Ann Winn Funeral

Nancy Wynn - Opening Processional music (15 minutes before beginning of service)

Eric - Welcome and Scripture Devotional

Good afternoon. I want to welcome all of you who have come to remember Ann Winn and honor her memory. This is a day where we, as followers of Jesus, get to experience a wide variety of emotions. We grieve on the one hand, because those of us who knew Ann and loved her will miss having her around. At the same time, we also celebrate today, because we know that Ann is now experiencing the greatest joys she has ever encountered as she enjoys the amazing blessing of seeing her Savior face to face. We celebrate that her faith in Christ and faithfulness to Him and to His people is now being rewarded in heaven. So as we come together this afternoon, it’s okay to mourn and experience grief, but I hope you will not stay in that place, but that you will go from sorrow into a place of peace and comfort. I also pray that you would one day experience the blessing of being welcomed into heaven as a son or daughter of the God of the Universe.

One of the passages that gives us great comfort at times like these is Romans 10:9, which says...

Romans 10:9 CSB

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you have heard me preach here at First Baptist, you will know that one of the things I am a fan of is looking at the context and background of a passage of Scripture so that we can understand it better. Paul was writing to Christians in Rome. There are two words I want to focus on in this passage. The first one is “confess”. To confess, or declare that a specific person was your Lord, was to make a statement about where your allegiance fell. In Rome people would declare or confess that Caesar was their Lord. In other words, they followed the emperor and obeyed him. For someone to say “Jesus is Lord” was to make a declaration that everyone understood to be a statement about who you aligned your entire life with. For Jesus to be Lord meant that Caesar no longer was the primary authority in your life. Your allegiance had changed.

The second word I want to focus on is the word “Lord.” We don’t really have lords in our culture today. Sometimes I use the word “boss” to talk about someone in our lives that has authority over us and who tells us what to do, but the word boss really isn’t a great word because we are used to changing jobs often in our culture, and so the level of authority that we give a boss in our lives is much less than what a Lord had in the days of the Bible. A Lord has more complete authority and control in a person’s life. A Lord tells their servant or slave what to do, and the servant does it. Thankfully, Jesus is not like the tyrants who are cruel and uncaring towards their subjects, he a merciful and loving Lord.

Still, this was a very serious and powerful statement. It was definitely much more than a person today just saying the words “Jesus is Lord” and it not changing their lives very much. A person who truly means this lives a very different life than someone who just says the words.

Ms Ann set an example for others of following Jesus and letting Him be Lord in her life. She now gets to experience the blessing of having Jesus as her Lord. She made Him her priority, and she served Him and obeyed Him. And now, she is enjoying the amazing blessing of eternal life that is a result of her faith in Jesus and His saving her. I don’t know if she is even aware of us down here celebrating her life, she might still be so thrilled to be in God’s presence that she can’t think about much else, but if she did have a thought for us here, she would want everyone who loved her and cared for her to choose to follow Jesus and make Him your Lord. She would want you to be able to enjoy the amazing things she is enjoying right now too.

Let’s pray...

Song – AMAZING GRACE - Brenda Lawler

Eulogy – Edward Winn

Song – In the Garden - Brenda Lawler

Message – Pastor Shelley

Instrumental – He Lives - Nancy Wynn

Dismissal - Pastor Eric

Thank you for being here today and celebrating Ms Ann’s life with her family and friends. We pray that God may comfort you in those moments of sorrow, fill you with joy as you remember how Ms Ann blessed your life, and that He will draw you to Himself as you remember the legacy of a life lived as a servant of God. May you go in peace.