This week, we will look at the first lessons Jesus taught his disciples after they had chosen to follow him. You and I have chosen to follow Jesus, right? Well, he has a few lessons for us! Now, picture the setting. Jesus had gone up on top of a mountain and prayed all night. At daybreak, he called together his followers and chose 12 of them to be his personal students to work with him. Now, Jesus and his disciples come down from the mountain where there is a massive crowd waiting. This crowd hadn’t gathered to know the truth about Jesus, they had gathered to get their own miracle. The news of Jesus’ healing power had spread and they had traveled long distances to seek healing. But if you were sick, wouldn’t you do the same? Wouldn’t you take your baby? Wouldn’t you bring your mama? Wouldn’t you call up your BFF who has been suffering? Wouldn’t you seek this man Jesus for his mysterious healing powers? Jesus wanted to do more than offer healing for their bodies, he wanted to heal their souls. And to do that, he would teach them a few important lessons. This was a big moment for Jesus. This massive crowd is gathered, what would he say to them? You can read Jesus’ teaching to the crowd in Luke 6: 20-49. For today, we will focus on verse 31. “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.” Jesus isn’t telling them to do something mysterious or incredibly hard. He’s telling them to simply think about what they would want others to do for them, then go do it for others on purpose. So simple. There’s really no twisted confusion in this because you know yourself. You know how you wish others would treat you. You know what would make you feel included, loved and important … so do that for others. You’ve heard this teaching before. It was given a clever name that you likely know. It’s the Golden Rule. Golden because of it’s tremendous value. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Yeah, Jesus said that. When Jesus taught this lesson to the large crowd gathered to seek his healing powers, they had likely heard it before. In fact, this teaching had been around for thousands of years before Jesus, but with a slight difference. These people had grown up hearing the teaching, “That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.” Another version of the teaching they had grown up hearing was, “What is hateful to you, don’t do to anyone else.” Valuable indeed. But do you notice what’s different about Jesus’ teaching? Jesus turns a negative statement into a positive. Instead of focusing on what you hate to be done to you, he focuses on what you would like them to do to you. And with this slight change from negative to positive, Jesus teaches us to go beyond the old rules of don’t treat people bad, but actually treat them good. There’s a difference. I can easily not treat you bad. I can just walk on by, I can not engage, I can look the other way. But in order to treat you good, I must engage. It takes intentional effort to do good to you. And Jesus says, “Yes, make the effort to do good!” We can’t walk around just trying to not do harm to anyone … Jesus wants us to do good to everyone. So simple, so valuable, but radically different than what we have been doing. Jesus says to the crowd in verses 27 & 28, “Love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.” Now think about that for a minute. How hard is that for you to do? Honestly,