Sometimes people everywhere, particularly young people, they are so thirsty for companionship,

they are so thirsty for friendship, they end up choosing the wrong friends.

And yet the Bible tells us again and again that there are some kinds of friends that you are better off without.

The Bible repeats that again and again and shows us example after example.

In Second Chronicles chapter 24, it tells us how King Joash chose the wrong friends, and he ended up not only ruining his own life,

but the life of a nation. Now, you might not be able to choose your neighbors. You might not be

able young man and young woman to choose who sits next to you in the classroom. You might not be

able to choose a colleague at work, but you certainly able, and the Bible tells us

that we must carefully and wisely choose our friends. Choose with whom we're going to spend our time.

Choose carefully who is going to spend their life with us. Why is it so important? Why does the

Bible repeats it again and again, both Old and New Testament? Because close friends have

enormous impact upon our morals. They have enormous impact upon our character. They have an

enormous impact upon our values. Proverbs 1320 says, He who walks with the wise will be wise,

but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Choose your friends wisely.

Ben Carson said that.

He said, choosing and surrounding yourself with bad friends is like being a crab in a crab barrel in a fish market.

Do you know why they never put a lid on a crab barrel?

Because if a crab starts to crawl out, the others will grab hold of it and bring it back down again.

And the Bible gives us specific character traits of people whom we should

avoid for close friendship. Now, I'm not talking about business associates. I'm not talking about

people that you have to deal with all the time. I'm not talking even about people that you have to

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