Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 1

• The only way to not circulate a false report is to stop the false report. If you just let it go then you are allowing it to continue to circulate.  Now, understand, it is much much more difficult for someone to stop a false report when it is about them or when they are involved.  We need to come to the defense of others, especially when we what we are hearing is damaging, gossipy or flat-out false. 

Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 2

• Don’t follow the crowd to do evil. Even if that means you end up alone…I’d rather be alone with the Lord than in a crowd where He is not…  Leonard Ravenhill said, “I’d rather have ten people that want God than 10,000 people who want to play church.”  There is great danger in “going with the flow.”  It’s easier but I like what Courson says, “Any dead fish can go with the flow.”  Someone once said, why do all of the so-called non-conformists all look the same!?  HA!  Right though?  Know what is right, stand for what is right.
• Now, duh statement alert! You cannot stand for what is right when you are doing what is wrong!  I hope you know that…I certainly do!  Your life puts on blast what you believe and approve of…not what you say or the signs you hold in protest…
• I like this…if there is a dispute, and you’re not a part of it, stay out of it. We love to get involved, don’t we?  Why?  We create problems where problems don’t today exist.  That is such foolishness.  We have enough problems and the disputes are difficult enough to finish.  God tells His people to stay out of it…and if you do get involved, don’t testify to one side or the other, take them to the triumph…give them the Word of God and call them to the heart of God.

Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 3

• No partiality for the poor or for the rich. The facts of the issue and the Word of God should decide a dispute.  Why would this be included?  Because humans are sympathetic and relational…we will naturally gravitate towards the presumably more vulnerable party but that exactly what I just said,  

Exodus Chapter 23 Verses 4 – 5

• No thanks! HA!  Do you ever read a verse and just say, ugh?  Yea, me neither.  HA!  This one is tough…but this is the heart of God.  While we were yet His enemy, Christ died for us.  It simply comes down to this principle…God promotes kindness.  He Himself is kind.  And kindness really isn’t kindness when the other person is all easy to take.  If they’re awesome, being nice to them in a way serves me because I enjoy being nice to an awesome and encouraging and wonderful person.  But God has called me to kindness and I kinda have an issue there….HA. 
• But, kindness is what He promotes. I dreamt on Sunday night that I died and as I was standing in this altered reality for a moment I realized the importance of salvation…how important it is for me to be absolutely real with God and about God right now if I want Him to absolutely about me when I die…and kindness is just one element of honoring Him on this side of life.
• Here is something I was taught long ago and I have found to be entirely true and effective without variation. If you have a grudge against someone, or someone that you just don’t like, pray for them.  Not for them to be harmed!  I can’t believe you just thought that!  HA!  But for their good.  Look at Matthew 5:43-45.  Not just folks that use you and persecute you but those who spitefully do so!  And the sun will rise and the rain will refresh your soul!
• I heard of a pastor that would keep a list of the problem people in his church just to pray for them…I think that’s a good idea! HA!

Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 6

• This is the balancing statement to verse 3…no partiality for or against.

Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 7a

• I have enough problems…how about you? This verse simply stated is walk in wisdom.  If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then chances are it’s a duck.  If something can get you into trouble then it probably will…  This word in the Hebrew for “false” can also be translated, “disappointing” or “vain.”  Something that can waste your time and just turn out bad…God says, “keep yourself” from it…but if you don’t and it turns bad…don’t blame God for it!

Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 7b

• This is an interesting one…because Romans 4:5 says that God justifies the ungodly…so how do we reconcile these two truths. It’s really fairly simple.  God doesn’t justify the wicked…the one that is guilty…there is a price that must be paid.  Thanks be to God that the justice we all deserve was exacted upon Jesus and even now, we are not justified through what we do or do not do…we remain wicked.  BUT, look at Romans 3:21-26, we are justified through faith…and so the wicked are those that remain in their sin, but those that are born again by the Spirit of God, to them He gave the right to become sons of God.  (John 1:12-13)
• One more thing to note here…God protects the innocent and the righteous…if you mess with them, you have God to deal with…

Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 8

• Bribes are forbidden, why? Because they work!  HA!  Receiving gifts turns your heart towards someone’s side…husbands…listen up if you know what’s good for you!  HA!!

Exodus Chapter 23 Verse 9

• This is the second time we’ve read that in this book. (Exodus 22:21) Whenever God repeats Himself it’s not because He has forgotten what He said…it means we should pay special attention. God has a heart for the outcast…or the one that feels as if they are on the outside.  There has never been a man on earth that was more of an Outsider than Jesus Himself.  Can you imagine…
• This doesn’t just apply to those who are strangers…and let me tell you, some are stranger than others (HA!)…but also to those who are Let me ask you, who in here has been attending this church for less than a year?  Less than six months?  Look around, these are those who God has commanded we consider their heart…open your home, open your time to them…that is exactly what God has done to and for you as we were all once strangers to Heaven…

Exodus Chapter 23 Verses 10 – 13

• I love that God installs rest into His commands and His plans. Rest not necessarily because you need it but perhaps for others around you to be refreshed. I tend to be very busy pretty much all of the time…but I know that I have to rest from my work to refresh my family…refreshed folks refresh others…look at what was said…,  “So that the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.”  We ought to slow down, have moments of circumspection and be in the business of refreshing others.