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Empty riches

Children's sermon
Luke 12:13-21
Proper 13 | Ordinary Time 18 - C
Leah Thompson
Object: 
chocolate coins
"So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God." (v. 21)

Good morning, boys and girls! How many of you have had one of these? (show chocolate coins; allow answers) These are chocolate coins. They look fancy on the outside but they are yummy chocolate inside. When you get chocolate coins, how do you feel? (allow answers) You might feel like you are rich! You might pretend they are real money. Eventually, you decide to eat your coins -- they taste so good!

What happens after you eat your chocolate coins? (allow answers) Once you eat them, they're gone. You have the gold foil wrappers left, but that doesn't do you any good. The money you felt like you had is gone. But that's okay. They weren't real treasure. Chocolate coins are pretend treasure that are fun to play with and delicious to eat.

Our verse talks about treasure. The verse talks about people who "store up treasure for themselves but are not rich toward God." Do you know what it means to be "rich toward God"? (allow answers)

Being rich toward God means we follow and serve him. It means we show love to others, even if they are strangers or are people we don't particularly like. Being rich toward God means we always try to do the right thing and live to God's glory. When we do these things to be rich toward God, we create a special kind of treasure for ourselves.

There is another kind of treasure we can create for ourselves. This treasure is earthly treasure, and it is like our chocolate coins. People who have a lot of earthly treasure are people who we think of as rich -- they have money, a big house, or many possessions. But earthly treasure isn't quite as good as heavenly treasure. It's like our chocolate coins: earthly treasure can be fun to have, but in the final accounting, earthly treasure is as empty as chocolate coins once we've eaten the chocolate. When we go to be with God, we can't take our earthly treasure with us. But there is a treasure we can take with us: our richness in God.

Think about people you know who are rich in God. Maybe they are friendly and caring. Maybe it is someone who always does what is right. How do you feel when you are around those people? (allow answers) It doesn't matter how much money a person has; you want to be around people who are rich in God, not rich in things. Richness in God is longer lasting than earthly treasure or chocolate coins, and in the end is what matters the most. Amen.
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