Giving alms Love your neighbour as yourself Matthew 22:39

What does it mean to give alms? It means to give to other people, to donate things to other people to help them. Lets see the few examples: 1- We can give money to the beggars on the street. Not only can you give them money but you can also give them a verse written on a piece of paper, you give them a bible. If they don’t know God’s word you can help them to find Him. 2- You can give books to other people who don’t have so they can learn to read and write just like you. You get to go to school but some can’t go because they have to stay home and take care of their family or can’t afford to go to school. 3-You can give other people your toys so they can play too. A good opportunity to do that is on Christmas. 4- You can give food to people in need. The people who live alone, the people who can’t afford to buy food. 5- You can give clothes to people that don’t have shoes, t-shirts or hats to wear! 6- Finally you can give water to drink for those who are thirsty and can’t find clean water to drink from. These are all different way we can give alms.

MOVIE MOVIE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzmjLB3hDYU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR2jrci8eBo&feature=related We will watch a movie about a rich man who was very rich and didn’t want to give food to a poor man who was sick with sores on his body. Lets see what happens to the rich man and to Lazarus. This Lazarus is different from the Lazarus who rose from the dead. They are both called the same.

- Rich man had everything - Lazarus was suffering - Rich man didn’t help Lazarus - Lazarus wanted to eat what fell from the rich man’s table Lets review quickly what we saw in the movie. There was a rich man and this man had everything he wanted. Lazarus was a very poor man and was suffering from his sickness This rich man didn’t want to help Lazarus at all. Lazarus wanted to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. He wanted to eat so badly that he didn’t mind have the little crumbs that fell. The dogs even came and licked Lazarus’ sores but the rich man still didn’t do anything. - Dogs came and licked Lazarus’ sores but the rich man still didn’t do anything

Must be hard for Lazarus to see that this man is rich yet he does not love God? Is this fair? God does not want to us to look at the rich people and say we want to be as rich as they are. It must have been really hard for Lazarus to see this man so rich and have everything although he was a really mean and bad man. Is this fair that the mean and bad people are rich and the good are poor? Well God does not want to us to look at the rich and want to be like them. We should be thankful everyday for what we have.

Our life begins after death - Lazarus dies - Rich man dies - It doesn’t matter now who was rich and who was poor - You can take nothing with you when you die - At death, the ungodly are separated from the godly Our life really begins when we die! We are on earth for a short while temporarily but we will be in heaven for eternity. Forever. Lazarus after being there for a while died. Later the rich man died too. For the rich man it doesn’t really matter that he is rich cause he did not take his richness with him when he died. When you will take nothing you gained or got here on earth. When people die, the ungodly are separated from the godly. And this is what happened with Lazarus and the rich man.

Our life begins after death REVERSE Lazarus Rich man This what happened with the rich man and Lazarus when they died. Lazarus who was poor and didn’t have a great life on earth is now in heaven with the Lord and the angels along with Abraham. On the other hand, the rich man who was happy and had everything on earth went to hades where he will be in pain forever.

What does this mean ? The rich man wanted to warn his brothers Abraham then told him: “They have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to them” The rich man seeing that he wanted to save his brothers who were also like him from doing the same thing and ending up in the same place as him. He wanted to give them a warning. But Abraham told him: They have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to them. So what does this mean? What does this mean ?

What do we need to do? 1 Give. What I give is not mine but God’s hands. God uses you and me to give to others. Be a good example to others !! 2 Abraham is saying to us that each one of us is responsible of their own soul 3 4 Everyone has God’s instructions for living - Bible So he was telling them that they have people to tell them the good from the bad. It is their fault if they will not listen to them. We in our time today we have the Bible, we have church, we have the priests, bishops, Sunday school and many more things to help us know the right and the wrong. What do we need to do in order for us not to end up like the rich man? When you give to others your are not giving to them but you are giving to God. When other people see that you are giving they will learn from you and do the same. We are responsible of our own soul. We need to take care of it. God tells us in the Bible everything we need to know in other to be able to get to heaven. Bible – Basic instructions before leaving earth If you don’t listen to the warnings God gives us and the instructions then you won’t be able to live eternally with him. It’s up to us whether we listen to these warnings and instructions 5

What did you learn from the story of the rich man and Lazarus? 1 Love your neighbour as your self 2 God will judge us on how we treat people 3 After we die the ungodly will be separated from the godly 4 Even if life on Earth is not the best, we will win when we live eternally in heaven with God 5 What we gain on earth is not important! Bad people can be richer than you but what is most important is our eternal life! 6 Our life should be filled with God’s word. Our loved ones also need to know to follow God’s word while they are still here. 7

God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7 Cheerful!!! God loves it when you give while you feel happy giving it. God loves it when you give something ..you are giving it from your heart not because someone else told you to do it but because you want to give it. What this verse is try to say is when you give…give because you are happy to give not because you are forced to give.