Prescott July Conference 2025 | 06 Pastor Scott Lamb | Wed AM

Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House

Seminar Podcast. This is a special series from

our Prescott Conference that just recently occurred.

The theme of the conference was Into the Unknown

and the scripture for the theme was Romans 15,

20 -21. I have made it my aim to preach the gospel

to whom he was not announced. So this is a powerful

series of... sermons from leaders in our fellowship

to include Greg Mitchell, Joe Campbell, Richard

Ruby, Sergei Golubev, and others along with that.

So please enjoy and listen along these powerful

sermons from leaders in our fellowship. Thank

you for that welcome and I want to express my

gratitude to Pastor Mitchell for affording me

this opportunity after the quality of preaching

from Monday night and through yesterday. I feel

like my name should be smitten from the roster,

but here we are. So we are going to preach from

a very unique text. They say you have to hear

something seven times before you can remember

it. And my take on it is God is really trying

to speak to someone. And if he has to repeat

himself one more time, he'll probably just kill

you. He'll just drag your body out and know that

you were the one that God wanted to go into the

unknown. We tend to dread the unknown. We prefer

the predictable rut of life. My contention this

morning is that the idea of a predictable rut

is absurd and it's an illusion. Because there

is nothing predictable about life. Absolutely

nothing. We are immersed in the unknown. We live

and breathe the unknown. It's the defining reality

of our lives. Even if that unnerves you, you

have to... understand that the unknown is the

air we breathe and you have no idea everything

from this moment forward is unknown to us we

don't know if we're going to make it through

this sermon we don't know you don't know jack

so why are we so put off by the unknown why do

we shy away from it It's like trying to avoid

oxygen. You can't do it for long. You're going

to venture into the unknown. And I'm going to

make a case this morning for doing so, for charging

into the unknown. Grabbing it with both hands,

taking the leap, venturing, risking all, and

seeing what God will do. Because there is no

point in pursuing any other path. Because none

exists. So let's consider once more Abraham and

the unknown. Genesis 12, 1 to 5. The Lord had

said to Abraham, go from your country, your people

and your father's household to the land I will

show you. I will make you into a great nation

and I will bless you. And I will make your name

great and you will be a blessing. I will bless

those who bless you and whoever curses you I

will curse. And all peoples on the earth will

be blessed through you. So Abram went as the

Lord had told him. And Lot went with him. Abram

was 75 years old when he set out from Haran.

He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, All the

possessions they had accumulated and the people

they had acquired in Iran. And they set out for

the land of Canaan. And they arrived there. Let's

pray. Father, I ask you for grace, wisdom. I

pray that you'll fill this pulpit. And you'll

fill the hearts and the minds of your people.

Have your way this morning. I pray in Jesus'

name. Amen. We tend to view most of life through

our own experience. We assume to one degree or

another that our take on reality is in fact closely

aligned to reality. The way we think is right.

And I suppose it must be so or none of us would

dare say or do anything if we always thought

we were wrong. We have to assume a certain rightness.

About our understanding of things. Especially

we who are genuinely set on knowing God. Discerning

his will. And we have spent our lives. Despite

all the debate and dissent that litters church

history. We have dug into the scripture. We have

sought God. We have pursued revelation. And we

have settled on our own convictions. We feel

that we rightly understand God. As I am sure

Abraham had done. Make no mistake about it. Abraham

was a pagan. He was steeped in polytheism. He

was far removed from a revelation of God, but

he had his theology. He had his ideas of who

God is or God's is. Joshua 24, 2. Joshua said

to all the people, this is what the Lord, the

God of Israel, says. Long ago. Your ancestors,

including Tariq, the father of Abraham and Nahor,

lived beyond the Euphrates and worshipped other

gods. He wasn't dabbling in religion. It wasn't

secondary to him. Ancient peoples ordered their

lives around their gods. Pastor Campbell mentioned

that by some accounts Tariq the father of Abraham,

carved idols. And other accounts suggest that

he was a priest. So we're talking, we could say

that Abraham was a PK. In the wrong faith. But

he was immersed in his theology of God. In Acts

Acts 7:2–4

chapter 7, verses 2 to 4, we have recounted by

Stephen an initial encounter, an apparent first

call to Canaan, or perhaps with some grammatical

leisure demand, we are able to say it's the same

call. But one way or the other, we have this

statement from Stephen. Brothers and fathers,

listen to me. The God of glory. appeared to our

father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia

before he lived in Haran leave your country and

your people God said and go to the land I will

show you so he left the land of the Chaldeans

and settled in Haran after the death of his father

God sent him to this land Where you are now living.

So we don't exactly know when. It's unknown.

But at some point. Abraham. He's fully grown.

He's already married. He's no doubt comfortably

ensconced with his God and his theology. When

out of nowhere. Unexpectedly. God shows up. We.

are equally inclined to settle into our theological

rhythms, our settled expectations, our comfortable

levels of commitment and consecration. We look

at our Christianity and we say, there, that's

God. Until God shows up. Amen. We really have

no idea how God showed up to Abraham. All we

have to go on is the aforementioned Acts 7 to

account that says the God of glory appeared to

our father Abraham. Somehow God appeared to Abraham.

As Pastor Greg aptly pointed out, God spoke and

the importance of hearing God. It is suggested

by that statement that It involved his manifest

glory somehow. Whatever happened in that moment

in Abraham's life, he was willing to jettison

years of religion as usual and decide to follow

a God he knew nothing about. Like the Athenians,

right? Amongst all their idols, they kept a slot

open for the God they didn't know, the unknown

God. Even pagans are smart enough to know that

we never have it all figured out. See, you think

you've got it all figured out. You think you

know what God wants. You know how your life's

going to play. You got it all mapped out. I suggest

pagans are smarter than you. They at least realize.

There's a lot of mystery when it comes to God.

You know, Saul was completely convinced of his

theology. He was convinced that he was absolutely

right in killing everybody here. That was his

theology. You all should die until God showed

up. All of a sudden, all of his ideas about God

were... Completely blown out of the water. Can

you imagine the internal chaos in Abraham when

everything he thought he knew about God was blown

apart? Then imagine Sarah when he came in the

door and said, Honey, I'm home. I've met God

today. Pack your things. We're leaving. Imagine

when he had the talk. With his father, Torah.

You know the talk I'm talking about. Dad, you

know, I'm leaving the family religion of the

moon god to follow this new god. It's kind of

like the talk you had when you told your parents

that you were leaving the Catholic church to

join the potter's house. Then Nahor, his brother,

and Nahor's son Lot. And the rumor of Abraham

becoming a Jesus freak is spreading through the

tribe. And everything is getting shaken up and

everything's getting weird. And Abraham's world

is turned upside down because God showed up and

interrupted his peaceful religion. Can God turn

your world upside down? I'm not asking if he

has the ability to turn your world upside down.

That's a given. I'm asking if he has your consent.

Will you cooperate? Can he detonate your placid,

docile, pseudo -Christianity? And show up in

unexpected glory. And bid you go into Canaan.

Can God challenge your assumptions about who

he is? And his promises and his purposes in your

life? Can he shake you out of your obsession

with the American dream? Can he disturb your

theology that God, according to you, supports

your blatant materialism? In fact, blesses it.

And your rabid individualism. Can God blow your

comfortable Christianity out of the water? Or

are you too set up? Too ossified? Too settled?

To be anything but religious. Can God challenge

your personal moon God? He goes by the name of

Mammon these days. Bling. Moolah. Can God knock

Moolah off his perch like he did Dagon? Smash

him at your feet. And say that's not the God

that I am. Perhaps God wants to send you on an

adventure. I hate saying that. It sounds so Max

Lucado -ish. God wants to send you on an adventure.

But for lack of a better word, can God send you

on an adventure? Somewhere you've never been.

Somewhere you never thought you'd be. Perhaps

as far away as the other side of the world. Or

perhaps as close as the kingdom of God within

you, which I guarantee you is a far distance

from where you're living right now. Is it possible

to encounter a completely different God than

the one you have neatly wrapped up in your theological

box? who has promised not to disturb you. Help

us, Lord. Don't you wish Glenn Cluck was here

right now. He could diffuse the tension. Let's

keep going. Abraham has met the unknown and the

unexpected God. What does God say to him? Leave

everybody. Leave everything and go. How disruptive.

Where? That's need to know. I'm not telling you.

That's so unfair. God can be so unfair, can't

he? It's so unfair. Remarkably, Abraham goes.

He sets off for an unknown destination. But why?

What did he really know about this unknown God

who he met in the desert? He knew naked nothing

about where he was going or how any of this would

work out. It seems so irrational. How would you

like to live your Christianity that way? Maybe,

just maybe. That's how we're supposed to live

our Christianity. Maybe we're not supposed to

be quite so hyper -rational about it. Maybe you're

not supposed to have all your T's crossed and

your I's dotted and everything in its proper

place. This is so antithetical to the way Western

people think. We think in formulas, legal guarantees.

We're set about building a secure life for ourselves

and for our family. And we have this built -in

risk aversion. And that's good stewardship and

proper living. You know, is God only allowed

to upset Abraham's apple cart? As long as he

does that, that's okay. You know, he did mess

with Moses a little bit. Daniel had his moments.

In fact, all the disciples. In fact, everybody

in the Bible had their life completely unsettled

by a walk of faith. But that was then. God's

caught up with us. He's a lot hipper now. He

gets us. Like that's what he really was trying

to do all along. He gets us. Our God is so predictable.

He's nice. He's moral. He's so normal. If Jesus

was sitting right next to you, he'd fit right

in. You might even offer him a cigarette. We

serve a much more subdued God who makes no radical

demands of us, who wants us to be comfortable.

Don't want to gruffle them sheep because them

sheep have teeth. Don't want to upset them. I

don't know. You know, I've been at this for 51

years. And I'm not convinced that God is this

simplistic. Have you, like me, like Abraham,

ever realized that you don't really know much

about God? Have you ever stumbled? into some

theological quandaries as you set Gailey off

on your spiritual journey and run right into,

what? That doesn't fit. Have you, like Abram,

found yourself bringing your own metaphorical

terach and lot along with you when God specifically

told you to leave that at the door? Your terach

might be anger. God said, don't bring that with

you. Drugs, you know, there's some of you still

smoking dope. Don't bring that with you. Don't

bring that lust. Don't bring that greed. Don't

bring that bitterness. But here you are. You

got it in your backpack. You brought it along

for the ride. And have you ever been mystified

by the fact that you survived? your quasi -obedience.

Have you ever pondered, why didn't God turn me

into a gerbil? If I was God, I'd have turned

me into a gerbil just for the fun of it, and

then I'd kill him. How is it that God puts up

with my flawed consecration? That is a theological

quandary. We call it amazing grace. It's hard

for us to get our heads around. It's hard for

us to work it in, right? Because we don't want

to be flippant about it. But we don't want to

be pharisaical about it. How does it all work?

All I know is if I was God, I'd have killed me

a long time ago. Theological quandaries. Who

is this God? Have you ever found yourself stalled

in Haran? for years by what you brought along

with you? You just keep going around and around

the mountain? God didn't say, bring Terach and

Lot. God said, don't bring them. Apparently,

it was Terach's idea to stop in Haran. We have

no idea how long they were there, but we know

it was years. Some say five, some say 15. I don't

know. You can't identify it specifically, but

we know that Abraham stalled in Haran because

they set out for Canaan, but they stopped in

Haran. And they didn't leave until Terah died.

Until what he brought along couldn't come along

anymore. Something's got to die. Something's

got to die or you're just going to stay stuck

in Haran. That excess baggage cost Abraham some

years. Have you ever pondered how many years

your disobedience has cost you? What could you

have done by now had you not just messed around?

Have you ever found yourself finally obeying

God, finally going to Canaan, only to run into

a drought? Wait, wait, wait. I'm obeying God

now. It's all supposed to be good. Yeah, here,

have a drought. Did that drought detour you to

Egypt, perhaps? Did that detour lead to some

rather serious marital problems? Has you handed

your beautiful wife off to Pharaoh? In an act

of naked cowardice and selfishness? I'm not talking

to anybody here today. I'm just entertaining

myself. Have you found yourself waiting and waiting

and waiting and waiting for the promise, for

the son? I just passed 100. Clock in the years,

God. Have you ever found yourself in a theological

quandary where you're wondering, did I miss God?

Do I know God? Has your faith struggle ever produced

some Ishmaels along the way? We could go on drawing

parallels to our own experience at length, but

I don't want you to miss the point. Abraham,

the father of faith, would be the obvious study

in what faith looks like. And what we see very

clearly in his narrative is that faith is a life

lived in the unknown, following a God who's quite

mysterious. The I am. To a place we don't know

and often doesn't match our expectations. Doesn't

look like what I thought I was getting into.

This doesn't look like what I thought I signed

up for. This doesn't look like the revival I

thought I was going to have as soon as I left

and started a church. This doesn't look like

the ministry I was expecting from God. You know,

the God who is, is not the God we want him to

be. Nor is he the God we think he is. He is the

willful God. He has a will. He has a plan. He

has a purpose. And we, like Abraham, have to

go with that wherever it leads. And it may not

lead where you want to go. Like Jonah. I don't

want to go there. I'm going there. That didn't

work out well. There's no point in complaining

about where you end up. Because none of us have

a clue what our personal Canaan is supposed to

look like until we get there. I know we have

our ideas. That's the whole problem. Abraham

had his ideas. about God, about life, about how

it was going to play. And he was wrong. It should

be self -evident that God being infinite means

we can never exhaust the possibilities of discovery.

You know, it almost feels blasphemous to say

I know God. Right? No, you know a t -shirt version

of God. Jesus makes me happy. Job 26, 14. Indeed,

these are the mere edges of his ways, and how

small a whisper we hear of him, but the thunder

of his power, who can understand? And God, in

his incomprehensible glory, who dwells in unapproachable

light, can only show his hinder parts to a man

like Moses. And Moses was, you know, top level.

And God said, no, you can't deal with the truth.

I wonder if he said it like Jack Nicholson. You

can't deal with the truth. But I'll show you

my hinder parts. You figure that out. I'm not

suggesting that we don't know God relationally.

Or that we don't know anything about him. Oops.

Where'd it go? See, I don't know. I want you

to listen carefully to this. That's why I wanted

to find it and quote myself directly. You have

to do that when you get to my age. If you want

to remember what you said, you have to write

it down. What we don't know about God exceeds

what we do. We know God. We know much about Him.

We thankfully have the revelation of Christ walking

the earth as a man, revealing the Father, helping

us to comprehend. But what we don't know about

God exceeds what we do, nor do we know where

our story is going. And Deuteronomy 29, verse

Deuteronomy 29:29

29, says the secret things belong to God. We

could sum up Abraham's story with the terse statement.

Abraham followed a God he hardly knew to a place

he didn't know at all, despite setbacks, failures,

and delays. And that is what faith looks like.

That is what a walk with God looks like. That's

what your life should look like. Does your life

look anything like that? Or do you drive a Tesla?

And you know exactly where you're going. And

so does your car. Ah, but we must not forget

the end of the story. And they arrived there.

Isn't that great? They did it. They made it.

They made it to Canaan. And Stephen says in Acts

Acts 7:5

7 verse 5, he gave him no inheritance here. Not

even enough ground to set his foot on. Brought

me from comfortable err. And you're not even

giving me a pile of sand. But God promised him.

That he and his descendants after him. Would

possess the land. Even though at that time. Abraham

had no child. Or had no descendants. So wait

a minute. This isn't working with my. Comfortable

theology. He works it all out. He gets where

he's going. He enters the mystery. He braves

the unknown. He gets to Canaan and he doesn't

even have enough ground to set his foot on. And

once again, our nice American happy ending theology

is blown out of the water. Because we're confronted

with the fact that Abraham's destiny was not

at all. About him. God didn't have this plan

for Abraham. He had a plan for the world. He

had a plan for redemption. And destiny is so

much bigger than some Middle Eastern real estate.

And it's so much bigger than some success story.

Go from your country. Your people and your father's

household to the land I will show you. Oh, that's

what we want. Show me the land. Bring me into

the promise. But he doesn't stop there. I will

make you into a great nation. Oh, it's only getting

better. I will bless you. Yes. I will make your

name great and you will be a blessing. And that's

where we hope it stops. But he keeps going. I

will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses

you, I will curse in all. peoples on the earth

will be blessed through you. Wait a minute. It's

not just about Abraham. It's about all the people

of the earth. One commentator writes these words.

The land was Canaan. A place Abraham didn't even

know existed. The great nation referred to is

Israel. Something Abraham could not comprehend

at this moment and the blessing referred to the

birth of Jesus Christ a great truth that would

affect his own eternal destiny the destiny of

his immediate family and eventually all the people

who would comprise the nation of Israel this

blessing would then impact millions and millions

of people on the earth for centuries to come

including you and me. What an amazing thought.

Can you imagine? The eternal plan of God is packaged

into this journey, into the unknown, and it doesn't

end with Abraham getting to Canaan. That's not

what the story is about. It ends with, at this

moment in history for us, It ends with a conference

in Prescott. Through some convoluted process

that God set in motion thousands of years ago,

we are here today saved. Children of Abraham.

Because of something he did. Because he said

yes to the unknown. Because he said yes to a

God he didn't quite understand. So much like

my calling to ministry. I didn't have a clue.

And I kept saying, no, no, that won't work. You

don't know me. I said that to God. You don't

know me. Oh, what a fool. You don't know me.

You don't know what you're asking of me. And

I don't know where this is going except towards

disaster. Hebrews 11, verse 12. And so from this

Hebrews 11:12

one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants

as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless

as the sand on the seashore. What destiny. And

it comes from the unknown. What are the unknown

possibilities of this gathering, of your individual

life? What are the unknowns, the destinies that

could come if you really lived this kind of life?

Followed God into unpredictable outcomes, into

unexpected detours. My wife and I were talking

about it on the way over here. She said, yeah,

Abraham had 17 detours trying to get to Canaan.

He just kept missing the boat, man. Taxi goes

zooming by. Go, wait, wait. Missed it again and

again and again. Your life will never be what

you expect it to be. Because you're not God.

And you don't know. And you have your expectations.

You have your hopes and your dreams. But they're

so small. They're so small. A little. real estate

in the Middle East, I'd be happy. Well, how about

affecting the entire world history with your

life? Now, that's absurd. That can't happen.

Apparently, it can. Apparently, that's how this

God we serve works. Galatians 3, 7, understand

then that those who have faith, are children

of Abraham. If you've been listening to me at

all this morning, you may think that perhaps

you need to take a second look at your faith.

Maybe it's something you really shouldn't take

for granted. Maybe it's not as simplistic as

I believe in Jesus. Maybe it's not as casual

as sedentary. As uneventful as you think it is.

Maybe we really should, as Paul suggested, examine

ourselves to see whether we are in the faith.

Are we actually living a life of faith? Does

my life look anything like Abraham's? Is there

any mystery? Is there any drop all and follow

God? You don't understand, Pastor Lamb. If I

dropped all, I'd lose a lot. Maybe your Christianity

actually demands something of you. Something

more radical than your comfortable 21st century

American Sunday school felt board stories of

God. Maybe you have to live the Sermon on the

Mount. Did you hear me? No, I'm sorry. I put

you all to sleep. You should have had more coffee.

Maybe you have to live the Sermon on the Mount.

Maybe you have to love your enemy. Oh, yeah.

Check. Maybe you cannot serve God and mammon.

Maybe that's true. Maybe it's impossible to serve

God and mammon. Maybe you can't hide your light

under a basket. Maybe you really have to be the

salt of the earth. Wandering, destitute, wearing

goat skins. This would be a weird conference

if we all showed up in goat skins. But maybe

that's in the Bible for a reason. Because I'm

sure that all the guys that ran around goatskins,

you know, could have dressed in, you know, boss.

I don't know. I don't know any designer names.

I'd like to sound clever, but I'm not. Maybe

the life you're living, the one you know, needs

an encounter with the God that you don't know.

Maybe you really have to think about whether

you personally are indeed a blessing to the nations.

Maybe the nations across your street, have you

noticed how international America has become?

Maybe, maybe, You can evangelize the world without

leaving Prescott or Phoenix. But you're going

to have to evangelize the world. Which means

you're going to have to talk to that nice black

couple that moved in next door. And the Mexicans

on the other side. I used to live in that situation

in Prescott. It was quite unusual. Because back

then, Prescott was absolutely white. I had a

Mexican on one side, a black family on the other.

It was so funny because I had listened and the

black guys would all be cursing out the Mexicans

and the Mexicans would all be cursing out the

black guys. They were so, everybody was so racist

in my neighborhood, in little white America.

Well, maybe God brought these nations into our

cities so that we would evangelize them. Or maybe

you really have to go into the world and make

disciples. Maybe you really have to do that.

I don't want to do that. You say, I don't know.

I don't know if I'm called. I don't know what

to do. I don't know how to do it. And? Your point

is? What you don't know is unknown. And God bids

you come into the unknown. Because that's where

I live. I don't live in your nice structured

America. I live in a place you can't hope to

comprehend. And you can't hope to put into your

nice little Christian box. I am going to blow

you out of the water if you'll let me. Nah. Nah.

Nah. I like Christianity just the way it is.

The father of faith had no idea what to do. He

had no idea how to do it. And maybe we should

take note. Hebrews 11, 8 to 10 in the NLT says,

it was by faith that Abraham obeyed. When God

called him to leave home and go to another land

that God would give him as an inheritance, he

went without knowing where he was going. And

even when he reached the land God promised him,

he lived there by faith. For he was like a foreigner

living in tents, which means he was always ready

to roll. He didn't build a nice house. He had

a tent. And any time God said, let's go, come

on, let's go, he'd just roll up his tent and

go. No great loss. And so did Isaac. And Jacob,

wait a minute, this is contagious. This seems

to be the way God's people are supposed to live.

Who inherited the same promise. Isn't that what

we're talking about? Abraham was confidently

looking forward to a city. With eternal foundations.

A city and designed and built by God. Maybe we

haven't arrived yet. Maybe God has something

else for you. Maybe you need to meet with God

this week. He might surprise you. PHSAA Potter's

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