Treasures in Heaven. (Text & activities from Sermon4Kids)
Audrey asked "Who has ever been on a treasure hunt? Was it fun? What was treasure at the end? Often it’s not much but playing the game is fun.
Who has something that they really treasure? Do they think the world of that treasure and really love it?
Jesus once said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” If you want to know what a person treasures the most you can find out by watching how they spend their time and money. If we say we love God, but spend all our money on ourselves, do we love God or self? If we say we love God but we never spend time with him in church or talking to him in our hearts, do we really love him? Jesus said we should love our neighbour as ourselves and if we say we love our neighbour but never share what God has given us with them do we really love our neighbour?
Who has a money box at home? How often do you put money in it? It might only be a little at a time but it soon mounts up doesn’t it? and then you can use it to buy something special. That’s great but the one thing we need to be careful of is that the treasure we are building up doesn’t become the most important thing in our lives. Jesus warned his disciples about that. He told them that they shouldn’t worry so much about building up treasures on earth but they should concentrate on building up treasures in heaven.
Treasures in Heaven? How can we build up treasures in heaven? Jesus taught that one way to build up treasure in heaven is to give money to the poor. Can you think of some other ways that we might build up treasures in heaven? I think we build up treasures in heaven when we do things to help others. Thing like:
- Bringing food to church to give to those who have very little money.
- Being a friend to someone who is lonely.
- Forgiving someone who has hurt you or is unkind to you
- Being cheerful and though/ul to someone who is sad.
- Saying sorry when you hurt someone.
All these are things that we can do here on earth that will be stored up as the “treasures in heaven” that Jesus spoke about. They may not seem much but it’s amazing how quickly they add up.
Prayer. Father we sometimes look at all the treasures that this world offers and we lose sight of what you want from us. Help us to serve you by helping others so that we might build our treasures in heaven. In Jesus name we pray. Amen
Activities:
The children decorated a box to hold non-perishable treasure items and carried out a treasure hunt by following clues on each item. The non perishables good will be distributed later to those in need.
Then the children made their own paper plate treasure holders and decorated them.