NOTE: The updated version of this sermon will be posted this evening.

If I've heard it once, I've heard it hundreds of times -- and so did most of you. It was one of my mama's favorite exhortations. I think she thought it was a verse of Scripture. She quoted it with that kind of authority. "A man is known by the company he keeps."

Was that ever said to you by your parents? Have you repeated it to your children? Maybe you think it’s a verse of Scripture also. It really isn't, but it is sound advice. A man is known by the company he keeps.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich has cast the truth differently. Listen. "A man is known by the company his mind keeps." Get it? A man is known by the company his mind keeps.

Now that isn't Scripture either, but it's very close to it. Proverbs 23:7 puts it this way: "As …