Living What You Believe
Matthew 6:1-15

1. Giving to help others (6:1-4)
   A) When you give don't do it for show. When you are giving or doing things to please man or in front of man as to say look at me and what I am doing, you have your reward. But Jesus in thes verses tells us that we are to do in secret, and our Father who sees in secret will reward openly.
   
2. Praying (6:5-8)
   A) Don't pray to show off. Notice in verse 5 talks about praying on the street corner and letting others see you praying. This does not mean we are not to pray in church or when we go out to eat, we just need to watch our attitude.
   B) Jesus is teaching here that we must also pray in private and our heavenly Father who sees in secret will reward openly.
   C) In verse 7 we find Jesus telling us not to use same words over and over again just to make our prayers longer. When we do these things we are only trying to impress people and when we do that, we have our reward and that is not the kind of reward that last forever. We should be doing these things not for the reward of man, but for the reward of our heavenly Father which last forever.
   D) In verse we find that our heavenly Father already knows what we need and want before we even ask.
3. The perfect prayer (6:9-13)
   A) In these verses Jesus gives us the example of the perfect prayer. Notice that it starts and ends by giving praise and honor to our heavenly Father which is where all our praise and honr should go.
4. Forgiveness (6:14-15)
   A) These verses teach us that if we can't and won't forgive our fellow man, we should not expect our heavenly Father to forgive us.