Storing Up Treasure by Helping Others
Month 5: Kingdom Living (Part 2) · Loving Others
Today's Scripture
Read together: Luke 12:33-34 & Matthew 6:20
33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. — Luke 12:33-34
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. — Matthew 6:20
Memory Verse
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”— Matthew 6:21 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Ezra 5-8
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. (Around Day 126 of 365 — Ezra leads a second return, and generous offerings flow toward God's house.)The Heart of It
Today Jesus shows us how to actually move treasure into heaven. And it's wonderfully practical. In Luke He says, "Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys." Almsgiving means sharing with people in need. It's one of God's main ways of sending treasure ahead of us. We feed a hungry family. We help a struggling neighbor. We give to those who can't pay us back. Jesus says we're not just being nice. We're making a deposit in a bank that can never be robbed, where nothing ever rusts or breaks. Earthly money bags wear out and leak. The heavenly ones never do.
And then comes the line we've been memorizing all week. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Loving others with our stuff actually changes our hearts to love them more. Have you noticed that you grow fonder of the people you give to and pray for? That's the heart following the treasure. So generosity is never charity from a safe distance. It ties us to people, and it ties us to heaven. The kingdom way of loving others isn't "give if there's extra left over." It's looking on purpose for someone to bless. Every act of mercy is a treasure we'll be glad we sent ahead.
Around the Table
When we help people who need things, it's like sending a present up to heaven! And our heart gets to love them more, too.
Let's do it: Pick one thing to give to someone who needs it. It could be a toy, a snack, or a drawing. Then deliver it today.
Jesus calls giving to the needy a "treasure in the heavens that does not fail." A robber can't steal it, and it never wears out!
Let's talk: Who is someone near us who could use help this week? What could our family do for them?
Almsgiving is one of Jesus' main pictures of laying up heavenly treasure. And giving actually grows our love for the people we serve.
Let's go deeper: Plan one real act of mercy that costs you something. It could cost you time, money, or comfort. Why does Jesus link it to your heart?
💬 Conversation Starter
If you could secretly help one person this week and never get a thank-you, who would it be and what would you do?
🛡️ Defending the Faith
Some people say all charity is really selfish. They claim we give just to feel good. But Jesus tells us to give where there can be no earthly payback (), even in secret. That kind of hidden, unrewarded mercy can't be explained by selfishness. It's the fingerprint of a God who first loved us.
For Dad · Go Deeper
The early church stunned the watching Roman world at exactly this point. It was a brutal society. It left unwanted babies to die, and it ignored the sick. But Christians took in those abandoned babies. They nursed plague victims that strangers had fled from. They pooled their resources so "there was not a needy person among them" (). The emperor Julian hated the faith, yet even he complained that "the impious Galileans support not only their own poor but ours as well." That witness flowed straight from this teaching: treasure in heaven, stored through mercy. As a father, give your children real assignments in loving others. Let them carry the meal. Let them hand over the gift. Let them sit with the lonely. Mercy practiced young becomes a heart formed for life. And a family known by love commends the gospel more powerfully than any argument.
Draws on: Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity.
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You for giving us so much. Help our family open our hands to people in need. Grow our love for everyone we serve. In Jesus' name, amen."
Every act of mercy is treasure I'm sending ahead. And my heart goes with it.