Obeying Regardless

She was as poor as anyone in our church. A single parent–probably never married and only recently born into God’s family–she was bringing up three small children without the assistance of any extended family member that I could see. She was a hard worker and impressed all of us by her sincerity, while touching our hearts by her poverty.

That morning, my wife had brought this young mother and her children to church, and now, after the services, was driving them home.

All of a sudden, in the middle of their conversation, without reference to anything they had been talking about or anything in the sermon that day, she said, “Mrs. Margaret, I know I need to start tithing my income to the Lord. I can’t afford it of course. I don’t make enough to get by as it is.”

She was quiet a moment, then said, “But I’ve decided. I’m just going to do it regardless.”

When my wife told me what she had said, all the bells went off inside me. “That’s it!” something said. “That’s what the Christian life is all about! Serving the Lord regardless. Regardless of all the reasons you find not to do it, regardless of what others say, regardless of what you don’t have and regardless of your own fears and doubts. You go forward and do it anyway.”

The more I thought of it, the more I decided we can redefine faith this way: doing the right thing regardless.

THINK OF BARTIMAEUS, the blind beggar of Jericho. (Mark 10 and Luke 18) He hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by and he begins to clamor to meet him.

“Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!”

He’s hollering now. This beggar, who has sat there as long as anyone can remember, always quiet and humble and submissive, now becomes persistent and insistent and loud.

“Jesus! Over here! Son of David, have mercy on me!”

People try to shush him. “Mister, can you hold it down. We are trying to honor our distinguished Friend today and the last thing we need is a blind beggar creating a ruckus.”

But the more they tried to silence him, the louder Bartimaeus called, “Jesus! Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy!”

When the Lord came within earshot, He stopped. “Who is that?” Someone said, “Oh, Lord, we have this blind beggar over here and he’s calling for you.”

“Bring him to me,” the Lord said.

And He healed him. Just like that. Sweet and simple. A complete lack of dramatics. No slapping him on the head, no slaying him in the Spirit. The Lord just said, “All right, be healed.” And he was.

There is faith. You can search Scripture and not find a finer demonstration of faith than the one the blind beggar of Jericho gave us that day: against opposition and discouragement, he called on Jesus until the Lord heard him and answered his prayer.

They could have given Bartimaeus a long list of reasons why he should not call on the Lord that day, such as: you’re dirty, you’re unpresentable, you’re unlearned, you are a beggar, you are not worthy, you don’t know your Bible, you don’t know how to address a person of His eminence, you have no offering to give, nothing in your hand to bring.

All those things were true. But he came to Jesus regardless.

Why don’t you come to Jesus that way? No matter what others say, no matter what kind of discouragement you may receive from your family or friends. Regardless of your fears and without giving in to your doubts.

Use your faith. Do the right thing. Come to Jesus.


PRAISE GOD REGARDLESS.

The last verses of Habakkuk’s prophecy is just about as fine a thing as you will come across in any literature of man or writings from God:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom

And there be no fruit on the vines;

Though the yield of the olive should fail

And the fields produce no food;

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold

And there be no cattle in the stalls,

Yet, I will exult in the Lord.

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

The Lord God is my strength!

He has made my feet like hinds’ feet–

He causes me to walk on my high places.”

(Habakkuk 3:17-19)

I am determined to praise the Lord. Regardless of the economy, whether I have a job or not, whether there is enough income to pay the bills, and whether there seems to be the prospect for things getting better, I will do it.

I do not sell my praise to the highest bidder. God does not have to purchase my love and worship by satisfying my endless wants and desires. I am not for sale. I belong to the Heavenly Father from the first to the last. Regardless of how trying my personal life is, I’m going to serve Him and be found faithful.

I tell you, friend–God in Heaven busts His buttons in pride. He does.

No wonder God pointed to Job and told Satan, “Look at that! Isn’t he something, the way he serves me!”

The Old Testament book of Job is the story of a man who learned the “regardless lesson” and demonstrates it for the rest of us.

When all else is gone, when no one has a kind word to say to you or about you, when discouragement comes at you from all sides and misery from inside–be faithful.

“Curse God and die!” they told Job. “You’ve lost your houses and lands, your herds and barns, and your precious children have all been killed. Now it looks like disease is about to end your own life. Why don’t you get it over with!”

Job said, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)

Praise Him anyway. Anyone can bless Him when the kids are doing great and the promotions are coming at the plant and your team is winning. But let’s see you do it when nothing good is happening.

Praise Him regardless.

BRING YOUR OFFERING REGARDLESS.

“Watch this, fellows,” the Lord said, nudging a couple of the disciples on the arm.

They were in the Temple treasury, standing back against the wall, observing a long line of worshipers bringing their offerings and tithes. Some had large bags, weighted down with gold coins. Others were bringing humbler offerings. Some made a show of giving their offering, wanting to impress onlookers, making sure the priests knew they were the ones responsible for the huge contributions on that day.

Then, here came a small woman, humbly dressed, quietly shuffling along the line. As she reached the large brass urns where they are placing their gifts, she pulled out two small coins–anyone nearby would have recognized what they were–and dropped them in. And she moved on.

“Did you see that?” our Lord said. “The rest were giving out of their surplus. But she gave all she had, all her living.”

“I tell you,” He added, “she gave more than anyone in the building.”

That little woman did not have to give an offering that day. The Lord would have understood. “You don’t have much. You need what you have. And even when you give it, it won’t make much difference. When the offering is counted, it doesn’t matter a great deal whether the total is $10,000 or $10,000.10.”

There were so many good reasons why she did not have to bring an offering. Others would have been willing to give in her place. “Pastor, I’m putting in a little extra for Mrs. Johnson over here.”

But she gave anyway. She brought her offering regardless–of the amount, of the difference it made, of what others thought of it, and of all the other things she could have done with it.

God in Heaven was in tears. “Can you believe that! Look at that.”

He was so proud of her. That’s what the Bible says about a few people in olden times who served Him against all odds, who were faithful regardless. “Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.” (Hebrews 11:16)

Pastor Jim Henry tells of the time when he was in seminary and serving a little church in the Mississippi Delta in a community called Sledge. The congregation had voted to erect a new sanctuary and they were bringing their offerings. An elderly lady in the church who lived on a pension approached him with her envelope.

“Pastor, here’s my contribution on the building.” Pastor Henry knew her situation and his heart went out to her.

“Mrs. Elsie, you need this worse than the church does. Why don’t you keep it and let those who have it pay for the new building.”

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, “Pastor, don’t deprive me of the privilege of giving to my Lord!”

It was a lesson Brother Jim never forgot.

Bring your offering regardless.

Praise God regardless.

Come to Jesus regardless.

Bartimaeus had no way of knowing that day that this would be his last opportunity to meet Jesus. The Lord was on His way to Jerusalem where He would be arrested and tried, then condemned to be crucified. He would not be coming back this way again.

Had he been like so many of us he would have rationalized, “Jesus is a young man, in His early 30s. He has been through Jericho numerous times before. There’s every reason to believe He’ll be back. I’ll have many more opportunities to meet Him. I’ll just wait.”

Thank God he didn’t give in to that voice cautioning him to be conservative, to not make a scene, to wait for some better time.

Jack Hinton, a pastor over in the eastern section of North Carolina, had taken a group from his church on a mission trip to the Caribbean. The missionary who was their host invited them to minister one day at a leper colony in Tabago.

It was a sad place. The patients showed the bodily disfigurement associated with what we now call Hanson’s disease.

After a brief tour of the grounds, everyone gathered in the dining hall for a worship service led by the Carolina team. They sang hymns before Pastor Jack was to bring a message from Scripture.

Jack noticed that one patient on the back row sat with her face and body turned to the rear. That was odd.

Finally, he announced, “We have time for one more hymn. Does anyone have a favorite hymn you’d like us to sing?”

And now for the first time, this little woman turned to face the front.

Pastor Jack found himself staring into the most hideous face he had ever seen. The leprous woman had no nose. And her lips were gone.

As she raised her hand to make a request, he noticed there was no hand there, just a bony nub.

In her weak voice, the woman said, “Could we sing ‘Count Your Many Blessings’?”

That’s when Pastor Jack lost it. As the tears welled up from deep inside him, he had to step outside. Another member of the team stepped to the front and led the hymn.

One of the men in the group walked outside and put his arm around the preacher. “You’ll never be able to sing that again, will you, preacher?”

“Oh, I’ll sing it,” said Pastor Jack, “but never again in the same way.”

I want you to look that little woman at the leprosarium in the eyes today and tell her what reasons you have found for not singing praises to the Lord. She’d like to know why when everyone around you today was lifting their voices in praise, you stood there like a rock. She’s waiting. Tell her.

I want you to look the little widow of Jerusalem–or for that matter, the elderly lady from the little church in Mississippi–in the eye and tell her what reasons you have found for not bringing your offering to the Lord Jesus Christ. They’ll be interested in hearing.

Look that humble mother of three from my church in the eye and tell her what excuses you have for not faithfully bringing your tithes to the Lord through His church. She’d love to hear.

I want you to look the blind beggar of Jericho in his now-seeing eyes and tell him what reasons you have discovered for not getting up and bringing yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I need to warn you: they will be amazed at such flimsy reasons some of us find for not obeying the Lord and worshiping and serving Him with all our hearts and minds and lives.

There are no good reasons, my friend. There are only excuses, and they don’t work.

Serve Him regardless.

But you’ll have to do it by faith. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” If you are waiting on perfect conditions and ideal circumstances, you will never budge because that time will never come.

5 thoughts on “Obeying Regardless

  1. Various elderly folks along the way would hand me their envelopes when I visited them by their sick beds. They were always for odd amounts: 7.63 or 12.13. That told me they were tithing exactly 10% of their checks. I’ve also thought the Jesus made that little woman one of the greatest women of history, and we don’t even know her name. And she died, never knowing anyone noticed her.

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