Man, the title of my sermon this evening is Time Travel.
Yes, it is time travel.
Now, time travel is a really popular subject
in science fiction, and the reason why
is because it's something that people tend
to think about a lot.
I think we've all sat down and thought about
what it would be like to go back in time
and maybe do things differently or change things
or warn our previous self about knowledge
that we have now that we didn't have.
You know, if only I knew now or if I only knew then
what I knew now, I could warn myself or whatever.
And I, myself, I'm a very nostalgic person.
You know, I spend a lot of time thinking about the past.
I got that from my dad.
And so we tell a lot of stories.
We think about the past and reminisce when we get together.
And I've often fantasized about going back in time
and what I would do differently and what I would change
and reliving different parts of my life
and thinking about it.
And obviously there are different styles of time travel
because in one sense you could think about 44-year-old me
getting in a time machine and going back
and interacting with myself or others.
But I've more thought about what it would be like
if I could go back and just basically take
my current consciousness and put that into
my 12-year-old self, 20-year-old self,
30-year-old self or whatever and just do things differently
knowing what I know now and just redoing things
and getting a do-over at things.
But although I've thought about that
and fantasized about that, what I'm here to tell you tonight
is that if I actually had the power to go back in time
and do anything differently,
I would not change anything at all.
And in my sermon tonight, I'm gonna explain
why I would change nothing.
If I could go back in time and change it, I wouldn't.
If I had the time machine, it would just collect dust
and I wouldn't use it.
Here's the first reason, number one,
is that everything happened the way that it did
for a reason and it was all part of God's plan.
That's a really famous passage in Genesis chapter 50.
Of course, we just read it together,
but if you know the background of the story,
Joseph's brethren had done something very evil to him.
They had beaten him, thrown him into a pit.
They were talking about murdering him,
but then they decided instead to human traffic him
into a foreign country to sell him into slavery
where who knows what was gonna happen to him.
I mean, it could have been an even worse fate than death
waiting for him wherever he's trafficked
to whatever the island or whatever,
but they took him to Egypt and he became a slave there
and he excelled as a servant,
but then he ended up getting falsely accused,
going to prison for years,
and then ultimately God worked it out
to where Joseph becomes the second in command in Egypt,
and he ends up actually being used greatly by God
to actually save his family from the famine
that they're suffering and making sure
that they all survived and had food to eat and thrive.
So Joseph ended up saving everybody
and bailing everybody out financially
and with food and everything like that.
Now let's look at the famous passage here
beginning in verse 19.
It says, Joseph said unto them,
"Fear not, for am I in the place of God,"
and I want that thought to stick out in your mind as well.
Am I in the place of God?
'Cause we're gonna talk about that more later
in the sermon.
But it says in verse 20,
"But as for you, you thought evil against me,
"but God meant it unto good to bring to pass
"as it is this day to save much people alive," right?
Because Joseph was used by God to do that.
Verse 21, "Now therefore fear ye not,
"I will nourish you and your little ones,
"and he comforted them and spake kindly unto them."
Now the first thing I wanna point out here
is that just because this was all used
as a part of God's plan,
this does not mean that people are justified
in their bad decisions or bad actions or sin.
It's not saying, "Oh, it was okay for you guys
"to beat up your brother.
"It was okay to throw him into the pit.
"Yeah, you were supposed to do that.
"You were supposed to human traffic your brother."
That's not what the Bible's saying here.
They meant it for evil.
Their intentions were evil, their actions were evil.
They were wrong in what they did,
but God was able to take that and use it in a great way
and turn things around in what they intended for evil,
God intended for good,
and it doesn't justify what they did.
Here's another perfect example of this in Acts chapter two.
You go ahead and go to Psalm 37, if you would,
but while you're going to Psalm 37,
I'm gonna read for you from Acts chapter two, verse 23.
It says, "Him," about Jesus,
"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God, you have taken,
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
So the Bible's saying it was always God's plan
that Jesus would come down and be delivered up
for our sins, and that he would be offered for our sins,
he'd be sacrificed for our sins,
but that doesn't exonerate the people
who did it of any wrongdoing.
They still had wicked hands.
They still made that decision.
God didn't make that decision for them.
He knew that they were gonna do it.
It all worked into his plan, but at the end of the day,
their free will was still there,
so we need to be able to balance these two ideas
of understanding.
Humans have free will.
Humans are responsible for their actions.
And by the way, I'm not just giving lip service
to humans.
Humans really do have free will and make these decisions.
But because God knows what people are gonna do,
he is able to take even evil intentions
and use them for his honor, his glory,
and ultimately for our good.
And so yeah, it was God's determinant counsel
and foreknowledge that led to Christ being crucified,
but the people who did it are still wicked.
Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Judah,
they're still wicked for doing that to their brother,
but what they intended for evil, God meant for good.
Look at Psalm 37 verse 23.
It says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
"and he delighteth in his way.
"Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down,
"for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand."
And the difference between what I'm preaching to you
right now, and sort of a Calvinistic worldview
that believes that everything is God's will,
is that I believe that the steps of a good man
are ordered by the Lord, but I do not believe
that the steps of every man are ordered by the Lord.
All kinds of people out there are doing all kinds of things,
and they're living pointless lives,
meaningless lives, worthless lives.
But let me tell you something, if you are serving God,
your life matters, and even the bad things in your life
will ultimately turn around and work together for good,
because the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
So I do believe that my life is unfolding
according to a plan that God has for me,
but I don't believe that people that are out there
not serving God, that they're following God's plan.
No, they're in rebellion of God's will.
So hopefully you can understand the difference
between those two things,
that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
It doesn't say the steps of every single person
are ordered by the Lord.
A lot of people's suffering is meaningless,
but if you're a saved Christian,
your suffering is never meaningless.
And even in the same chapter, if you back up to verse four,
it says, "Delight thyself also in the Lord,
and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him,
and he shall bring it to pass."
But notice the caveat here.
God's not just gonna bring it to pass no matter what.
No, it's if you trust him, if you're relying on him.
"In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths."
Oh, just kidding, he'll just direct your paths
no matter what?
No, it's in all thy ways acknowledge him,
and then he'll direct your paths.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And then of course the most famous verse
of all Romans 8.28,
"We know that all things work together for good,
to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose."
So why would I get in a time machine
and go back and change things
when I know that everything has worked together for good?
Because I loved God, I was called according to his purpose,
all things work together for good,
maybe other people meant it for evil,
God meant it for good,
and so therefore we just need to be at peace
with the way things turned out
because it's all part of God's plan,
and even painful things,
even difficult things in your life.
You know, the question is, are you serving God?
Do you love God?
Are you a Christian?
Are you serving him?
Then you know what you can just say is just,
this is the way things have to be.
This is the way things are supposed to be,
and it's as I said in my sermon this morning,
you accept the good with the evil.
It is what it is, you know, and just this is life,
and it's God's will and we just have to accept it.
And again, God is not responsible
for people's sinful choices.
This is not absolving them of responsibility,
because here's a good verse on that, James 1.13.
Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God.
For God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempted he any man.
But every man is tempted when he is drawn away
of his own lust and enticed.
That's not God dreaming up sin or being the author of sin
or making people sin or something like that.
No, people are sinning 'cause they're drawn away
of their own lust and enticed.
Don't put that on God.
Don't say, "Oh, God made me do it."
No, that's false.
But if you're living for God and doing right,
the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
all things work together for good to them that love God.
So everything happened the way it did for a reason.
It's all part of God's plan.
So who am I?
Am I in the place of God to get in the time machine
and go back and change things?
Because I don't like the way
that God allowed it all to work out.
And no, I think it worked out
the way it was supposed to work out.
And I need to just accept that and do my work for God.
Now here's what I'm not saying.
I'm not saying that I've lived a perfect life.
I'm not saying that I never sinned
or that I didn't make mistakes
or that I didn't make stupid choices along the way.
Of course I sinned.
Of course I made mistakes.
Of course I did stupid things.
That's not what I'm saying at all, okay?
But what I'm saying is
that I wouldn't change any of those things
because God ended up using even those things
for his glory ultimately.
Like, let me give an example.
For example, what if I get in the time machine
and go back and warn myself, Tyler Baker's a bozo,
he doesn't believe in the Trinity, you know?
And then, oh, I could save myself all these headaches
and save myself all this hassle and problem
that I could get ahead.
But here's the thing about that is that, you know,
that had to happen the way that it did.
And a lot of preaching came out of that.
We all learned a lot of lessons from that.
And here's the thing, I literally just a few months
after that happened, ran into a guy who said,
oh, I was a oneness Pentecostal,
and I stumbled across your sermon,
Pentecostal oneness doctrine debunked,
and I listened to it and I got saved.
And now I'm here in a Baptist church,
I'm listening to your preaching,
and you know, would that have happened
without the controversy?
You know, it's just things as painful
and annoying as they are, they have to happen.
Or what about this?
How about I can go back in time
and warn myself about Donnie Romero?
Or go back and just know how that was gonna turn out.
You know, but here's the thing,
Steadfast Baptist Church needed to be founded.
And all that had to happen.
And that ended up purging a lot of bozos from our church
because a lot of weirdos wigged out about that
and malfunctioned about the way that Pastor Shelley
and I handled that.
Here's the thing about the way Pastor Shelley
and I handled that, at the time, you know,
we were flying by the seat of our pants, but guess what?
We must've done it right since Steadfast is like
more than double the size now,
more than 10 times the soul winning.
I mean, not only did they survive that nightmare,
they're thriving.
They're packed.
They had, last Sunday morning,
they had 250 in attendance even,
250 even just on a run of the mill Sunday morning.
Nothing special, 250 on a Sunday morning, packed house,
just thousands and thousands of salvations.
I mean, you know, looking back, God worked that out.
So it's like, oh, let me go back and fix it.
No, no, no, why don't we just leave it alone?
Because God has worked mightily,
not saying that I wasn't wrong about Tyler Baker.
Of course I was wrong about Tyler Baker.
Of course I was wrong about Donnie Brown.
Of course I made mistakes.
Of course I got things wrong.
Of course I'm not sinlessly perfect and neither are you.
And of course I've made decisions,
but that's not the point.
The point is I love God
and I was the called according to his purpose.
The point is in general, I was doing God's will.
And so even the foibles, even the problems,
even the bad decisions of other people or myself,
God ultimately intended for good and used for his glory.
So why would I go back and change it?
You know, I saw this thing online.
It said, hey, if you go through the red door,
you'll receive $10 million in cash.
The blue door, you get to go back and fix all your mistakes.
Give me the 10 million right now in cash
'cause I have no interest in going back
and fixing any mistakes.
I don't care.
10 million, how about just a $100 gift card to Chipotle?
I'll take it because I don't want to go through the door
'cause I don't want to fix any mistakes.
Why?
Because things had to happen the way they did for a reason.
Here we are.
Ah, you need to use a time machine.
No, I'm not going to use the time machine.
Now you might think that this whole sermon's
a big straw man, right?
I'm just making this up.
No, I was literally told that I needed to use a time machine
and that's why I didn't just make up this idea.
Who preaches a sermon on time travel?
Let me tell you who preaches a sermon on time travel.
Somebody who has a whole movie made attacking them
and that movie ends up with a certain disgraced former pastor
getting up and saying, I can't believe
Pastor Anderson wouldn't use the time machine.
I know I would.
Yeah, we know you would.
You'd go back and you'd skip the moral sin this time.
But they twist my words to try to make
it sound like he thinks he did nothing wrong.
He thinks he never made a mistake.
No, I don't think that at all.
But you know what I do think
is that God has a plan for my life.
I do think that God has been looking out for me
and watching out for me and that everything happened
the way that it was supposed to happen.
And I wouldn't want to go back and tamper with God's plan
and maybe get less people saved along the way,
have less success for the kingdom of God.
No, my friend, I like it the way it happened just fine.
Number two, that was number one.
Why would I not go back?
I'll tell you why I wouldn't go back
because everything happened the way it did for a reason.
And it was all part of God's plan.
Number two, here's another important point.
Don't miss it.
God has the time machine.
And yet, he has left the things the way that they are.
Stop and think about it.
And I'm not saying God literally has a time machine, okay?
Follow my logic here.
In essence, virtually, God has the time machine.
What do I mean by that?
God transcends time.
God lives outside of time.
God could enter the timeline at any point and do anything.
And yet, He sat back and allowed things to happen the way that they did.
So if God's not going to intervene, if God's not going to tamper, why should I?
Oh, I've got to go back and warn myself about Tyler Baker.
Well, why didn't God warn me about Tyler Baker?
Couldn't God have easily just caused Tyler Baker to just have never made it out here
for whatever reason?
Never found my preaching?
Well, that would be impossible back in those days, back when YouTube was just promoting
the crap out of me.
But it's like, "Hey, what if he just never would have found it?
What if he just would have just decided, "No, I'm going to stay in Florida," or wherever
the heck the bozo was from, Kentucky or whatever.
Look if you would in your Bible at Genesis 18.
Go to Genesis 18.
Does God transcend time or not?
Is God bound by time the way that you and I are bound by time?
No, he's not, because here's what the Bible says in 2 Peter 3, 8, "But beloved, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day."
That's not a normal way of experiencing time.
That's not how I experience time.
Psalm 90 verse 4, "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is
past and as a watch in the night."
God transcends time, and not only that, we see Jesus Christ in bodily form appearing
in the Old Testament.
Even though he's not going to be born until later in the New Testament, he's going to
be born in the, you know, placed in a manger in the New Testament.
How do we see Jesus, because here's the thing, because Jesus Christ is God, and Jesus Christ
also transcends time, so he can just pop into the timeline at Old Testament points.
Like, how about Daniel 3.25, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are in the fiery furnace,
Daniel 3.25 says, "He answered and said, 'Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst
of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.'"
Jesus Christ was the fourth man in the fire.
How does that work?
In the Old Testament?
What does the Bible say in Genesis 18.1?
Check it out, "The Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre," you're there in
Genesis 18.1, "and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day, and he looked up his
eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him, and when he saw them, he ran to meet
them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground."
And just to save a little time here, I'll explain what happened here, Abraham is sitting
outside, he sees three men coming toward him.
One of these is the Lord.
The Bible tells us the other two are angels, and the two end up being sent to Sodom to
go get Lot out of Sodom, to go warn Lot, and Abram is left speaking with the Lord only.
Now, if we have the Lord in bodily form, and not only is he in bodily form, he's literally
eating a meal with Abraham.
Look at verse number eight, it says, "He took butter and milk and the calf which he addressed
and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree, and they," this is the Lord
and his two angels, "they did eat."
So this is not a ghost, a spirit, an apparition.
This is the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, in bodily form, communing with
Abram, and eating with Abram.
Okay?
So stop and think about that.
Is this God the Father?
Absolutely not, because when it speaks of God the Father, the Bible says, "No man has
seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."
So we have seen the Son of God, not us personally, but humans have seen the Son of God, but we
have not seen God the Father, because what did he say?
"No man shall see my face and live."
Right?
He just caught a glimpse of the back of God as God is passing by and covering him up and
just shows him a glimpse.
And Moses came down from the mount and his face shone with brightness to where people
couldn't even look at Moses.
They had to put a veil over Moses' face because his face was glowing from having seen even
just a glimpse of the back of God the Father.
And so therefore, we know that this is the second person here, not the Father, but the
Son.
The second person of the Trinity.
This is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like the fourth man
in the fire was the Son of God in Daniel chapter 3 verse 25.
And so the fancy theological term for this is a Christophany when Jesus Christ appears
in the Old Testament.
I've done a whole sermon on this called Old Testament Appearances of Christ.
Now here's the thing.
Even though we think of a timeline of, okay, Jesus Christ is born and, you know, he comes
down from heaven and he's born, the word is made flesh.
But here's the thing, because Jesus is God, he's also able to transcend that timeline
in his glorified state and be able to enter the timeline even in the Old Testament, to
pop in at any time.
So what's the point here?
All I'm saying is God knows the end from the beginning.
God transcends time.
God can enter the timeline and speak to man whenever he wants or do something, intervene
in any way he wants.
And I mean, in this exact story, when he comes and talks to Abraham, he's warning Abraham.
He's warning Abraham, this is what's going to happen in Sodom.
Let me tell you what's going to happen.
And then he also tells him other things.
He tells him, oh, Sarah's going to have a son.
And he gives him information and does, you know, here's the thing.
God could have intervened in my timeline and your timeline.
You know what?
He actually did intervene in our lives.
He didn't buy, he never bodily showed up and ate butter and milk and cheese with me.
But I'll tell you what, that obviously God has been working in all of our lives, right?
Through the Holy Spirit, through preaching, through our Bible reading.
When we read the Bible, God speaks to us through his word.
We flip open our Bible and boom, it's like God's speaking to us.
And it's something that we needed that day.
We show up at church, oh man, that's the sermon that I really needed to hear.
And so God could lead the pastor to preach on something that you specifically needed
to hear.
That's God working in your life.
And also the Bible says, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares."
Meaning that sometimes we could have even dealt with a person in our lives and not realize
that that was an angel.
We don't know.
There are angels that have showed up and people have entertained angels unawares without knowing
it.
So is God incapable of intervening in our lives?
Is God incapable of warning us, using people to warn us, using sermons to warn us, giving
us signs or showing us something or intervening and stopping things from happening?
You know what?
The things that happened, God allowed them to happen in your life and my life.
Things were allowed to happen as they were.
So I'm not saying that God is literally time traveling per se because God just dwells outside
of time.
But in a sense, if you want to just use that metaphor, you could say, "Hey, God's got the
time machine and he didn't use it to fix my situation or your situation."
Well, then why would we be like, "Oh, God's wrong.
God's wrong to have allowed this.
I'm going to go back and fix it.
I'm going to go back and change it."
See how stupid that is?
I'm not in the place of God.
You know what?
God's plan is better than our plan.
His thoughts are not our thoughts.
His ways are not our ways.
As high as the heaven is above the earth, that's how high God's thoughts are above
our thoughts.
So I'm not going to sit there and think, "Oh, I know what I did wrong.
Here, let me go back and do it differently.
Let me start at the church a different way and let me change this and not do this."
No, no, no.
God allowed it to happen the way that he did for a reason.
He's got the time machine.
He's not using it.
Why should I?
You know, another example is Joshua chapter five.
Go to Joshua chapter five.
Just to show you another one of these Old Testament appearances of Jesus Christ.
Joshua chapter five.
Is God incapable of intervening?
Is God limited by time?
Does God not have the hindsight and the foresight and all sight?
He knows everything and he is also omnipotent.
Verse 13 of Joshua five, "And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted
up his eyes and looked and behold there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn
in his hand."
So what does he see?
A man.
Joshua is out there and a man, he thinks it could be the enemy because he's right outside
the enemy's gates at Jericho.
And here's a guy with a sword drawn.
I mean, he's, you know, he's basically got his weapon out and ready.
And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, "Art thou for us or for our adversaries?"
Hey, are you for us or are you for the enemy?
Whose side are you on?
And he said, "Nay."
Which is funny because that doesn't really make sense because it's like, "So are you
for us or the enemies?"
He's just like, "No."
He's saying, "I'm neither for you nor am I for your enemies.
I'm the boss.
It's not that I'm on your team, you're on my team."
He says, "Nay, but as the captain of the host of the Lord am I now come."
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, "What sayeth
my Lord unto his servant?"
And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy."
And Joshua did so.
The reason I believe that this is the Lord, that this is the Lord Jesus Christ specifically,
just like we saw in Genesis 18, just like we saw in Daniel 3.25 and other places, is
because of the fact that this is exactly what was said to Moses by the Lord at the burning
bush.
"Take your shoes off from off your feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
You know, this is the Lord asking him to take off his shoes in reverence.
And so, you know, I don't think this is just an angel here.
And Jesus is called the captain of our salvation.
And then in the New Testament, the Bible says Jesus led them into the promised land, it
says in the New Testament, which is a play on words because Joshua's name, you know,
when you take it into Greek is Jesus.
Joshua and Jesus are the same name, like Joshua is the Hebrew version, Jesus is the, but it's
not a coincidence that those are the same name.
It's like Jesus led, oh, Joshua led them in, yeah, that's true.
But also in a sense, Jesus led them in to the promised land because he's literally the
captain of the Lord's host leading them in.
So it's a double meaning.
And so this is not even really controversial, I would say virtually everybody agrees that
Jesus Christ appears in the Old Testament, you know, you have Old Testament appearances
of Christ in bodily form, eating and drinking, wielding a sword, talking, being in the fire,
you know, and so forth with the three children.
And so yeah, I mean, God can enter the timeline whenever he wants apparently, and he can alter
events, he can warn people, he warns Abraham, etc.
And Isaiah 49, turn if you would to Isaiah 46, Isaiah chapter 46, here's the famous verse
in Isaiah 46, nine, it says, remember, while you're getting there, I'll start reading.
Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there's none else.
I'm God and there's none like me.
Right?
So how many gods are there?
One.
Right?
There's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
There's one God, he eternally exists as three persons, father, son, holy ghost.
Jesus was in the beginning with God and he was God.
Isaiah 46 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done saying, "My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.
I'm going to do what I want.
My counsel is going to stand.
No, no, no.
Let me get in a time machine and fix it for you, God.
Let me go back and change it, God.
Let me warn myself about stuff that you didn't warn me about.
Let me go back and do everything differently and do better.
I'll go back and do better next time.
No, my friend.
It is the way it had to be.
And you're like, I'm thinking about myself, but you know what?
Think about your situation.
Think about your life.
I guarantee you that every single person here who's not a child or a teenager, anybody who's
an adult has probably thought, put up your hand if you've ever thought about all going
back and doing things differently, going back and change.
We've all probably had those thoughts.
What's wrong with the rest of you that didn't put your hand?
No, I'm just kidding.
But I'm just saying, you know, we've all had those kind of thoughts.
Why do you think that these stories about time travel are so popular?
Because they speak to something in the human experience.
They speak...