An overview for teachers of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Matthew 6:19-34, for Sunday, January 4, 2026, with the title, “Treasure.” Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text outline and highlights, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications you can make. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

In a steamboat tour of Europe in 1867 Mark Twain visited the city of Pompeii, (outside Naples, Italy) which was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in the fall of 79 A.D. — around the time the Book of Matthew was written. Twain wrote: 

“In one of these long Pompeiian halls the skeleton of a man was found, with ten pieces of gold in one hand and a large key in the other. He had seized his money and started toward the door, but the fiery tempest caught him at the very threshold, and he sank down and died. One more minute of precious time would have saved him.” (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, pp. 301-302)

This man’s skeleton, preserved at Pompeii, serves as a warning for all time of the dangers of greed — of giving money too great a place in one’s life. We should be grateful to God for His blessings — but Jesus warns us in our passage for today that if we give material possessions too great a place in our lives, it may cost us not only our life like this man — but even our eternal soul! 

CONTEXT:

As we continue our six-month study in the Book of Matthew in the New Year, we come to the second of three passages we’ll cover from Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount” which comprises Matthew 5, 6, and 7:

— We had a lesson in Matthew 5 last time (on being salt & light, being committed to His word, and imitating God’s love); 

— This week we have a lesson from Matthew 6, on “Treasure,” 

— And then next week we’ll close out this 3-week “sub-study” on the Sermon on the Mount with a lesson on how Jesus concludes His Sermon in Matthew 7. 

After laying out the “Standards” of His kingdom last time in Matthew 5, Jesus continues His sermon in Matthew 6:1+ by warning His disciples to avoid being hypocrites in the way we give, pray, and fast. (His Model Prayer is in this section). This brings us to our passage for this week, Matthew 6:19-34, where Jesus addresses “Treasure” and our attitudes about it as His disciples. 

OUTLINE:

I.   Where’s Your Treasure? (:19-24)

II.  Why’re You Anxious? (:25-32)

III. What’s Your Priority? (:33-34)

TEXT: Matthew 6:19-34

I. Where’s Your Treasure? (:19-24)

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Jesus begins this whole section on the Christian’s attitudes towards wealth by warning us in :19, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.”

Let me start by saying this does NOT mean that we should not responsible and save money, or prepare for our future here on earth. Proverbs is full of verses in which God tells us to be responsible in that way. It famously says in Proverbs 6:6-8, “Go to the ant and be wise, which …. prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.” There are many verses such as this, which show us this does NOT mean that we shouldn’t ever save anything here on earth. 

The word Jesus uses here is “thesaurizo” (interestingly, we get our word “thesaurus” from it: a thesaurus is a “treasury” of words!) And He actually uses this word twice here: do not “thesaurizete” “thesaurous.” Do not “treasure up” “treasures.” It seems to convey the idea here of “heaping up” treasures here on earth. Not just “saving,” but “hoarding.”

And one reason Jesus gives, is that when we “heap up” treasures here on earth, we can lose them. He says, “moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal.” Earthly treasures are fragile; they perishable, and we can lose them all in a moment. 

ILLUSTRATION:

The Panic of 1873 hit the United States in Philadelphia September 18 with the bankruptcy of Jay Cooke and Company.“The failures continue in unheard-of numbers,” Theodore (Roosevelt Sr.) wrote (his wife) Mittie from the quiet of his club. Banks were being mobbed. Henry Clews and Company, a Wall Street bastion, had gone down that afternoon (September 23). He pitied especially “poor Mr. Clews, who has made his business his life. He told me a short time since that he had not for years taken a holiday. . .. Now all … is swept away in a day.’” (David McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, p. 134)

That’s really a sad story, isn’t it? Mr. Clews worked so hard, he “made his business his life,” never took a vacation — and lost it all in that economic panic!  That’s just an example of how fragile and temporary earthly riches are. 

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“Jesus mentions three things here that can happen to earthly treasures: ‘moth,’ ‘rust,’ and ‘thieves.’ What are some other way that we can lose earthly wealth?”

(For example: a stock market/economic crash, like happened to Mr. Clews. Medical problems can wipe out a person’s wealth. (That almost happened to Cheryl & I, though God in His grace brought us out of it!) Losing your job can cause one to sell/lose their possessions. And in the end, DEATH will separate us from ALL our earthly treasures! You/your group can think of many.)

The point is, ALL EARTHLY TREASURES ARE TEMPORARY. We can’t rely on them; we shouldn’t build our lives around them. (Because of the unstable nature of them, relying on them causes us to be anxious — which Jesus addresses here later!)

So what can we do? Jesus offers a better alternative in :20. He says “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Jesus says it is not wrong to “store up treasures.” Just make sure you are making the best investment! Put your treasure where it is absolutely safe: in heaven! 

— Jesus says here of our treasures in heaven: “neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”

— I Peter 1:4 says Christians have “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” Nothing can happen to our inheritance in heaven. GOD is keeping it safe for us there!

— Jesus goes on to say later in Luke 16:9, in the parable of the shrewd manager, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.” In other words, take your temporary money, and turn it into something eternal. How? By investing it in heaven.

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“What are some practical ways we can invest our earthly treasure in heaven?”

(— Tithe to your local church.

— Give to your church’s building fund.

— Give to mission causes like the SBC Lottie Moon offering, and support individual missionaries and mission organizations.

— Contribute to a Christian college/seminary/scholarship fund.

— Give to the poor/someone in need. 

You/your group can think of many.)

And make the point: when we give to God’s Kingdom, we are “storing/investing” our resources in heaven, and saving up a treasure we can never lose. 

ILLUSTRATION

I had a friend in high school who was a very committed Christian. His father was a successful local businessman in our town. My friend, as part of his Christian commitment, tithed his income to our church. When his dad found about it, he said, “Son, if you had saved that money instead of giving it to that church, you would have a nice savings account by now.”

But what that father did not understand, was that my friend WAS saving that money — only he was saving it in HEAVEN, in his ETERNAL account, not just a temporary one here on earth, that he could one day lose!

ALL of us as God’s people face this same choice every week, every month, every paycheck. Will we invest our treasure on earth — or in heaven? It is a real, practical choice we all face regularly. Encourage your group to begin this year by tithing and giving, investing their treasure for an eternal reward which they can never lose.

Jesus follows up this main point in :22-24 by saying:

— “the lamp of the body is the eye.” In other words, whatever you look at, and focus on, will be what directs your life. If your “eye is bad” and you focus on money, it will direct your whole life towards material things. But if your “eye is good” and you focus on heaven, it will direct your whole life there! So be careful what your focus is on! Don’t let your focus be on material things, but on God’s Kingdom in Heaven. 

— And He famously says in :24, “No man can serve two masters.” You can’t serve both God and “mammon.” (“Mammon” is a Hebrew/Aramaic word which means “wealth, material gain, or money.”)

Here’s a great quote from Craig Blomberg’s commentary on Matthew:  “Many perceptive observers have sensed that the greatest danger to Western Christianity is not, as is sometimes alleged, prevailing ideologies such as Marxism, Islam, the New Age movement or humanism but rather the all-pervasive materialism of our affluent culture. We try to hard to create heaven on earth and to throw in Christianity when convenient as another small addition to the so-called good life.” (The New American Commentary, Craig L. Blomberg, p. 124)

I think that’s a powerful message, and very applicable to our culture today. Jesus tells us here you can’t have it both ways. You’ve got to choose what you are going to base your life on. Are you going to live for this world only, or will you live for eternity? SO many decisions in life will be affected by this choice. But Jesus says you can only, ultimately serve one or the other, you can’t do both. One of them will give way to the other. How do you know who or what you really serve? WHEN PRIORITIES CLASH, YOU INEVITABLY GIVE IN TO THE MASTER YOU REALLY SERVE. There will be occasions in your life — and I think God sometimes orchestrates them, to show us where our hearts really are — when it will come down to God or money, and when that happens, you will show who you really serve, by the choice that you make. So Jesus says, you can’t serve both; you’ve got to make a choice: you can serve God, or you can serve money.  (We’ll address this some more in Point III, “What’s Your Priority?”)

II.  Why’re You Anxious? (:25-32)

:25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 

Jesus begins this section saying: “FOR THIS REASON.” He had just said you can only serve one master, either God or money. So now He says “For this reason” — because you can only serve one thing — don’t worry about material possessions. That worry or anxiety is a focus here is shown by the use of the words “be anxious/worry” SIX TIMES in its text!  Does anyone in your class have “worries”? You KNOW they do! So this scripture is very applicable to the lives of our class members today.

The word “worried” here is the Greek word “merimnao,” which means to be “divided, drawn in opposite directions, pulled in parts” or “to go to pieces” because “pulled apart” in different directions. Isn’t that a good description of how we often feel when we are anxious? Like we are being “pulled apart” in different directions?

But Jesus commands His disciples here, DO NOT be anxious about food, drink, and clothing. And He gives a coupe of reasons for us not to be anxious:

First, He gives a couple of examples from Creation:

— In :26 He says “Look at the birds of the air” and how God feeds them. He says “Are you not worth much more than they?”

— Then in :28 He uses the example of the flowers: “Observe how the lilies of the field grow.”

But the FOCUS in this section is the GOD who cares for the birds, flowers — and US! Jesus says in :26 of the birds that “Your Heavenly Father feeds them.” And in :30 He says of the flowers: “God so clothes the grass of the field.” Jesus says GOD cares for the birds. GOD cares for the flowers. The focus here is on GOD!

There is a KEY PHRASE HERE: the words “Your Heavenly Father.” Notice that Jesus repeats it twice:

— :26 “and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”

— :32 “for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”

Jesus says find comfort for your anxiety in this: that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you, and who will provide for you. This is THE #1 source of comfort for our anxiety: trust God, who is your Heavenly Father, and who will provide for you. Trust Him!

???DISCUSSION/APPLICATION QUESTION???
“Can you share a time when you were concerned about finances/provision, and God provided for you?”

(EXAMPLE: I’ve shared in this ministry several times how God has provided for Cheryl & on numerous occasions over the years.  Most recently, earlier this year we were concerned about selling our home in Texas after Cheryl had her stroke, and we needed to retire and move to Oklahoma. Because of the down market, our house didn’t sell immediately like ours had in all our other moves. For a brief time we had two house payments, which can be very stressful! But God gave me a verse during this time, really a set of verses, from Psalm 37:1-11. The key verse was 37:5, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.” I prayed those verses every day, and ended up memorizing them. And God DID sell our house, in His time, and we came out well, we never lacked financially, and were able to pay for almost all of our new home here in Oklahoma with it, which of course helps us greatly in retirement. 

The key lesson God really drilled into me during this time last year was: Trust Him. Trust Him! “He will do it”! And He did. You can share my story if you’re led to, and you/your group can encourage each other with your own testimonies too. The point is: we have a Heavenly Father whom we can trust with our needs. GOD HIMSELF is the reason why we shouldn’t be anxious; TRUST HIM. “He will do it”! 

(NOW, one thing you may want to emphasize here: knowing that God is your Heavenly Father, who will take care of you, is the key to fighting anxiety. So your members need to make sure they really know that He IS their Heavenly Father, through faith in Jesus as their Lord & Savior. This could be a good spot for you to share the Gospel with your class this week. The first step to beating anxiety is to make sure you know that God truly IS your Heavenly Father, and that you are safe and secure in His hands! If you don’t really know that, then you’ll never be free from anxiety — and for good reason!)

III. What’s Your Priority? (:33-34)

:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

We’ve touched on this a little bit all the way through this lesson, but Jesus really hones in on it here at the very end of Chapter 6: YOU CAN REALLY ONLY SERVE ONE THING. He’d said in :24, you can only serve one master, either God or mammon. Now He re-emphasizes that again in :33, encouraging us: “Seek first HIS Kingdom and His righteousness.” Make GOD your priority. 

Notice how He puts it: 

— “Seek first His KINGDOM.” “Kingdom” is the rule and reign of God. Make sure first of all that YOU are in His kingdom; that He is YOUR Lord & God. That’s the most important thing. Jesus said in Luke 12:32, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.” He said in Luke 10:20, “rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” THIS is the most important thing we should all seek. It is more important than anything else. Make sure you are in His kingdom

ILLUSTRATION:

When President Eisenhower was on his death bed, he called for evangelist Billy Graham, who he had visited with many times. When Graham arrived, Eisenhower said to him: “Billy, tell me again how I can be sure that I have eternal life. Nothing else matters more now.”

The truth is, nothing EVER matters more than making sure that you are in God’s Kingdom! Seek that FIRST! Make SURE that you are in the Kingdom of God. And once you do know it, spend your life helping others find the Kingdom of God as well. Serve Him in your church and on mission, and help bring others into the Kingdom of God.

— “and His RIGHTEOUSNESS.”  Remember from Chapter 5, how Jesus said “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”? As we’ve seen, there is nothing more important than knowing that you are in the Kingdom of Heaven. Again as we’ve seen, you can have all the money in the world, but you WILL lose it all, if not before, then at your death. So you need to make Heaven your priority. And the only way we can get into the Kingdom is by getting “His righteousness” like Jesus talks about here.

Remember how in Matthew 5 we talked about how the Pharisees were the most righteous people they knew, but Jesus said they’d need a better righteousness than that to get into heaven. That floored them! What kind of righteousness could they get? Jesus had told them in 5:48 “You are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” How can we achieve a better righteousness than the best people we know? How can we have a righteousness that is “perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect”?

Of course now we know, we ourselves can’t “ACHIEVE” it — but we can RECEIVE it as a gift! This is what Jesus came for: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (II Corinthians 5:21). When we trust Jesus as our Savior, a “great exchange” takes place: Jesus takes all our sin upon Himself (He paid for it at the cross) and He GIVES us His own perfect righteousness! So now we ARE “perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect”! Now we DO have a righteousness that “surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.” 

So Jesus says, SEEK THIS! Don’t spend your life seeking money and wealth (and fame, and all other kinds of temporal things the world seeks). You will lose it all in the end. Instead, seek His righteousness. Make sure you have that. It is the only thing that will matter in the end. Make sure you are in His kingdom. And once you are, spend your life and time and resources on advancing that Kingdom: go on mission. Do ministry. Give to churches and missions and missionaries. Use your life to advance the Kingdom. 

ILLUSTRATION:

Remember the quote from missionary/martyr Jim Eliot’s journal: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

I would print that quote out, or post it on your video screen.

This is EXACTLY what Jesus is saying here in Matthew 6. Don’t live for money and possessions. Live for God’s Kingdom. Live for eternity.

CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:

Years ago I heard the testimony of a Christian man in Texas, who became rich in the oil industry. He was very generous with his money, and gave a lot of money to Christian causes, including a Christian college in Texas. Then, as seems to happen from time to time, the oil industry went bust. The man lost everything he had. In the aftermath, one of his friends said to him: “I bet now you wish you hadn’t given all that money to that Christian school.” The man said, “No, you’re wrong. If I’d kept that money, I’d have just lost it too. The only thing I have left is what I gave away.”

What we need to realize, is that this is true for ALL of us. One day, we will all lose everything we have in this world; if not through disaster or economic collapse, we will all lose everything we have when we die. So literally THE ONLY THING WE WILL KEEP FOR ETERNITY, IS WHAT WE GIVE AWAY and invest in the Kingdom of God.

So here we are, starting a brand new year in 2026. If the Lord wills, we may have 365 days to spend in it. Every one of us should ask ourselves: What will I do with my 365 days? What will I live for? Money? Possessions? Popularity? Some worldly cause? Or finding and advancing the Kingdom of God? It’s our choice. Jim Eliot says, don’t be a fool. Trade what you can’t keep, for what you can’t lose. Jesus says, make this your choice: Seek First His Kingdom, in 2026! 

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