The Law of Reciprocity

We're in a series called Uncommon Unity.

And we're talking about, you know, the word community is a compound word, common unity.

And yet, unity in communities is often not the case.

We see a lot of fragmentation, we see polarization, division.

And it's worth noting that when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you put Jesus at the center of your life, and actually Jesus becomes the center of you.

He is the center of you.

And you become part of a community, the body of Jesus, the kingdom of God.

Yes, we're citizens of a country, but we are citizens of a kingdom.

And so that community is designed to function in the way that God intended.

We're looking at how do we do that?

What are some of these rules and laws and principles?

And I think if we do this and we do it right, we will be what we're supposed to be, which the church is the body of Christ.

And you think of New Testament principles.

In the Old Testament, you had a temple, which was like this.

And you came to the temple.

It was a facility.

But in the New Testament, the temple is not a facility.

You are the temple.

Paul says, Don't you know, know ye not?

Ye are the temple.

You're the temple.

I'm the temple.

So we're the temple of God.

We're the dwelling of God.

It's in him, move, it's in him we live, move, and have our being, but it's in us.

He lives, moves, and has his being.

And so as a community, we should function a specific way, but it shouldn't just stay in the walls of this building.

It should go into your home, your job, your neighborhood, your city, your country, and the world.

So we have to look and make sure that we're doing this the right way.

Okay?

Today what I want to talk to you about is the law of reciprocity.

Reciprocity.

The word reciprocity, think of reciprocal.

You remember that in math back in the day, right?

The two ends add up to you know add up to one.

Ultimately they complete each other.

So when you think about reciprocal relationships, reciprocity, it's giving and taking in a way that doesn't deplete.

Think about Colossians chapter 1, verse 15, speaks of the supremacy of Christ, but I want us to look at this and think about something about reciprocity.

Colossians 1:15

Look at Colossians 1.15 says Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

So everybody's always wondering, what's God like?

Well, Jesus came as the visible image of that invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.

So again, this is speaking of the fact that although Jesus came at a certain time in the world as a human being, that he was deity, fully God.

Even before he was fully man, he was fully God, and he was there at creation.

And it says, and through him God created everything in the heaven, heavenly realms and on earth.

So all that we see in the earth, and then all that we don't see way beyond.

All the bazillion light years and the galaxies and everything in terms of astrophysics, all the way down to microbiology, the stuff that you can't see unless you have a microscope to be able to look at it.

God created all that.

Jesus is God.

Jesus was there for that.

Okay, and then he says this such, okay, so everything in heavens and on earth.

Now look at this.

He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, like thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him.

It says in Romans, it talks about when you look at creation and you look at the world, the earth, you see patterns, you see principles that are beyond more than just the earth.

It's it's talking and showing the character of God, the intention of God of how things work.

So let's just talk the fundamentals of the ecosystem.

You know how that works, man.

You remember this class that you took that basically talked about how the ecosystem works.

Things are circular.

You know what happens with water?

It comes down in the form of rain and it's a it's a liquid, and then it evaporates, becomes a gas, goes back up, comes back down, back up, back up, down, down, down.

We we know what happens agriculturally, how the land works.

You take and give.

The land gives and takes, takes and gives, gives and takes.

It produces fruit.

When the fruit comes down, it has a seed to plant a new tree to give more fruit.

And the and the fruit gives, but it takes and gives and takes.

So when you think about an ecosystem, we know how we could screw the ecosystem up, is we would deplete it.

You can you could deplete the ecosystem, you could tear it apart and mess it up, but God set it up so that it'll just keep working.

When you think about the ecosystem, you'll see a lot of this language even in the community relational ecosystem.

Relationships are an ecosystem, or they should be, unless we don't understand the law of reciprocity and we either take too much or we give too much.

Look at this.

When Paul, well actually, Jesus starts starts this off in John 13 when he's talking about relationships.

Look what he says.

He says, I'm giving you a new commandment, verse 34 of John 13.

Love each other.

Think of that now.

Love each other.

Love, give love and receive love.

It's supposed to be circular.

It's reciprocity.

He said, Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

Says it again.

Then he says it again, verse 35, for your love for one another will prove to the world that you're my disciples.

In case they missed it, he says it two chapters later, John 15, 12.

This is my commandment, he says.

Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

He says it again five verses later, just in case they missed it, this is my command.

Love each other, circular.

Love each other, reciprocity.

Don't just take, give.

Romans 12, 10, love each other.

Paul takes the baton and keeps running with it.

Love each other with genuine affection.

Take delight in honoring each other.

He says it a chapter later in Romans 13 and 8.

Owe nothing to anyone except the obligation to love one another.

That's weird to say obligation and love in the same sentence, right?

Like, I mean, that doesn't feel like it belongs.

Like you would think of love, you don't think of obligation.

You think of it, you know, it'd come from the abundance of your heart.

You you you wouldn't want to think about obligation.

And yet, Paul's using this language to uh essentially uh make us aware of our responsibility.

Why?

Because of the law of reciprocity.

He's saying don't owe anybody anything, true up with everybody.

Make sure you owe somebody 10 bucks, give them their 10 bucks.

Take care of, I mean, do what you gotta do.

If you owe somebody an apology, give it to them.

Like, do what you gotta do.

But he said, don't owe anybody anything except this one thing, obligation to love one another.

Why?

Because if I only take and I don't give, I deplete the ecosystem.

And then we end up with a community that's not uncommon unity, it's common division.

Because you burn people out, even sincere people, people who love you.

You'll burn them out if you don't give them love back.

It's designed, it's said over and over and over again by both Jesus and Paul.

And so we have to think ecosystem.

Think uh John chapter 1, verse 14 says, When Jesus came, he came full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

Grace and truth.

I think both of these concepts, grace and truth, are are needed when we think of the law of reciprocity.

Like we know what grace is.

We just sang about it a moment ago.

I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross.

Well, if I don't understand grace, that's kind of a haunting statement.

I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.

Well, what keeps me from wallowing in shame?

What keeps me from wallowing in shame is God's grace.

God's riches at Christ's expense.

That God made he who had no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.

That it's by grace we've been saved through faith.

It's not of ourselves, it's not by works, so no one can boast.

I owed a debt I could not pay.

He paid a debt he did not owe.

And so I'm not gonna keep going trying to pay for it.

I'm receiving the grace of God.

I can't pay for it, I can't work it off.

He did it.

That's what the cross is, that's what Easter.

We're about to about to get into it, okay?

So there's that concept that, you know, is a foundation of our relationship with God.

Then we think about our relationship with people, we now have to extend grace one to another.

Which means I'm gonna have to write something off for something someone owes me.

And frankly, someone's gonna have to do that for me.

We're gonna get to grace in a minute.

I'm just gonna table that for a moment.

I actually want to go over to the truth part, looking at truth.

Truth, I think, really, when you think of the concept of what's true, you think of reciprocity.

Reciprocal relationships make the world go round.

What is this thing worth?

And then I'm gonna pay for it, and that's how it works.

Like you do work, you get paid, and that works.

And we have to do that, you know, all throughout our lives.

Reciprocal, true, like again, the term true up, true up, that's a financial term for paying off what you owe.

And so uh when when it comes to that, like I I want you to think about within the environment, within your community, within your relationships, within your family, the subcommunities you're in at work, the people you're around, what sort of person are you within the ecosystem?

Are you the type of person that just take, take, take, take, take?

What are your instincts like for reciprocity?

Um, it's interesting, Mark 11.

There's two stories told right one right after another.

And I want us to think of it through the lens of reciprocity.

You've heard these stories, you maybe haven't thought of them together, but especially not through this lens.

Okay, in Mark 11, Jesus is walking, he sees a fig tree not bearing figs, and so he curses it and it dies.

Okay, and the disciples heard him curse the tree, and then they see the next day the tree's dead, and so it's like, well, why did Jesus do that?

Was he trying to spite the fig tree?

You know, no.

The fig tree didn't have ears.

Okay, it's not, it's not, it's it's living, but it's not a human being.

Why did he do it?

Jesus isn't trying to spite the fig tree, he's trying to train the disciples.

And what he's doing is showing them about the law of reciprocity.

This fig tree is taking from the soil and it's not giving back.

Bearing fruit is how seed is planted and it goes down and fertilizes and grows.

And this fig tree is only taking and not giving.

And so he's teaching them about reciprocity, so he curses that tree.

Well, then the next part, the next story, Jesus goes to the temple, and this is where he drives the money changers out of the temple.

He's flipping over the temple tables, he's driving them out with whips.

And and you remember this, he he it Bible says he taught them, he trained them.

It says after he got done flipping over uh these tables in the temple, it says in uh Mark 11, 17, it says he when he taught them, he said, Is it not written, my house will become a house of prayer for all nations?

Look next.

He said, But you've made it a den of robbers, a den of thieves.

Think of this.

What's he teaching?

He's teaching them about reciprocity.

He's saying, These people came into this environment and robbed.

They just took, they stole.

He said, but this is supposed to be a place of prayer.

This is supposed to be a place where you converse.

What is prayer but conversation with God?

I pray, I give, I receive, I worship God.

God speaks to me.

He goes, this is supposed to be a reciprocal.

You you we give honor to God, we glorify God, we worship God, we look into his word, we we humble ourselves before him, and he lifts us up.

It's circular.

He goes, but you just came in and you were mercenary and you took, and so he calls them thieves, robbers, you're depleting the ecosystem.

Um, you know, when you think about the ecosystem and you think about giving and receiving, I just want to encourage you to look at what are your instincts around reciprocity, because really there's two ways you violate the ecosystem.

And one is that you just a taker.

Take, take, take, take, take.

And I do think some people are like that.

Like some people, like they just have no problem just going in and just taking, just taking from people.

They want everything for free.

They think everything ought to be free.

Everybody owes them something.

I don't know how you get there.

Maybe some of that, I don't know if that's a personality trait.

It's probably some combination of nature, nurture, but like when you are just, if you don't have any instincts toward reciprocity, something's not quite right there.

But at the same time, also I've seen people not only that are unwilling to give anything, I've met people, if you swing the pendulum all the way to the other side, they give, give, give, give, give, give, give, and people try to give back and they won't take it for whatever reason.

Either they feel unworthy of it or insecure of it.

They just they are depleted.

Time, energy, money, they're in emotional debt, they're in financial debt.

They are so far down, and yet they won't let anybody help them.

Either way, you deplete the ecosystem.

Um, there's a uh a story I was just thinking of, by the way, of um there was during COVID, we we had uh we had raised some money right before COVID to do some physical projects around this property.

And we planned to, like we'd raised a handful of money, but we needed some more to finish the projects.

And I was planning after Easter of 2020, uh, a few weeks after, I was gonna share these projects and would try to raise the money.

Well, you know what happened.

You were there in 2020, everything shut down.

And so, so like everything shut down, and we had within this church, we had some people whose jobs were secure.

In fact, some of them, their jobs they were in the right place at the right time because their jobs got better.

Like they actually uh made more money, did more, but it was they were more productive.

And then we had other people who it was devastating.

Like we like a waitress and a trainer are married, shut down.

There's nothing, and and they had no protection.

And and so we were like, man, and so we had people start reaching out to the church.

I was like, this is not time to raise money for building, this is just time to help people eat, help people pay bills.

And so I stood up here.

Some of you were here for this, you'll remember this.

Others, this would just be something you weren't here for, but I'll just tell you about the story.

I stood here, looked in the camera because everybody was at home in masks, and I was like, listen, uh, some of you can give and some of you can't.

Some of you need to give, some of you need to receive.

If you can give, please give.

We started a fund called Love Finds a Way.

And from our church, among people who could give, they gave$180,000 that we gave away, all of it, in the summer, to people to help get food, to help get medicine, to help do their rent, pay their rent, just people that needed it.

And then, and then what was really cool, and this is where I just thank, I just thank God for the seat I get to sit in, because we had within our our project management uh programs called Asana.

I go in Asana and I'm watching because we had like attorneys and people in the church who were vetting people who wanted money because when you tell everybody, hey, we're gonna help people with whatever, the scammers come out.

You know what I mean?

So we had people from all over the place just trying to get us for money, but we had attorneys in the church, like, nah nah nah nah nah.

Like they were tracking it down.

So we weren't just throwing it out.

But but think about that now.

Some people have the instinct when good-hearted good people are giving from a good place to come in and take.

That's an instinct.

Where does that come from?

I don't, probably our flesh, right?

I mean, we see it probably most profoundly manifest in a child, little kids who are immature, and because they're immature, they've not learned to manage their flesh, and their flesh is selfish.

All of our flesh is selfish, but we're just older.

Hopefully, the more you mature, you learn to manage your flesh.

You learn to manage your appetites.

But when you're little, you don't know how to manage your appetites.

You're still learning to do that.

So, what you're a taker, take, take, take Christmas, birthday.

Okay, you get done.

You got to tell the kid, told Mama, thank you.

They tear open the present.

Somebody worked hard for that, but they don't know.

I mean, they just I don't know, I'm seven.

I got the hookup.

They open it up.

What do they say?

They don't say thank you, mamma.

Naturally, they go, Who's who's next?

What else you got?

Bring me another, bring me some more.

And so you got to train that instinct to say thank you.

And if you're if you're doing it really right, not just in your home, but anybody that you lead, is you you start cultivating the instinct of reciprocity.

Okay, there was a time for us to open up presents, but as we mature, we're gonna learn, you know what, we're gonna package some stuff up and go help somebody else.

We're gonna make a trip on down to the shelter.

We're gonna go make sure somebody else has what they have.

Look, we have all that we need and then some.

We're gonna take some of this and then some, and we're gonna go help somebody out because your flesh will always get in the way.

There are people, for whatever reason, did not cultivate that, so they're coming into good people trying to just help folks eat and get medicine and pay rent, and they're coming trying to scam.

And thank God we have people who blocked that stuff.

But then we had other people who needed help and wouldn't take it.

I'm in this asana threat.

I know, I don't know everybody in this church, but I know a bunch of people in the church, and I knew people that needed help.

I knew people that were out of work, I knew people that weren't getting uh their unemployment, they weren't getting anything, you know, and maybe they got some huge, you know, amount of money they can just live forever, but most of them, I think we're trying to get it going.

And so I started calling people that I knew going, you know, why won't why won't you take this?

Why won't you uh apply so we can get you get you help?

And it was stuff like this.

Oh no, somebody needs it more than me.

Oh no, I'm okay.

I don't know.

Was it insecurity?

Is it pride?

My friend, sometimes within the ecosystem you have to take more than you give, and sometimes you give more than you take.

And there's a time to receive, and there's a time to give.

And so you we can screw this up a couple ways.

One is to just be one of those entitled takers.

Take, take, take.

Everybody else is gonna pick up the check, somebody's gonna pay for it, and you feel no instinct to pay back people that are pouring into you.

That's a problem.

But at the same time, it's also a problem if you're doing nothing noble to deplete your personal resources of time, energy, and money and be living your life in major financial, physical, and emotional debt, and then try to keep giving.

That's not how the ecosystem works.

It's depleted.

Love one another, serve one another.

Look how Paul says it to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 8.

The Corinthians, to summarize it, they are wealthy, successful people who are immature.

So they're good at business, but they're immature human beings.

And so, Paul, because they weren't in the information age and the Corinthians didn't know what was going on in Macedonia or Jerusalem unless Paul told them.

So Paul goes and sees what's happening in Jerusalem, sees these guys are in major need, and he knows the Corinthians have excess.

So he's writing them in 2 Corinthians to try to encourage their generosity to help the people in Jerusalem.

Paul's using his credibility and his relationship equity that he has with the Corinthians to go on behalf of the people in Jerusalem to get them some help.

And so he says to them in verse 12, he says, chapter 8, verse 12, whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly.

God loves a cheerful giver, and give according to, look at this, give according to what you have, not what you don't have.

Of course, I don't mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves.

I only mean that there should be some equality.

Right now, look at this verse 14.

Right now, you have plenty and can help those who are in need.

Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you're in need.

In this way, things will be equal.

This is reciprocity.

This is the ecosystem.

There's a time in your life, there are some seasons of time that you need to be humble enough and willing to receive.

And when you receive, you do so knowing that there will be another time in your life that you're that you're gonna need to give.

And sometimes you give more than you get, sometimes you get more than you give.

That's part of real reciprocal relationships.

And so it does it, we would do well to throughout our lives recognize what season we're in and do so in a way that doesn't deplete the atmosphere, doesn't deplete the community.

I saw a picture somebody drew this week.

I don't know who made it, but go ahead and bring it up.

This this um it's a picture of reciprocal relationships in different seasons, right?

The top one, right?

We all start there, and at some point in your life, you reciprocate.

The people who helped you, you help them.

You needed them for a season, they need you for a season, and yet that's what reciprocity really looks like.

So that's true.

We need to true up.

We need to pay what we owe.

We need to give where it's due.

And to cultivate that instinct.

I was thinking about this.

I remember when at one point in my life we were so tight on money.

Whenever we ate out, we actually for we went, we at one time we went a couple years, we didn't eat out unless people gave us gift cards.

But we would go out and we're so tight financially, we couldn't hardly pay a tip.

And I remember going out, we'd go out to a restaurant, meet the waiter-waitress, strike up a conversation, tell me about yourself.

Oh yeah, I just had a baby, and I'm here working there at 9 o'clock at night working, try to help pay their bills, you know.

You got this great person.

I remember just thinking, like, I just want to give the best tip ever.

And I remember literally being at time where I barely had to be able to tip them the way I wanted, but I had this instinct of reciprocity.

Sitting there talking to somebody, like, hey, tell me about your life.

Hey, oh yeah, I'm in my third year of college.

I'm working my way through.

I got a big test tomorrow.

Here they are at 10 o'clock, running around, getting refilling my water, you know, running around like just going above and beyond.

And I remember that feeling of reciprocity.

I remember actually when we got to a place where we had enough margin to be able to actually tip well.

That I love, to this day, I love the tip well.

I love it.

I love it.

Why?

It's the instinct of reciprocity.

This person doesn't have to be, they could be doing something else.

They're working hard, they're trying to, they're trying to feed their kid.

They don't need me to go, good job.

You know, you're great.

You, sir, are awesome.

You, ma'am, what an effort.

What an effort.

They don't need a word of affirmation.

They need 25%, 30%.

All right, go ahead.

I mean, I appreciate your affirmation, but affirmation, I can't take that to the registrar.

Uh I I the registrar won't take that.

I need help.

You know, your affirmation is not gonna feed my baby.

I need 30%.

I need you to reciprocate, you know, the the the instinct of reciprocity, cultivate it.

Cultivate it in your life.

Now, now think about this now.

Let's think about grace.

So we're talking about truth and trueing up and not robbing the ecosystem, give and take in a proper way.

Think about grace.

Grace, we know we get it from God and He's omnipotent, and He was able to give us this amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

But now, when that shows up in our human relationships, that means at some point somebody's gonna owe me something that they either can't or won't pay back.

And grace is writing it off.

I'm gonna write this off.

I'm not going to continue to hold this over them.

I'm going to write it off.

We get the example from Jesus, but how do we do this?

How do I find it within myself to give grace so that we can have uncommon unity?

Well, let's think about how would we do that?

Some of you in this room, you gave somebody your time, and when you needed theirs, they wouldn't give you the time of day.

Some of you in this room were faithful.

And they didn't reciprocate.

Some of you in this room have given lots of money to help people.

Maybe to help somebody specific.

And when you ask them to pay it back, or you ask them to pay some of it back, they just blew you off.

So you're you're looking at the debt like we know 1 Corinthians 13 says love keeps no record of wrongs, but at the same time, reciprocal relationships make the world go round, and we are compelled through the scripture to pay what we owe.

What happens when someone owes and the debt is big?

How do I find it within myself to give that grace?

I'm gonna tell you something you probably already know, but is worth being reminded of.

Although God uses people to reciprocate, reciprocity is not dependent on the faithfulness of people.

Ultimately, the law of reciprocity is executed through the faithfulness of God.

I'll show you a couple verses.

Proverbs chapter 19, verse 17 says, if you help the poor, you're lending to the Lord, and he will repay you.

Proverbs 19:17

So think of this concept.

He's saying, if you give as unto the Lord to someone who has no ability to repay you, that person probably won't repay you.

The reciprocity won't come from them, but the reciprocity will come.

And oftentimes we lose major steam.

In fact, our hope withers down like the flame goes out because we get so hurt and so frustrated because we're doing the math with people.

She owes me this, he owes me that.

I gave this, they didn't give that, I asked for this, they asked me for all that, and I gave all that, and then I asked for this, and they didn't, and so we look and we start to lose steam and energy and hope because we think that reciprocity only comes from people.

Look, we're gonna do our best to be people of reciprocity because give, love one another, okay?

It's got to go in a circle just like the ecosystem.

And God does use people, but it's not limited to people.

God can and will show up and bless you when people let you down.

Some of you have been generous.

Hear me now.

This is big.

This is probably the most important part of the message.

Some of you have been generous and you and you had a heart of generosity, but a lack of reciprocity has starting to make you not generous anymore.

Because I'm tired of being generous, nobody reciprocates.

What you, the critical mistake you've made is that you think reciprocity only comes through those people who you gave to.

Of course, we'd love to give and have them give back.

I'd love to get it from the person I gave to.

I'd like to do that, but it doesn't always, it doesn't always happen like that.

And even though people sometimes can't or won't reciprocate, that doesn't mean reciprocity isn't on its way.

God has an ability to repay, even if it's not from the person you gave to.

So sometimes you have to put up boundaries.

That's very appropriate.

But putting up a boundary with a person who is a leech should not make you dry up your generosity as a person.

Don't let their lack of reciprocity cost you your character, a character quality, a beautiful one of being a generous person.

No, man, stay generous and trust the Lord.

Trust the Lord, He'll bring it around.

Uh let me tell you a quick story.

So we were just uh last week or a week and a half ago, I was in Houston.

I'm in Houston, Texas.

I've just dropped the rental car off at the rental car place, and I'm about to go from uh go to the airport.

I'm on the bus.

I get on the bus.

I'm with my wife and my friend Eddie.

We get on the bus.

I step on the bus in Houston, Texas, and the guy goes, Pastor Ford?

I'm like, what?

I mean, I wasn't expecting, I didn't think anybody knew me in Houston, Texas.

I'm in Houston, Texas, a long way from home.

Pastor Ford, I'm like, look over at this guy.

He's like, he's like, my name's Jonathan.

I'm from Tampa.

Go ahead and bring this up.

Bring this picture up.

He goes, My name's Jonathan, I'm from Tampa.

He said a couple years ago, somehow he said, I ended up being introduced to one church from Tampa.

He's like, I've been going to one church from Tampa.

I've watched all these messages.

I get I get the messages every week.

I go back, I've watched old ones.

He's like, and so he goes, Man, I can't thank you.

He goes, in fact, I hoped and I prayed one day our paths would intersect.

One so I could say thank you, and two so we could pray together.

I'm bugging out.

I'm I'm I'm here, and he was like, What?

Like, what's going on?

What's going on?

Shocked.

I'm like having an out-of-body experience.

Like, are you kidding me, man?

Tell me about your life.

So he starts talking.

I'm gonna give you two direct quotes.

He said, He goes, Man, I can't thank you enough, man.

You pulled me out of a pit.

I said, time out.

Jesus pulled you out of a pit.

I said, I preached his word.

Jesus pulled you out of a pit.

Let's just get that straight.

But keep going.

What else happened?

And he said, He said, Man, listen, man.

He said, You've been pastoring me from afar.

And I just, to be honest with you, I just got hit with this wave of hope because I was like, you know, we live in this world, we're condemning everything.

Oh, social media is the devil.

Oh, the internet's the devil.

Everything's bad.

Well, yeah, the devil's in all of that.

There's evil everywhere, but but like the internet's not evil.

What are you doing with it?

What are we doing with it?

And we live in a day right now.

I can talk to Jonathan in Tampa.

Jonathan has a pastor in Tampa that lives in Columbus, and we met in Houston.

Come on.

Are you kidding?

Pinch yourself.

What are you talking about?

What are we doing?

This is incredible.

So I'm as I'm talking to him, the only way I can describe it is he had this overwhelming energy to try to express his gratitude.

He's listened to hours and hours and hours of messages, and he just keeps telling me how thankful he is.

And he's just, and you could tell it's like he wanted me to feel it.

And so he just keeps saying how thankful he is.

It was his instinct of reciprocity.

He felt like he had taken so much, and now he was wanting to give.

He's trying to give to me.

And I prayed with him once we got off the bus.

And yeah, here but here's what I told him.

Here's what I told him.

Here's how God does reciprocity.

Jonathan, you're gonna go home, man.

You're gonna pour into somebody and they're not gonna give you anything.

You be generous with your life, Jonathan.

Be generous with your life.

Pour into the people God puts in front of you.

Be salt and light where God puts you.

Be faithful with the opportunity God puts in front of you.

And sometimes you're gonna give more than you get.

And you feel like you need encouragement and the people you're given to, you hope they would reciprocate and encourage, but sometimes they don't.

But don't worry, God is not bound by their faithfulness.

God might send some dude from Columbus to give you a word in season.

Doesn't even live in your state.

Some guy who doesn't want anything from you, Jonathan.

I don't want anything from you because I've lived it long enough to see the faithfulness of God.

I don't sit there and do the math.

I'm not gonna keep score.

I'm not scorekeeping in life.

What am I gonna do?

I'm gonna do my best to reciprocate.

I wanna be a good part of the ecosystem.

I want to give and receive love.

I wanna be like what Paul says in the Corinthians, when I got some extra, I want to help somebody else to get their needs met.

I'm gonna do it.

Sometimes I got to take more than I can give, guys.

And sometimes you need to do that too.

Be humble enough to receive when you need it.

But also don't be a leech within the ecosystem that's so entitled that all you do is take and can I have another and take for granted the hard work that people are doing to help provide for you and to do good things for you in your world, in your family, in your business, in your community.

Be grateful, be a good member of the ecosystem.

But here's what I will not do, and what I want to encourage you not to do: don't dry up your generosity.

Don't dampen your energy because somebody, because the the ledger is off.

Trust God.

He said, Man, when you give to somebody who can't or won't give you back, don't worry, you lend to the Lord.

He said, and and he will repay you.

Give you two more verses.

He's less than a year before he dies.

He can't help but sort of look back over his life and think about who owes him.

And he names a name in the last chapter.

He says, Alexander the metal worker, Alexander the coppersmith.

He said, Alexander the coppersmith did me dirty.

He did me a great deal of harm.

He said, Watch this.

The Lord will repay him for what he's done.

The Lord will repay.

The Lord understands God is a God of reciprocity.

It's a law, He'll take care of it.

And so he's like, I'm not sweating him.

I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go try to get a pound of Alexander the metal worker's flesh.

I'm gonna leave that in God's hands.

I'm gonna give him grace.

I'm not gonna die a bitter man.

I'm gonna die a gracious man.

I'm gonna write it off because I know God will make it up one way or the other.

I'm gonna just choose how I live my life.

Ephesians 6, 7, and 8 says, work with enthusiasm.

Work with enthusiasm.

Even this there is no uh caveat.

Work for with enthusiasm if you're in a really healthy work environment.

Work with enthusiasm if you love your job.

Work with enthusiasm if you feel like being there today.

No, he says, work with enthusiasm as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

Work with enthusiasm because you're working for the Lord, not your boss.

Remember that the Lord will reward each one of you, each one of us, for the good work we do.

For the good we do.

Why?

Because he's a God of reciprocity.

He can make up for it.

So that that that's the drum you march to.

This is the one who's doing your annual report.

This is the one you report to.

You report to him.

So so so you do the right thing for the right reason.

Here's the the three things here.

I want to just leave you with these three questions to pray through in your quiet time with the Lord.

Where are you violating the law of reciprocity?

But that would take some courage to really pray that prayer.

Let the Lord show you.

Is there anywhere that you're you just have become entitled?

You're just taking, taking, taking.

Maybe you're taking time.

They're paying you, and you're not even really giving your best anymore.

You're not working with enthusiasm, and you go, you know what?

I'm gonna work now.

I'm not gonna use the excuses about this company or these leaders to keep me from giving my best.

I'm gonna work with enthusiasm.

God's my boss.

Maybe you've just been taking, taking, taking, and you've got to find a way to do some kind of give back somewhere in your world.

Let the Lord bring it to your mind.

I think about 2 Samuel 24, where King David, it's the last chapter in 2 Samuel.

And he's going to make a sacrifice to God.

He's the king.

Going to make a sacrifice to God.

And when he does, he goes to a threshing floor and he he offers to buy the threshing floor from a man.

And the guy says, No, I'll just give it to you.

You're the king.

He says, Your majesty, let me give you, I'll just give you the threshing floor.

And then he goes, and I'll give you the animals to sacrifice.

And David says, I will not give God something that costs me nothing.

In other words, I'm not going to re-gift to God.

I'm not going to re-gift.

Okay?

He said, I'm buying it full price.

I want to do that because this isn't an offering to you, sir.

It's an offering to God.

But I'm not going to do something that costs me nothing.

Look at, be just be honest with yourself.

What sort of citizen are you in the ecosystem of reciprocity?

Maybe for you it's the opposite.

You are so depleted.

You have nothing left to give.

Your emotional, mental health is shot, your finances are shot.

You have nothing, and yet you're still giving in a compulsive way.

You need to slow down, you need to step back, and you need to receive help.

You need to receive help.

There is zero nobility and you depleting your resources in the name of the ecosystem.

It's messing the whole thing up.

There's a time to receive and there's a time to give.

Second, where do you need to give grace and trust God?

Where do you need to give grace and trust God?

Don't you keep in score with people?

Gotta stop.

I'm writing that off.

He's not gonna pay you back.

She's not gonna pay you back.

You wish they would, it'd be nice if they did.

It would be one way to restore the ecosystem, but you gotta trust God's grace.

God will repay when others don't.

God will bless you.

God will send somebody who will give you what you need.

You need to trust him.

And that belief in the omniscience and the omnipotence of God and the justice of God, he is the executor ultimately of the law of reciprocity.

And that belief will give you what you need to give grace and write that thing off.

And next is where do you need to true up?

Where do you need to true up?

Where do you need to make something right?

Who do you owe something?

Who do you you owe?

You maybe you know deep down, maybe as I'm talking, the Lord's bringing something to your mind.

You swept it under the rug, you acted like it wasn't there.

You may owe somebody an apology, you may owe somebody some money, you may owe somebody a conversation, you may owe somebody an explanation.

What do you owe?

Where do you need to true up?

Don't rob the ecosystem.

If we do this the right way, friends, brothers and sisters, love one another, works in a circular fashion, we will have uncommon unity.

When we when we we reciprocate and we give grace when and where it's needed.

And I tell you what, that kind of community, I think that's the one we all want to live in.

And guess what?

According to Jesus, that's the community that will cause the world to stand up and pay attention.

If we don't, it's a really bad witness.

So let's do let's do this here.

Let's get it right amongst ourselves and then have it spill out to the ends of the earth.

Amen.