Jesus teaches kids how to think about treasure in heaven, why earthly stuff never lasts, and how trusting God changes the way we handle money, worry, and daily needs. This episode makes a big idea easy to understand: what you value most shapes the direction of your life.
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The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
[00:00:00] - [Speaker 0]
Good day. Dave here. Welcome to stories of a faithful god for kids. A big shout out to Wendell and his family. They've just signed up for a whole year's club membership, which means they get two months free.
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Great to have you on board, guys. Now I just need to change voices here. Okay.
[00:00:27] - [Speaker 1]
That's it. I need my pirate voice because today we're talking about a pirate's favorite thing, treasure. Arr. Can you say, Arr. Wherever you are right now, do your best.
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Arr. Now what do you think is your greatest treasure? Your best treasure. What do you treasure most in all the world? Is it your toy unicorn?
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Perhaps it's your computer game. Maybe. Just maybe, it's your Lego pirate ship. What do you treasure the most? Now how would you feel if I came along and stole that treasure from right under your nose?
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I am a pirate after all. Arr. Or what if you were playing with it and it broke? If your best treasure is a toy unicorn or a computer or Lego or anything else like that, It can break, or I could come in and steal it. But in today's story, Jesus talks about a treasure that can't be stolen.
[00:01:35] - [Speaker 1]
It can't be broken. It can't even be destroyed. So batten down the hatches, set the mainsail, and get yourself ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful god for kids. At the end of our oh, excuse me.
[00:02:18] - [Speaker 0]
Okay. At the end of our last episode, Jesus had been teaching his disciples how not to be pretenders, to not be like the people who try to look like they really love God, but just so that other people will think they're great. Those people might get lots of praise from other people, but they completely miss out on the best thing, what God gives us in heaven. Now Jesus compares treasure on Earth and treasure in heaven. People love building up treasure on Earth, and I'm not talking about pirate treasure that's like gold coins in boxes buried in the sand.
[00:02:58] - [Speaker 0]
I'm talking about anything in this world that you own and love, especially money. Treasure in heaven is very different. Jesus doesn't say exactly what it is, but I think there are hints at what it could be. Things like God our father enjoying us or the joy and happiness we'll have in heaven when we get to be with him or the joy and happiness we'll have with all the people we've helped along the way. And there are big differences between treasure on Earth and treasure in heaven.
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Treasure on Earth can be stolen. Treasure in heaven is always safe. Treasure on Earth gets ruined and destroyed over time. Treasure in heaven never gets destroyed. So Jesus tells us something that just makes sense.
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In Matthew chapter six verse nine, he says this. He says, don't store treasure for yourselves here on earth. Moths and rust will destroy treasures here on Earth, and thieves can break into your house and steal the things you have. So store your treasure in heaven. The treasures in heaven cannot be destroyed by moths or rust, and thieves cannot break in and steal that treasure.
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And then he says something very interesting. He says, your heart will be where your treasure is. Does that mean Jesus wants our hearts to come flying out of our chests and floating up to heaven? Gross. No.
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When he says your heart, he means the things you most want, the things you're most desperate to have. If you desperately want things on Earth, like more money, more toys, more whatever, then your treasure will be on Earth. If you desperately want to know your father in heaven and live for your father in heaven and act like your father in heaven, then your treasure will be in heaven. The earth treasure can be destroyed. The heaven treasure will last forever.
[00:05:16] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus talks about the importance of how you use your eyes. If you spend heaps and heaps of time looking at things on Earth to buy or to have, that's what you're going to want. Eventually, it's just going to affect you. That's what ads are trying to do on TV. They want you to want more and more stuff, so they keep showing it to you.
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When you spend more time looking at the Bible and talking about Jesus and listening to his word, you're going to want the treasure in heaven. Now you might be like, oh, can't I have both? Treasure on Earth and treasure in heaven? And sure. You will have some of both.
[00:05:58] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus isn't saying don't have anything or don't ever look at an ad on TV. What he does say, though, is it's impossible to serve both. It's impossible to make it the focus of your life to have both kinds of treasure. You'll either be thinking about how you can get more and more money and stuff here on Earth, or you'll be thinking about how to live for Jesus. In verse 24, he says, no one can be a slave to two masters.
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He will hate one master and love the other, or he will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. So you cannot serve god and money at the same time. You know, people can spend their whole life thinking about how to get more money and more stuff. And I don't just mean really rich people. I mean, everyone.
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Rich people, poor people, in between people. People panic that they might not have enough money. They think if they don't have enough money, they'll miss out on something really good, like a really great holiday. Or they won't be able to stop something really bad, like getting sick. And so they work really hard to have more money to get more stuff, but then they need more money to get more stuff.
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The sad thing is, though, money and stuff just won't last. It'll all come to an end. It can never do what only God can do. And yet people spend their whole life serving money. They might come back and say, well, what do you wanna do instead?
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Serve God instead of money? Well, then you might starve to death. You might not be able to buy food and clothes and a home. Jesus says, actually, no. Don't panic.
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Don't worry. If you live for God, your father in heaven, he'll make sure you have everything you need. It might not be everything you want. He might not give you a super fast sports car or a horse, but he will make sure you have everything you need. If you want some evidence of that, just look at the birds.
[00:08:20] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus says in verse 25, so I tell you, don't worry about the food you need to live, and don't worry about the clothes you need for your body. Life is more important than food, and the body is more important than clothes. Look at the birds of the air. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly father feeds the birds. And you know that you're worth much more than the birds.
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You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it. And why do you worry about clothes? Look at the flowers in the field. See how they grow. They don't work or make clothes for themselves.
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But I tell you that even Solomon with his riches was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers. God clothes the grass in the field like that. The grass is living today, but tomorrow it's thrown into the fire to be burned. So you can be even more sure that God will clothe you. Don't have so little faith.
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Don't worry and say, oh, what will we eat and what will we drink or what will we wear? All the people who don't know god keep trying to get these things, and your father in heaven knows that you need them. The thing you should want most is god's kingdom and doing what god wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you. So don't worry about tomorrow.
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Each day has enough trouble of its own. Tomorrow will have its own worries. You see, God loves you so much. If you trust Jesus as your king, he's brought you into his heavenly family. And just like a good earthly father wants to make sure his children have what they need, our heavenly father will absolutely make sure we have what we need.
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We don't need to panic or worry. We can rest knowing that god will look after us. It doesn't mean we don't ever work or earn money or anything like that. It just means that's not our main focus in life. Our main focus should be living the way God wants us to.
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Not as pretenders, not as liars, not as fighters, but as people who love God and love other people, as people who admit when we've done the wrong thing, as people who try to make peace with other people rather than starting fights. These are the sorts of things that build treasure in heaven. Now you may be wondering, what's all this got to do with me? I don't have much money or even any money. I don't buy my stuff.
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I don't go to work. I'm a kid. And you're right. It has absolutely nothing to do with you whatsoever. Oh, wait.
[00:11:23] - [Speaker 0]
That can't be right. Jesus' words are always helpful for us no matter who we are. Okay. So you might not have much money or much stuff. One day, though, you are gonna have more, and it'll be so easy to go along with the world serving money, hoping that it will buy you the things you need.
[00:11:43] - [Speaker 0]
You'll be tempted to not trust god. So what can you do now? Well, there are things you can do with treasure on earth now and treasure in heaven now. For your treasure on earth, if you want to learn not to serve that treasure, become really good at giving it away. I'm not saying give every single one of your toys away, although you can if you want, but start thinking, can I care for someone with this thing or this money like God's cared for me?
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Is there someone who'd get more out of it? How can I use what I have to be kind and generous to other people? Just like God uses what he has to be kind and generous to me. Maybe talk to your parents or carers about ways you can give things away or give money away. It's a way of saying to earthly treasure, I don't serve you.
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I serve the god who loves. For heavenly treasure, pray. Pray that god will teach you more and more how to live for him. Ask him to help you love heavenly treasure more than earthly treasure. Pray that he'll help you to love him and other people really, really well.
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After saying all this, Jesus is about to tell his disciples more about how they can live for him. Especially, he's gonna teach them how to not act as though they're better than other people. But that's a story for next time. Hi, everyone. Thanks for listening.
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[00:14:07] - [Speaker 0]
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