Rick Wilkins Funeral
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On May 24th of 1992 when I was only 16 my dad died of a massive heart attack. To say I was crushed was an understatement.
But God…
But God had other plans. He never intended for me to go through life without the guidance of a father. He never intended for me to wander and be lost without the wisdom and advice of another man that loved and cared about my future and my well-being.
So God gave me 2 more dads. In 1999 my mom married my step dad, and in 2001 I married Kristi.
On Tuesday January 17th shortly after Dad passed, the discussion of a memorial service started. I asked mom if she intended to have Brother Eddie speak this afternoon to which she replied, “yes.” I told her that I would like to share a few words. Almost instantly her demeanor changed, and she was filled with excitement. She looked at me and said, “We will just have Pastor read the obituary, and you can do the rest…” and then she said words that I have heard hundreds of times before and many times since. She said, “You are His son, and he would have loved to know you were doing it.”
When she said that my heart sank. I knew I could get up here and share A FEW WORDS. I knew I could make it through 2 or 3 or maybe 5 minutes, but to be responsible for the entire message… My immediate thoughts were, “I don’t know how or where I will gain the physical or emotional strength to stand in front of the people he loved so dearly, and share the things I KNOW he would have wanted to be shared.
Over the past week and a half as I have scribbled some notes here and there that question, rather the doubt of my ability has haunted me, but right beside that that self-doubt, has been a voice reminding me…BUT GOD!
So, as I stand here this afternoon and attempt to share please forgive the moments when I need to pause and collect myself. Know that as I stand here sharing some memories of a man we all loved, and the Words of life that he lived by, know that I am doing so as his son, as someone that he mentored, and as someone that witnessed the evidence of a life lived for God.
This afternoon, for the next few minutes, I want to talk about the “Evidence.”
Last Tuesday as I drove to the hospital the words to that song that Dillon and Makenna just sang echoed in my mind.
Even as I thought about what I would want to say this afternoon, I thought about the evidence of Dad’s life. The things he did, said, and showed us that left a lasting impression. A life changing impression.
I. Love
a. Goodness of God
b. 1 John 4:7-12
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.
12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
i. No one has ever seen God, but we saw God’s love demonstrated and displayed in the way Dad lived his life and loved each of us.
c. David Barron’s Front Door Matthew 22:37-40
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
II. Forgiveness
a. Walking off the job at Cozahome
b. The story of the prodigal son
c. Dad didn’t wait for me to come back to him. He came to me.
III. Rest
Dad worked hard, but he knew how to rest.
Offer to live in the cabin!
a. Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
b. Psalm 55:22
22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
c. 1 Peter 5:8
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
IV. Hope
a. Titus 2:13
13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
b. Rapture
i. Mom was mad
c. His hope for all of us to be with Him
i. 1 John 4:15
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
SALVATION
One thing I can promise everyone here, dad lived a life of expectation; an expectation to one day see his Savior face to face, and an expectation that the people he loved would rejoin him some day.
Today that expectation has been partially fulfilled. He has done his part to see it to it that WE will all spend eternity with him.
Jesus did His part to make sure you would spend eternity with Him and dad.
BUT The rest is up to you!
The Bible is clear that one day EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, AND EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS IS LORD!
That verse does not promise that everyone that does that will spend eternity with Jesus.
The key to eternal peace, love, and union with God is confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior here and now.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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.
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”