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Store up your treasure in heaven

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AGE: Primary

THEME: Pleasing God by caring for others... and his great reward for doing so!

PREPARATION:
  • Make a display from a collection of money boxes
  • Project the photo of a treasure chest onto a screen for the opening introduction
  • Have a few 'collection baskets' to hand
  • Have a small piece of paper and pencil for each pupil
  • Prepare a range of images of people doing 'good deeds'

INTRODUCTION:
Imagine having so much money that you needed a chest THIS big to keep it in! King John did, in medieval times, and it was so valuable that he carried it around with him everywhere he went! Well, not him on his own, but an army of strong men whose job it was to protect the King's wealth. I wonder what he did with all that money. Built castles? Recruited armies to fight in wars? Lived a luxurious life? Whatever it was, it was not likely he used it for the good of his people.

What would you do with lots of money? Imagine all these moneyboxes were full... what would you spend the money on? Yourself? Your friends? Other people?

And HOW would you decide?

DEVELOPMENT:
In the Gospel of Matthew (in the New Testament part of the Bible) Jesus tells his disciples how important it is to please God no matter what other people think. Caring for other people makes God happy and he knows that we want to please him.

Jesus says that to do good deeds on earth is like 'storing up our treasure in heaven' because it will bring us a great reward - God's love forever.

There is one big BUT, though - Jesus also tells his disciples that God does not want us to be boastful or too proud of our actions, showing off and making sure everyone knows we are doing good. God is most pleased when we do our good deeds in secret. We know that God sees everything and we want to please him more than anything, so it doesn't matter if nobody else knows.

It is nice to be praised for our efforts but we should see this as an 'extra' not an essential when we are helping others. Thousands of people around the world, 'volunteers', give their time free to help those in need and very often no-one knows who they are or what wonderful help they have given... but God knows!

REFLECTION:
  • Give each pupil a piece of paper and pencil.
  • Ask them to write in secret a 'good deed' they will do today for their friends or family.
  • Then they should fold it up and put it in the basket for collection.

PRAYER:
Jesus, we ask you to teach us how to please God by
Listening to your stories in the Bible
Talking to you in our prayers
Seeing your love in action around us.
Bless these 'good deeds' of ours today so that we may share in the treasure of God's love forever.
Amen.

FOLLOW-UP:
  • Make a huge 'Treasure Chest' wall display ('double layered') so that the secret 'good deeds' can be placed into the chest.
  • Find out what Jesus said in the Gospels about storing up your treasure in heaven and write quotations around the Chest.
  • Think of ways in which you can care for others, both in your community and further afield.
  • What do you think heaven might be like? What would be 'heaven' for you?

RESOURCES:
Find out about volunteering and community care:
www.csv.org.uk
www.crossculturalsolutions.org


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Copyright © Culham Institute 2000-2012