Can We Do Whatever We Want in Heaven?

00:00:00.000 | As you can imagine, we get a lot of questions in the inbox about heaven and eternity and what to

00:00:05.040 | expect there. The most recent question in the inbox comes from a listener named Michael, who

00:00:09.680 | asks this very simply, "Pastor John, in heaven, will we be permitted to do anything that we want?"

00:00:16.000 | The answer is yes. So should we go on to the next question?

00:00:19.760 | Nice try.

00:00:23.200 | Okay, okay. A simple yes could be misleading if I didn't say more. So here's the more.

00:00:30.320 | Another way to say yes is that in heaven, that is in the age to come,

00:00:38.240 | when there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more sin, those who've trusted in Jesus will

00:00:46.320 | experience for the first time complete and perfect freedom. Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free,

00:00:55.920 | you will be free indeed." And Paul said, "For freedom, Christ has set you free." And only

00:01:04.240 | Christians will enjoy complete and perfect freedom, which I have often defined this way,

00:01:12.400 | doing whatever you want to do and not regretting it in a thousand years.

00:01:17.840 | Now let me see if I can help us feel the wonder of this by describing four stages of freedom.

00:01:27.920 | And only the last stage is perfect freedom, and we only have it in heaven, and we will have it

00:01:37.200 | in heaven. The four stages are freedom of opportunity to do what we can, freedom of

00:01:44.960 | ability to do what we desire, freedom of enjoying what we desire while we do it, and the freedom

00:01:56.400 | of enjoying what we desire forever because it is good and leads to no regret. Now here's the

00:02:05.120 | illustration, just one illustration for all four of these. Let's take skydiving, for example.

00:02:12.480 | Suppose you are on your way to the airport to go to your first real jump. You've been studying it,

00:02:20.160 | you've done everything except jump, and you're ready, and it's scheduled. Your car hits a

00:02:26.720 | pothole, I'm thinking Minnesota, you have a blowout, and you run into a telephone pole,

00:02:33.360 | and you're no longer free to jump that afternoon. Whether you have the ability to or desire to,

00:02:39.120 | doesn't matter. You don't have the opportunity because you're sitting in your car waiting for

00:02:42.480 | a tow truck. So you don't have the freedom of opportunity. Or suppose you make it to the

00:02:48.720 | airport, but you have no ability at all. Suppose in a different situation, you've never studied

00:02:55.840 | skydiving and never learned the first thing about how a parachute works. So the opportunity is there,

00:03:02.720 | but you don't have the freedom of ability. You're in bondage to your lack of knowledge.

00:03:09.760 | But third, suppose that you make it to the airport, you've been to school, you've been

00:03:17.280 | trained and have all the abilities you need, and you take off for your first jump. But as soon as

00:03:24.000 | you look down, all your desire vanishes, and in its place comes a tremendous fear. The opportunity

00:03:32.240 | is there, the ability is there, the know-how, but you don't have any desire anymore. The freedom,

00:03:38.160 | the freedom of desire is gone. Now, there's one last requirement for full freedom. Suppose you

00:03:48.080 | get to the airport, no obstacle. You have all the know-how necessary. You look down at the tiny

00:03:56.560 | little clusters of silos and barns and farmhouses, and you just can't wait to jump. All the desire is

00:04:02.800 | there. And so you have the freedom of opportunity. You have the freedom of ability. You have the

00:04:07.760 | freedom of desire. So you jump and you fall a long way without pulling the cord. And unbeknownst to

00:04:16.320 | you, your parachute is not going to open. It's going to fail and you're going to die. Are you

00:04:26.160 | free before you know that? Well, in three senses you are, but in the critical fourth sense, you're

00:04:33.760 | not. What you are doing so happily, all the opportunity is there, all the know-how is there,

00:04:42.080 | all the desire is there, and it feels really satisfying as you fall. But you don't know that

00:04:48.800 | you're in bondage to imminent destruction. You are. So in order to be fully free, it's not enough to

00:04:55.840 | have opportunity, ability, desire. The acts you desire and perform have to be pleasing to God,

00:05:05.360 | and they lead to unending joy, not any regret, because they're good, they're wise, they're holy,

00:05:14.320 | they're loving. We can experience that in measure or in part here, doing God's will in such a way

00:05:24.240 | that we will have no regret, but not perfectly. But in heaven, we will do everything we want to do

00:05:32.000 | because we will be made holy, and everything we want to do will not result in a crash landing,

00:05:40.400 | but in greater and greater joy. Marvelous take. Thank you, Pastor John. And once again,

00:05:47.120 | we are going to break for the weekend. And on Monday, we have a question from a man in Kalamazoo,

00:05:51.200 | Michigan. His name, his legitimate name is Jonathan Edwards. I kid you not, he works in a

00:05:55.760 | warehouse and he wants to know whether he should pass the time not only listening to this podcast,

00:06:00.480 | of course he should, but if he should also be passing the time by listening to audiobooks by

00:06:04.960 | non-Christian writers. Why or why not is it valuable to listen to books by non-Christians?

00:06:10.160 | We'll get the answer on Monday along with a really interesting book recommendation from Pastor John,

00:06:14.400 | an audiobook. It took him six months to finish and he commends. Well,

00:06:18.320 | for more about this podcast and to send us a question of your own, go to our online home

00:06:22.960 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. I am your host, Tony Ranke. We'll see you next week to talk

00:06:29.840 | audiobooks.

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Can We Do Whatever We Want in Heaven?

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