“My Father Told Me to Abort My Baby…” Pastor Rob McCoy | Theological

When someone violates the law, a contrary directive in opposition to God's law, the person standing in opposition to the one declaring that they're to violate God's law, the one standing in opposition to that is not the rebel. They're the keeper of the law. So if you honor your mother and father, you're saying to them, I can't do this for your sake. I'm honoring you. I do not want you. It's like, Dad, you're speeding. And I don't want you. I I want to honor you. I don't want you to die. You're not the rebel. You're the one keeping the law. You know, when the governor, I'll give you an example. I was an immoral Christian. No, let me correct that. I was a moral pagan, but an immoral Christian. And when I became a Christian and came and told my dad I'm a Christian, my dad said, get that Jesus garbage out of my house. He wasn't thrilled by it. He'd had a bad experience growing up. I grew up pretty much in a secular home. So I was an athlete, so I never had time to get in trouble. I never had time to party with friends because I was morning practice, evening practice, five years running, never missed a practice, made the nationals, Olympic trials, made All-American. I didn't know that. I know it's hard to imagine I was a swimmer because I looked more like a buoy now than I was. I wasn't going to say that, but yeah. All right. And so when I became a Christian, my later portion of college and graduated, I got a job. I had a company car. I had money in my pocket. I had time on my hands. And so I started doing things I never did when I was an athlete, and I got myself in trouble. Well, the girl I was dating got pregnant. And I remember going to tell my mom and dad that my girlfriend's pregnant and we're going to get married. And they didn't like her. And my dad, my mom got upset. My dad, very gentle man, he just said, Rob, look, I'm sure you care about her. You're not prepared to be a father. And in one sense, he was right. But the counsel that came out of his mouth next was not. He said, look, you guys can keep dating, just have her get an abortion. And I said, Dad, that's against what I believe in. And he said, look where your beliefs have gotten you so far. And I said, Dad, that's not God's fault. That's my fault. I'm not following up one mistake with another one. And his comment was, it's not a baby. And I said, then what is it? Because if you're washing dishes at the sink and the kids are behind you and you hear them say, Dad, can I kill this? The first question out my mouth with my back to the child is, what is it? Well, it's a cockroach. Yeah, step on it. It's my little brother. I said, Dad, it's a baby. He said, no, it's too small. And I had just taken Greg Cokel's Stand to Reason, SLED level, the acronym SLED, size, level, development, environment, degree, dependency. And I was defending the life of that unborn. And my dad was done with the debate. And he said, he put his hand up, he said, stop. He said, let me make something clear. You marry that woman and you give birth to that child, you'll never step foot in this house again. And I was 22 years old. My hands were shaking. My heart was racing. My chest was tight. My lips were quivering. And I said, are you serious? He said, I am. I looked at my mom. She's nodding. I said, well, I love you. I'm going to miss you. And I walked out. I was honoring my mother and father. I wasn't going to kill a baby. My mom confessed to having had two abortions. That was the thing that brought her to faith. My dad, too. I was the youngest by seven years. There was a seven-year gap between my siblings and myself. They're a planet, and I'm a moon that revolves around them. And that was the reason for the gap. And my mom would tell me later that I wasn't to be born. There's a story involved in it. But that moment I walked out, I became a man. And my parents were led to faith. I honored them. I stood for the thing that would set them free or challenge them to look at their life. I was scared. I didn't want to. It was the best I could do. I don't know if that helps, but... I guess, what would your advice then be to the young men who watch this show or the young men who really found a role model in someone like Charlie Kirk, who are discovering their religious identity, particularly their connection to Jesus, yet at the same time, their parents, much like yours at that time, they're not ready for that conversation. What would you advise them? How do they navigate that tension? A servant speaks when he's spoken to and offers his opinion when he's asked. You know, um... I love... Figures of history, and I'm going to use Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan. Winston Churchill's father, Randolph Churchill, died of syphilis. His mother was a brazen hussy. She slept around. In Victoria, Victorian England, parents, they were notoriously bad parents in Victorian England. They didn't spend any time with the children. They were always placed in the care of a nanny. But the Churchill... The Churchills were worse than Victorian parents. They spent no time. And Randolph Churchill considered his son to be retarded. And at Harrow School, when he was just across the street serving in Parliament, in Churchill, Winston would send letters to his father and mother wanting them to visit. And they never would. Even when he was across the street, he wouldn't go over and say hello to his son. Nowhere in Churchill's writings do you ever see him bemoaning his dad, attacking his father. The only thing you see is he... He resented the fact that he never had an opportunity to serve with his father in parliament. He honored him. Never said anything bad about him. Reagan's dad was an alcoholic. Nell Reagan was the reason for Reagan's faith that was bookended in his life. She was a church going woman. But Reagan's dad was an alcoholic, couldn't hold a job. They moved from house to house. I think nine different homes in a very short period of time. And he'd come home, see You see his father, you know... Passed out in the snow, face down. He was going to freeze to death. He'd drag him in. And Reagan never spoke poorly of his father. If the best you can do is say, I learned a lot from my dad on what not to do, then you're doing fine. But if you want to go through life with a father wound and blame your parents for all the reasons why you can't succeed, it doesn't work that way. We don't get to pick the parents we get in this world, but we can pick the kind of parent we're going to be. And that's why the first three commandments establishes the qualifications of your heavenly father. And you honor him, that fifth commandment, realize you have a heavenly father, even though you have earthly parents that aren't great, he'll give you wisdom to navigate those waters, speak when you're spoken to, offer your opinion when you're asked. And there will be those times where you're gonna have to stand your ground because you know that this would be dishonoring to them if I fulfilled their... Their demand of me, it's contrary to God's law, and I don't want to do that to them. Hey, if you enjoyed that clip, make sure you click the link below to watch the full episode of Theological.