Adrian Figueroa Service

Introduction

14,115 days. Those were the number of days Adrian lived on this earth. The writer of Psalms pens a prayer to God in

Psalm 90:12 NASB95

So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

Wisdom — To make the most of one’s days.

None of us know how many days we have and it is wise to make the most of them. I think a great argument could be made that Adrian made the most of his 14,115 days.

Part of this can be seen in the fun he had — He loved gaming, go carts, zip lining and ATV driving. He was always up for creating fun when it seemed nowhere to be found.

Determination with which he lived his life — He was very determined to do what he loved with the days he had. He applied 6 times until he was finally hired for what would become his dream job at Rack Space.

Spiritually — He grew up in a Christian home, accepted Christ as a child, rededicated his life to Jesus as an adult. Was an outstanding friend, brother, son, husband and daddy. He was fun, deep, inspiring and just a bit curious with his sly smile and quiet thoughts.

There is so much to say about these 14 thousand days and we only have minutes here this morning to do so. But we will try…and for the rest of our own days we will recall and reminisce the days we had with Adrian.

But more than that we will talk about the days which have only begun, The days he enjoys in heaven because of his faith in Jesus Christ.

Faith

Adrian became a Christian as a child and rededicated his life as an adult. This just means there were a few rough spots along the way and as an adult he realized there were areas in which he had gotten a bit off base. It was time to surrender His life to God’s way of doing things.

This commitment was made evident with something he wrote...

His relationship with Christ could also be seen in how he loved people. Christ had changed him and given him a great capacity to love others. He was extraordinarily kind, could listen well, made those around him feel valued and respected.

He had a penchant for attracting odd balls around him…but he never made any of us feel odd. That was part of his charm but more than that it was part of his gift…one of the many God gave him.

He was a caretaker — One of the last things he did for his mother was help her when she had a flat tire. It was after 9pm, Adrian had gone to bed…but when the phone rang (Robert couldn’t help because he was recovering from surgery) he didn’t tell his mother he was in bed…he jumped up, went to her, changed the tire, followed her home and went inside to check on his dad before returning home.

Most of us have a story like this…a time when he was there to help us out…even if it was in the virtual world of a good video game he was teaching us to play.

One of his co-workers, Vern (also a pallbearer), won 2nd place as employee of the month. He told Adrian he wanted to split it since he was much a part of it as he was & Adrian's response was that the whole team helped & just use it to buy breakfast for everyone. Just shows how caring & generous he was.

My kids are 8 and 3, when his bear avatar popped up on the PlayStation, even the 3 year old knew who it was and would track me down in the house to let me know Adrian was on.  They would always want to hand me the controller and headset, once I joined the party with Adrian, they would want the headset back to talk with him, which he would always oblige.

He was a great son and brother — He was always close with his brother Allan and the two of them always had one another’s back. He loved and cherished his parents. Even in those times when his dreams were not completely in line with their dreams for him.

College story here — Two weeks in he had’nt gone to a single class

He always respected his parents, honored them and loved them.

He was a great dad too — He was proud of his children…all of you...Gabriella and Preston, Rian, Mya, Callie and granddaughter Audrey. He was always interested in what you were doing and loved each one of you with great passion. He was proud of each of you.

He married Marenda and became a daddy to Preston and Gabby. He took Gabby on daddy, daughter dates...

He answered Rian’s questions (when it was time to be in bed) and taught him gaming…was full of joy to reconnect with Callie and see the beautiful young woman she had become, and loved Mya by always making sure she was a part of everything and never left out of anything…taking her on vacations.

Preston is grossed out by body hair & Adrian would chase him around the house with his shirt off, lol.

He treated my kids as his own. I would say something about "my kids" and he'd always correct me by saying "our kids". He made Preston a Halloween costume that actually transformed, helped with homework, played tea party and dolls with Gabi, and put them in bed at night.

Preston is grossed out by body hair & Adrian would chase him around the house with his shirt off, lol.

Marenda — The love of his life…Marenda. I take credit for bringing you two together…I won’t go into how! But, suffice to say he took my advice, found you and was never happier for having done so.

He loved you so very much. You were the most important person in his life. He had never loved anyone the way he loved you. You were truly his dream come true and it was obvious to all of us. Its just a good thing for him that you appreciated his unique brand of humor!

Its just a good thing for him that you appreciated his unique brand of humor!

But you also appreciated his love for Christ and that love for Jesus is what matters the most at times like right now.

“He would make me watch sci-fi, fantasy and super hero movie/shows. He was proud that he was slowly turning me nerd.” He recently roped me in to Pokemon & we would spend hours together driving around playing with & without the kids. We enjoyed it more than they did. That became our new "date-night". He would always joke that I was obsessed, but he was way more into than I was.

We loved going black Fri shopping together even if we weren't looking for anything in particular just to watch the crazies. This past one, we brought fart spray. He'd point out groups of ppl for me to victimize & we'd laugh hysterically at their reactions. 

We loved going black Fri shopping together even if we weren't looking for anything in particular just to watch the crazies. This past one, we brought fart spray. He'd point out groups of ppl for me to victimize & we'd laugh hysterically at their reactions. 

His fav place to eat has always been Rosa's & he would always order the exact same thing: chicken fajitas, no lettuce. Every time i would ask where he wanted to eat, he'd ALWAYS say Rosa's. I got so tired of it, but he had convinced the kids it was the best too, so I was always out numbered.

Heaven

The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord. Adrain was never alone, never afraid. The moment he left his body his eyes opened to see Jesus waiting to take him into heaven.

Heaven — Is a wonderful, beautiful place. There is no sadness there, no sickness, no disease, no sorrow and no tears of any kind.

Heaven is so beautiful it is hard to describe. The roads there look like gold, the most beautiful gold you could ever imagine and then some. The foundation is made of something that looks like the most beautiful jewels the earth has but are even more beautiful than those.

And everyone who has ever placed faith in Jesus for their salvation is in heaven too. His grandparents Maria Figueroa as well as Annette and Berlie Rogers were there to welcome him as were any and all of his friends and family who had died in Christ before him.

The body we lay in the ground today is only a shell, am “earth suit” which Adrian’s soul wore while he lived on this earth. Someday this suit will be raised from the ground when Jesus returns.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 NASB95

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Adrian will be in that great crowd of people Jesus brings with Him from heaven when He returns. He will raise all of their bodies up and they will take ownership of them again…only they will be completely perfect and whole…untouched by sin’s curse…untouched by age, disease or sickness of any kind.

And we too will be given such bodies…we will then be with our Jesus forever and once again see Adrian with our eyes…hear his voice again and feel his hand in our own…his arms around us…for those few he would allow to hug him!

All of this because of his faith

"I, once the immovable object, have become the unstoppable force. And My God? Once the Unstoppable force, has become the immovable object. He is my Rock upon which a great foundation has been being built since day one." — Adrian on September 2, 2013

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