All right, everybody, good to see you again tonight. How's everyone doing? Good. Oh, there's a lot of energy here. That's good. How many of you guys like the rain? No. All right. Some of you guys like the rain. Good, good. All right. Now tonight, you guys remember what we talked about this morning? Hey, I like that you guys raise your hands. Alright, you guys just don't shout it out all the time. So I appreciate that, alright? I remember Tristan, Tristan, what did we learn about this morning? That tongue can be deadly poisonous. That's it, we learned about choosing our speech, right? Alright, now where's my friend Ethan that I met in the pool today? Ethan. No, not that Ethan, there was another Ethan. This Ethan, alright. Ethan asked me to help him with the chicken fight today, huh? We had some wins and some losses, didn't we? Yeah, but we had a good time. Ethan, appreciate you asking me for that, that was very nice of you. Why don't you go ahead and grab something, alright? So, we need you guys to stay awake, alright? You need to stay awake. I know it's been a long day, but we're gonna talk about something very important tonight. This is the most important time, alright? We're here, and we're here to have a good time. We're here to eat some delicious food. We're here to swim. There's so much that we do here at camp. But the most important thing is the time that we share around the word of God. Because the Bible says that there's power in God's word. And we need to make sure that we're allowing God to change us into what he wants us to be. Why? Because he needs to be in First place. Some of you guys picked up on that. All right, very good. He needs to be in first place. All right, so what we're going to talk about tonight is choosing the cabinet. Choosing the cabinet. Like I said, everything we're going to talk about is about choosing because our theme, the ultimate campaign, there's a time that you and I are going to have to choose. Alright, we're going to have to choose and so the cabinet, does anyone know what the cabinet is? What I am talking about when I talk about the cabinet. Alright, we have Josiah in the back, I met him earlier this week. Go ahead Josiah. You're right, there is a cabinet that we have in kitchens that we put things away in, right? All right, now let's ask another question. When we talk about the president's cabinet, do we know what we're talking about? What does that mean? What is that about? Yes, sir? They're kind of like the advisors. Oh, that's very good. They're the advisors, all right, the advisors. And the cabinet is the group of the president's closest advisors. The first cabinet, George Washington's cabinet, had four people, four members. There was the Secretary of State, who was Thomas Jefferson. The Secretary of the Treasury, who was Alexander Hamilton. The Secretary of War, who was Henry Knox. You might know him also, Fort Knox was named after him. And also the Attorney General, who was Edmund Randolph. Today, the cabinet is made up of 15 members, 15 members for different departments of the government, all right? And so these are the departments that we have in the cabinet today. There's the Department of State, the Department of Treasury, the Attorney General, the Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Homeland Security. That's a lot of departments, isn't it? That means our government has gotten a lot bigger over time. Just by numbers, almost four times as big. So there's a lot of different departments and you know why? It's because the president doesn't know everything. The president isn't an expert in all these areas. In labor, in energy, in education. But he needs to be in charge of these areas and lead our country in these areas. So he picks people who are going to help him. people that are respected, that he respects, and generally have the same goal as the president. They don't have to agree on everything, but usually, they're pretty close. If you're going to be close to someone, you're likely going to have some things in common. Imagine George Washington having somebody in his cabinet that wanted to continue to be part of Britain. That would have been kind of awkward. That wouldn't have been somebody that was as close as his advisor, somebody that was against what he was trying to, what he was for. Perhaps somebody in his cabinet didn't want anything to do with liberty or the Constitution or anything like that. That would have been completely contrary to George Washington and what he was trying to do. And the country and the people of America. So, what we're gonna talk about tonight is choosing the cabinet. Proverbs 13 is what we're gonna look at, Proverbs 13. We're gonna say this verse several times today. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna stand and we're gonna read this together because this is very important for you all to learn. It's very important for you all to follow. Years and years and years down the line, you want to remember this verse. This is pretty much where we're gonna stay today, okay? Proverbs chapter 13, when you have it, go ahead and stand. Proverbs 13. And we're going to look at verse 20. Proverbs 13, verse 20. Let's say it together. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. One more time. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we love you. We thank you for the day. Lord, we want to be wise. Lord, we don't want to be foolish. And Lord, here in your word, you tell us something very clear about how we're supposed to be wise. And Father, I pray that you would help us to learn from your word today. Give us a good time around it. And Lord, just teach us to be what we ought to be for you. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, take a seat. If you like to underline your Bibles, I want you to underline that verse in your Bible. It's something that's going to help you. It's something that's going to help you to understand what the Bible says about the cabinet that you are supposed to have. We talked about the cabinet because the cabinet is what? Your closest advisors. The people that you go to, that you talk to, that you want to know something. If you have a question about something, you're going to go to your advisor, you're going to go to your friend. And so you have to choose a cabinet as well. We all have a cabinet that we need to choose, but the Bible says, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. We talked about speech this morning. You know, do you know who has a big impact on your speech? It's the people that you are around. I went to England several years ago and I went to England on a business trip and I was there to do some work, but there's something about being in England and being around the British people and hearing them talk that makes you want to try and talk like them. I don't know what it is, but when you're there, that's how you want to talk. I don't know what it was. But the more you're there, the more you're around it. Does anyone do a good British accent? Melanie does a good British accent. You want to try it, Melanie? You want to say something? Why don't you say our verse? Stand up and say, no? Someone want to say our verse? How about you, young man? Go ahead. 1320. That was pretty good. Someone else want to give it a try? Young man, go ahead. If George Washington wouldn't have won the war, that's how we'd all be talking. Can you imagine that? No, but we talk differently. We spell color with just an O. C-O-L-O-R. Right? We spell favorite F-A-V-O-R. Right. So we, I-T-E, I just said favor, right? So, there's something about being around that, that you want to talk like that, and there's an influence there that happens. And that's the first point, the influence of your friends. The influence of your friends. Friends rub off on you. Your friends have a way to rub off on you. How you talk. The things that you say when you talk. All right? I know there's some people here from Indiana. All right? There's some people from Indiana. Where are the Indiana people, the Midwest people? Let's just say in general, Midwest people. We got a few. All right? Titus, what do you call... What do you call this? He calls it a pop. And most people in Indiana and in Ohio and in the Midwest call this a pop. Shamar, what do you call this? A Dr. Pepper, yes. A soda, alright. Is there anyone here that calls it a Coke? Oh, I got a few, I got a few. There's some people that just, everything's a Coke. What kind of Coke do you want? Oh, I want a Dr. Pepper Coke. And there's something around, what's that? What did we hear? Someone else says something else? Pop, oh, you say pop, all right? So he's a British Midwesterner, is that it? That's all right. So guys, we all have a different effect on each other and where you are and the people that you're around change how you speak, the things that you say. And the people that you're around, you sound a lot like. How you talk, the slang that you use, all right? What are the words that you say? What are the words that you use? Your friends all talk the same language. The people that you're closest with talk the same language. How else do your friends rub off on you? How you treat others? You see, it's easy to be kind to people when there's someone around you that's being kind to them. So you may see that it's raining and people are running, and all of a sudden someone slips and falls. And if the person next to you says, oh man, we need to check if that person's all right, you're probably going to go and do the same thing. And say, can we help you with something? Are you OK? But if you're going by and the person next to you starts laughing, what are you going to do? You're going to start laughing too. And so the way that you treat other people is affected by the influence of your friends, the influence of your cabinet, of the people that are around you. It's easy to make fun of people when others are making fun of people, when the people that you're around are making fun of them. How else? How you respond. How you respond to something when something happens, you can have a positive response. My son was a little disappointed that he didn't get to go swimming yesterday, because we went out somewhere. And he was a little disappointed about that. But I told him, I said, son, you know what? You got to have something that none of the other kids got to have. And he enjoyed it a lot. But sometimes, you can have a negative response. And the people around you can have a negative response. So what do you do? You have a negative response as well. and you guys rub off on each other. Also, when someone's next to you, and you start complaining, or they start complaining, well, it's time to start complaining, so I'll complain too. Oh man, it started raining. Man, my shirt got wet. Oh yeah, that was terrible. And we all start complaining. We talked about being sarcastic earlier, and it just feeds off of each other, the people that we're around, the friends that we're with, how we respond, also how you act. how you act, this is easy to see when you're sitting, when I sit in the back, when we're down here at Tabernacle and we're watching the teams, and you know what? There's some people that are sitting in the back, they're also, they're just like hanging out, and they're like, I'm too cool to cheer. And there's a whole row that sit together in the back. They're all too cool. But there's some, hey, if you're on the team and you like to cheer, then the people around you like to cheer, and there's some people that get excited, and you guys rub off on each other, and that's a good thing. But how do you act? The way that you act can be influenced by your friends. Also, how you dress. How you dress can be impacted by your friends. What it is that you wear. Maybe there's some things that you wouldn't normally wear or wear it a certain way, but because your friend wears something a certain way, you do the same thing. How else? The music you listen to. This is an area that creeps in little by little. Music that you hear. You may hear music on a commercial. You may hear music on a video game. You may hear music in many, many places. And little by little, it starts to bother you less and less. And maybe you hear people that have a ringtone on their phone, and it's a certain song, and because you're around them more, at first you're like, oh man, what kind of song is that? But the more you're around that person, you know, oh, that's their ringtone, and it just doesn't bother you. The music that you hear is influenced by the friends that you have and the people that are around you. Also, what you think. What you think. Maybe some of the things that you think about spiritual things. This can be very much impacted by the people around you. If you're around people that don't like to always be in church, that's gonna affect you. It's gonna come to you and you're gonna start thinking, well, maybe church isn't all that my parents think it is, or all that my parents say that it is. You gotta make sure that the people around you because they're influencing you how you think. There's ways that we can change this. A lot of this I'm talking about is negative. Things that can harm you, that can hurt you. Let's stand and read the verse together one more time. Stand. And we'll start with Proverbs 13, 20. Ready? Proverbs 13, 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Thank you. Take a seat. What is a companion? What is a companion? Young man? A friend? All the way in the back, young lady. What's that? Someone that's with you most of the time. How about you? The crowd around you. Yeah, that's probably the closest. A companion is a person that you have company with. You see that word companion and company? There's a similarity there. It's someone that you're with. Someone that you take time with. And the Bible talks about being a companion. A companion of who? Fools. Who wants to be the companion of a fool? If we knew a group of people and we knew them as the fools, and we know all the things that the Bible says about fools, we shouldn't want to be a companion of them. And so we have the companion of fools that we're learning about. But understand this. We've talked a lot about the negative, but look at this verse. It says, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. We can also be influenced in a positive direction. We can be influenced by being around wise people. If you're walking with wise people, it will make you wiser. If you're walking with godly people, you're going to see an example of what it is to be godly, to learn how to be godly in your life. If you're walking with kind people, you're going to learn to be kind. If you're walking with people, any one of those people can have an influence on you for the good, or for the bad. So who are you spending time around? Understand, when we look at the Bible and when we see Jesus, Jesus was a good friend. He was a good companion because He really had a good influence on the life of the disciples. He helped their faith to grow. What about your friends? Do your friends help your faith to grow? I need a volunteer. I need a strong young man, probably to see who the strongest young man in here is. All right, a couple hands went down. You right here, white shirt, blue stripes. Come on down, buddy. All right. So you're Isaiah? How you doing? I'm Patrick Gus. All right, so understand a couple things. That as I'm walking in life, hopefully this chair holds me. As I'm walking in life, I can be walking down the road, and I'm trying to live right, I'm trying to do right. But Isaiah comes along, and I'm sorry for the example, but Isaiah comes along, and he's the bad influence in my life. All right? And what happens, Isaiah, come here. Try to pull me down. All right? Go ahead. Come on. Pull me down. All right? Now, would you guys say that Isaiah is stronger than me? He might be stronger, but he's not as strong as me. Alright? No, but it was still within his power to pull me down. He doesn't have to be stronger than me. I was just higher than him. But it didn't take a lot for me to lose a little resistance, to lose a little bit of what I was fighting back with. And he easily pulled me down. Now, let's use the other example. Alright, here I am, and as a friend, I want to be a good influence on Isaiah. And I gotta get Isaiah up here. I'm probably stronger than Isaiah, but you know what? Go ahead and give me both hands. It's a little bit harder. Come on. It's harder. I'm gonna try to lift you up, Isaiah. Go ahead and give me the other hand, too. All right, hold on tight. It's harder for me to bring him up. Even though I may be able to, it's harder for me to bring him up to where I am. But it's easy for him to pull me down. Very simple. He doesn't have to be stronger with me. Thank you Isaiah, go ahead and grab something there. He doesn't have to be stronger than me. There's a little bit of force. He brings me down. And the same thing is true for some of your friends. You may have a friend, and you may be that good influence. And you may say, friend, I want to try to bring you up, but it's hard. It takes more strength to try to bring them up here, strength that you probably don't have. But you know what happens? Your friend down here, that's a bad influence on you, it's not too hard for him to pull you down. It's not too hard for him to bring you right down to where he is, and that's where we fall. That's where we allow ourselves to be a companion of fools. It doesn't take a lot of resistance to pull us down. One more time, let's stand and read the verse. Proverbs 13, 20. One more time. Proverbs 13, 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Thank you, take a seat. So we have the influence of your friends and now we have the advice of your friends. You know the Bible talks about advice in Psalm 1.1 it says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. There's ungodly counsel that is possible to come across in your life. There are people out there that are bent. What they want to do is to pull you away from God. They want to see you fall. They are so against you being a Christian and you doing right that they want to see you mess up and they're going to try to mess you up. I know people like that. And they make fun of Christians. And they make fun of the fact when a Christian can't stand and they're able to bring down another Christian. Down to mess them up. And mess them up in their lives. That's what happens. That's what they want to do. Because these people, it's not just the devil. It's not just the devil that wants to mess you up. There's people that can't stand a person that is trying to do right. They wanna mess you up. They set a snare for you to fall into a trap. So understand this about counsel, about advice. There's godly counsel or there's foolish counsel. Are you receiving inexperienced counsel? People who are inexperienced are bad advisors. I would like another volunteer. Ethan, come on up. Ethan's gonna come down here and he's gonna take a seat. Hopefully it's a little, hopefully I didn't get any mud from my shoes. Thank you, Ethan. Ethan, I need some advice, all right? I need some advice on how to drive a car. Can you teach me how to drive a car? No. Why not? You don't have a driver's license. Okay, Ethan, go ahead and grab something and take a seat. I need another volunteer. Let's see. Green shirt, white stripes. Clay. What's your name, sir? Clay. Clay? Have a good Friday, Clay. Take a seat. I need driving advice. Can you teach me how to drive? No, why not? You don't have a driver's license either. All right, go ahead. Grab something and go ahead and take a seat. Hold on. Can any of you teach me how to drive? Yes. How? Ethan, come here, buddy. Come here, Ethan. Take a seat. I need some driving advice. Go ahead. Teach me how to drive. Well, there's pedals down where your feet are. Pedals. Got it. One is a go one. One's a stop one. Which one's the go one, and which one's the stop one? The stop one's the long one. OK, the long one. Long one this way, or long one this way? No. Now let me ask you this, Ethan. Have you ever done this before? Yes, I've been driving a go-kart, which is exactly like this. Have you ever driven a real car? No. No, okay. Hold on, guys. Now, most of you, is there anyone over the age of 16? No. No. Well, a few of our adults, of course. Any of the young people here? You're over the age of 16? No. What's the problem here, guys? Shamar, what's the problem? You don't have a driver's license. Probably none of these young people here have a driver's license. If you do, hold on guys. If you do, let me know so I will stay off the road. However, this is what I'm trying to help you to understand. You As a young person, try to get advice from your friends. And you're looking at someone and you say, I need to know about this. What do you think about church? What do you think about my parents telling me about this? What do you think about this or that or this or that? And you know what your friend is telling you? They can give you some great advice. It might even be the right advice. It might even be along the same lines as driving a car and the go pedal and the stop pedal. But the fact is, is that your friends don't have the experience. They've never done it before. They've never lived in your shoes. They've never been a 9, 10, 11, 12 year old person. So why would you get advice from someone that doesn't have that experience? But instead, there's your parents. You know what? Your parents, they were a 9, 10, 11, 12 year old person at one point. Believe it or not. And they lived through it. And they grew up. And some of them may have made mistakes. Some of them may have done some things that they said, you know what? I shouldn't have done that. And they're trying to teach you. And they're trying to help you. And you have youth pastors and pastors that have been 9, 10, 11, 12 year old people. And they have the experience. They've walked down that road and you don't want to listen to their advice. Why would you get advice from someone who hasn't lived in those shoes? That's what it comes down to. What kind of counsel are you receiving? What kind of experience does your counsel have? Does your cabinet have? They better be experienced. You also have the saved perspective and the unsaved perspective. People who are unsaved are not going to be able to give you spiritual advice. You have a friend. You have a friend that's going to try to help you to understand some things about God, some questions that you have about God. That person can't help you. You go to somebody with experience that's learned. The Bible says, he that walketh with wise men. You're supposed to be walking with wise men, not with foolish people, not with inexperienced people, people that don't know what to do. Be careful of getting advice from someone who is unsaved. Be careful with worldly counsel. Be careful with your unsaved friends. The Bible talks about what fellowship hath light with darkness. There was a man named Harry Hopkins who was a close friend of an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Franklin D. Roosevelt had a very close advisor and he was with them all the time. They would go on vacations together and people were afraid the American public wasn't comfortable with someone being so close to the president. Someone being able to give the president that advice. They didn't like his positions. Why? Because the people that are around you have an influence. And the people that are around you are an insight. They are a flashlight. They show you a little bit about who you are. What kind of friends do you have? What kind of friends are around you? Are they people that would be good examples? Or are they people that are not? Beware of the advice of your foolish friends. The companion of fools, the one who keeps company with fools, the Bible says, leads to destruction. Stand one more time, let's read Proverbs 13, 20. Together, Proverbs 13, 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Thank you, take a seat. So we have the influence of your friends, the advice of your friends, and we're going to talk about the choice of your friends. You have a choice as to who your friends are. That's what it comes down to. The Bible shows here that there's a choice between walking with the wise men or being a companion of fools. There's a choice. There's an adage, a saying that says, he that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas. If you're around people, certain people, they're going to rub off on you. They're going to have an effect on you. There's another saying that says, show me who your friends are and I will show you who you are. Another saying, you are or you soon shall be what your friends are. Understand that you have a choice to walk to who you are walking with. Who are you walking with? You have a choice about it. What do you want to spend time doing? Do you want to spend time being a companion of fools? Continuing to live the life that you're living? Or do you want to seek wisdom? Do you want to get wisdom? If you want to get wisdom, you have to... Whatever it is that you're trying to be, you want to be around those people. If you want to be more godly, if you want to know how to put God first, you want to go to the people and seek the advice of the people that you see are living the victorious Christian life. People that you know have a walk with God. People that you know are living a life surrendered to God. But we need to walk with wise men in order to be wise. So, I forgot my apple. But, picture this with me, alright? I have an apple here in my hand. You guys see the apple? What color is it? Is it red, green? How many of you like red apples? How many of you guys like green apples? How many of you guys like those yellow apples? Oh, those are good. Yeah, buddy. All right, what color are the apples? Yellow? All right, red? So we have an apple, all right? Now, it was yellow. It was red. It was green. Whatever color it is that you want. But now it's kind of brown. And now it's kind of squishy on the around. Alright? This is what we call a bad apple. Alright, now here's what we're going to do. I have a barrel of good apples over here. And what I want to do is I want this apple to be good. So can I put it in here? No. For it to be good? No. Why not? I'm sorry what it's gonna what it's gonna make all the other ones bad have your parents ever told you that one bad apples spoils the whole bunch and that's what happens you have You bring one bad apple and you put it in there with all the good apples, and it's going to ruin that bunch. It's going to ruin those apples. And that's the problem. We can't add more to it to make it right again. The same thing is true. Ooh, that water turned. That was water. And so what it turned, we have some water here and we're going to try to clean it maybe. But instead it gets some bad influence in it, alright? And so we'll throw it in there and get some really bad influence. We're going to see this a little bit later on this week as well. But if I want to make this water clean again, can I just add more water to it? Why not? But I want it to be less dirty. Can't just putting more water in it make it less dirty? No, what it is, what does it do? It just makes more dirty water. And that's the same thing. You can try to add and add and add more to it, but it's not going to be clean. It has to become clean. So here we are, and there's a choice. You have a choice. But I'm going to say something. I'm going to share something with you, and we're almost done. Some of you may be the bad apple. Some of you are the fools. Some of you may be the bad influence on your friends that encourages them to do wrong, that gets them into trouble, that encourages them to go the wrong direction, that doesn't want to talk about spiritual things, that doesn't want to talk about the things that are going on in camp that God is doing in your heart. All they want to talk about is the games and the silly songs that you learn. Some of you are that person. If that's the case, you need to repent. You need to get right. You need to no longer be a fool. Because even as a fool, you can still begin to walk with wise men so you can be wise. You can turn from that. And you can do right. But it has, again, it's a choice. It's a choice that you have. Let's stand and let's read the verse one more time together. Together, Proverbs 13, 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. One more time. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Let's pray. Lord, we love you, we thank you for the day. Lord, I thank you for your goodness to us, and Lord, for how much you care for us, that you tell us in your word who we should be around, who it is that our cabinet should be, who should be our closest friends. Lord, our closest friends shouldn't be foolish people. Lord, we should be around wise people that are gonna help us. And Lord, I know there's some kids in here that perhaps they don't have the right type of friends. Or perhaps they are the wrong type of friend. Lord, I pray that you would help them tonight to get that right with you. And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.