As you can imagine, we get a lot of questions in the inbox about heaven and eternity and what to expect there. The most recent question in the inbox comes from a listener named Michael, who asks this very simply, "Pastor John, in heaven, will we be permitted to do anything that we want?" The answer is yes.

So should we go on to the next question? Nice try. Okay, okay. A simple yes could be misleading if I didn't say more. So here's the more. Another way to say yes is that in heaven, that is in the age to come, when there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more sin, those who've trusted in Jesus will experience for the first time complete and perfect freedom.

Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." And Paul said, "For freedom, Christ has set you free." And only Christians will enjoy complete and perfect freedom, which I have often defined this way, doing whatever you want to do and not regretting it in a thousand years.

Now let me see if I can help us feel the wonder of this by describing four stages of freedom. And only the last stage is perfect freedom, and we only have it in heaven, and we will have it in heaven. The four stages are freedom of opportunity to do what we can, freedom of ability to do what we desire, freedom of enjoying what we desire while we do it, and the freedom of enjoying what we desire forever because it is good and leads to no regret.

Now here's the illustration, just one illustration for all four of these. Let's take skydiving, for example. Suppose you are on your way to the airport to go to your first real jump. You've been studying it, you've done everything except jump, and you're ready, and it's scheduled. Your car hits a pothole, I'm thinking Minnesota, you have a blowout, and you run into a telephone pole, and you're no longer free to jump that afternoon.

Whether you have the ability to or desire to, doesn't matter. You don't have the opportunity because you're sitting in your car waiting for a tow truck. So you don't have the freedom of opportunity. Or suppose you make it to the airport, but you have no ability at all. Suppose in a different situation, you've never studied skydiving and never learned the first thing about how a parachute works.

So the opportunity is there, but you don't have the freedom of ability. You're in bondage to your lack of knowledge. But third, suppose that you make it to the airport, you've been to school, you've been trained and have all the abilities you need, and you take off for your first jump.

But as soon as you look down, all your desire vanishes, and in its place comes a tremendous fear. The opportunity is there, the ability is there, the know-how, but you don't have any desire anymore. The freedom, the freedom of desire is gone. Now, there's one last requirement for full freedom.

Suppose you get to the airport, no obstacle. You have all the know-how necessary. You look down at the tiny little clusters of silos and barns and farmhouses, and you just can't wait to jump. All the desire is there. And so you have the freedom of opportunity. You have the freedom of ability.

You have the freedom of desire. So you jump and you fall a long way without pulling the cord. And unbeknownst to you, your parachute is not going to open. It's going to fail and you're going to die. Are you free before you know that? Well, in three senses you are, but in the critical fourth sense, you're not.

What you are doing so happily, all the opportunity is there, all the know-how is there, all the desire is there, and it feels really satisfying as you fall. But you don't know that you're in bondage to imminent destruction. You are. So in order to be fully free, it's not enough to have opportunity, ability, desire.

The acts you desire and perform have to be pleasing to God, and they lead to unending joy, not any regret, because they're good, they're wise, they're holy, they're loving. We can experience that in measure or in part here, doing God's will in such a way that we will have no regret, but not perfectly.

But in heaven, we will do everything we want to do because we will be made holy, and everything we want to do will not result in a crash landing, but in greater and greater joy. Marvelous take. Thank you, Pastor John. And once again, we are going to break for the weekend.

And on Monday, we have a question from a man in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His name, his legitimate name is Jonathan Edwards. I kid you not, he works in a warehouse and he wants to know whether he should pass the time not only listening to this podcast, of course he should, but if he should also be passing the time by listening to audiobooks by non-Christian writers.

Why or why not is it valuable to listen to books by non-Christians? We'll get the answer on Monday along with a really interesting book recommendation from Pastor John, an audiobook. It took him six months to finish and he commends. Well, for more about this podcast and to send us a question of your own, go to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

I am your host, Tony Ranke. We'll see you next week to talk audiobooks.