Funeral: Rebecca Ann Franklin
Funerals • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
When I think about Rebecca being 37, I’m reminded of how fragile we are and how short life can be.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
The older I get the more I realize it’s not the quantity of life that matters but the quality. I’ve been in prayer for this family as Carol has talked about this cancer gene that has threatened so many. I’ve been praying for the surgeries and recoveries of the family members and will continue to do so.
It makes you stop and think about the quality of life you have. No one is assured of another day. So, what makes life meaningful and fulfilling. It’s ultimately going to fall on the relationship we build and the love that we share. So many people squander the time they have unable or unwilling to love those around them. What good is it to live for 80 years if you have nothing to show for it.
You are here today be Rebecca enriched your life in some way. She might have been daughter, sister, mother, partner, family, or friend but in all of these there is love and relationship.
When Rebecca turned 30 in 2017 something miraculous happened in her life. She recieved Jesus as her Lord and Savior. This not only gave her assurance of salvation when she passed (which is such a blessing for us to know where she is today), but it gave her the strength and hope she needed to go through the trials of cancer and death. I was told that she kept saying, “I’m not worried about this. I know where I’m going.” She had put her faith and trust in Jesus and now she is seeing him face to face.
There is another person who’s life was cut short, but because of his love and relationships changed the course of the entire world. That person’s name is Jesus. Jesus was 33 years old when he was hung on a cross to pay for the sins of the whole world. Just 33.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus’ life and especially the last 3 1/2 years were to show love and build relationships that would change the world. It’s not the quantity but the quality that matters.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
If quality of life is love and relationships and love if of God, then it stand to reason that you need God in your life so you can love one another. Rebecca’s life was fulfilling even though it was short because she knew the love of God and experience that love through others.
To experience love you have to experience the God of love. God’s love is extended to the world through Jesus.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
To give love you must receive love.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
