TD Jakes - Disruption
This is Jesus preparing them for his final week, he doesn't even mention it at all. Instead, he mentions the argument about who's gonna sit on the right and who's gonna sit on the left. They are more preoccupied with who's going to get a position in the church than they are in hearing the word that comes from the church. They're more worried about who's sitting in my seat? Who's got my chair? Who's got my parking space? Who did Bishop call on to read? Who is gonna sing the song? Who's directing the choir? Who's gonna lead the worship service? They're all caught up in the theatrics. They're so caught up in the theatrics that they have missed the theology.
And I thought the blind man was in front of Jesus, but I didn't realize that the people with Jesus was just as blind as the man sat by the highway side, begging. I know they were blind because when Jesus came, the Bible said when Jesus came, and he had a crowd with him, and the crowd was noisy. This is the crowd that would follow him into this moment in time and history from which the whole Gospel would be extrapolated. And it was a growing crowd, and it was a massive crowd, and it was a noisy crowd, and the noise disrupted Bartimaeus's normal. The noise had to do it because he had no light. He heard something, he said, "What is that"? In the NIV, they said, "That's Jesus passing by".
Oh, wait a minute, the blind man heard, the blind man heard, the blind mind heard. I just gotta stop a minute and thank the Lord that the blind man heard. Isn't that good, that the blind man heard? See, some of y'all, you still ain't got it, the blind man heard. He couldn't see but he could... aren't you glad God didn't let everything break down at the same time? Don't you see what I've been teaching you, that God will not use what you lost, he will use what you got left? He couldn't use his eyes so he used his ears. The blind man heard. Stop telling God what you don't have, God's gonna use something that you do have. The blind man heard. Oh God, I feel like preaching this morning. Oh, the blind man heard. It must have been an unusual noise, because he started asking about that, "What's going on, what's going on"? "That's Jesus passing by". It must have been unusual, it wasn't a familiar sound, it was disruptive of his normal.
Sometimes God will do something, make a noise in your life, I hope you can hear what I'm preaching, make a noise in your life to disrupt your normal, to make you ask questions you wouldn't ask or seek him in a way you wouldn't seek him. Something will come in your life that disrupts your normal. He wouldn't have asked the question if he hadn't heard the noise; the noise made him seek. "Who is that? What's going on"? "It's Jesus". "Hey! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus"! See, I look at people that don't half praise the Lord, won't worship, won't clap their hands; you ain't in enough trouble. When you get in enough trouble, "Jesus! Jesus"! I know you got your little cute dress on, but when you get in enough trouble, "Jesus"!
That's what I came for, that's why I got out the bed this morning, that's what I put on my clothes to do; this ain't no accident, I came to be totally and completely disruptive. Jesus! But I'm not being disruptive, I'm not being disruptive I'm not being disruptive just to be disruptive. "Have mercy, have mercy. Thou Son of David, you're the Messiah, the holy one of Israel. Have mercy on me". You know what he's really saying? Have mercy on my normal, save me from what I'm used to. Break me out of my routine. Sit with me, I'm gonna talk to you, I'm almost finished. Y'all standing up like you at a football game. You're gonna make the visitors think we're a wild and crazy and radical church that wants something from the Lord up in this place. Hallelujah, Jesus!
I want to digress for a minute. There is a business term called disruptive innovation. Disruptive innovation is not just creativity, as the word innovation at its core is to be innovative, to be creative, but disruptive innovation is to create something that disrupts the entire industry. Can you imagine making stagecoaches when Henry Ford created a car? Disruptive innovation is the kind of thing that you innovate something that breaks up the norm, changes everything. All the ads are no good, the roads have to be repaved, repairs have to be replaced, horses don't have to be caught anymore, carriages are no longer made, we have to move from wood to metal.
Disruptive innovation is when you create something that changes the game. And it is the business model to the scientific theology the quantum theory that says that the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Australia affects the weather in Alaska; that when you do something way over here, that our system is so connected that the slightest movement way over here in another country affects the outcome way over there in Alaska, because everything is connected one to the other. Innovation, boom, changes everything. Disruptive innovation means move out of the way, something new is coming. Y'all didn't hear me. Move out of the way, something new is coming. They didn't hear me either. I'm prophesying to somebody, move out of the way, something new is coming. I think somebody heard me over there. Move out of the way, something new is coming. I'm gonna try y'all. Move out of the way, something new is coming. And it's not just something new, but it is an introduction of something new that changes everything around me. Y'all with me?
Now let me show you something. Jesus! What does a mouth have to do with an eye? Blind Bartimaeus screams something out of his mouth that changed his eyes. It doesn't seem like the mouth and the eye are interconnected, but what the mouth did, Jesus! Now I know somebody's gonna tell me, "No, his mouth didn't do it, Jesus did it". Shut up, Jesus said, "Thy faith". That means I could have hollered long time ago. I wanna shake somebody up that's been sitting in your darkness. The power of life and death is in your tongue. Jesus!
Did the blind man know what decided disciples didn't know? And maybe he didn't know it, he just sensed it. See, in the preceding verses, Jesus is telling them, "This is it, boys. I'm going to Jerusalem. This is a wrap". He set his face to go to Jerusalem, and the people he's talking to didn't get it, but the blind man, who didn't even hear it: Jesus! You know something? One of the biggest problems we have is that we think we got second chances. We miss opportunities, we fail to open our heart or say what needs to be said or do what needs to be done because we assume that there will be a tomorrow. He will never pass this way again. And the people who sensed it the least were the people who surrounded him the most.
Sometimes the people who surround you the most get you the least. This guy didn't come up in Jesus's church, he didn't go to Jesus's school, he didn't go to Jesus's Bible class, he wasn't there when Jesus walked on the water, he didn't eat the two fish and five loaves of bread. This guy wasn't at the tomb of Lazarus or nothing. He was blind, sitting every day on this highway, but he sensed. Jesus! Have you ever felt something that you couldn't explain to nobody, but you sensed in your spirit? This is too important, I can't mess this up, I gotta put my pride aside. He was blind; but he could hear; he was blind, but he could holler; he was blind, but he could sense. I told you, God will never use what you lost, he will always use what you got left. Who am I preaching to this morning? Am I talking to somebody?
See, wouldn't it have been easy for the blind man to make excuses and say, "The reason I'm like this is because I'm blind and I can't get up, and there ain't nothing I can do about". The blind man used everything that he had against everything that he didn't. Oh God, that's worth the whole trip to church, that's worth the whole trip to church. He used everything he had against everything that he didn't, he used everything he had against everything that he didn't. He heard; "Hey," he hollered; he sensed. He heard; "Hey," he hollered; he sensed. Using what you have against what you don't is what made Jesus stand still. He will never stand still for a man who is not willing to use what he has against what he has not. It is not just the screaming that the text wants us to see. It is the spiritual tactic of using what you have against what you don't that arrests Jesus. Jesus stood still in the busiest week of his life. He stood still for one man.
Bartimaeus is not a prophet, he is not a priest, he doesn't write a book in the Bible, he doesn't write a song, he doesn't start a church, he is just one radical blind man who refused to sit in darkness another day. And for him, Jesus stood still. I can't see that person all the way in the back, in the back, in the back, in the back, in the back. You can be all the way back in the last seat, in the last row, nobody knows who you are, but if you will use everything you have against everything that you don't, Jesus.
One writer says... let me stop fooling, one writer says that he commanded that he be called. I like that because the very people who hated on him, he made them go back. I love that part, that's my favorite part. I just put that in there, I can't resist it because I've lived long enough to see him make my enemies my footstools. And he says, "Oh, that I might", no, Jesus says to him, "What do you want? What do you want? Don't you understand I'm on my way to Jerusalem? You disrupted me, I had to stop". I didn't even know we could stop Jesus. Why are you praying if you don't believe you can stop Jesus? If it's just gonna be whatever it's gonna be, then get up off your knees and stop praying. This blind man, no titles, no rituals, no routine, did something with his mouth, flapping of the wings, that stopped Jesus on the road.
What do you need to do to get God's attention? One woman crawled for it, one woman got down on her knees and broke her alabaster box for it and washed his feet for it. Blind Bartimaeus, "Jesus"! But in every case, the next move was on you. Okay, let me show you this, I'mma quit; listen. He stood still, commanded that he be called. Jesus said, "Whatchu want? I'm busy. Whatchu want"? He said, "I wanna see, I want to receive my sight". Oh God, you keep feeding me. Do you have the courage to want? No, that's no small thing; if you don't have the courage to want, then I have identified why you have the condition to sit.
You see, you can't get up till you want up, and the enemy will take your want-to away. That is how he lulls you to sleep until, "That's all God has for you. If the Lord meant for you to get up, he'd get you up. If the Lord wanted you to see, you'd have been born with eyes. You ought to be glad you can walk, some people can't walk at all. You ought to be thankful for where you are". But to all those voices that stop you from wanting what you are created to have, but to all of that, I say, "Jesus"!
I feel something about to happen in this place, I'm trying to hold it down, but I feel something about to wreck this place, I'm telling you, real good. The enemy wants to take your want-to away because if he can numb you until you don't want to, you'll never be effective, because, "Whatsoever you desire". If you lost your desire, you can talk about purpose all you want to, but if you don't have no passion, you'll never fulfill your purpose. And so he tries to hurt your heart bad enough that it's scared to want. "Suppose I fell, suppose I trip trying to get to Jesus. You mean I got to come to Jesus around people who don't even like me? Wouldn't it be easier to not rock the boat and just sit in darkness"? That's the choice you have to make. Are you willing to disrupt your own comfort, face your own fear, and admit, "I don't want to sit here anymore"? "I don't want, I don't want to sit here, I don't want to sit here anymore, and I sense, I sense that he is passing by. If I don't get out now, I'm not gonna get out at all".