Proverbs chapter 24. We finished chapter 23 last week. We'll pick it up in chapter 24 as we make

our way through this amazing book of Proverbs, so packed full of so much in the way of wisdom and

practical application to our lives, which is actually what I want to talk about

tonight. So why don't we pray and we'll ask God to bless our Bible study if you would join

with me. Thank you, Lord, so much for this time that we have on a Thursday night to come to this beautiful church building

that you've given us and put aside all the busyness of the day and all the cares and the affairs of our lives and just settle down and quiet down and quiet our hearts

and settle our hearts so that we can give you our undivided attention as you minister to us as only you can and as you're always so faithful to

Lord Lord would you speak into our lives tonight will you bless our Bible study

tonight bless our time together Lord in your word. Lord, thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's jump in.

Verse 1, Proverbs 24. We're going to see this come up again, I think about verse 12, but

sort of in a different way. It says, do not be envious of evil men,

nor desire to be with them, for their heart devises violence and their lips talk of troublemaking.

Now, we might need to roll up our arm sleeves as it were and kind of work through this

because it almost is a contradiction in the sense that we're told to be with the world,

we're in the world, not of the world, and certainly in the gospels, Jesus was with evil man.

So here we're told, don't desire to be with them. Don't be envious of them. And the warning here,

I believe is, and the difference is that in being with the evil and the wicked carries with it this potential for us to be influenced by them,

by being with them. So Jesus, when he was with the prostitutes and the sinners and the worst of the worst,

it was to change them, not be changed by them.

And that's the difference here.

And the warning here, I believe, in this proverb, because if you're going to associate with those who are evil and wicked and those whose hearts devise violence and their lips talk of trouble making, then it's not going to be long before you become like them. And isn't it true

that we become like those who we are with the most? There's another proverb. We already talked about

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