A Quick Look: Matthew 6: 19 – 21, 33
Really Read It: Matthew 6: 19 - 34
Memorize: Matthew 6: 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. NLT
Not many kids have money trouble. Few children worry about the house payment or taxes. but they do have treasure trouble that pulls them away from God. Matthew 6:19-34 is the part of the Bible to focus on when you are a grownup and you don’t have enough money to pay all of your bills. But this page is for kids who want to follow God and not many kids have jobs at all, and the kids who do have jobs don’t have to use the money to buy tacos or gas for the car. Still the kids that I know need to learn a lot about money and about stuff.
Matthew 6:21 calls it “your treasure.” Where is your treasure? What is your treasure? A treasure is something of great worth or value to you. You could think of a huge treasure chest buried by a greedy pirate and that would be treasure. You could think of the treasure of so many grownups today: a Hummer, a Porsche, a bigger flat screen, or a better house. Kids may like some of those same things, but they have other treasures too.
The following paragraph is 100% fiction. It never happened.
Scientists at MIT developed a treasure test for kids. They implanted sensors the size of cells into the brains of 2,000 children. The scientists were then able to count each thought of each child in the study. For example, they listed the thoughts of test child number 1,432 this way. He had 480 thoughts about food divided into 400 thoughts about sweets, 76 about fried food, and 4 about healthy food. He had 5 thoughts about school, 186 about TV, 247 about movies, 176 about video games, 104 about sports, 208 questioning “does Lisa like me?” and 2 thoughts about God. This brain activity comes from the 52-minute time period when the child sat in church. This kid FAILED the treasure test. He was hungry and Lisa was sitting right in front of him, but he failed. His thoughts showed that God was not his treasure.
If a scientist could really count your thoughts, what would your thought count look like? How would you do in the treasure test? You say that God is your treasure, but does He really get any of your focus?
Jesus spoke a lot about money and treasure. This time when he spoke of money, He called it a master. Money is a master. Stuff is a master. Even if you don’t have it, it can master you. Master means the boss of a slave. If a thing is your master that means that it can make you do stuff. That’s not good.
I remember when a kid named Gabby made a bike into her master, and the funny thing is that she didn’t even have this bike. The bike was her master and her boss, because she wanted it so bad. She thought about that bike and talked about that bike. She prayed about that bike and even dreamed about that bike. The bike was ruling Gabby. It was taking all of her time, her energy, her thoughts. Gabby was seeking a thing. Sadly the end of Gabby’s bike story is not good. She did not learn her lesson. Her parents got her the bike of her dreams, and she tried hard to smile as she rode around her neighborhood, but it didn’t work. The bike didn’t make her happy. She gave so much to that bike. She made the bike her very own master. She gave hours of her life to seeking that bike, and the bike didn’t give her anything except a little exercise.
Gabby messed up, so don’t act like her. Kid number 1,432 in the fake MIT study messed up, so don’t act like him. But what is the right way to act? I could put it into ten words of Jesus from Matthew 6. “Store your treasures in heaven,” and “Seek the Kingdom of God.”
How do you store treasures in heaven? The first answer is to give money to God, give to the church. If it is hard for you to give money to your church, then you have a treasure problem. The way to start fixing it is to give to God. But you have to give it when you could not. If you put in your parents’ money, that won’t help you. If your parents’ make you put in money, that will only help a little. Get a dollar that you are allowed to spend on whatever you want. Hold that dollar and think of the thing you most want to spend it on. How about a Hotwheels Viper? Then choose to give it to God. That is storing treasure in heaven. Money is the easiest way to store treasure in heaven, but it is not the only way. Another way to think of it is seeking.
Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com
You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.
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