Almsgiving Facts for 3-8 Year Olds

Categories: Sermon on the Mount

• Chapter 6 talks about the traps of doing what is right (righteousness).
• The first thing Jesus says is, “Beware!”
• “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.
• Don’t try to impress others with your faith.
• It is right to do good works so that people think of God. It is not right to do good works so that people think of us.
• The reason for this warning is that if we do the right thing just to be noticed by others, then we will miss out on the “reward from the Father who is in heaven” because we’re so focused on getting a “reward” from others.
• God rewards us with good all the time.
• Jesus talks about “prayer, charity, and fasting.”
• Charity involves our relations to others. Prayer involves relations to God. Fasting involves relations to ourselves.
• Caring for people who are poor is a very important part of the Jewish religion.
• Jesus says, “When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men...”
• Some people just want lots of attention.
• If their motive is to get thanks or applause from other people like actors do when they perform on stage, then that’s all they will get—thanks or applause.
• Even if people are very generous, they really need to be quiet about what they do and not brag about it.
• That way, they will feel filled up by God’s good thoughts.
• He gives further instructions: “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.”
• The left and right hand are so close together. So Jesus is saying that even in the closest of close relationships, do this in secret.
• “Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
• The person is rewarded by the presence of the Father.
• We are to look to God alone for our reward. God will notice.