It always amazes me that people are shocked when they realize that their decisions come with consequences, especially bad ones. The Bible is God’s story intertwined with the stories of ordinary people living out their daily lives. Let’s meet the stories of one couple by the name of Abraham and Sarah and then a young man by the name of Joseph.

Genesis 16:1-4. In order to understand this story we need to look at their prior history. God had called Abraham to be in a covenant relationship with him and to leave his city of Haran and move to a new land where he could settle and father a nation of people as many of the stars of the sky. Abraham’s part was to be faithful to God and God’s part was to bless and prosper him so that he and his people would be witnesses to the goodness of God. A problem arose in this “made for movie” story. Abraham and Sarah were getting old, in their eighties. How could they birth a great nation of people without any children? No kids, no grandkids and no great-grandkids! So Sarah takes matters in her own hands and following the culture of the day encourages Abraham to have sex with her cleaning lady. Without having to twist Abraham’s arm, he willingly obliged the wishes of his wife. And Hagar conceived. Imagine that! What joy reigned in Abraham’s tent that he finally had a son, Ishmael. Not! No joy because Sarah became extremely jealous as Hagar flouted her pregnancy in Sarah’s face. She kicked Hagar out of the house. Whatever happened to God’s promise? God’s promise was still there, but the problem was that they didn’t trust God to fulfill His promise in His time. They took God’s will into their own hands and tried to make it happen on their own. Decisions have consequences. There was no peace in Abraham’s tent and there is no peace in our world today. That baby’s descendants are the Muslim people of today and we are still reaping the results of that one decision by Abraham and Sarah.

I want to tell you today that your financial decisions have far-reaching and lasting consequences in your life and in the lives of your children and your children’s children. How you handle your money, your spending and saving habits, your view of money, your priorities, your investment strategy or lack thereof—all of it will ripple through your progeny with the potential of serious difficulty and consequences that you yourselves may be paying for, for a long time! When you take matters into your own hands, failing to trust God and walk in obedience to His promises, the bottom is line that you mess up!

Abraham and Sarah didn’t believe God and they didn’t trust that He would fulfill His promise. Abraham and Sarah succumbed to doing it themselves and doing it the way the world does it. And they messed up big time! So big that millions and billions of people are reaping the results of that one decision.

Now let’s look at another Genesis story—Genesis 39:1-20. This is the story about Joseph, son of Jacob, great-nephew of Ishmael. Sold into slavery by his own brothers, God blessed and prospered Joseph and he became the overseer of his master’s household. Obviously Joseph was a George Clooney type of guy while his master probably was more of a Don Rickles kind of guy. So his master’s wife began to hit on him and try to seduce him. Joseph, however, refused because he knew how important his master’s trust in him was and he knew that his God said that sex outside of marriage was wrong. Even when she tried to rape him, he ran from her in order to do the right thing. Spurned by Joseph, her anger turned against him and she cried “rape.”

In the book that some of you are using as a study guide for this series, the chapter on “Decisions” begins with a quote by Theodore Hesburgh, “You don’t make decisions because they are easy; you don’t make them because they are cheap; you don’t make them because they are popular; you make them because they are right.” You have seen the bumper stickers, “Do right and give the consequences to God.” That is so right on! That is so Christian and so Bible and so God’s way.

Whatever happened to Joseph? For doing the right thing and doing it God’s way, he was rewarded by being thrown into prison, not for a couple days or weeks, but for several years. And God blessed Joseph, the Bible says. Joseph prospered in the king’s prison. No, he didn’t buy a Lambourghini, nor wear Joseph A. Banks suits. He wasn’t getting rich on the stock market nor even signing a book deal worth millions of dollars. Verse 21, “…the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.” Check out verse 23, “The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph, and gave him success in whatever he did.”

Then what happened to Joseph? Eventually Joseph was able to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. Genesis 41: 15, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “…I heard it was said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Notice Joseph’s attitude in his reply to Pharaoh in verse 16, “I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.” And Joseph did and God did. What was the final result of Joseph’s faithfulness to doing it God’s way and doing the right thing? Look at verse 39-40, “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.’”

Not bad for a little slave boy, wouldn’t you say? Doing the right thing got him into a heap of trouble, but doing the right thing ultimately made him prime minister of the greatest nation on God’s green earth of that day.

Two stories and two totally different ways of handling God’s promises. Abraham and Sarah couldn’t wait for God to work so they did it their way and we are reaping the results of their sin and disobedience. Joseph did it God’s way. Even when it seemed that God has let Him down, Joseph trusted and lived according to God’s ways, and God prospered him in the midst of bad situations. In the end who faired better? Abe and Sarah or Joseph?

The choices that we face in life require decisions from us. What will it be? Whether we like it or not, we must make important decisions and not to make them is to make them.

We must decide about our life’s priorities.

We must decide if we are going to live by faith trusting God not only with our salvation, but also with our finances.

We must decide whether or not we are going to honor God by being responsible with our finances.

We must decide whether we are going the do the right thing, or whether our decisions will be convenient, popular, easy, self-centered, or cheap.

We must decide to let our personal financial situation be a positive witness for Christ in the marketplace.

Your financial problems have little to do with money, but have a lot to do with your attitude, your bondage to debt and beliefs about God, the choices that are before you and the decisions you make about those choices.

And the #1 decision: will you let God’s Kingdom influence your kingdom in all of life, even your personal finances?

Thank You for Taking The Time to Read This Message.
May God Use These Words to Help You and Strengthen You.