really helpful. Um, another question I have for you, yeah. Uh maybe not pushing back against you, but I want you to answer the bell on this. Are we doing damage pastorally and in the church when we're constantly making comments? And I'm gonna say this with the best of intentions. I think those comments are are very well intentioned, and they're if anything, they're ignorant. But you know, Pastor is meeting people, he's up there, and is there there obviously it's helpful when people people play matchmaker, like, oh, you gotta meet so and so. I mean, I I literally have like a guy sent me a message not long ago and was like, hey, thanks for the nudge. She said yes, because I they were dating and they were obviously godly and serving the Lord, and I just said, Hey, um, you guys pretty serious about going the distance. They're like, Absolutely, and I said, Right on. I said, Well, you know, get to it. No time like the present. If the Lord's giving you each other, come on now. And they sent me a photo of their their wedding and their house, and they're like, Thanks for the nudge. Like, they're married already, and that's great, and they're thriving in the Lord. There's that situation, but then as pastors, sometimes we look at people we're like, you know, maybe a little hard or a little pushy, and we make it wrong. Well, is that does that need to be shaped by a First Corinthians 7? And I think every pastor who loves the Bible respects good exegesis and good scriptural backing. Do we need to check ourselves?
SPEAKER_00You just mean regarding the push for people to get married, you know. Hey, what's wrong with you? She loves the Lord, you love the Lord, let's make it happen.
SPEAKER_01I don't hear as much. Take advantage of your singleness. You who are here right now, you who are single, you know, I'm doing the loss in point even right now as I'm The loss and chop as I'm recording this, you know, on Zoom with you. I you who are single, you stop being insecure, you stop feeling like you're a less than and other than, or you're sort of this second-class citizen in this church. You are frontline ministers, you are to be pushing the lines for. We don't talk like that a lot. We're we're going, and you who are sitting around, you're waiting on God. You need to pursue that woman.
SPEAKER_00And you we put down the video games and pick up a wife. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I think those things can be helpful. Um, and that's where I think you said pastorally, I think that's where shepherding comes in because only you know the character of a young man or young woman you would be addressing. And so I would be conscientious to not preach in extremes where every single person is either overly picky and lazy that's single, and every single person that is married is mature and dignified. Meaning that just because there's a 19-year-old that marries his girlfriend when they're, you know, 19, it doesn't mean that that guy is more manly than the 26-year-old who's still waiting for the right woman. Come on. Um, I think so. Those things, yeah, can be abused in the same way that, you know, I'm just around people that go up to new married couples three years after getting married and go, why don't you guys have kids? Well, it's like, well, you know, like, hey, they would love to have kids. There's a number of my friends that would love to have kids, and that's not something the Lord has provided yet. And so I think that if marriage is a gift from God, it's not something we all make happen. Um, and so we can't contradict ourselves by saying, hey, if you receive a gift of marriage or the gift of marriage, you've obtained favor from the Lord. And what a what a what a gracious extension of God's kindness. And then in the same breath, say, What's up? You know, go do it. It's not that hard. Just go find a girl that loves the Lord and make it happen. I just feel like that's contradicting.
SPEAKER_01Totally. That's so good. I the the let's talk about the kids one for a second. Um, you've got a sweet baby girl, and uh I've almost got a basketball team over here. The idea that you're married, so you know, let's go. When's a baby's coming? It totally it's gotta be convicting, it's gotta be sobering. If we're gonna call ourselves, you know, a Bible man or a Bible woman, you know, men of God or people of the word, whatever you want to put in front of that adjectively. There we gotta be really careful. Imagine going up to a couple and saying, Hey, come on, like, when's the babies coming? And they're going, I we just got news from the doctor, and having a baby is gonna be real difficult there, Pastor. Or, you know, like well, if you can't have kids, why haven't you adopted yet? And people are like, Well, I we're praying through that process. That's a huge deal and a big step. Well, obedience, you there's yeah, totally 30, 40 grand for certain things. Well, why don't you foster them? We need to be fostering. You go, well, I okay, like we have a tiny apartment. Are you gonna be adding 50 grand to our income this year so that we can afford to have more foster kids? Well, they'll pay you anyway. Yeah, well, what's the motive then? It there are so many dogmatic extremes, and I'm convicted by this all the time that we just throw out there in the conservative world with the best of intentions, and I I I feel like sometimes, and maybe I'm speaking to a minority here, maybe not, we're trying to be the conference speaker that went out and hit a grand slam. Like we're all gonna try to be, you know, John MacArthur with our one-liner, or R. C. Sproll with the what's wrong with you people meme, which I love when he says that. It's it's to the right things. Or, you know, we're all gonna be Vody, and Vody's pacing, and he's God said, with that deep voice. Like you you don't live life as a local shepherd. Oh, it I can't even come close. You don't you don't live life as a shepherd with conference speaker one-liners. You're living life with the people. You smell like sheep. You clean the sheep, you oil the sheep, you shear the sheep, you guide the sheep. It speaks to the need for us to look in the mirror and to be balanced, to be strong on truth, but also to be careful with the extremes in the name of obedience to God with babies and family and all of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think one of the ways semantically that I think covers this, because from a communication standpoint, you can address that, hey, I'm blind to my own blind spots. And so I think prefacing really helps. I think pastorally, you can say, hey, I don't want to make a blanket statement, but let me just say statistically what I know to be true. A lot of you um spend your singleness spending seven hours a day on your iPhone.
SPEAKER_01That's good.
SPEAKER_00And God has called you for more. And so I think that there's a like an exhortation and encouragement there rather than be like, you vagabonds, you know, like your poverty will come upon you. Look at the ant sluggards. Um and I I just think those things are are gonna be different because I think that there's a lot of truth in what people say. Man, I know I know a number of 20-year-olds that hey, uh I would just say, man, what's what's the plan here? Um life isn't all about work, but you know what the Lord is honored by? By working hard. And so let's figure out a way in which we can do that. And hey, God does despise laziness. So, like those are realities that you can preach through biblically. I just would be conscientious to not make blanket statements that everyone, every single guy that's 30 is not not doing something normative. But even though I would say, hey, let's preach on the gift of singleness, let's talk about it. And then also let's cover Matthew 19, that Jesus says, hey, still what's normative is that a man should leave his wife or uh a woman should leave her parents and be, yeah, and be bonded to his wife. I think what happens sometimes is on a quest of depth and expositional preaching, sometimes the topics that we speak through are not covered but 10 years apart, meaning that, like, hey, you'll cover marriage when you preach through Genesis or when you come to Matthew 19. And then you won't come to singleness until you preach through 1 Corinthians 7, which might be 15 years later. And then what happens is you have a lot of people that just don't know how to live wisely. And so I think the church and especially small group formats, discipleship studies, Sunday school classes need to do a good job at balancing out depth of exposition with practically how do we live as Christians? Um, by covering like sections of scripture that we might not be in. You know, I was with uh a friend the other day, and he just said, I've I've just finished preaching through Romans, and it took him close to nine years. And you go, Man, praise the Lord for the beauty of Romans. And yeah, I want to dive in deep. But then hypothetically, you might have an individual in the church that doesn't know um you know much about how to conduct themselves as a as a single. And so I think those are that's where preaching and discipleship are not are two sides of the same coin. You have to be able to do both.
SPEAKER_01So good. I'm gonna plug right now podcasting as well and using online resources, not as a way to try to you know be an online pastor, but in the sense that now this week, good example, because I think of what you're saying, and I'm I'm assessing my own life as a pastor and a shepherd now who every week is in the pulpit. I'm going through this series, and I'm thinking, okay, great, this week, what have we covered? Well, I'm in 1 Corinthians 11 with my men's group Tuesday, so there's that, but then we have a podcast on singleness now on a Monday, and then I've got to preach through sharing the gospel, or and or our next conviction we're covering is serving. And those are all things that I think you're touching on so helpfully is it it's no longer and and probably never has been wise to just say, Well, I get in the pulpit and I preach this text and then I'm out. It ministry is shepherding the flock, a wide range of appetites in the sense that you know some people can eat a lot right now and some people can only eat a little, and a wide range of of coverage where you know we're in a marriage series in small groups, or we're in the gospel of John in the pulpit. Those are important things. Well said. Um Well said. Johnny, your your middle name is Balance and Bible. You have two middle names, brother. I'm convinced of it. I'm so grateful for the way you approach topics like this. Anything else to add?
SPEAKER_00Just on the topic in general.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um I would say, just going off of even what we were just talking about, that there is a level where singleness can be abused. And this is where sometimes there's frustration um on a single woman's part because they go, Man, I I'm looking for a man. And so, and then they look at the man in their life, and the gift of singleness isn't being steward, stewarded, but rather serves as a catalyst for self-serving, temptation-indulging, cohabitating, disobedience. And so instead of looking at their singleness as a catalyst to greater service and a lack of distraction without reservation, many people can view their singleness as a way to get ahead. Uh, this doesn't mean that if you're in nursing school and you want to finish your degree and be single, that that's a bad thing. But you need to live your entire life under the banner of life's brevity and gospel advancement uh rather than personal advancement. And I think a lot of people use their singleness for personal advancement rather than I live my life in unreserved, undistracted devotion to the Lord. And when you live your life for self-focus, you develop habits or with self-focus, and this is how I'm building my life, there's a temptation to form habits in your singleness, which make it harder and harder for anyone to fit into your mold. And then this gets perpetuated in such a way that no human being could ever live up to what you're expecting in a spouse. And then you start to piece together bits and pieces of men and women that you find interesting or attractive or godly or personality, and you put them and you can be looking in some sense for the Messiah or Elizabeth Elliot or for whatever that might be. So I think that um many people, once they do get married as well, this is one caution I would have for single people, is the reason Paul says to live your life as a life of service is because if you get married and you haven't been living that way, it's going to be difficult for you to settle into living a life of service to your spouse and to the church when you've been living your entire life for yourself. But and so I think singleness is abused in that regard. And I think that's one thing to keep in mind. And this was something my parents were helpful with. You know, I'm 26, unmarried, doing my own thing. And I just remember my dad saying, make serving others a priority in your life so that when you get married, you've not you're not used to just being pursued by other people, serving yourself, your own interests. And I'm really grateful that from 19 to whenever in my late 20s, my dad just said, be conscientious that your your drifting will never be towards serving others. It'll always be towards serving yourself. And I'm so grateful for that balance that my dad provided.
SPEAKER_01That is a mic drop, grand slam, home run. Absolutely. And I I feel like every time I have you on the podcast, it's it's the best episode we've ever done. People actually say that, and I know that you're a humble guy, and that won't really impact your your ego because you're scared to death to ever take glory away from God. So I glorify God for that. I just I have to say, well said, well done. Good coverage too with topics like this. This was an answer to prayer, the prayer we prayed before jumping on to record that the Lord would give us wisdom and and use it for his glory. Thanks, brother. We got to do this again. Really big topic. And uh for more from you, where where should people go to check out more of your resources besides obviously now the the long list of episodes we're compiling here at for the gospel with you on. But uh, where else can they go to hear your voice more often?
SPEAKER_00Uh thanks for asking, Cassi. Thanks for allowing me to talk through this important subject with you as well. I have a podcast which is called Dial In with Johnny Artavanis, and I do some QA format, but my one of my main hearts is to just do series uh in the Bible. So I walk through the series of uh the Gospel of John, the attributes of God, and I'm currently going through ecclesiastes on how to live a life of wisdom uh with life's brevity in mind. So dial in, and that's kind of the podcast format that I do, and then also just sermons or whatever that might be here on the Masters University YouTube page where I serve as the dean of student life.
SPEAKER_01Fantastic, brother. Well, we'll do this again and keep hitting these topics for a whole new generation of brothers and sisters that want to grow. Um, our prayer is that this episode has helped you get answers about singleness and to know what I would say at least everything you must know right now about singleness, to quote uh or paraphrase Jim Elliott where Johnny did, wherever you are, be all there and live your life under the banner of gospel advancement. It's a great way to live. Men like Jim Elliott lived that way and now are experiencing glory because of the way they lived, and you have that opportunity today. Uh thanks again for listening to the For the Gospel podcast. The best way to get our content directly to all your devices is to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Uh, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and then follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter for videos that we put out every week and articles as well to give or check out more about our team. Go to forthegospel.org. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.