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If I took a poll, how many of you would be terrified to give a speech right now?

Public speaking has never been high on your “bucket list” of dreams or “I’ve got to do this” thoughts.

So imagine, you are eating a few of your mini candy bars stashed in the freezer, minding your own business, and all of a sudden, a man comes to you and says, “We have a huge event going on right now and you are our main speaker.”

You spit out the peanut from the snickers you were crunching on.

Wait, what?! Did you even hear right?

“I’m supposed to give a speech about what? I’m not prepared! Why me? I don’t even know what’s happening right now,” you say.

The man responds and says, “Everything has been taken care of. I’ll tell you exactly what to say and I’ll be right there the whole time. Let’s go.”

So at that moment, there’s some chocolate still on your face and fingertips. Your stomach is doing somersaults and you can’t seem to swallow that last bite.

You’re going to be sick.

Of all people, why did this guy pick you? You start to think back to all those times you were called on to read and you stuttered through it.

You think of the time you asked someone on a date and couldn’t get the words to come out right and you fumbled through it like a two-year old learning to talk. And then there was your college speech class where you had to give a persuasive speech and you were sweating bullets just thinking about getting up in front of the class.

You think you are a nobody.

All those thoughts flood back into your mind and you finally manage a response.

“Um, do they even know I’m coming? Am I supposed to crash this event? Do I tell them you sent me? This is crazy! Who are you?!”

So the question is, do you actually go and do it or not?

What if I told you it was God calling you to do it? Would you go then?

Most of us WANT to say, “Yes, if God was calling me, I would go”. But what if you were totally unprepared and unworthy for the task? He must be mistaken, right? He couldn’t possibly have meant for you to be the one to go.

Right?

“The Lord said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ And God said, ‘I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.’” (Exodus 3:7-12)

Now you know how Moses felt. He was minding his business, just tending to the flock as a shepherd does, when a bush starts burning in the desert and it starts talking to him. He realizes it is God himself and he’s on holy ground. He takes his shoes off and hides his face and then God calls him.

Moses’ first reaction is exactly what ours would be, isn’t it? He can’t believe God would want to use him.

God must have the wrong guy. Moses feels inadequate, ill-equipped and unworthy. Yet, God still says Moses is the man for the job.

God even says, “I will be with you.”

But is that enough? Moses knew about the God of his fathers. He knew of the amazing things God did to bless Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, but how could Moses waltz back into Egypt? How could he return to the land he ran from because he murdered someone, and go up to Pharaoh, uninvited, and say, “God told me to tell you to let my people go”?

Can he REALLY do that?

Doubt floods his mind.

God tells him to say I AM sent you. That should have been enough.

But Moses was still filled with doubt.

Have you been there? Can God really use someone like you to share His message? Yes, He can.

Because God used a sinner like me who was just like Moses and ran from my sins. But God, in His infinite mercy and grace, saved me and gave me something I didn’t deserve- unconditional love.

I know God can do anything, but when it comes to using me, I question it.

The fact is, we have all been called to surrender, repent and confess our sins. We are called to be saved. And then we are called to obey His Word (Matthew 28:18-20).

God has called us.

God has promised to be with us.

Will we keep making excuses? Or will say, “Yes Lord! Your will, not mine.”