Be Inspirational

The most creative plan in human history was God’s plan to send Jesus Christ to earth in human form to be the sacrificial lamb and the ultimate sacrifice to wipe out all past mistakes and cover all future ones. As followers and believers of this type of creative plan, we need to implement similar plans to change our world over and over and over again. Let the power of God enfold you and be still to watch what happens. Today, I want to build on those skills we learned together about what a creative plan entails and take it further by saying that a plan is great, but if nobody else besides you is involved with those plans, then we won’t go anywhere or get too far. We not only have to be creative, we also have to be inspirational. Without inspiration, you can only go as far as making a difference. But, But, with inspiration, that is, when other people are inspired by you to make a difference, then and only then do you start changing the world. Before I begin, I want to define “inspiration” for you. Inspiration means to the thing that causes influence, or arouse a feeling of, that is to provoke in others a specified thought or emotion. With that being said, here are some of my more inspirational non-inspirations. 11 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days 12 I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. 13 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; 15 so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. 16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. Nehemiah 2:11-16 Here’s what I want to say first about being inspirational: You don’t have to come with fanfare. A lot of us think that being inspirational is left and should be left to those people whose lives are shining in the spotlight of society. But that’s wrong. I know I talked about the three types of people today in the children’s service, so I won’t get into that here but, what I will get into is this common misnomer—we don’t have to be famous, popular or even liked to be inspirational. In verse 16 we see that the people of Jerusalem, the ruling class that was there, had no idea where Nehemiah went or what he was doing. It wasn’t because Nehemiah was secretive. He came with soldiers, and a press office and a small little army with notes from the king. He was a somebody, but he didn’t live into that. He just went about his business and even though nobody received him as somebody who should be in the spotlight, he was okay with that. This is something all of us need to take with us on a daily basis. Just because you’re not met with the respect you think you deserve, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to be inspirational wherever you go. Check it out, Jesus was inspirational. Even if you don’t believe Jesus is your lord and savior like I do, you have to admit he was inspirational. He was inspirational because he is one of two people in history whose biographies have been written down, despite being executed as a common criminal. This is what the Apostle John had to say in 1st John 3:1, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” You see, being an inspiration isn’t concerned with your self-wellbeing; it’s concerned with other people even though they can’t see past themselves. Look at verse 12 in this chapter, he set out at night. Who does that? He was the cupbearer of the king! These people in Jerusalem could’ve been redneck farmers as far as Nehemiah was concerned, but he went out of his way to understand things about these people that they didn’t even understand about themselves. I can’t remember what bullet I’m on, or what point I’m making, but here’s how we begin to be an inspiration: we have to examine for ourselves, first hand experience, what the ruins and damages are. It’s not good enough to inspire people by reading from an instruction manual. To speak personally into people’s lives and be an inspiration to them, you have to walk with them first hand. You have to personally understand what the problem is. We fail to be an inspiration if we’re disconnected from the problem ourselves. I mean, let’s be honest, how can somebody, who doesn’t know what they are talking about because either they didn’t spend enough time studying it or experience it, be inspirational to me? I know this is what you say all the time in your head about your parents or your teachers—“what do they know?” But we do the same exact thing don’t we? We try to be “inspirational” even though it’s clear to everybody that we have no idea what we’re talking about. Nehemiah didn’t just want to say, let’s fix the wall. He went and examined what needed to be done to fix the walls around Jerusalem. It’s a totally different thing. Let’s keep reading, next slide. 17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. – Nehemiah 2:17-18 John Wesley and English evangelist once wrote, “When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn.” That is exactly what Nehemiah did. Look at what enthusiasm by which he speaks to the leaders of Jerusalem. That’s fire! When was the last time you or I spoke about anything with that much detail and passion? I bet you can’t even remember! The reason we are not inspirational or even that likeable is because we don’t have the fire within ourselves and if we do have a fire, we don’t show it. All of us need to have a fire for something and all of us need to show it somewhere. If we don’t, we are wasting our lives away as people who have influence and are inspirational. I want us to think about the last time we spoke about the hand of God being upon us. When was it? When you are inspirational, you convict people that the creative plan you are sharing with them is in the realm of possibilities. There are two levels of this inspiration that burns from our fire—the first is the conviction you give people to have faith in themselves. That’s good and there is nothing wrong with instilling a little self-confidence into people. The second level, the whole-other level we need to be at is, inspiring people to have faith in God for their good. That is what great inspiration is. I want to go to Acts 17 and wrap up in the new testament because there is some crazy relevance for us in the 21st century when we link this story up in Nehemiah with the story of Paul in Acts. 1Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. – Acts 17:1-8