Why Me?

I don't really feel qualified to preach or especially

not to be a preaching minister. But this isn't

the first time that I felt that way. See, when

I was 14 or 15, somewhere in there, my youth

minister, Mr. Glenn, came to me and he asked

me if I would preach at our congregation Sunday

night service. This was back when churches did

Sunday night worship. Y 'all remember that? And

I was a little nervous. I was also. Really confused.

And I was asking him, why me? Of all the people

you could choose, what qualifies me to preach?

I mean, you know who I am. You know what I've

done. You know where I've been. You know the

kind of person I am. I don't know enough. And

I started running through all of these reasons

why I should not be the one to preach. Because

I am who I am. And so... I ran through all of

these things that I felt like surely would disqualify

me, that would take me out of the running. And

then Mr. Glenn says something that's really funny,

and it changed my life and yours, whether you

know it or not. He says, Donovan, you already

talk so much anyways. Why don't you just say

something that matters for once? He got me, but

he was right. I talk way too much. And so I might

as well use that, we'll call it a gift, for good.

It was at that moment that I realized that I

was capable of doing something great. I had the

ability to. But the question still ran through

my mind of if I was qualified. And I still ask

that question. Am I? Well, I want to look at

Scripture, and then I want to talk about this

idea. So we're going to look at Jeremiah 1, verses

Jeremiah 1:4–10

4 -10. If you've got your Bible, you can turn

there, or it'll be on the screen. Jeremiah 1,

Jeremiah 1:4–10

verses 4 -10. I want to read this passage, and

we're going to pray a little bit. Now the word

of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed

you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were

born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet

to the nations. Then I said, I, Lord God, behold,

I do not know how to speak for I'm only a youth.

But the Lord said to me, do not say I'm only

a youth. For to all whom I send you, you shall

go. And whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to

deliver you, declares the Lord. Then the Lord

put out his hand and he touched my mouth and

the Lord said to me, behold, I have put my words

in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over

nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to

break down, to destroy, to overthrow, to build

and to plant. Let's pray before we talk about

this passage. Father, I thank you for your word.

These words that have been preserved for thousands

of years so that we might hear them, so that

we could read them and take them in and hopefully

have some part of our lives changed. And God,

I thank you for the story of Jeremiah. I thank

you for people like Moses and Paul, who even

though they felt like they were not qualified.

Even though they thought that they should be

disqualified. Even though they felt like they

were the wrong person for the job. You saw them,

you used them, and you equipped them for your

glory. And God, I believe that every person in

this room has the ability to do something great

for your kingdom. And so I pray as we look at

scripture this morning, as we discuss, that we

would see. That you are calling all of us to

do something great for you. And I pray that we

would know and trust that you will give us the

words to say. You'll give us the right things

to do and you will help us to see how we can

glorify you in this world. God, we love you.

We praise you and we thank you so much for your

son. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. So we

see this guy. named Jeremiah get called by God.

God comes up to him and Jeremiah is not just

going to be a person that we read a story about.

He's going to be a prophet to the nations. He's

going to be God's messenger, God's mouthpiece

to the world. And he immediately resists this

call with his own disbelief. He says, I do not

know how to speak for I'm only a youth. And that

only a youth thing. is pretty true. Jeremiah

is believed to have only been about 17 years

old when this call from God comes. And so maybe

for some of you teenagers, I want you to imagine

that God comes to you and says, you're going

to be my mouthpiece to the world. You're going

to go and proclaim my glory. You're going to

proclaim my law to the nations. That's what happens

to Jeremiah. So you can imagine being asked this

by God and immediately being. But God says, don't

worry about your age. Don't worry about your

ability. Don't even worry about the audience.

I've got you. More specifically, he says, do

not say I'm only a youth. For to all to whom

I send you, you shall go. And whatever I command

you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them.

For I am with you to deliver you. That would

probably, hopefully be enough to calm Jeremiah's

unbelief in himself. It should be enough to help

him realize that his age doesn't matter or the

daunting task before him doesn't matter. It should

be enough to help him to see that he is capable.

He is going to be qualified to do this because

why would God call him if he wasn't? But Jeremiah

is still not. necessarily convinced. And so God

does something really special. He reaches out

and he puts the words to say in Jeremiah's mouth.

Maybe you've heard the phrase, you took the words

right out of my mouth. God does the opposite

for Jeremiah here. He touches his lips, puts

the words in his mouth. He says, I'm going to

give you everything you need. I'm going to help

you know what to say. I'm going to protect you.

Then the Lord put out his hand and he touched

my mouth. Behold, I've given you the things that

you need. See, Jeremiah is able to do some really

great things, obviously, because he has an entire

book that is about his life. But more specifically,

Jeremiah, through his spiritual leadership, is

able to help his people survive disasters. They're

able to survive captivity because of his. Now

this is a 17 year old who goes from being just

a teenager to being an incredible prophet and

messenger of God. Not because he was super qualified.

Not because he had all this training. Not because

he was just so gifted. But because God chose

him and equipped him. Because God equips whom

he chooses. And who am I to question God's calling?

Similarly, in Exodus chapter 3 and chapter 4,

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

we'll see Moses. And Moses gets called by God.

And at this point, Moses is about 80 years old.

So we've got our 17 -year -old, maybe 18 -year

-old. And now we've got our 80 -year -old getting

called by God. Moses is out tending his sheep.

He's just doing what he does. He's out on the

job. And God approaches, well, God appears in

a burning bush. See, at this point, Moses is

not only 80 years old, but he's long removed

from the palace that he grew up in. And he's

also probably lost a little bit of that zeal

and passion that he had to free his people and

let my people go. And so God shows up in this

burning bush and he says this to Moses. He says,

come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may

bring my people out of Egypt. If I'm Moses, I'm

not 80. But I have an idea of how big this mission

might be to say, I'm going to free an entire

nation of people from Egyptian rule. Now, you

got to remember, Egypt is one of those empires

of empires at this time. And so you're going

to go one man against an entire nation. To free

an entire nation of people. That is not going

to be an easy job. And just like Jeremiah, Moses

pushes back. And he says, who am I that I should

go? And he questions even more in chapter 4.

He says, they won't believe me. Or he gives his

excuses of why he's not the right person. I'm

slow of speech and of tongue. And you've got

to remember, way back before this, Moses killed

a guy in Egypt. And he's been on the run, so...

This isn't this easy mission for him. This isn't

something that you would hear somebody say, hey,

I need you to go do this. And you're just like,

oh, yeah, I got it. I'll do it on my way home

from work. This is like a serious calling. And

80 -year -old Moses just has to try to understand

that this is his duty. But God doesn't just leave

him hanging. God responds to him. He says, who

has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute? Who

makes him deaf? Who gives him the ability to

see? Or who makes him blind? Is it not I, the

Lord? Now, therefore, go and I will be with your

mouth and I'll teach you what you shall speak.

See, God's qualification process is way different

than ours. We look at people and we say they've

got to be ready to go right now and then they

can have the job. But Moses's age doesn't disqualify

him. His speech problem didn't disqualify him.

His fear doesn't disqualify him because God's

call. always comes with God's provision. He doesn't

call us to do things. He doesn't call them to

do things that He's not going to equip them to

do. God's not going to call you into Egypt and

say, hey, I need you to go free these people

and go up against this army if He's not going

to equip you for it. He's not going to tell you,

I need you to be the mouthpiece to the nations

for my glory if He's not going to equip you for

it. God is always going to call. Those whom He

wants. And when He calls them, He will equip

them. All throughout Scripture, we see this theme

of God not always calling the qualified, but

always qualifying the called. Paul explains this

a little bit in his writings to the church in

Corinth. The first one is in 1 Corinthians 1,

1 Corinthians 1:27–29

verses 27 -29, where Paul says this, God chose

what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak. To shame the strong.

So that no human being might boast in the presence

of God. Think about it. Think of all these people

that we see God call throughout Scripture. They're

not always the mighty. They're not always the

most noble. They're not always the richest or

the wisest or the strongest. They're often the

poor. The young or the really old. They're the

people that you would never expect. And Paul

is explaining that God does this on purpose.

We see what Paul says again, and this was what

our scripture was that we read in 2 Corinthians

3. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves. We're

not capable on our own. It's not our ability.

It's not who we are. It's not what we've done.

But it's God. Our sufficiency is from God who

has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new

covenant. See, this is a key part of the gospel.

This is a very important truth that the church

needs to always remember. All through scripture

we see these people that shouldn't have been

used. That were not qualified. That weren't the

prime choice. That weren't the picture perfect

example of messenger of God. It's funny, somebody

once told me, you're not like... Other ministers.

And at first I took that as an insult. I was

like, that seems kind of, what are you trying

to say? Like I had a person tell me one time,

you don't preach to youth group kids like a youth

minister. I went to college to be a youth minister.

So that was kind of insulting, right? But that's

not what they meant. What they meant was that

you're a little bit different. And God calls

people that are different. He calls people that

you don't look at and say, yeah, he fits the

bill. That's why people love the preachers that

have tattoos all over them. That's why people

love the missionaries that they don't look like

these, you know, white collar wearing high and

mighty people, but they look like they fit in

with the locals. That's why people like the church

member that doesn't act like they're up here,

but they get down in the weeds with people and

live like normal human beings. Because we are.

God calls. And uses these people. And we remember

them because they did significant things. People

like Esther. This young woman who was a minority

in her time and in her place. And she goes and

she uses her ability that God gives her. That

God uses to save her people from genocide. Somebody

like Paul. Who was a former enemy of the church.

Who he literally says, I was persecuting Jesus.

Paul gets used to become the greatest missionary

that the church has ever known and the greatest

church planner and the author of half of our

New Testament. We see somebody like Rahab, this

Gentile woman who was a former prostitute whose

faith saved her and places her in the lineage

of Jesus. What better example than this band

of misfit, uneducated, blue -collar, fisherman,

carpenter, disciples that Jesus calls His best

friends. That Jesus uses to spread His message,

to perform miracles. All of these people that

we would look at and say, unqualified. Do you

see the pattern? Whether you're 18 or 88, whether

you're an introvert or you're charismatic, whether

you've got a PhD or ADHD, whether you are in

the greatest health of your life or you're chronically

ill, whether you are just pouring out confidence

or you are always doubting, God can and will

use you. And when he chooses to use you, he will

equip you. If anybody understood this, it was

the Apostle Paul. This is what he says to the

church in Philippi in chapter 2, verse 13 of

his letter to the church in Philippi. It is God

who works in you both to will and to work for

his good pleasure. It's God. It's God. I understand

feeling unqualified. I still am not sure I'm

supposed to be up here. I'm still not sure that

I'm the one that you want praying over you and

praying with you and that you want trying to

comfort you and minister to you. I'm not sure

of that. But I am sure of one thing. If I will

let him, God will work through me. And God will

be the one ministering to you. And God will be

the one comforting you. And God will be the one

proclaiming the message to you and to Union County

and to the church abroad. And I'm also sure that

He'll do the same thing through you if you'll

let Him. He did it for Jeremiah. He did it for

Moses. He did it for Paul and for the disciples

and for all of those people throughout Scripture

that we see. He calls them. He equips them. He

uses them for mighty good works. And I've got

to believe that he'll do the same for us. So

maybe you've been asking yourself the question,

why me? Every time I say that, I think of the

Chris Christopherson song. Why me, Lord? And

sometimes when I get in the weeds of church work,

I really do think, why me? I think hopefully

we've answered that question this morning. There's

no rhyme or reason to it. There isn't a why.

It just is. God wants to use unqualified, unskilled,

uneducated people to do good works. I love that

what Paul says is he chooses the weak to shame

the strong. I'm not strong enough. And if I ever

feel like I am, I feel like God will shame me.

It's God. And God's going to do what God wants

to do, what God needs to do. And if he says go,

I better go. And I can trust that he's going

to make it to where when I go, I'm going to do

all right. The better question to me that we

need to ask and answer is why not now? Because

the truth is, we're not waiting on a burning

bush. God has already called us. He's already

told us what he wants to do. We go back to that

great commission. Go into all the world. Proclaiming

the gospel to all creation. Baptizing and making

disciples. That's the mission. It was mentioned

earlier. Let your light shine before men. So

they can see your good works and glorify God

in heaven. That's the call. question is why am

I not doing that now? What am I waiting on? Am

I waiting to feel qualified? Because if so, I

got to stop that. Am I waiting for the right

time? Because if so, there is none. If I'm waiting

for something, I got to put that aside. And I

have to trust that I'm ready, that God is going

to prepare me. If you're a Christ follower who's

been holding back from what God is calling you

to do, whether it's serving, leading, sharing,

stepping out of faith, whatever it is, today

is the day to trust that God will equip you if

you will just answer the call. He's not waiting

for you to be perfect. He's not waiting for you

to understand. He's waiting for your trust and

obedience. And if you're not yet a follower of

Jesus, I want you to hear this. And I hope that

this can help you. God's not waiting for you

to get it all right. He's never waited for people

to be perfect before he could cleanse them. God

is simply choosing you. He's already extended

his grace to you. He's already offered you this

new life, this abundant life, this purpose -filled

life through Jesus. So whether you need to take

a first step or a next step, God is calling.

You have to decide. I've got to decide whether

we'll say yes or no. If you'd like to respond

in any way today, if you'd like to take that

first step or the next step, I'll be up front.

There's shepherds in this room. There's people

in this room that want to pray with you, that

want to love you and support you. We extend this

invitation to you now as we stand and as we sing.