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Man, the title of my sermon tonight is nepotism, nepotism. Now you say, what does nepotism mean? Well, here's the dictionary definition of what nepotism means. Patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of a family relationship as in business and politics. And then it has a sample sentence here. She was accused of nepotism when she made her nephew an officer of the firm. Now the word nepotism actually is related to our word nephew, okay? It comes to the Latin word nepos which means either grandson or nephew. And even the English word nephew used to mean grandson or the son of your aunt. It could mean, excuse me, your sister's son. It could mean either of those things. It could either mean what we think of as a nephew or it could mean a grandson. So that's where this word comes from. It has to do with showing favoritism based on a family relationship as in business or politics. Let me give you an example of this. You've probably seen this where you worked in a company and I worked for a company, for example, where the boss's daughter married a guy and then instantly that guy is just the second in command of the company, even though that guy was just brand new, didn't know anything about the work just because he was the son-in-law, he was just brought in and just put in a management position right out of the gate. This is nepotism. Now this is not always necessarily bad because if you're out running your own private business and you wanna bring your family in and put them on the payroll, well then that's your right to do with your business. You know what I mean? Especially if your business is called like Johnson and Sons Plumbing. Yeah, you can bring your sons in and put them on the payroll and you can pay your sons whatever you want and bring in whoever you want because you're the boss, amen? But here's the thing about that, nepotism has no place in the house of God. The church is not your family business. This is not pastor and son's Baptist church, okay? So what we need to understand is that while nepotism is not always bad, it could be appropriate if I'm running a business and I wanna hire friends or family that I like, hey, that's my business. But the house of God is God's business, right? This is the father's business as Jesus put it. And so we need to make sure that we don't have nepotism in the church, in the house of God. It has no place in New Testament Christianity when it comes to the local church. Now there are lots of examples in the Bible of where this goes wrong when a man of God just appoints his sons to positions of spiritual leadership, not based on their merits, not based on the fact that they have earned that position or that they're qualified for that position, but rather simply because they're family. They're just put into that position. And one of these examples is right there in your Bible in 1 Samuel 8. Look at verse number one. And it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now notice the wording here. It doesn't say that the people of Israel chose his sons to be their judges or they found them to be godly men that would make great judges. No, it's Samuel who makes his sons judge. He just wants his sons to follow in his footsteps. And so because he's a judge, he just makes his sons judges. And look what the Bible says. Verse two, now the name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second Abaya. They were judges in Beersheba and his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah and said unto him, behold, thou art old and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Go if you would to Exodus chapter 18. Exodus chapter number 18. Make us a king to judge us like all the nations. They want to have a king and be like the nations around them. This was not God's plan. God wanted them to have the system of the judges. But you know, one of the great things about the system of the judges is that it was not hereditary. But ironically, what they're asking for, a king is something that's hereditary. So basically what they're asking to do is go out of the frying pan and into the fire. They like Samuel, but they're like, well, yeah, but your sons don't walk in your ways. We like you, Samuel, but your sons are ungodly. Make us a king so that his son can be ungodly and his son can be ungodly. And then we can be stuck with their grandsons that are all ungodly. It's ridiculous what they want. But you know, when people rebel against the word of God, they're typically not making sense, okay? And that's why Samuel sits there and explains to them in chapter eight here, look, you don't want a king. This is what a king's gonna do. He's gonna oppress you. He's gonna tax you. He's gonna take your money and this and that. And we'll talk more about the kings of Israel in a moment, but look what the right prerequisite for choosing a judge should have been. It says in Exodus 18, verse 21, moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men. Do you see these qualifications? They have the ability to do the job well. Able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. So notice, these are the exact opposite of Samuel's sons. Samuel's sons, they took bribes. They went after filthy lucre. They perverted judgment. These are supposed to be men of truth, hating covetousness. They're supposed to be God-fearing, able men. Notice he doesn't say, hey, you know, pick so-and-so's son, so-and-so's nephew, so-and-so's brother-in-law, or son-in-law. No, they are to be picked based on their merits. And that's why when you look through the book of Judges, you know what you'll notice about the Judges in the book of Judges? Is that they're from all different tribes. You know, you got this guy from this tribe, this guy from that tribe. They're not related to one another. And then you see, if you would flip over to Judges chapter 8, in fact, and I'll show you this. Judges chapter number 8, we see that the judge Gideon is invited to set up this dynasty, where his son is gonna rule and his grandson's gonna rule. He wisely turns this down, okay? Look what it says in Judges chapter 8, verse 22. Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also, for thou has delivered us from the hand of Midian. Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you. He's saying, look, I'm not going to become king. Because remember in 1 Samuel chapter 8, when they rejected the system of the judges and said, give us a king like all the nations, God said, well, they haven't rejected you, they've rejected me, that I should not rule over them. So the opposite of God ruling over them was having a king and being like all the other nations, right? I want you to get that connection because here, Gideon, when he's told, rule over us and your son and your son's son, he immediately puts it together, they want me to be the king. He understands right away, because he was already the judge, but he understands right away, they're not asking me to be a judge here, they're asking me to be a king. You know, when my son's going to rule and my grandson's going to rule, that's why he answered them, no, no, no, I'm not going to rule over you, my son's not going to rule over you, the Lord's going to rule over you. He's saying, hey, let's stick with the system of the judges, let's not go to the king system of 1 Samuel chapter 8, okay? Now, of course, if you know the story in the book of Judges, if you would flip over to 1 Samuel chapter 2, if you know the story in the book of Judges, you know that one of his wicked sons named Abimelech actually takes over and becomes king, and he reigns for three years as king, and you know what he does? He murders all of his brothers, and he's a wicked king, and God destroys him three years later, and he gets wiped out. It's a great story in Judges chapter number nine, I believe, but it's a great story about Abimelech, and he was that wicked king, and he ended up being destroyed. So I'm just starting out the sermon. I'm going to get more into the principles of what I want to teach on tonight, but right now I'm just giving you biblical examples, okay? So, so far we've seen the biblical example of Samuel, and making his son's judges, and how that was a disaster because they weren't picked based on the merits of Exodus chapter 18, or the merits of Deuteronomy chapter one. They were handed the position simply because they were his sons, and then we see the right example where Gideon says, no, no, no, we're not going to do that. The Lord's going to rule over you. My sons aren't going to rule over you. Now let's look at another example with Eli, another leader who had bad sons. Look at 1 Samuel chapter two verse 12. Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord. And the priest custom with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest servant came while the flesh was in seething with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand, and he stuck it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the flesh hook brought up, the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. Also before they burnt the fat, the priest servant came and said to the men that sacrificed, give flesh to roast for the priest, for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw. And if any man said unto him, let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth, then he would answer them, nay, but thou shalt give it me now. And if not, I will take it by force. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. So the sons of Eli are gluttonous and greedy. And instead of taking the meat that God had ordained, the portion of the sacrifice that God ordained, they wanted to just get the raw flesh so that they could eat it in all of its fatty glory. And they didn't want it boiled or sodden. They didn't want it cooked in a certain, they want to cook it their way and eat extra and eat the fatty portions and so forth. And by threatening people, when people were trying to do it the right way, threatening them and saying, well, you're going to give it to me or I'm going to take it by force, bullying people and threatening them, then they cause men to abhor the sacrifice of the Lord. Cause they, you know, they want to give a sacrifice to the Lord, right? When they bring that animal to the tabernacle to sacrifice it, they want to do service to God. But then they realize that the human that they're actually giving it to is this rotten, gluttonous, wicked, bullying, threatening extortioner of a person. So then it caused people not even want to go to church. They don't even want to go to church. They don't even want to put money in the offering because they know that it's going to these wicked people now, obviously that you say, well, you know, they should have just realized they're giving it to the Lord and so forth. Yeah, except it caused men to abhor the offering of the Lord. I mean, they wanted to give the Lord, but they had mixed feelings about it because of who's actually getting the offering itself. What else did they do? And the verse 17 says that the sin of the young man was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. So the fact that this was turning people away from church, turning people away from offering to the Lord, this was a big sin in the eyes of God that they did this. Jump down if you would to verse 22. Now, Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel, how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So not only are they gluttons, extortioners, bullies, thieves, sacrilegious, but they're also committing fornication. And they're using the church as a place to troll for women to fornicate with. And he said to them, why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil dealings by all this people, nay my sons, for it is no good report that I hear. Yeah, that's an understatement. I mean, it's not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? Here's a key phrase. Notwithstanding, they hearken not into the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them. So basically, when their father gives this weak reproof, this weak correction, they don't respond to it. And one of the reasons why they didn't respond to it is because the Bible says that God wanted to destroy them. God was so angry and fed up with them. He didn't want them to repent at this point. He just wants to wipe them out. And of course, that's what he did. The Lord would slay them. Why? Because they're sons of Belial. They're reprobates. Belial is the devil. Belial is above Belial, Belial, anything that sounds like that. Belial is the devil, okay? And so they're children of the devil, children of the wicked one, tears among the wheat, reprobates. And so God wanted to just wipe them out. Go if you would to 1 Timothy 5. So we see examples of this hereditary ministry not working out with Samuel's sons, Eli's sons, Gideon's son, godly men who have ungodly children that are put into positions of leadership spiritually, okay? And look, I don't have time to go through all the examples of this in the Bible. I'm just showing you a few key examples, but we could go through all the kings of Israel and go through all the kings of Judah, and what do we frequently see? A godly king who has an ungodly son take over the throne after him. How many times do you actually see a godly king have a godly son who has a godly son and a godly son? It rarely ever happens, does it? Typically, the son of the godly king is wicked. Or at very best, he's weak, or he screws things up in some way, shape, or form. He does poorly. Why is that? I'll tell you exactly why. Because when everything is handed to you, you are not going to be the same kind of person as the person who actually worked to get there. When things are just handed to you, when you're just born with the silver spoon in your mouth, and you're just the royal family, that's a little different than a David who started out humble, he started out taking care of the sheep, he started out being the least of his father's house, and he climbed the ranks based on what? Based on his godliness. Based on being a man of truth. Based on hating covetousness, doing right, serving God, and God lifted him up and elevated him to a position. Then he hands it to his son Solomon, and Solomon's pretty much just getting handed everything. And Solomon did well for a long time, but in the end, what did Solomon end up doing? He ended up going after strange women, and he ended up messing up the kingdom and splitting it. And then his son Abijah, he just really cares about, or I'm sorry, his son Rehoboam just cares about getting more women, right? Because he was trying to keep up with dad. Solomon with his, what, 700 wives and 300 concubines, and then it tells us of Rehoboam, he desired many wives. Because he couldn't seem to get into the three digits on wives, you know? He had tens of wives, but he didn't get to the hundreds of wives level, right? You know, and then you have Rehoboam's son Abijah, and Asa, you know, you go down through the list, and you know, these guys weren't David, were they? You know, then finally you get down to a godly king who the Bible says, hey, he was a lot like David. You know, Josiah was like David in many ways, right? But again, Josiah's a guy who had to go fight the battles, and things weren't just handed to him, you know? He had to take the kingdom and turn it back to the Lord and everything like that. So what I'm saying is that all throughout the Bible, we see examples of godly men with ungodly sons. Now there are godly men who have godly sons, but we also see the reverse, don't we? What does that tell us? That tells us that the children of the pastor should not automatically be elevated to positions of esteem just because it's Pastor Anderson's son or Pastor so-and-so's son, whoever it is. Why? Because people should be judged on their merits, not based on what family they come from. This is not the royal family. This is not a kingdom. This isn't the kingdom hall, amen? This is church, all right? So a Baptist church is not a family business. It's not pastor and sons. It's not a kingdom where the king is going to pass the scepter to his son and his son's son. It's a place where we are on an even playing field, regardless of who our parents are. And God is not a respecter of persons. And we are to be put in positions of authority based on merit, not based on nepotism, OK? Look down at your Bible there in 1 Timothy 5, verse 21. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. Don't prefer one before another or do anything by partiality. Lay hands suddenly on no man. Neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2. This is the Apostle Paul giving instructions unto Timothy. And he is explaining to him how he's going to pass the torch to the next generation. And he's already been teaching Timothy, for example, in 1 Timothy chapter 3. What are the qualifications for a bishop? Who do you ordain to be a bishop? Who do you ordain to be a deacon? What are the qualifications? And here he says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 2, and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. So the search should be for the faithful men, not pastor's sons, pastor's nephew, pastor's grandson is just the heir apparent to the throne down at Faithful Word Baptist Church or whatever the church, right? This is not a family business. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 3, 1 Timothy chapter 3. And I'm going to explain to you some of the reasons why this is so bad. And let me say this. We've seen the examples in the Bible. And again, the time would fail me to tell you of all the examples in the Bible that we could talk about in regard to this. But not only have I seen examples of this in the Bible, I've spent my entire life watching this play out in real life, OK? Let me give you some examples. I grew up in a church for several years in my formative years that was an independent, fundamental King James, soul winning Baptist church. It ran hundreds of people. It was reaching a lot of people, successful church. That church was destroyed by nepotism. I was there to see it. I was there as a 10, 11 year old boy. And I watched that church ripped apart because of nepotism. First, the pastor puts his oldest son on the staff. And his oldest son is making more money than anyone else on the staff. Now, people didn't really think too much of that because the eldest son was actually pretty well qualified for the job. He was a stand up guy and he was doing a good job and he had qualifications and stuff. So it didn't really seem like that big of a deal. But I'll tell you when people got really upset was when the next son was put on staff at 18 years old, right out of high school, totally unqualified and getting paid more than people who are in their 30s, who've been on staff for a decade. You know what I mean? This young punk, and he was a bit of a young punk, is just put on staff, given all this money, given this position of authority, not because of his abilities, not because of his merits, not because he had earned it, but because he was the pastor's son. It was just automatic that he's just put in that position and people got mad. People didn't like it. And it ripped the church apart. There's a major church split. A lot of people left the church. And you know, it's a long story about that church's downward spiral. But you know what? That was the beginning of the end. Was that son being hired? He didn't deserve it. Okay, and that was the beginning of the end. But not only that, if you spent time in church growing up, you've seen this in the old IFB, Examples Abound, where the pastor was awesome, and then the son takes over and he's watered down. He's weak. He takes the church in a liberal direction. He runs it into the ground. You know, Rand ain't wrong. You know what I'm saying? Who knows what I'm talking about with that, you know? It's just, that's just the way it is, you know? It's not always gonna be that the son is just a chip off the old book. Now, what I wanna say about this, and I want you to hear me very carefully, and I don't want you to misunderstand the sermon. I'm gonna make it very clear tonight what I'm saying, because I don't want anyone to misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that the sons of pastors are bad guys going into it. Here's what I'm saying. I'm saying if you put someone who's 18 years old, 19 years old, 20 years old, into a position of power, or authority, or spiritual leadership when they haven't earned it, they will become a bad person. They might not have even been a bad person to start with. But what did the Bible say in 1 Timothy 3 verse six about the qualifications for the pastor? It says, not a novice lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. This guy in verse six here is not necessarily a bad guy going in, is he? But when the novice is put behind the pulpit, being lifted up with pride, he falls into the condemnation of the devil, okay? Now, obviously, the novice is not the same as the pastor's son, okay? I'm not conflating these two things. But I'm showing you that the principle that we see here in 1 Timothy 3, six partially explains what goes wrong with many of pastor's sons. Let me explain to you why. Why does the novice get lifted up with pride? Because of the fact that he's so new. What does novice mean? Novice simply means new. It means beginner. You know, even in sports, sometimes there'll be the novice, the amateur, and the pro, right? The novice is simply the beginner. Why is the novice lifted up with pride? Because when you take someone who's new and then all of a sudden, boom, they're just hurled into a position of authority prematurely, they haven't earned it, they haven't paid their dues, you know what they start thinking? Man, I'm pretty awesome. Look how I climbed the ladder. Look how many steps on the ladder I skipped. I am awesome. That's how they start to think. So the novice who is put in this lofty position of authority gets lifted up with pride and then he falls into the condemnation of the devil. Now, the same thing could happen with the pastor's children. Why? Because of the fact that they are automatically just pushed into prominence, they have instant credibility, just they're instantly accepted as just, it's Pastor Anderson's kids or Pastor so-and-so's kids. And boom, they're just hurled forth. They're preaching and doing things that normal mortals in the church would not be doing. You understand what I'm saying? Not based on their merits, not based on their achievements, not based on the fact that they've paid their dues, but based on the fact that they're the pastor's sons. We must pay our dues in life before we are put in a position of preeminence, prominence, or authority. We must pay our dues. You know, a lot of people, they just wanna come in here and they think they're just gonna get ordained and sent out to pastor. You've gotta pay your dues and it's not even a sure thing. If you're looking for a sure thing, you can go sign up at Bible college and in four years, no child will be left behind. You'll get a degree and they'll send you out and you can go be a pastor or whatever. But you know, there's no sure thing here. You gotta earn it. You gotta pay your dues. You gotta work hard and you've gotta be found faithful. You have to do it on your own merits. Look, if my children achieve positions, I want it to be based on their own merits, not based on nepotism. And let me just guarantee you one thing right now. There will never be nepotism in this church with my children. I've already gone on the record. I'm not preaching anything new tonight. Those of you who've listened to my preaching for a long time know that I've already gone on the record and made certain commitments. I have stated none of my sons will ever be on staff at this church, ever, ever. No son will ever be hired to work at this church. Now, I wanna make this really clear tonight. I'm not saying that that's a commandment in the Bible. I'm not saying that God's word says that. I don't want you to go criticize some other church or some other pastor when they hire their son because I'm not teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. I'm just telling you that I am personally making that commitment because I've seen this destroy way too many churches. I've seen way too many good churches go south because of this. I am personally making this decision for our church as the pastor. I am saying that no son of mine will ever be on staff at this church. And number two, I'll take it a step further, none of my sons will ever be ordained at this church. I will not ordain any of them to be a pastor. If they decide someday that they wanna preach or pastor, they're gonna have to go to another church to be ordained so that they can go do it on their own merits. And I hope that that pastor that they go to makes it hard for them and doesn't make it easy. And you say, well, why would you say that? Why do you wanna make it hard for your sons to pastor? Don't you want them to follow in dad's footsteps? No, I don't. Because of the fact that not everyone is cut out to be a pastor, not everyone is automatically just called to preach. You know what? There's the mama called papa sent pastors out there and there's way too many of them. If one of my sons wants to be a pastor, great. Let him pay his dues and get there on his own and not ride dad's coattails. Amen? Let him go somewhere else and earn it themselves. And you say, well, I don't understand why it's a double standard, why you'd be harder on them. Okay, let me give you the double standard from the Bible. Unto whom much is given of him shall much be required. There's your double standard right there. My kids that are growing up in my home, maybe they don't realize necessarily how good they have it, but they have it pretty good. They have it great. They're growing up and getting spoon fed, all this great doctrine. Mom and dad are fighting all the battles. Dad's bringing home the bacon and providing them with everything that they need. And they've got a church and they've got a big church, thriving church to grow up in and have friends. And you know what? Instantly, they are seen on a higher level, but I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying people look at them as, oh, the pastor's kids. So that's a great privilege for them to grow up and be handed all these things. They get to go on the missions trips. They get to go preaching with dad and they get to go and be with dad when he's a guest preacher somewhere and gets treated really well. And they get treated well right along with me and all is fine and dandy. But let me tell you something, that's a big responsibility. When you're sitting there and growing up in a pastor's home, I mean look, other people are growing up in the home of a drunk. Other people are growing up in the home of a prostitute. Other people are growing up in homes where all kinds of horrible things are going on. Other people are growing up in homes where their parents are divorced and they have step parents, they have issues to deal with. Look, if you're gonna grow up in this idyllic situation where you're growing up in a pastor's home and you're growing up in a fundamental Baptist church, you know what, you gotta thank God every day and you know what, much is given, of him shall much be required and nobody wants to hear you get up here and preach behind the pulpit when you're 18, 19, 20 years old and tell us how it is when everything's been handed to you on a silver platter. You gotta go out and make something of yourself. Amen? And you know what, my sons, they wanna go make something of themselves. They don't want dad to just hand them. Do you, sons, you want me to just hand you everything and you can just be like little Prince William and Prince Lord Fauntleroy and everything's just handy. Hey, look, you oughta wanna go out and make your own way in life. Go build your own career, right? You'll get a job and work and climb the ladder, learn a skill, learn a trade, climb the ladder at your job, make something of yourself, and then someday maybe someone will wanna hear what you have to say behind the pulpit when you've gone out there and you've lived a godly life and shown a testimony of living right that you did on your own, that you went out and got married and had kids and ruled your house and were faithful and worked at your job and succeeded at your job in the world on your own, okay? That's what you oughta do. Now look, you say, well, you're being awfully hard on your kids. Look, friend, this is actually taking the pressure off my kids. Many other pastors today, they're pressuring their sons to be preachers when they're not cut out for it. You know, my sons should just be thankful that I'm not trying to push them into being a pastor or something. If anything, I wanna make it hard for them to be a pastor and discourage them from being a pastor. That way, only if they're truly cut out for it and if God truly wants them to do that, will they overcome the obstacles that I put in their way to stop them from doing it? Why, but why, why? Because my kids, if they went out and became a pastor, they would just have instant credibility. Oh, it's Pastor Anderson's son. Instant credibility, instant fame, instant notoriety, instant 100 people in their church because it's Pastor Anderson's son, you know? Folks, that's the last thing they need so they could be lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil. This is a big issue for me. I feel very strongly about this. I've seen it many times. So I gave you the examples from the Bible. I gave you the example of the church I grew up in. Here's another famous example. How about Jack Heil's son, David Heil's? Okay, so here's Jack Heil's. You know, he started out in podunk hauler, pastoring a church with 19 people in it and you know, he had three deacons, two old codgers and a draft dodger and the woman who played the piano in the church, you know, she played the bench more than she played the piano according to him and she only knew one song, The Old Rugged Cross so they sung every song to the tune of The Old Rugged Cross and he talks about being out in this middle nowhere church in Texas with 19 people, you know, and then he basically preached and worked and climbed the ladder and you know, did something with his life and he ended up achieving, building the world's largest Sunday school. You know, he has this huge, gigantic first Baptist church of Hammond and Deanna with thousands of people in it, massive ministry, pastor's school where hundreds of pastors, maybe even thousands of pastors would come and just want to learn what are you doing so that we can go do the same thing, you know, and try to learn from him. And I think that Brother Heil's, and look, like love or hate Brother Heil's, you know, he was one of the most significant preachers of the 20th century and he had a great influence in regard to soul winning. He wrote the book called Let's Go Soul Winning. He coined the phrase, the Romans Road and so, you know, he's a pretty influential guy in the 20th century. I listen to a ton of his preaching. You know, my dad grew up hearing him preach once a year in Los Angeles and so forth and so, you know, he was very influential upon myself and many others, okay, in the previous generation. He passed away in 2001 but his son, David Heil's, became one of the most rotten people imaginable. Just imagine the most rotten son that Eli had or that Samuel had, that's David Heil's, okay? And I mean, this guy was just a serial adulterer, just wicked person, just like Eli's sons, basically. That's what this guy was like. You say, well, how in the world could that happen, okay? Well, first of all, you know, his dad even admitted and said many times how he wasn't there for his son. He was out too busy doing everything with the ministry and traveling and everything and so, he didn't spend the time with his son. His son's in a Christian school and whatever. You know, a lot of things that could explain the wrong upbringing, the bad upbringing but I'll tell you one of the biggest things why he became such a rotten person. You know, this kid's 18 years old and he's put behind the pulpit at First Baptist Church of Hammond to preach to literally 5,000 teenagers who gathered there at youth conference. So he put an 18 year old behind the pulpit to preach to like 5,000 teenagers. You don't think that's gonna go to his head? You don't think he's gonna be lifted up with pride when he's like traveling around the country, 18, 19, 20, 21, just being whined and dined and preaching and a big celebrity and he's so fit. You can even find old advertisements, advertising. David Hiles is coming to town, you know, because why? Is it because of his own merits? No, it's because he's the king's son. You know, he's this celebrity immediately and this is human nature to have this royalty attitude about people, like they're the royal family. Folks, I was just at the store or I think I was in the airport or something and they had some magazine, you know, about the royal family in England and it was like showing these little toddlers and like what it's like growing up royalty and like, you know, inside the lives of these little toddlers. It's like, who cares? Like I'm supposed to just fawn all over these people just because they're born into some stupid inbred family or something, who cares? What are their achievements? Do they have any achievements? Do they have any merits? Have they done anything? It's just, oh, prince, whatever. Who gives a rip? This is America, amen? Why are they selling that junk in America? I thought we got rid of that back in 1776, amen? Should be banned from even being sold here. Should have to like change your IP address to some like British IP address to even be able to watch that royal wedding or whatever. But anyway, here's an example, okay, so here's another example from First Baptist Church of Hammond. How about Brother Hiles' successor? When Jack Hiles died, who succeeded him? The evil son-in-law. The evil son-in-law, Jack Scott. And you know what's interesting? You listen to Jack Scott, which I did, here's what he said. He said, you know, when I went to Hiles Anderson College I prayed that God would somehow allow me to have a special relationship with Brother Hiles. You know, I knew it was a gigantic church, but I prayed that somehow God would allow me to get close to Brother Hiles. You know, get on the inside. Folks, that's a stupid thing to pray. Quit worshiping man and trying to get all, oh, I just want to get close to Brother Hiles or I gotta find a way to get on the inner circle with Pastor Anderson or Pastor Jimenez or, folks, that's carnal. Okay, this church is filled with godly people to be friends with. There are all kinds of other people that you can fellowship with. It's just like, no, I gotta get on the inner circle with the royal family or something. And so Brother Hiles, you know, was, I believe, a good man. I'm not saying that everything he did was right, but I believe he was a godly man. And I know there's all kinds of lies and slander about him. I don't believe that stuff. And I do know that he did a lot of wrong things. But in general, in the aggregate, you know, the tree is known by his fruit, and there's a lot of great fruit that came out of that soul-winning movement of the 20th century, spearheaded by Brother Hiles at the end there, okay? So I see a lot of good fruit from that. My family, myself, in many ways, are a fruit of that ministry. So the point is that the son-in-law, Jack Scopp, okay, he went into it, like, with a desire to get in there and get with Brother Hiles, and he did this by marrying Brother Hiles' daughter, okay, and then that he ends up taking over the church, and of course, teaching damnable heresy, ruining it, teaching lies, and you know the rest, otherwise Google it, and you can see his, what do they call it? Your mugshot. Because, you know, he's this statutory rapist and everything else, you know, wicked, pervert, devil. Okay, because he was there for the wrong reasons. He's getting in there for the wrong reasons. This is a danger of nepotism, where the sons and the son-in-law get put in positions of power, because then now wicked, unscrupulous people could seek to become a son-in-law so that they can get in there and get that power for themselves. You know, let's look at David on the opposite side of that. David didn't seek after this. You know, David was humble about this, and they said, hey, be the king's son-in-law. He's like, whoa, you know, is that a light thing to you, to be a king's son-in-law? He was not clamoring to do that. They had to beg him to do that, talk him into doing that, and he got to that position by his own merits, by the way. Out on the battlefield, he warred and served Saul, and so people were encouraging him, hey, be the king's son-in-law. But let me just say this. Not only will none of my sons ever be on staff here or be ordained by our church, and by the way, none of them will ever preach behind this pulpit either. The only exception to that would be if they went out and made it somewhere else, got ordained somewhere else, succeeded somewhere else, and then they could come back here and preach once they're a veteran from somewhere else, but not here. But I'll take it a step further. None of my sons-in-law will ever do any of these things so if you marry one of my daughters, that's just a guarantee that I will never ordain you and I will never hire you. Hey, look, if you marry one of my daughters, it better be because you wanna marry one of my daughters. It better be because you love them, not because you love me. I don't wanna marry you. I already have a wife. I'm not interested in you marrying me. You marry them. Love them, care about them. And look, there are people who would wanna use my sons and my daughters just to get in to the inner circle and it's wicked and stupid and weird and sick and freaky. It is. Who would use their kid as a pawn like that anyway? It's wicked. Look, any young man who wants to marry one of my daughters, great. Do it because you wanna marry one of my daughters, not because you wanna climb the ranks of Faith Forward Baptist Church because it's just a guarantee that you're not, you don't even have access to that ladder. You will never be hired, you will never be ordained if you marry one of my daughters, period. Oh, you don't want us to marry? Hey, I only want someone to marry my daughters for the right reason and that's the wrong reason. And so I'm very serious about that. But of course, somebody like Jack Scopp was marrying in in order to infiltrate. Now of course, Scopp's gone, now they have a new pastor and he seems to be a great guy. And so hopefully they'll live happily ever after they're in Hammond. But the point is that I've seen this over and over again, we see it in the Bible, it's not happening here. And I'm going on the record, I'm making that commitment and I'm just, and again, I'm not trying to impose this on other people. And let me say this too, I don't want you to misunderstand me and think that I'm putting shade on any pastors that are the sons of other pastors. There are good pastors out there that are the sons of other pastors. There are some good pastors out there who their dad was a pastor, their grandfather was a pastor. And look, God bless them, I'm not down on them, I'm not criticizing them. Folks, the exception proves the rule. Of course, there are great men of God out there that got on staff in their dad's church or worked in their dad's church or pastor. So don't you dare think that I'm criticizing. Look, some of our pastor friends are the sons of pastors, but you know what, our pastor friends that are in that situation where their dad was a pastor or maybe they were even ordained in their home church or ordained by their dad or something, our pastor friends that are in that position, if you actually talk to them and learn about their story and figure out, these guys, they earned what they have, they've paid their dues, they've worked their secular jobs, they've made it in life, they've earned it and done things right, okay? But then there are guys like Tyler Baker, okay? You know, here's Tyler Baker who was found to be unfaithful in his position. He was fired from the church staff, found unfaithful and fired, and then what does he do? He goes to his dad's church and gets a drive-through ordination from his dad's church. And you know what's funny? A year before he got ordained at his dad's church, you know what he said about that church? He said, there are a bunch of stinking losers. He got up and publicly said of his own dad's church, he said, the church I grew up in are a bunch of stinking losers. It's on YouTube. Just type in Tyler Baker on the church that ordained him. Bunch of stinking losers. I don't think they knew that when they ordained him, that that's what he said. Or maybe they're just that stupid, I don't know. But then he goes there and all of a sudden, it's like, all of a sudden then he just walks in there and look, no church would have touched him with a 10-foot pole if it wasn't for the fact that he was family. You think somebody who gets fired from Faithful Word Baptist Church for stealing and lying and being dishonest and being a heretic and denying the Trinity, for crying out loud, is, do you think anyone's gonna touch them with a 10-foot pole? No way. The only reason he got ordained is because he was family, because it was the good old boy club and the church is run by his dad and his uncle and his second cousin and Uncle Billy Bob and all these people in Kentucky whose family tree looks like a tumbleweed and they basically, you know, he goes in there and all of a sudden he gets ordained by them. There is no way in Hades that he ever would have gotten ordained anywhere else. Once he was exposed for being a fraud, once he seemed to be teaching damnable heresy, I mean, who's gonna look the other way about that little thing of just, you know, not believing in the Trinity? You know, just a little thing. You know, he was found unfaithful. He was found to be a backstabbing, conniving, disloyal, wicked servant of the church and so he got thrown out on his butt but then he goes to daddy, you know, to good old daddy. You know, it's the faith only a mother could love and the doctrine only dad could ordain. And that's what I'm preaching against. That's nepotism right there. You know, what if we would have fired another staff member? What if some other staff member, what if it would have been Garrett? You know, we fire Garrett, Garrett's denying the Trinity. He gets started. You think Garrett could have moved to Kentucky and gotten ordained by that church? No, it never would have happened. Bunch of stinking losers. But you know what? Folks, I'm telling you, nepotism. And so I'm not trying to put shade on good pastors who work hard and earned their position just because they happen to be the pastor's son. And look, I'm not saying that God commands that the pastor's sons can't be on staff or that God commands that they can never be ordained in their home church. I'm just saying that's the standard here. That's not God's rule, that's my rule. And you know what? It's okay for us to have rules that are not in the Bible as long as we don't claim they're God's rules. The problem is when you get up and say, hey, this is God's rule. No, did you know that you can have whatever rules in your house you want? Just don't claim that they're God's rule. You can have a rule in your house that says everybody needs to be in bed by nine o'clock. And you don't have to have a chapter and verse for that. You can just make that rule because that's your house, right? Well, here at our church, we have some rules at our church just to safeguard our church. We just have certain rules and things that are based on biblical principles, but they're just our house rules here that we're using to keep things right here. And because I see the danger, and especially because I'm not just a pastor, I'm a very well-known pastor. I'm infamous, right? That's more than famous. I'm infamous, right? No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, I'm infamous, but there is a certain demographic among whom a lot of people think that I have a lot of credibility and would give that to my sons automatically. And so I need to be extra careful. Why? Because I love my sons, and I don't want my sons to go down a dark path. And I'm doing this because I love my sons, and I want what's best for them. And I love the church, and I want what's best for the church. And what's best for the church is not my sons automatically inheriting the pulpit. I don't think that's the best thing in any church. It needs to be based on merit, not on family. And you know what's funny is that Jack Scott would always joke about how he only got the job because he's the son-in-law. And you know what, there's always truth in that kind of a joke. Believe what they tell you. And he got up and said, that Russell Anderson said to him, don't ever forget Jack, you stay great the same way you became great. And I always remember that saying, I think that's a great saying. You stay great the way you became great, right? Think about restaurants. They became great by serving really good food at a good price. But then what do they do? They get greedy, they cut quality, they raise prices, or worse, they start putting in junk and poison in the food and hydrogenated soybean oil and everything. And you gotta stay great the way you became great, right? And he told Scott, he said, you stay great the way you became great. You know, you gotta, however you got to where you are, you gotta keep doing that. And he said, well, how I got here is by marrying the boss's daughter. How do I keep doing that? You know, and he kept, and then Russell Anderson said, no, no, I'm serious. He's like, yeah, I'm serious too. You know, he would say that all the time. He would joke about that all the time. But you know what, there's truth, it's on his mind. He wants to get that off his chest. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speak it. That's why he would talk about that so much. Okay, it was a disaster. Let me cover something else too in regard to the daughters, okay, of pastors and Christian servants. You know, a lot of pastors, they just really want their daughter to be married to a pastor. Like it's not enough for them that their sons all become pastors. They also need all their daughters to become the wives of pastors. And you think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I have sat, even recently, I sat and talked with an old IFP pastor, and he was a good guy, and I enjoyed fellowshipping with him, going soul-wanting with him. But I sat down with him, and he told me, he said, yeah, my daughter went to Bible college. She was there for four years, but she didn't get married, you know, because that's kind of the meat market where you go to get married at the Bible college. So, you know, she came home, and she's still not married, and he said, you know, part of it is that we have a really high standard, like we only want her to be married to a pastor. Like she's only gonna marry a pastor. And so I tried to gently, you know, I'm not just gonna start, oh, that's stupid, you know. Obviously I was tactful. It is stupid though. But anyway, you know, I was very tactful, but I basically explained to him, I said, well, I said, you know, this is what I want for my children. I said, you know, I just want my children to just go to church and love God. I just want them to be a virgin on their wedding day, and I just want them to be faithful to their spouse, and just go to church, and do some soul winning, and just live a Christian life. You know, if they do that, I'm totally satisfied, totally happy. You know, if anybody wants to go into the ministry, be pastor, great, but honestly, you know, I just want them to just love God, and just serve God, even just as a, oh, well, I have a higher standard than that. And I'm like, no, you don't, because I said, that's not a higher standard. But you know what, this comes from a mistaken view that somehow the pastor is better than everyone else. Folks, the pastor is not better than everyone else, so that is not a higher standard. That's just a wrong standard. Folks, let me tell you something. The pastor does have authority. The pastor does have a different position, but the pastor is not better than anyone else, okay. Now, the Bible uses the illustration of the human body, and he talks about how we're all members in the body of Christ, and one person's the ear, one person's the foot, one person's the hand, one person's the nose, and look, he says here, one part is not better than another. It's not like, well, which is better, your mouth or your ear? Which is better, your hand or your foot? Your hand is better at certain things, and your foot is better at certain things, but you know what, I want to keep both. You know, if the whole body were an ear, where were the smelling? If the whole body were the nose, where were the hearing, you know? And the Bible says, look, you need all the different people, and everybody has their role to play, their part to play. The pastor is not, you say, well, the pastor's the head, no, Jesus is the head. Amen. Okay, the pastor has authority and leadership in the church, but he does not have greater value. I don't even like the term, I've always hated this term full-time Christian service. I don't like it. You know, that basically, if you're on staff, you're getting a paycheck, you're a full-time Christian servant. And this is why I didn't like it, because this is what they would always act like, is a higher level of Christianity. And they'd even have preaching services that were very emotional, where people at the end of the service would come down the aisle and surrender their lives to full-time Christian service. Who's ever been in a service where people surrendered their lives to full-time, you know, come down the aisle and you surrender your life to full-time Christian, you know what, that might not be what God has for you. What are you surrendering your life to full-time? Did you know you could be a full-time Christian servant as you do carpentry, as you do electrical, as you make tents, as you do whatever job? Because you know what, whether we eat or drink, we're supposed to do everything to the glory of God. It's not like, oh, you're a full-time Christian servant. Like we're gonna get to heaven and there's like two lines at the judgment seat of Christ. Like, okay, it's like TSA pre-check, it's like, oh, you're a full-time Christian servant, you get to the front of the line. You don't have to take your shoes off in front of the burning bush, you know? You can keep your laptop in your backpack. And it's like, oh, okay, you actually got a secular job, here, you go to the long line, you're gonna take your shoes off, you're going in a naked scanner, you know. Folks, no, being a full-time Christian servant, that's not even a thing. There are gonna be laymen who get rewarded more greatly than pastors. The first will be last and the last will be first. And look, obviously, yeah, there are gonna be great pastors who are greatly rewarded, great laymen that are greatly rewarded. Folks, it's not about being the pastor. It's not like you have to have this position or, and look, it's even weirder. And look, it's weird when they just want their pastors to all be, or I'm sorry, the pastor wants all their sons to be a pastor. That's wrong. It's even weirder when they want all their daughters to be married to pastors. That's like another level of weirdness, okay? And here's the thing, it's not that I don't like my kids or that I'm being hard on them, because let me tell you something, I'm actually lifting a burden off them. I'm not putting all this pressure on them, like you have to marry this one dweeby guy because he wants to be a pastor. And that stud that you're into, well, guess what? He's not pastoring, he's off the table. Or to say to my sons, hey, you need to be in the ministry, you gotta be pastoring. You know what, I don't want them to do that unless they're totally cut out for that, if God's calling them. And you know what, why is it so hard for them to move to another church where they can be judged a little bit more objectively? Is that some undue hardship? If it's so hard to move to another city, well, they're gonna have a real rough time in the ministry because you're gonna have to do a lot harder things than that. Being a pastor is not a picnic, okay? Except on November 23rd or whatever that date is. Then being pastoring is literally a picnic, okay? But the point is, I don't wanna put that undue burden on them. I don't wanna put a bunch of pressure on them. They're just normal kids. I just want them to grow up and live a normal Christian life. And anything they achieve, I want them to achieve on their own merits, not riding on my coattails. It's that simple. You know, we had a young lady in our church that was dating a godly man. And she decided, this young man, you know, he was thinking about pastoring or being a missionary or a preacher of some kind. And he got to a point where he decided, you know what, it's not for me. I'm not going into the ministry. That's okay. Hey, as long as you're going to church and winning souls and loving God, you're great. Okay, you don't have to be a pastor. Not everybody's cut out to be the pastor or a deacon or anything else. So this guy decided that he wasn't going into full-time Christian service and the girl was gonna break up with him. Cause she's like, well, no, I need to marry a pastor. You know, and I very strongly told her what I thought about that. You know, I went right up to her and I said, you know what, that is, your desire to be a pastor's wife is a wrong desire. It's a carnal desire that is not from God. Because what you're coveting there is a position that's not even a thing. Pastor's wife. You know what a pastor's wife is? It's a pastor's wife. That's what it is. It's two words. It's not just like hashtag pastor's wife or something. It's all run together. Okay, that's not even a thing. But it's like, oh, I gotta be a pastor's wife. You know what, stop coveting that position that's not even that cool. Okay, and you know what, I said, you know what, why don't you just be happy to be married to a godly young man? That should be enough. And you know, who's following who here? Who's calling the shots here? I thought as the wife, you're there to be his help and his support. Now all of a sudden, you're determining his career path. You know, and then you'll run into these women where their husband's a pastor and then if he quits for whatever reason, it's like they have no reason to live anymore. Oh, my whole life is over. I was called to be a pastor's wife and now I'm not. And let me just explain something to you. If I stopped being a pastor tomorrow, I would still be as happy as a clam. And I would still keep serving God and loving God and living my life, but because my life's meaning is not determined by the fact that I'm a pastor. I'm a servant of God and I could serve God while pastoring or while not pastoring. Amen? I could win souls whether I'm a pastor or not. I can love God and serve God and read my Bible and praise the Lord. As a layman. And you know what? If I stopped being a pastor tomorrow, and I'm not gonna stop, all right, but I'm saying, if I stopped being a pastor tomorrow, you know what? My wife wouldn't just like freak out and be like, what are we gonna do? Our life means nothing now. That's stupid. My wife would just be like, okay, whatever, yeah. Because you know what? She's my wife and she'd be just as happy being an electrician's wife or being a fire alarm guy's wife or whatever. She's fine with that. It's not about being a pastor's wife. It's not about being a pastor. It's not about being a full-time Christian service. Folks, it's just about loving and serving God and being humble. Okay, so I hope that I've made myself clear tonight. And again, I'm not trying to put shade on other people who do things differently, okay? Look, if there are other people who decide to go against everything that I'm preaching tonight and maybe in other churches, the whole staff is gonna be filled with their family and their son-in-laws and their sons, you know what? Hey, God bless them. I just hope that they're being picked on their merits and they just happen to be the most meritorious and they're in those positions because they truly are the most qualified people. I hope so. But let me tell you something. It's not gonna happen here because I've seen it go wrong too many times. Too many bad examples out there not happening here, amen? And I'm not trying to put shade on other people or anything like that, but I will say this. I just dread to think that 20 years from now, 20 years from now, all of our pastor friend's sons are just all gonna be the pastors of the next generation in this movement. It's just a good way to just destroy this movement. Now look, if one or two of them end up doing that or if some of them end up doing that because they actually are cut out for it, because they actually merit that, then great, praise the Lord. But you know, if it's just like all these pastor's kids where it's all handed to them, boy, they're gonna run it into the ground. People need to climb the ladder themselves. They need to work themselves, pay their dues and earn what they have. And the question should be asked, would this guy be in this position if he weren't family? And you know that in a lot of businesses, you know they wouldn't be there if they weren't family. And again, if it's a small business or something, hey, that's often ethical and appropriate because the boss can do what he wants with his money and his job. Now in giant corporations, it can become unethical when other people own the company and stuff like that. But in a small business, it's totally ethical to put your family on the payroll. You know what I mean? Totally right. But guess what? This isn't a family business. This is the local church. This is God's house. This is not a kingdom, not a monarchy. And it's not a family business, it's church. And so we need to ask ourselves when it comes to the ministry, hey, would this guy be getting this position if he weren't family? You know, that's something to think about, right? As God's people. But you'll never have to wonder that here because I'm not gonna hire a family. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and for warning us of some of these possible pitfalls, Lord, help us to watch out for them. I pray that everyone would accept the message and the spirit it was given, Lord. And Lord, I thank you for my children. You know my heart that I love every single one of my children dearly. And I enjoy them more than anything. Just being at home with my family, my wife and kids is truly the greatest pleasure in life. And I thank you so much for each of my sons and each of my daughters, Lord. And I pray that they would understand that I love them just the way they are and that I don't need them to be in the ministry in order to prove anything to me or anyone else. I'm just happy so long as they love you and serve you. Help them to understand that, Lord. And I pray that you'd raise up a great generation of preachers and pastors and deacons in America that would pick up the torch, Lord. And I pray that they would be men that are described in Exodus chapter 18, where they love the truth and they hate covetousness, Lord, not just a bunch of little Lord Fauntleroys that inherited it, Lord. And in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.