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
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
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
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
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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