The Bible Study Podcast, episode 417. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the

gospel of Matthew with Chapter 6 and the Sermon on the Mount.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We are still in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. We're in Chapter 6. We'll be in the sermon on the Mount for a few more weeks yet. Today we're going to be looking at prayer and we're going to be looking at helping the needy. Starting in verse 1 of chapter 6, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be

seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven. So 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 others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 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. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. This is an interesting

verse because often in our society and apparently in the

society of Jesus time also, the reasons why someone was doing the right thing weren't always

the right reasons. I think of some studies that were done in terms of, for instance, why people

drive certain cars and people who like terms of, for instance, why people drive certain cars. And people

who like hybrid cars, for instance, often have preferred the Prius because it looks like a hybrid

car. And therefore, everybody knows the suspicion is from the studies that you're doing something good.

And yet some of the cars that have the same classic styling as cars before them

don't sell as well, even if they get better gas mileage, because you can't tell as easily

you're driving a hybrid car. There was also an opportunity one time for people, for instance,

in San Francisco, it's not a great place to purchase solar power

to put solar panels on your route because it's too foggy, but there was an opportunity to buy

solar panels that would be in Sacramento or on somebody's house in someplace warmer and

sunnier. And those programs don't work very well because your neighbors can't see.

You put up solar power, and therefore you don't get any of those rewards that we sometimes crave.

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