“Will we take naps in heaven?”

Steve Brown:
“Will we take naps in heaven?” The answer to that and other questions, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don’t get any better, God will still love them anyway, that teaching raises a lot of questions. So, here’s author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com with answers to the Bible, that’ll make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete. It’s Friday and we’re sitting in the same chairs we sat in last Friday.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Talking about one of the most cosmic issues, that the church has ever contemplated.

Steve Brown:
And you know, you’re very fortunate to be listening to the broadcast today because we’re going to bring up those issues and we’re going to deal with them in a very profound way. So, if you have a pad and a pencil, take notes. Cause this is going to be a rare and very important program. We’re going to answer the question. Will there be naps in heaven?

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. There you go.

Steve Brown:
That’s Pete Alwinson. Go to ForgeTruth.com and by the way, if you are in Central Florida, you could be a part of that. There are three different places you could go in meetings and there are virtual sites in other cities around the country. And you can go to ForgeTruth.com and find out where they are. Pete comes in and we answer questions on Friday and we love your questions. You can call 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, and follow instructions, ask your question, and sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can write to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

or in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

or you can e-mail your question to [email protected] and if you can help us financially, please do. You can use your credit card, include a contribution in your envelope. And I promise we’ll be as faithful with your contribution as you were in giving. And if you can’t, we understand, say a prayer for this ministry. Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and then we’ll turn to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
All right. Father, what a joy it is to come into your presence today and to always have this kind of access, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We bow before you. We stop for a moment to be so thankful for who we are in Christ, that you’ve changed our identity, you’ve changed our eternity, you’ve given us power for the present moment. Grace for the moment. And we honor you for being the God that you are. And Lord, we need you more than we sometimes admit. We need you for the relational issues in our life. Lord, we need you for hope, for the jobs that we need, for the transitions that we’re making in our lives. Father, we need you in every area and we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would come deeply and apply the truth of the gospel and the power of the gospel into our lives every day. Thank you for being in charge this week and we look forward to the next week. Lord, we look forward to starting again, but not until we’ve worshiped. And what a joy it will be to be with your people. So, be with our pastors, our priests, our leaders, Lord, as they prepare to lead us into the throne room of the living God of the Universe. A use Sunday worship in a way to bring glory to your name and lift us up. And now, we commit this time of Q&A to you, thankful that you develop our minds and our hearts, as well as the decisions that we make, for we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Let’s go to our phone lines.

Caller 1:
Will we ever sleep in heaven?

Steve Brown:
She’s afraid we won’t, and I think she likes to sleep and I do too.

Pete Alwinson:
Will we, you know, there’s two questions there really, do we, will we need to, and do we get to.

Steve Brown:
Oh good.

Pete Alwinson:
Mm. What do you think?

Steve Brown:
No, good. No, you answer. Will we need to sleep?

Pete Alwinson:
I, I don’t think so.

Steve Brown:
I don’t either.

Pete Alwinson:
But

Steve Brown:
I mean you, we’ve got to sleep, if we don’t sleep, we start doing weird stuff. Probably one of the great causes for depression in our country, is not a refusal to take Prozac. But not going to bed at a decent time and getting enough sleep.

Pete Alwinson:
There it is. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
So, no, we won’t have those needs there.

Pete Alwinson:
I don’t think so.

Steve Brown:
But can we?

Pete Alwinson:
I think we might be able to. I mean, I think so. What do you think?

Steve Brown:
Oh, I do too. You know, they say, will my dog be in heaven, my pet? And the answer is, well, if it takes that to make you happy, your dog will be there, which is a good answer.

Pete Alwinson:
Interesting.

Steve Brown:
And if it takes having an occasional nap, and that’s really a cool thing for you, and I kind of like that myself. Then I think we can.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, I’m going to hike a fourteener and then sit on the fourteener and maybe take a little nap and then hike back down.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
That’s a good way, do you know, I’ve been doing this for more, longer than a lot of people who are listening to Key Life have been alive. And I’ve never heard that question.

Pete Alwinson:
I know, right?

Steve Brown:
I thought I’ve heard every question that can be asked, forever. And I’d really, you know, I’m not, when we do these questions, they’re not new to us.

Pete Alwinson:
Right, right. Not normally.

Steve Brown:
Have you ever had that one?

Pete Alwinson:
No, I don’t remember that one. But, you know, I do think that we need to have a great imagination about how God is going to express his glory through us in the whole universe. Heaven is going to be a wonderful thing. We’re not going to be bored.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. My friend Elyse Fitzpatrick had a book on Heaven and she said. It’s going to be the place, we’re not going to stand around and sing praise songs for 24 7. Man, that would get old fast. I don’t want to do that. She said, it’s going to be a place where you get to do stuff you didn’t have time to do,

Pete Alwinson:
Interesting.

Steve Brown:
but wanted to do, when you were living this life. So, if you’re into naps, yes. You can do that if you want to. Hey, let’s again go to our phone lines.

Caller 2:
Why did John the Baptist got killed?

Steve Brown:
Because he spoke truth to power. That’s why. Actually that is true. I, if I’d been John the Baptist, I think I would’ve figured out a better way to say it.

Pete Alwinson:
He was one bold dude, right?

Steve Brown:
Oh, he really was. And he included the biggest power there of some really bad stuff. And no, is his wife and he got and lost his head because of it.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. I tell you. You know, when they couldn’t silence him, you know, he was so afraid the Herod to kill him, but it was his wife that had the guts to silence him. And silence John the Baptist.

Steve Brown:
And Herod, it says in Scripture wasn’t that big on doing that. But his wife, you’ve got to be careful of your husband and your wife cause they can be a real danger to you. And there’s a good lesson to be learned in it.

Pete Alwinson:
And, and yet I think, I know, I love that. But here’s a reality too, is that we do need more Christians who are willing to speak truth to power.

Steve Brown:
We really do.

Pete Alwinson:
And speak to truth in love. And yet, we get into trouble when we speak the truth, and sometimes that’s, it’s a good clean trouble to get in.

Steve Brown:
It’s trouble that we better start getting in.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
You know, we’re living in a culture right now where people are intimidated into silence.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
You know, you won’t say who you’re voting for because you know your friend’s going to go ballistic.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
You won’t say about sexual morality because that’s simply not what the cool kids believe. You won’t say things about God that need to be said because our informers don’t believe in God. And so, we decide we’re just going to go over here in the corner and be still. Stop it.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for saying that because

Steve Brown:
oh man

Pete Alwinson:
that is absolutely true and we need to do it winsomely, you say, well, if we are strong, if we shoot back strong, people are going to say that we’re mean and nasty. No. If we shoot back nice. Even if we say, Hey, you know, I’m a Christian and the reality is, my conviction is this.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
And I think this is what is true. They’re still going to think that we were mean and nasty, that we canceled them and we weren’t.

Steve Brown:
But you know

Pete Alwinson:
We spoke truth.

Steve Brown:
You know something, the average person won’t. You know, the people, your neighbors,

Pete Alwinson:
I agree with you.

Steve Brown:
you know, we have been so intimidated by leaders and talking heads and the 24 7 news cycle, that we think everybody’s that way.

Pete Alwinson:
And they’re not.

Steve Brown:
They’re not.

Pete Alwinson:
They’re not. And really in reality, if we would speak, push back kindly, more people would say, well, okay, there it is. They don’t want a verbal fight either.

Steve Brown:
Exactly.

Pete Alwinson:
There are some people that will come at you for sure.

Steve Brown:
Just tell them, and then if they get mad at you and cancel you tell them they’re going to hell and you’re glad. Hey, on a previous program, we had just a few seconds and the question was, do you have any advice for my prayer life? And you said, not facetiously, it was a good answer and a quick one, you said, yes, pray.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And then I said, maybe we’ll deal with that in a little bit more detail. So, do you got anything else to say about it?

Pete Alwinson:
You know, I love the Lord’s Prayer, say that almost every day, but it’s a great framework for prayer. And, you know, we need to do some praise.

Our Father, who art in heaven, how would be thy name.

We need to spend some time there because that raises our view of God.

Steve Brown:
It really does.

Pete Alwinson:
But also, we need to pray for each other. And you know, I pray for you when you’re swimming and, and your heart and everything will be healthy and all that.

Steve Brown:
You know, also I think sometimes, we are not willing to allow the Holy Spirit to grow us in prayer. And we want to be where Mother Teresa was right now. And so, we set aside a couple of hours to be with God and after five minutes we’ve prayed every prayer we know, we’ve prayed for every friend we have and every family member, and we’ve said the Lord’s Prayer three times. And then we’ve still got an hour and a half to go. So, I think a good idea is limit it to three or four minutes, until you need five. And keep it at five until you need 20. And keep it to 20, until you need, in fact, I think that’s one of the secrets of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus said there are people who believe they will be heard because they keep talking. And he says, that’s not the way to do it.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And so, he gives a prayer that takes literally seconds to say, so use it that way and use it as you said, as a template for our prayer life.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s good. That is so good. And draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. And that’s upon us, but only for four minutes at the beginning.

Pete Alwinson:
Right, right.

Steve Brown:
Guys, again, I appreciate very much you taking your time to be with us. That’s a compliment and I take it as such. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.