Skip to content The Longing for Heaven Feb 25 · 15 min ...more
12.5K followers
Kingdom Voices is your gateway to spiritual growth and inspiration. Featuring powerful teachings, heartfelt stories, helpful tips, and timeless wisdom from
12.5K followers
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
The Search for Something Greater 0:00 Welcome to this pray dot com series from w publishing. In this episode, doctor David Jeremiah touches on how longing for heaven is longing for home. If you enjoy this series, you can go deeper in0:11 doctor Jeremiah's New York Times best selling book, The Promise of Heaven.0:16 Chapter 1, longing for heaven. In 2005, there weren't many people on the planet whose future seemed brighter than Tom Brady's.0:28 As an NFL quarterback, Brady had just won his third Super Bowl with the New England Patriots. He'd signed a new contract worth more than 60000000 dollars, and he'd been chosen as America's most0:40 eligible bachelor by Entertainment Tonight. Most would say he had a perfect life, which is why many people were shocked when he seemed to question his own success in an interview with CBS News.0:52 The interviewer, Steve Croft, referenced several of Brady's recent accomplishments. Then he asked, this whole experience, this whole upward trajectory, what have you learned about yourself?1:04 What kind of an effect does it have on you? Here's how Tom Brady responded. Why do I have 3 Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I1:16 mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey, man. This is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, it's gotta be more than this. I mean,1:28 this can't be what it's all cracked up to be. I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. And what else is there for me? Taken aback, the interviewer asked, what's the answer?1:41 I wish I knew, said Brady. I wish I knew. In the 2 decades since that interview, Tom Brady has continued to live the kind of life most people only dream about.1:53 He won a total of 7 Super Bowls before finally retiring from the NFL at age 44. He experienced both marriage and divorce. He became a father. Recently, he became part2:04 owner of the Las Vegas Raiders franchise. I don't know whether Tom Brady has found the answer he was searching for more than 2 decades ago, but I do know what he was searching for.2:16 That's because I know what every person is searching for down deep where it matters most, what every person was designed to long for and seek out. It's heaven.2:28 The answer is heaven. We're going to learn a lot about heaven in these pages, including many of the details scripture provides about when we'll arrive there, who we'll find, and what we'll do.2:40 But for now, I wanna start with that central reality of yearning, that pull we feel towards something that is beyond our current experience. I wanna show you that your longing2:52 for heaven reveals your desire for more, your desire for home, and your desire for god himself. Longing for heaven3:04 is longing for more. Let's go back to Tom Brady for a moment. He said, there's gotta be more than this to make life meaningful and purposeful and fulfilling, even3:16 when this includes everything most people believe is important. He's right. There does need to be more for each of us to be satisfied. That's because we were3:28 created to experience more than we can in this current age. We were created for more beauty, more blessings, more laughter, more passion, more enjoyment, more3:40 contemplation, more love, more everything. To be more specific, pun intended, we were created for perfection. Then God saw everything that he had3:52 made, and indeed, it was very good. Genesis 1 31. The reason we feel so disillusioned and so impoverished, even when life is going well, is because4:03 humanity as a whole was cast out from the perfection we were designed to enjoy. These may be the saddest verses in all of scripture. Then the Lord God said,4:15 behold, the man has become like 1 of us to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore,4:27 the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming4:39 sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis chapter 3 verses 22 through 24. Ever since that moment,4:50 humanity has been like the prodigal son, attempting to find sustenance and satisfaction from pig slop. Deep in our history and deep in our hearts, we remember our5:02 father's house, and we miss it. We long for it. We even groan for it, as Paul described in Romans 8. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth5:14 pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the5:25 adoption, the redemption of our body. Verses 22 through 23. Peter Toon captured it well. The most tragic strain in human existence5:37 lies in the fact that the pleasure which we find in the things of this life, however good that pleasure may be in itself, is always taken away from us. The things for which men strive5:49 hardly ever turn out to be as satisfying as they expected. And in the rare cases in which they do, sooner or later, they are snatched away. Another writer said it this way.6:01 Here is the surprise. God made us this way. He made us to yearn, to always be hungry for something we can't get, to always be missing something we can't find, to6:13 always be disappointed with what we receive, to always have an insatiable emptiness that no thing can fill, and an untamable restlessness that no discovery can still.6:25 Yearning itself is healthy, a kind of compass inside us pointing to true north. We were made for more than this world, and that's what heaven is. It's6:38 more. Longing for heaven is longing for home. Imagine you've been on a long trip, and you're almost to your house, just a few minutesHeaven as Our True Home 6:50 away from the end of your journey. You're feeling cramped from the airplane seats. You're sore from heaving heavy luggage and feeling the straps of your bag dig into your shoulder. You're tired and jet lagged, and7:01 maybe even a little cranky. When you arrive, you plan to toss your bags by the front door, kick off your shoes, and sit down in your favorite chair. What's the first word that will7:13 come out of your mouth when you finally get the weight off your feet? The first sound? For me, it would probably be something like, There's a very real7:25 sense in which reaching heaven will be like that sound, like that feeling. Because when we get there, we will finally be arriving home. We will finally find ourselves in the place7:37 we've always belonged. On the final day before his crucifixion, Jesus may have been thinking about his own opportunity to return home because he offered a detailed and beautiful prayer on7:49 behalf of his disciples who would remain in this world after his resurrection and ascension to heaven. And not just the disciples then following Jesus, our Lord offered specific prayers for all who8:01 would choose to follow him throughout the centuries. During that prayer, he spoke about the dissonance we feel in this present world and our longing for our true home.8:13 But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated8:25 them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil 1. They are8:37 not of the world, just as I am not of the world. John chapter 17 verses 13 through 16. Later in that same prayer, Jesus added,8:49 father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which you have given me. For you loved me before the foundation of the9:01 world. Verse 24. 1 of the reasons you long for heaven is because you don't belong in this world. None of us belong here. Peter described followers of Jesus9:12 as sojourners and pilgrims, first Peter 2 11. The author of Hebrews used the language of strangers and pilgrims, 11 13. The apostle John9:24 instructed us, do not love the world or the things in the world. First John 2 15. Why? Because the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he9:36 who does the will of God abides forever. Verse 17. When you feel out of place in this world, in your country or your community or even your home,9:48 Don't be alarmed. Don't try to fix that feeling by adapting yourself to this world. Instead, allow your longing for heaven to guide you toward home.10:01 Longing for heaven is longing for God. The pull we feel toward heaven represents a longing for all the more we've been missing throughout our lives.Yearning for God's Presence 10:13 It's a longing for a home we've never seen yet always needed. Finally, it's a longing for the God we were always meant to know, love, and serve. King David10:25 described this longing in Psalm 27. 1 thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,10:37 to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. Verse 4. David didn't want more of this world. He wanted more of God's presence, which10:49 means he wanted more of God himself. That is where our deepest satisfaction is found. Only in heaven and only with God will we finally and fully feel the11:01 completeness we were created to enjoy. Now you might say, doctor Jeremiah, I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I have an intimate connection with my heavenly father. Yes. You11:12 do. And I rejoice with you in those blessings. Truly, I do. At the same time, everything you and I experience in our spiritual lives right now is clouded by the reality of11:24 sin. We are still tainted by the corruption of sin, which means we don't enjoy God's love and intimacy and fellowship in the way we were intended to enjoy it. That was even true for the11:36 apostle Paul. For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am11:48 known. First Corinthians 13 12. Once again, don't allow yourself to become satisfied with your current connection to Jesus. You long to know him better. So11:59 allow that longing to draw you closer to him. Then 1 day, revel and rejoice when you return home and see him face to face. Here is how Mark McMinn said12:11 it. However messed up our abnormal world may be, the story is not over yet. The Christian story is ultimately a comedy and not a tragedy. It ends as it12:23 began. Someday, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Birds will really sing. Lions and lambs will tumble and play in grass that is truly green. Our bodies won't be12:35 riddled with wrinkles, muscle spasms, and cancer. There will be pure joy and beauty and goodness. And God, who longs to be with us, will walk with us in the garden.12:48 That may sound frightening or intimidating now, but it won't then. No ecstasy in this broken world will ever compare with our joy then. As we walk with God, we will be home.13:00 And it won't just be a story about a prodigal son or daughter who could never be good enough to earn God's favor. It will be a story about a loving God who delights in offering lavish,13:11 exuberant love. The depth of God's love will be seen everywhere. Few songs capture our longing for heaven like Over the Rainbow. It swept the world like a tornado13:23 when Judy Garland, playing Dorothy, sang it in the 19 39 film, The Wizard of Oz. In an early scene, Dorothy wonders aloud whether there really is a place out there where she can experience13:35 peace instead of trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by boat or train. It's far, far away,13:47 behind the moon, beyond the rain. Then she begins to sing, somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. Decades later, Israel is13:59 known as the voice of Hawaii, revived the song for a new generation. His gentle ukulele laced version echoed the same hope for a place somewhere beyond our14:11 current reach that not only touches our deepest yearnings, but satisfies them. The songwriters, Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, both sons of Jewish immigrants, wrote the lyrics14:23 in 19 39 as war loomed over Europe. Though safe in America, they felt the ache for something more, peace, safety, and a place to belong. So they gave the world a14:35 lyrical appeal that still tugs at our hearts. They helped us picture a world somewhere over the rainbow, somehow above our own experiences where the skies are blue and14:46 the dreams we dare to cling to really can come true. Aren't you filled with that kind of longing when you read about heaven, when you think about heaven, when you try to imagine heaven?14:58 Don't you feel that echo inside you like a comforting lullaby your mother used to sing back when you were just a little baby? It's in our DNA to yearn for a better place, to ache for15:10 a home way up high where dreams really do come true. There's only 1 place like that. It's heaven, and it's a longing that will be fulfilled.In this video 0:00 The Search for Something Greater6:43 Heaven as Our True Home10:04 Yearning for God's Presence
Kingdom Voices
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.