Home-going Service of Marvin "Curt" Franklin

[Music] all i want is oh jesus can you imagine how that sounds to the father when we say that we live in a nation that seems to want to turn its back on god but there's a people who are crying out and saying i'm not after the blessings and not after the things i'm after the presence of god because when you get god you get everything else that you need all i want is you know you can seek out the things that miss god but if you seek after god the things will come all i want i'm hungry i'm thirsty i'm desperate for you i can't live one day without your presence is [Music] is [Music] i say [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] everything to is [Music] i don't care what you're going through there's nothing too hard that god can't do for you there's nothing that you've been in nothing that you've done that god can't forgive you a lot of times we go back and pick it up but the lord has thrown it in the sea of forgetfulness but i dare you to trust him on tonight and you can take it to the king y'all gonna help me sing [Music] yeah yeah oh [Music] [Music] to do truth is i'm weak [Music] no strength to fight no tears to cry even if i try but still my soul refuses to die [Music] i don't have much to bring [Music] leave me there alone to gaze upon your glove [Music] and sing to you the song please take me to the king truth is it's time to stop playing these games [Music] right [Music] [Applause] [Music] take me to the king [Music] [Music] upon your glory and to sing to you this song [Music] i don't have much to bring my heart's torn to pieces it's my offering [Music] is take me [Music] truth [Music] it's time to make a change hallelujah oh bless your name jesus [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] savior [Music] i could only imagine can you just imagine standing before the king can you only imagine we get ready for the word of god just think about it can you only imagine [Music] to be surrounded [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] can [Music] [Applause] [Music] in case you don't have any words [Music] thank you for your [Music] [Music] [Music] the name of jesus we get ready [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] reaching [Music] lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth however you had the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting you are god you turn man to destruction and you say return o children of men for a thousand years in your sight like a watch in the night you carry them away like a flood and they are like sheep their sleep in the morning they are like the grass which grows up in the morning it flourishes and it grows and in the evening it is cut down and it withers away for we have been consumed with your anger and by your wrath [Music] we are terrified you've set our iniquities before you a secret sin in the light of your countenance all of our days are passed away in your wrath we finish our years like a sigh the days of our years are 70 years and if by reason of strength they are 80 years yet their boast is only labor and sorrow but is soon cut off we fly away who knows the power of your anger for as the fear of you so is your wrath so teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom return oh lord how long and have compassion on your servants [Music] satisfy us early with your mercy and we may rejoice and be glad all of our days make us glad according to the days in which you've afflicted us [Music] the years in which we have seen evil let your work appear to your servants and your glory to the children and let the beauty of the lord our god be upon us establish the work of our hands for us yes establish the works of our hands he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall dwell and abide under the shadow of the almighty i will say of the lord he is my refuge and my fortress my god and him will i trust surely surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence he shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge his truth shall be your shield and buckler you should not be afraid of the terror by night nor of the arrows that fly by day nor of the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor of the destruction that lays weight waste at noon day a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand but it should not come near you only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked because you have made the lord who is my refuge even the most high your dwelling place no evil shall befall you nor shall any plague come near you or your dwelling place for he should give his angels charge over you to keep you in all of your ways and in their hands they shall bear you up unless you dash your foot against the stone you should tread upon the lion and the cobra the young lion and the serpent you should trample underfoot because he has set his love upon me therefore i will deliver him i will set him on high because he has known my name he should call upon me and i will answer him and i would be with him in trouble i would deliver him and honor him with long life i will satisfy him and show him my salvation amen those of you who are standing you may be seated if you can my brothers and sisters we are here to celebrate the homegoing services for our dear brother brother marvin curtis franklin who born february 15 1958 departed this life september the 1st 2020 and may i say to you that this is a celebration amen we come to praise the lord and celebrate his life amen the lord said in his word i will bless the lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth my soul shall make his boast in the lord the humble shall hear thereof and be glad so why don't you just help me magnify the lord and let us exalt his name together because he is worthy to be praised amen we are not going to uh belabor the time here today we're going to get right into our service we've had our processional we're going to have a musical selection by our very own sister gloria jackson we're going to follow the program as printed we want to make sure we honor the family's request and all that is asked to do today so we're asking you a man to remember that this is a family and we want to make sure we honor their request and their wishes god bless you let's proceed as follows [Music] [Music] see [Music] grace how sweet [Music] the sounds oh [Music] i was alone [Music] but now [Music] thank god i can see if you can't pray praise god praise god praise praise god god praise [Music] praise god i don't care what you're going through [Applause] god [Music] praise god god praise praise god praise praise god praise praise god [Music] praise praise god [Applause] praise hallelujah praise praise god old testament reading from the word of god comes for our comfort in the book of isaiah chapter 57 verses 1 and 2. isaiah 57 verses 1 and 2. from the new international version it says the righteous perish and no one ponders it in his heart devout men are taken away and no one understands that the righteous are taken away righteous are taken away to be spared from evil those who walk uprightly enter into peace and they find rest as they lie in death this is the word of god for our comfort from isaiah chapter 57 verses 1 and 2. [Music] the new testament reading coming from revelations 21 from the niv virgin from one to four it said then i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth has passed away and there was no more no longer any sea i saw the new holy city new jerusalem coming down out of the heavens of god prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband and i heard a loud voice from that throne saying look god dwelling place is now among his people and he will dwell with them and he will be his people and the god himself will be their god he will wipe every tear from your eyes there will be no more death no mourning or crying or pain for the old things has passed away this is the word of god for his people of god praise the lord family i'm going to be very quick here to do prayer but i knew marvin he's family so to you after you know suga as we call you and to the rest of the family i know what you're going through it's something about being raised in a big family and when you're growing up all you can think about is those next time you're gonna have that family reunion that next cookout the next time you can get together and enjoy each other but then as part of god's plan we all get older and then there's times of sadness because god's plans require us to go this way just knowing that he's in a better place gives us comfort but the sadness is still there let us reflect on god's word when the disciples also was disconfident when he was thinking about their master leaving them and jesus had told him that but in john the 14th chapter he said let not your heart be troubled for if you believe in god if you believe it i mean if you believe in all this that we can see every day then also believe in me for if i go away i'm going to prepare a place for you and if i go i will receive you to myself now that had to give them comfort but then doubting thomas just like a lot of us didn't know where jesus was going he said well father we don't we don't know where you're going and jesus reminded him in church i just want to leave you with this uh family he says i am the way i am the truth and i am the life let us pray gracious father we thank you that you are our way when we are lost lord in this in our way of life lord and we lose loved ones lord god we don't always know the way but we put our trust in you when we're despondent we're sad lord we grieve lord we know that you are still the way we put all of our trust in you lord we thank you for being the truth that one truth that we need that give us comfort in these times lord we ask you to bless the family lord god allow them to bind their hearts and minds on one accord and draw closer together understanding the loss that they've suffered then lord you said to us in your word that you are also the life you're our life lord god when life ends lord god is just the beginning of the newness of life that we can look forward to when we're drawn back to yourself lord we thank you for the life that marvin has had lord god with his family and friends and but now lord you called him back to yourself so we ask your strength now we know that he's in a better place but we need your strength as we still remain remind us of the joy of lord god that we've had when we gather with him when we fellowship lord god remind us lord god of all the good things that have come from his life the children lord god the grandchildren lord we thank you for all these things before if it had not been for you we wouldn't have this life that we now enjoy so lord we do thank you now grant us peace lord god remind us of the joy lord god even as we grieve knowing that one day we will all lord god be brought together again as one big family so lord we do thank and praise you now for all these things in your son jesus name amen [Music] we give you [Music] is your name your name is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] nobody [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] say [Music] [Music] nobody [Music] is for me [Music] say [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] like this [Applause] [Music] you're faithful in all of your ways [Music] we love you we love you guys [Music] amen thank you so much for that presentation on the memories and life of our brother brother marvin curtis franklin this time we're going to ask for expressions uh please limit them to two minutes if you can uh we want to make sure we honor the family the way they've requested so if you have any comments or expressions i'd like you to come now you don't need it okay um i can always pretty much to god be the glory my name is james reese i come before you to give some expressions for our dearly beloved brother i want to say to you sister ethereen i can understand but i don't know what you're going through per se because it's a personal thing but i can say that god will deliver and i just want to say to you sister ethereen sister evelyn brother jeter the children family members of the franklin family brother marvin was a trustee of maggot street missionary baptist church he was a devoted trustee as a matter of fact i have to kind of sneak a little bit because marvin was always pre-prop and what i mean by that is that marvin oftentimes would be the first one to show up in the parking lot before a trustee meeting and you know sometimes i would say to myself i'm going to beat this guy i'm going to get there before you never could i do it because every time i pull up in the parking lot that white truck was there we really want to thank god from for marvin and i'm sure you do because god gave him to you he give gave you a long time with marvin and that we can be thankful for we as trustees can be thankful for the time that he shared with us so i encourage you as a family member god won't forsake you nor will he leave you and those memories that you share with him will live on and on forever so i just want to say to stay encouraged keep in god's hand it's going to be all right thank you i would just like to pause for a minute to say to the family that the no would community organization share with you in the passing of your beloved husband father and so often we ask why but we have to realize that god wants good people in his army so sometimes he reach down and click pick us up to bring us into his army and we have to realize one thing that if we want to meet the good lord we have to be prepared to go and i can say that marvin is prepared to go so again i would just like to say on behalf of the knowwood community organization that we share you in the passing of your loved one and we will be there in the aftermath because it's after the storm when you need someone to be there to pick you up and we will be there we need you to use the might we need you to use it so they can hear like to say good afternoon to all that with this end uh we just like to say in behalf of the sisters and brothers we want to let sugar know that we love her and her marvin has been a good pair all of their life they've always fitted in together and sugar has always had a smile on her face i don't care what was going on you would never know nothing was going on because she had a smile on her face and our brother we loved him and we know god loved him best and we know all of us got to do just what he's already done and i would just like to say let's pray for each other because we need confidence as a family let's stay together because all of us we need confident this time because this is our little baby brother here and uh we got one more brother back there john and another one raymond but this is our baby brother here and we loved him and he went off into the military and stayed a long time but he came back and reconnected with us and we just had a lovely time and i guess my house was always the meeting place everybody like to come to the country so they can talk louder as they want to they can walk down in the woods ride the horses go cars whatever they want to do but they just love to come to the country and we're going to miss him but we all got to stand in his shoes one day too and but uh we loved him and god but god loved him best thank you to the pastor of this great church to all of the ministers of the gospel my name is nathan fields i'm from huntsman alabama marvin and i bonded some years ago and i always nicknamed marvin marvelous and his wife i call it sugar so marvin marvelous and sugar bonded together and what a great connection that they have each holiday that reflected to military i would always call him and give him thanks for what he served because many times you know that up in the white house we got people that don't appreciate people that serve so therefore i'm saying to all of us we need to appreciate those and i've always appreciated him so i'm saying to all of us marvin was my number one friend and we love him and we care a lot for the family the franklin family the fields family of the connection that you all had was great never should we say anything other than great great great thank you before you go this is sugar's father's brother i am sugar's mother's brother her only two uncles left thank you my name is john stanford to the pastor's pulpit now i'm going to talk about sugar and i'm going to talk about marvin oh let me tell you i am sugar's uncle big brother i'm her uncle big brother elsa had three kids i was her baby before they came along i'm still her baby so mother didn't have he had to deal with me he had to deal with me i had five brothers older than me we loved agaves up and they taught me well however marvin was mature enough and smart enough not to let me really get under his skin the one time that i really really got him after he and sugar got married i believe he was in germany sugar did not go back to germany when he finished that tour he was going i believe to for seal oklahoma and we were sitting there talking and sugar says uncle john if he don't treat me right will you sin for me i said no if he don't treat you right you call me i will come and get you and i'm going to bring lucius with me marvin then say a word he just quietly got up and left that is the one time that i really got him now marvin was a good provider i believe that whatever sugar wanted sugar cat i think the only thing that he loved more than sugar was evelyn then the babies and alvin he set a good example for you i believe that you love your babies and your wife but marvin said a good example for you follow that follow that he was a great provider that's what a father and a husband should be thank you all right this is going to be the last one come on sir amen to the pastor of this great church and to the pulpit guest staff um we bring you greetings from the zion here baptist church down in midway alabama um well the members i have two of the sisters in my church and the family um i'm reminded of solomon when he said trust in the lord with all of thine heart and lean not to your own understanding but in all of your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path i just want to say i had the opportunity to meet uh brother franklin on one occasion i can't remember what program it is but when i met him i felt his spirit and when i went to zion hill i found that they were it was a family atmosphere and i just want to let sister franklin know that you have an extended family in us and you also have the contact to where you can get in touch with us at any time and if anything that we can do for you let us know the drive is not too far we will take the drive but if you need anything from us you have the contact through sister lawrence and sister davis and you can call us when you need us amen god bless god bless you and thank you for those words of encouragement and just reflection on the life of our brother brother marvin i want to say to ethereen and her daughter and her son-in-law and grandchildren and all of you where you are now is a grieving process and uh elizabeth kubler-ross she gives us five steps and how we all degree initially when something happens like this we're in denial we can't believe this is happening it seems like a bad dream and so we deny the fact and if we be honest with ourselves sometimes we even get angry and we get upset and that's a natural thing because someone you love has transitioned they are now no longer in your life and so that hurts and the way we express our hurt is sometimes through our emotions there's nothing wrong with that god gave us emotions for a reason he wants us to express them and sometimes emotions comes out through our tears and tears are good so that we can allow some of the precious that's on our heart to be relieved then we move from the stage of anger to bargaining we begin to bargain with ourselves and say if i had done more if i could have done more if i could have made the situation different i would have but the truth of the matter is god has set a boundary on every one of our lives that none of us can go beyond and so we bargain with that and then if we're not careful if we don't grieve properly we'll slip into a stage called depression and depression is a real real sly kind of animal it sneaks up on you because you have not grieved the way you need to and then you'll find yourself lashing out at people because you have not properly grieved and all i'm saying today if you need to grieve sometimes you gotta get by yourself just get somewhere and holla just get it out the latins have a word they call it catharsis it means to cleanse one's self that means if you got to get off in the woods go to the sister house get in the woods and just holler until you get it out every night and then you need to holler you need to let the lord know lord it hurts and god understands your pain he wants you to bring it to him amen and then finally we move to the stage amen well all of us need is the stage of acceptance we accept what has happened in our lives as the will of god that god will has been done and we cannot change it we cannot augment the will of god we accept it as god's finished work and so i want to say to the family i'm going to give you a scripture i want to say to you etherean what a wonderful wife she is what what a what a woman she is i've watched her from 2008 all the way up to 2020 and i watch your life i didn't watch what you said i watched what you did i watch your daughter i watch your grandchildren i watch your son-in-law i watch your sister amen tell me marvin had an impact on all of your lives thelma came to this church as a result of her brother and in the slides you were able to see pictures of marvin at the church with this entire family as a matter of fact if you look on the back of the bulletin this picture was taken at maggot street missionary baptist church says a lot about our brother what was in him and who he was philippians chapter number two verse number 25 i won't hold you along today we've been reading the book of philippians every morning in our devotional we call it the happy book we get happy amen we are happy because of who god is in our lives not what we're going through not the circumstances that we're facing because we know whatever the crisis are whatever the circumstances are god has us covered and we need to know that that he covers us in the crisis and circumstances that we face in our life so here it is in the text amen he said yet i suppose it necessary to send to you epaphroditus my brother my companion and labor and fellow soldier but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants are my knees now the bike story behind epaphroditus and timothy is that he was on his way to philippi to bring an offering to the apostle paul while he was there and he needed some help and so epaphroditus came to minister to his knees while he was there and while in philippi epaphroditus fell sick and he nearly died while he was there and so now he has recovered because paul said in the previous verse of that but the lord had mercy on him and so now he sends him back to his church family there and in philippi it is believed that he was an elder there in that church and so paul calls him my brother he calls him a fellow worker or my companion in labor a fellow soldier but he's your messenger so my brother my fellow worker my soldier paul listed these important qualities about epaphroditus he was a man paul valued as a partner in the work of the ministry and when i think about our brother today i want to talk about the qualities of a godly man when you think about the qualities of franklin amen you can't help but say that he was a distinctive brother he had standards he had morals he had character he had integrity as a matter of fact every time you saw the brother amen he represented amen the kingdom of god you ever saw the way the brother dressed a man every time he came out a man he looked like he stepped out of gq magazine the brother was dressed from head to toe but that's not the part of dressing i'm talking about not only was he dressed in outward appearance but the brother had some substance on the inside of him that he spoke so loudly that he never had to say a word if i can borrow a phrase today from this great amen uh uh i like to call them a man a frank francis a said these words he said preach the gospel at all time and if necessary use words can i tell you that marvin preached every day and he never had a poor pit to stand in because some of us think our best preaching is done in the pulpit on a platform but at the end of the day when you understand your life ought to speak a message no life ought to say something whether or not you open your mouth or not it's not what i say in this pulpit y'all it's what i do every day of my life preaching don't come from my head it comes from my heart amen preaching is a life that i live that serve other people and not myself when we understand amen that the the the the qualities of a godly man is that we ought to be able to call them our brother amen when you talk about a brother you're talking about someone that you have or you enjoy in a relationship as a matter of fact the scripture says that a brother is born out of adversity anybody ever been hurt had a brother or sister or somebody to come to your aid and say brother i understand where you are i know what you're going through i feel your pain i can i can empathize with you not only amen i can sympathize with you he was a brother it's something that we ought to enjoy about being around a brother marvin was a brother and he had he had this influence on you even though he did not say a word he just had something inside of him that made you love him so as i reflect back over these 12 years of his life here at maggot street on the bulletin he said he came to us in june 2008 and june 8th to be exact and i can honestly say today that this brother was a kind brother he was a gentle and loving brother he was a devoted husband amen he loved this god he loved his family and he loved his church amen he set such a good example by bringing his family to church and gave himself and gave of himself amen he gave his time he gave his talent the uh trustee reese has already alluded to the fact that he was a trustee and marvin not only was a trustee that gave his time his talent he gave his treasure as well and he allowed god to use his temple in service he had maggot street he sang in the mayo chorus amen he was a part of us giving away food at the food bank ministry you remember last year when we did the taste of maggie street he couldn't come he was sick but he sent his donation the brother was plugged into maggot street anything that he could do he did a man that brother had godly qualities amen that we can look at and see as an example he never talked about doing anything he simply did it so he's a brother and that brother speaks of a relationship to be enjoyed i don't know about you but i love being around brothers and every now and then you know we're slipping a little joke or something like that we talk about football hey man everybody up in here no war eagle well i just had to say that you know cause some of y'all alabama fans i just had to throw it out there cause my brother was a war eagle fan amen and we had that thing in common not only did we have that in common we were invicta brothers y'all helped me up in here you know every time marvin stepped out he had a watch to match his outfit amen he was dressed right dressy man he wore those muslin shoes can i tell y'all it's a good idea to go ahead and wear what you gonna wear right now go ahead and enjoy life while you can because you don't know when god's gonna call you home everything that god has gave us he is gonna call it back one day marvin set such a good example i remember asking his wife you think marvin might want to serve in ministry or be on the trustee board and you know how ethereen is she's real quiet in her voice i don't know but i asked him so she she mentioned it to him and to my surprise he said i'll serve but he let me know pastor i just want to serve in that capacity for the will of the lord i'm not doing it for prestige i'm not doing it amen because of the title i'm doing it because i want to do what is right and marvin served on the trustee board and i believe this was the second term that he's serving and so this retired soldier came and helped us amen in the area of the food bank ministries a lot of times a man we think that ministry is all about the title it's all about where we sit and not where we serve when you understand that ministry really means to serve if you're in positions of leadership that's what it means to serve look at jesus can i talk for a moment when jesus had his disciples say man in john chapter 13 jesus sat down with those brothers and began to wash their feet he took a towel strapped it around his waist and begin to wait on the brothers and wash their feet there are some of us we are not we we don't have it in us with that kind of humility to bow down and do the menial task but brother marvin helped in that area where it's hard to get people to help so he preached with his life he preached every time you saw him even though he didn't say anything he was a brother then he was a worker he was a co-worker he understand that when you work a man it speaks of there's a job that needs to be done and really and he was willing to help get that job done there are some jobs that we don't want to do we want the job that make us look good we don't want the job that gets our hands dirty that causes us to get dusty and dirty but marvin understood that there was work that needed to be done and he would help in that area i remember marvin sitting right over here in the evening that we would have bible study you know i'm telling the truth at the end of the bible study we would take offering marvin always got up and walked around and took the offering from people he was always sitting in that same spot when he came to church you know when i look over there today and i don't see marvin i understand that he may have moved from that seat but he moved to another place amen because the bible lets us know that we are seated in heavenly places with christ jesus amen marvin just moved from 642 magnus street over there in that seat to another seat up in glory man because he trusts in the lord not only was marvin a brother and a worker marvin was a soldier there are some of us in here we understand what soldiering is i remember one of the the duties that we were told when we were on guard duty i will guard my duty and quit my post only when properly relieved marvin was on post even while he was sick i had the privilege of going in his home on last thursday amen as we sat in his living room or in in the dean area as we sat there one of the questions i asked marvin look at him in the face i said how is your faith he said pastor i'm good in other words marvin would have said check y'all know what i'm talking about that was one of his watch words hey man he said check pastor he said it's all right amen when you know it's all right with god when you understand i need to know him i want to know god for myself i want to know him in the power of his resurrection and in the fellowship of his suffering amen in other words he said i want to know god intuitively i want to know god experientially i want to know god for myself amen i'm not riding on the coattail of my mother and my father but i know god for myself and any way that i got to attain to the resurrection of jesus christ is all right with me amen it don't matter because i understand that the suffering of these present times is not to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in the end time can i tell y'all glory that god has called marvin to a better place and he's in a place where he don't have to worry about suffering i want to leave you with this poem dr benjamin mays elijah cummings reflected these 54 words poem by benjamin mays when he did his first speech on the congressional floor he said i have only just a minute only 60 seconds in it forced upon me can't refuse it didn't seek it didn't choose it but it's up to me to use it i must suffer if i lose it give an account if i abuse it just a tiny little minute but eternity is in it brothers and sisters we don't have but a minute whatever we do we need to do it for christ i pray for this family i pray that you would hold on to the legacy of marvin franklin and what he has done and what he represented you are to live and represent that as well that brother was a stellar example for all of us to follow i say to you god bless you god keep you that is our prayer for our brother our co-worker and our soldiers those are qualities of a godly man god bless you god keep you is our prayer the [Music] [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] me [Music] [Music] uh

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Length: 71min 50sec (4310 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020