Kore Byler Funeral Service

Lesson Transcript

Let us fall in love while it seems forever. We humbly sail, with grateful hearts, O God, to thee we'll love the favoring air. With grateful hearts, O God, to thee we'll love the favoring air. But your good love searches bright and rests delayed to come; let's be the tempest like the storm which drives us near and far. Let's be the tempest like the storm which drives us near and far. Soon shall our doubts and fears all yield to thy control, by tender mercy shall elude the midnight of the soul.

By tender mercy shall elude the midnight of the soul. Teach us in every state to make thy will arrive, and when the joys of sense depart, to live by faith alone. And when the joys of sense depart, to live by faith alone. I'll just add a few things. But it's not just too bad. It is not just too dark to leave this weary road, and it's the breath of the verdant light, and it's the brotherhood of life, to be as one with God, to be as one with God.

It is not just too close; we are longed in by tears, and we can't wait in glorious recitals to spend eternal years, to spend eternal years. It is not just too faint aside this simple doubt, and rise as dry moss to exalting wind, to raise us from its alting wind, to live among us, to live among us. Jesus, our Prince of Light, thy chosen demotif, like the wake of burdened the strife, like the wake of burdened the strife, to reign with thee on high, to reign with thee on high. Well, I want to welcome everyone.

We're here today to celebrate and remember Corey Biler. Actually, we're here to rejoice that he's moved on to his real home. And, you know, I look out and I see a lot of sad faces, and maybe it's sort of cultural that, hey, I should have a gloomy face when there's a funeral. But I can guarantee you there's one person who does not have a gloomy face today, and that is Corey Biler. He is very glad that he is at his real home. I didn't know Corey real well.

There's probably many of you in the room who knew him better than I did. I met him—he was maybe in his late 50s or early 60s when I would have first met Corey. Got to know him a little bit. Probably my first long interaction with him was in 2013, and he had helped a woman—they were not at Shippensburg Christian Fellowship at that time—and in their fellowship, some woman from the community had visited that Sunday. Maybe she was visiting on a regular basis, I'm not sure. But she had asked Corey if he would help her.

She needed to connect her propane heater, and she had the heater, she had the hose or cable to connect it. She needed someone to drill a hole in the wall to run the line through and connect it up. And Corey was the type of person, if you asked him to do something, he was going to do it. He was a man who loved people. Like I say, I didn't know him as well as many of you, but I could see that part about him right away. So, yeah, he did the loving thing.

He drilled a hole through her wall and connected up the heater for her. Well, he did nothing wrong, but some time later the heater caught on fire. Something defective, either with the heater or with the hose, whatever. And she had fire insurance. They paid for the damage to the house. But then the fire insurance company, Erie Insurance Company, they turned around and they threatened Corey.

And I guess, you know, they asked her who installed this, and she said, "Oh, Corey Biler," gives them his name and address and everything. And he gets this really nasty letter from the insurance company, and they're going to come after him. So he had called me to come over, and I'm an attorney. I don't practice now, but anyway. So he asked me to come over and just look at it.

And, you know, I looked at their letter and I said, "You don't have any liability." I was very impressed that, first of all, he had helped this woman. I saw the ways of the world. It's like, boy, that's how the world treats you. You do something kind, and that's what you get in return. But also his meekness, just his non-resistance. He was, you know, all right. If they were going to take his money, fine. He was resigned for that. But I told him, I said, "Corey, you don't have any liability here.

You did nothing wrong." And I said, "Let me write them a letter on my attorney letterhead. That tends to get attention." And so I wrote them a letter. I explained the situation. I said, "You know, he has no liability here." And I said, "I think you know that." And insurance companies don't tend to be nice when you're on the opposite side dealing with them. But, yeah, I actually got a very nice letter back. They apologized and they said, "You can tell Mr.

Biler, he will not hear any further from us." And I think that's what it was. And that was a happy ending. But I was glad it gave me a chance to get to know Corey, and I saw what a kind person, a person who loved people. Now, then there was a gap. I saw him here and there after that. But then most recently, when I got to reconnect with Corey, it was just a few years ago. And by now, sadly, he was bent over very bad and was suffering from severe dementia. And I was, yeah, sad to see him in that situation.

But you could tell the inner Corey never died away. He was a man who still loved people. I remember if I went up to him after church, and I did quite a few Sundays, and, oh, he was always so happy to meet you. And invariably he'd ask me the same question, "Do I know you?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm David Brousseau. We have met." "Oh, okay. Well, good, yeah, good to know you." You know? And the next Sunday I'd get asked the same question again.

I'm not that far from being there myself, so I'm not in any way making fun of him. And when I'd be over at the house, of course, I'd get the same question when I would come in. He always wanted—when there were people there at Elim's house, Elim and Sloane, I mean, he wanted to be there with people. And so I knew the question, "Do I know you?" And, well, yes, well, I'm David Brousseau. We have met. And then so often the next question was, "Do you know Pennsylvania Dutch?" And, no, I'm sorry, I don't. "Oh, okay.

Well, I just wanted to check." And so I saw he was a man who loved God, loved his family. If you wanted to talk about the Bible, yeah, he could still talk about the Bible. That was still on his mind. And God, he loved to be in a conversation where people were talking about God. So that's a wonderful way to end this phase of your life. But that's just, you know, it's the phase we're happy as Christians to get behind us and move on to the real life that's ahead.

First Thessalonians 4:13, Paul says, "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope." You know, I've thought so many times, what must it be like as an atheist being on your deathbed? Can you imagine lying there and having to hope beyond hope that there is no God? Because you know if there is a God, you are not in a good relationship with Him.

And I've known—I've had friends, family members who are atheists, and I've thought about that a lot. What a horrible way to pass from this life. Where for a Christian, it's like, wow, I'm finally getting to go home. Forty years ago, I started reading the writings of the early Christians, trying to understand what Christianity was like in the beginning. And there were two quotations that stood out to me back then dealing with death. They both made an impression on me.

And this first one I thought summed it up really nicely of why we die. I mean, we know it's part of the punishment of Eden, but there's more to it than that. It's not just, oh, God wants to punish us. It's also a reflection of God's love is why we die. And this early Christian writer, he's not well known, his name is Arnobius, he wrote this. He said, "An eminent sculptor once created a noble statue made of gold. It was beautifully proportioned and all of its members exquisite to look upon.

But there was an evil man who was so jealous of this beautiful statue that he could no longer bear to see its beauty. So in his envy, he mutilated the statue, destroying its elegance. Upon discovering this, the artist decided to cast the statue over again, for he had bestowed much pain, labor, and care upon the statue, and he wanted it to be free from defect. So his only choice was to melt the statue down and then remold it to its original beauty. Now, God's plan seems to be similar.

Upon seeing man, his most beautiful work, corrupted by envious treachery, he could not bear to leave man in such a condition, for he loved man. And he did not want man to remain blemished forever and to carry blame for all eternity. So he dissolves man again back to its original materials. In this way, by remolding man, all of man's blemishes can waste away and disappear.

So the melting down of the statue corresponds to the death and dissolution of the body, and the remolding of the statue corresponds to the resurrection after death. So we will all see—well, we will see Corey again on the other side of the curtain, but we'll all be with him again in a body. But it won't be the same body that we knew Corey. I won't be in the same body. I certainly hope I won't be that. I'll be in a perfect body that I can't even imagine, and every one of you will. Because that's God's will.

I mean, for Him, it might seem to have been loving just to let us live forever as sinful, broken people. But that would be false mercy. No, He wants us to die. We can start over again and all of that be behind Him. It's an act of mercy for Christians that we die. And it's an act of mercy that for most of us, we leave this world with our bodies not being where they were when we were young. You know, if it was time for me to leave Earth when I was 28, yeah, it would have been hard.

I mean, I'm not ready to leave right now, but I tell you, as you get older, you got the aches and pains and you're replacing, you know, your knees or this and that. I see the wisdom of God, you know, that like in Corey's case, you know, there's, I'm sure, not the least ounce of regret in him that, wow, I'm in a wonderful place. It's wonderful to move on. And God, yeah, it's actually an act of mercy that we grow old, our body breaks down, because, yeah, we reach a point we are ready to move on.

We hate to, you know, miss—we'll miss our friends, but we know we're going to be rejoined with them again. But even that, in growing old and frail and breaking down, is part of God's wisdom. I want to share just one other thought on the heavenly country. A lot of this was in the songs that we sang. Hebrews 11:16, "But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." So particularly as Anabaptists, you know, we emphasize the two kingdoms that we're part of another kingdom. I mean, this world, the kingdoms of this world, none of these are our home. This isn't our home country, the United States. I mean, we live here. We're grateful to be living in a country that grants so many freedoms to us, been very good to us, I think, as Anabaptists.

But, yeah, I mean, we're not out with the flag waving it and all that because it's not our country. Our country is in heaven and paradise. The second quote that stuck with me 40 years ago when I was reading the early Christians, it's from a—he was a bishop named Cyprian and lived in North Africa in the city of Carthage. And at the time he wrote this, there was a horrible plague going on throughout all of North Africa. To this day, historians call it Cyprian's plague. Not that he caused it, but he wrote about it.

And so, yeah, they don't know any other name to call it because he gave probably the longest description. But I mean, it was terrible. Like one in three persons died from it if you lived in Egypt or anywhere across North Africa. And he said—he wrote this long letter. He said, because he was a little bit distressed as a bishop, he said, "Somehow our people think that because they're Christians, they should be spared from the calamities of life." He said, "It doesn't work that way.

We're in here with everybody else, and we die when calamities come. We get sick like everyone else. I mean, God can heal. God can intervene. But no, because we become Christians, we don't get put on a different plane and don't have to share the sorrows and pestilences of this world." And he ended this—it was a rather long letter that he wrote. He said, "At the end, we should ever reflect on the fact that we are simply living here on Earth as guests and strangers.

What person placed in a foreign country would not hurry to return to his own country? Who is that eager—who that is eager to return to his friends would not eagerly desire a prosperous gale to speed his ship along?" That was in the song we just sang, "so that he might embrace those dear to him even sooner." We regard paradise as our country. We already consider the patriarchs and apostles as our forefathers.

So why do we not hasten and run when death approaches, that we may behold our country, that we may greet our loved ones? There are a great number of our dear ones who are awaiting us. There is a dense crowd of parents, grandparents, spouses, brothers and sisters, and children longing for us, already assured of their own salvation and safety, but still concerned for our salvation. To these loved ones, beloved brothers, let us hasten with an eager desire.

Let us desire to be quickly with them and to come quickly to Christ. I mean, he didn't mean that we commit suicide or that we try to die. He just said like, "Hey, we embrace it. Okay, there's a plague. I'm going to die. Hey, wonderful. I get to go home." You know? And that was the attitude of most Christians.

I mean, the pagans, I mean, they're crying and bewailing and, "What a horrible calamity." And sure, but the Christians said, "Hey, we're glad to go home." And those who didn't appreciate that, he was trying to help them to see that. It makes me think of when I was a boy. I grew up in the '50s and it was a pretty much safer world. We'd leave in the morning on our bikes in the summertime and we'd be gone all day. But we knew when it got near supper time, we were going to hang around at home.

We were going to come back on our bikes and we might be playing softball in the yard, playing catch, or maybe we'd be in one of the back bedrooms playing Go Fish or Crazy Eaters or something like that. But we'd be listening. My mom had a brass bell, a dinner bell. I don't know where it came from. It was from some other country that I think my dad picked up in his travels. And it was a unique shape. It was a brass bell. And my mom, when it was time for supper, boy, she'd ring that bell.

And we'd be in the back bedroom. It didn't matter if you were in the middle of a game. It didn't matter if you were winning Monopoly. I mean, boy, it's supper time. You were ready to run. If you were outside, you'd go out and shake it outdoors. You might be up a tree or in the middle of a game. Boy, everything dropped. You were ready for supper. And that's the one time all of us as a family would be together. There were four of us children, my mom and dad, and all six of us.

There were very few suppers that all six of us weren't there. And it was such a happy time. And that's what it's like when, yeah, our time comes to leave this world. I'm glad that Corey got to finally hear that supper bell. I'm happy he's home with Jesus, with his wife Elizabeth, and so many loved brothers and sisters. Number 995. 995, when my life's work is ended.

When my life's work is ended and I cross the swelling tide, when the bright and glorious morning I shall see, I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side, and His smile will be the first to welcome me. I shall know—I shall know Him. I shall know Him. And redeemed by His sight I shall stand. I shall know—I shall know Him. I shall know Him by the prince of the nails in His hand.

For the soul thrilling rapture when I knew His blessed face and the luster of His kindly beaming eyes, how my full heart will praise Him for the mercy of and grace that prepared for me a mansion in the sky. I shall know—I shall know Him. I shall know Him. And redeemed by His sight I shall stand. I shall know—I shall know Him. I shall know Him by the prince of the nails in His hand. Oh, the dear ones in glory have a vacant me to come, and are partying at the river I befall.

To the sweet bells of Eden they will sing my welcome song, for I long to see my Savior first of all. I shall know—I shall know Him. I shall know Him. And redeemed by His sight I shall stand. I shall know—I shall know Him. I shall know Him by the prince of the nails in His hand. From the gates to the city in our robust spotless white, equally we wear our tears whenever fall. In the flag song of ages I shall winkle with delight, but I long to see my Savior first of all. I shall know—I shall know Him.

I shall know Him. And redeemed by His sight I shall stand. I shall know—I shall know Him. I shall know Him by the prince of the nails in His hand. Well, good morning. Greetings to you all. And I want to thank you, Brother Dave, for that opening, and Brother Silas for leading out in those hymns. To the family, I want to extend my sympathies and my heartfelt grief over the loss that you're experiencing this day.

Brother Elijah said last evening here when we went through the line, he said, "We're rejoicing." And I believe that rejoicing does not have its basis in the loss, but it has its basis in that the Byler family, along with all of us, have a good sense of a foundational hope by the grace of God that all is well, as was already mentioned by Brother David.

And you know, there's rejoicing not only here, but the Bible says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord are the death of His saints." So we believe this morning that God is smiling. And just thinking of a few memories of the Byler family, along with David, I say, as I knew Brother Corey, he was a very humble man. That is the first characteristic that comes to my mind when I think of Corey.

In humility, he was a man of maybe a few words, but a man of solid words and very quick to acknowledge his shortcomings and very quick to be free and confess his sins and his faults before man and God. What a blessing. And as was mentioned, he was a servant in the community and for his family. And I think of the many, many years he served and cared for Brother Luke. That always stood out to me as a blessing. What a blessing. I could share many memories.

I guess my wife and I got to know the Byler family back somewhere in the early '90s, mid-'90s somewhere when we first came to this church. And I remember the John and Elijah, my wife and I did not know them apart. Back then, they were these young, slender, steady Byler boys. We knew they had different names, but to me, they looked the same. And one of my first memories of one of them, I'm still not quite sure which one it was, stopped at our house one day when I wasn't home.

My wife said one of those Byler boys stopped in and said, "He's in charge of getting the devotionals together in our church, and he's going to ask me to have Sunday morning devotion sometime." I'm like, "No, he's not." I said, "I never spoke in public, and he's not going to get me to start." That scared me so badly. I said, "Well, I'm just going to void that Byler boy, whoever it was." So I sort of voided both of them for a while. I just sort of kept my distance. That's just extra little memories.

But he did catch me one time and ended up having devotions at church. Many memories I could think of just worshiping together, talking together, and so on. Sweet memories. We're not going to take a lot of time with that this morning because we have another subject here that we need to address. It's the subject of death. Solomon says, "Better is the day of death than the day of one's birth.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart." Let's bow for a word of prayer. Dear God, we do invite You to be here this morning. We thank You for this time, and we thank You for the life that we can celebrate of Brother Corey. And Lord, as Your word tells us, that the living will lay it to his heart. And we're here to do that this morning.

And we pray that You would give us wisdom and guidance as we search out this great subject of death. We know that the devil's idea of death is to destroy us, but Your idea of death has a different purpose. And we want to find that out this morning by Your help. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. You can turn with me, turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians at this point. We'll look at a couple of verses there. 2 Corinthians 5.

Verse 1 says, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon the mortality that mortality might be swallowed up in life." I see in those verses that Paul is helping us to understand. He's using this illustration of the house, the tabernacle, our body, wherein we live. This earthly body he's talking about being dissolved. And when that happens, he says, "There's another tabernacle.

There's another house that is being prepared that is an eternal house that has foundations that will never go away." But if you notice in this verse, in these verses, there's a burden. There's sort of a debate going on, if we can use that term, between the two places, the two houses. Part of me is saying, "But I know this tabernacle. I know this body. I've been born in this body. I grew up in this body. It's very familiar to me." And therefore, there's part of me that doesn't want to let go of this body.

It's the only body I know. You see the battle in these verses that Paul is bringing out. And yet there's another part about us that knows this body is a dying body. So we don't really want to stay in this body, do we? We want to get rid of it. We want to because we know there's a better one waiting. But in our humanity, we don't let's just be honest. We don't really want to let go. I don't really want to die. Do you want to die, Brother John? Not really. Elim, do you want to die? Not really.

We still want to sort of hang on to this. And there's a real battle going on here, we see, between the two. Verse 4 says that the mortality might be swallowed up of life. I like that term. Paul knows that when we get ourselves to the place where we can let go of this house, then the mortality that this body carries is going to be swallowed up by life. What a picture. I want to think of a few thoughts about death.

And these will not be new thoughts to us, but I think in a funeral, there's a time for us just to all reflect this great elephant in the room called death that we're just not familiar with. We weren't born to die. We really weren't created to face this elephant, were we? It's so foreign to us. So I think we need to just talk about it. Death is something that most of us don't really want to talk about. We'd rather talk about life and inspirational things, wouldn't we? Not about death.

Death has the idea of separation and taking us away and all of that. Let's think about the reality of death. As much as we don't like death, Job wrestled with this and Solomon wrestled with this. When I think of Bible characters that wrestle with this whole thought of death, this elephant, Job says it like this, "There is an appointment, appointed time to man upon the earth. Seeing his days are determined, the number of months are with thee.

Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." He's thinking about death. He says, "We're so limited in this life with our time, and then we're going to face this death." And he was the one that asked the question, "If a man then die, shall he live again?" So he was very inquisitive. He was and Ecclesiastes, we have that. Solomon as well. So he brings it out as an appointment. And Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed unto men once to die." See, there's that appointment again.

Now, we have appointments in this life. We have appointments to go to the dentist or whatever. We can sort of adjust them and finagle them and cancel them if we will. But this appointment, none of us is going to be able to cancel, are we? The reality and the fact of death, we all have an appointment, and we're all going to be there on time. And it's God's time, not ours. Paul says, "So then death has passed upon all men." We just can't escape it, can we? We will not escape it.

David said, "There's but a step between me and death." That is how he saw it. It's just between us. The next part I want to look at is the origin of death. Where did death come from? And I think this is an important part for us to just look at together. Let's turn our Bibles to Genesis 2, a few verses there in Genesis 2. I think this is so important because death has a lot of relatives. Death has a great family tree.

Pain is often accompanied with death, sorrow, sickness, abuse, or all the ugly things that we can think of that have their roots and their connections in death. And there's a whole world out there today having many, many questions. If God is a good God, then why? Why all this suffering? Why all this injustice? Why all this stuff that's so connected with death? And they begin to question God. I want to settle that with us, that death was man's choice, not God's choice. Genesis 2:1-3. I'll read those verses.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God had created and made." I want you to notice in those verses how often it is repeated that God is finished.

God had a beginning of His creation, and He had an end of His creation according to our understanding, though God is eternal. But He took six days to do everything that we understand. And He said, "I'm finished. I created everything that needs to be created, and all the host therein, it's finished." And He said He rested that day.

As a farmer, when I have everything done at the end of the day that needs to be done, and I could go to the house and sit on the recliner and stretch out and rest, there's a feeling of, "I'm done for the day. I'm finished." I want you to notice the emphasis that God puts on that. "I'm finished. Everything is done." There was no such thing as death yet. If you read the creation story to this point, death was never in the equation, but He was done. And then He rested.

And He took that special day, and He put a blessing on that day because that is the day when He was done. He was finished, and He rested. Oh, what a picture. Didn't Jesus sort of say the same thing on the cross when He said, "It's finished"? There's another work that is also finished that Jesus accomplished. It is finished. I just want you to notice there was no death there yet. And then Genesis 2:15-16 and 17, it says, "God is there organizing everything. He created. He created, and He brought organization there.

And He gave the duty of man. He gave the assignment to Adam to go out there to care for the garden and all the creation there." And then He said an interesting thing. Flip over a page. "And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.

For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.'" That's where it all started. That very day, that very day that man disobeyed God was the first day of death. When I look at that story, I'm like, "Adam, whatever ailed you." Did you notice God told him that all the trees and I don't know. I'm just guessing there were thousands of trees. And He said, "You can eat of all of them freely." Were you ever to pizza party where there's just enough of slices for each person to have one slice?

It's hardly enough, is it? It's like, "Oh, I'm hungry. We worked hard. I could handle the second one and maybe the third one, but we're limited." Here in this garden, they were not limited. God said, "You can freely eat until you're done." Finished. And Adam said, "That one tree that you mentioned we shouldn't eat of, out of the thousands, he went after that one." That was the day it all started. It all started on that day. And anything that's related to death has its roots and its bases back to that day.

Do we get that? Do we get that? Can we tell the world today when they begin to blame God for all the death and all the abuse and all the pain and all the sorrow and all that goes with death, can we say it all has its roots back to that day? Next part I want to look at is the sorrow of death. Now, death brings with it a certain sorrow that we can't deny. We just can't deny it. Genesis says it's the first enemy of man, and Paul says it's man's last enemy. And I think may I just add, I think it's man's greatest enemy.

It's death. Our medical science here has spent a lot of time today to try to push back death, prolong life. And I think if it was possible, I think medical science would do away with death. They tried it, haven't they? They just like to wipe it out and get it out of the way. But it's not going to happen, is it? "Unto the woman, he said, 'I will greatly multiply thy sorrow.'" Notice the word sorrow there.

"And in thy sorrow, thou shalt bring forth thy children, and the desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." And then to Adam, he said, "Cursed is the ground, for thy sake, in sorrow." Notice the word sorrow again. "Shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life, thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." So I'm going to say to the family, if you need to cry through this time of loss, it's okay. Death brings with it sorrow.

Remember when Jesus was at the burial or the death of Lazarus, he wept. Jesus wept. And in the Old Testament time, we see when there was a loss of a loved one, even when he was right with God, that there was a day set for mourning, maybe months at times, where they mourned and wept their sorrow that goes with it. And for Jesus, when he was in that garden and he was facing his death, what did he say? He told his disciples, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful." See that?

He was facing the same kind of sorrow when he was facing his death. He says, "Sorrowful even unto death." And he said, "Oh, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." And then he came back the second time. I always marvel at that. He prayed and he asked God if he could let this cup of death pass and just go away. If that's possible, would you let it happen?

And then the second time he came back and said, "Well, if this is not okay for this to go away, then I will willingly go through it." And he embraced it for our sake. But I want you to notice that death is not only an enemy to us, but it's also God's enemy. It is his first enemy, and it's his last enemy. And could I say it was Jesus's greatest enemy? He faced that enemy. It was not familiar to him because God knew nothing about death. It was not in his creation and picture at all.

Let's look at the purpose of death. Now, as mentioned, the devil's idea of death is to kill, to steal, and to destroy. And I think his ultimate purpose in it is to separate us from God. But I want to look at God's purpose of death. And in this picture, we don't have all the answers. We're just going to glean from Scripture what we understand, realizing that God is sovereign. And when it comes to life and death, his ways are so much higher than our ways. They're past finding out.

But a few things we do understand of the purpose that God has for death. Paul says it's a liberation. He talks about the creature. This is in Romans 8. He says, "The creature is waiting for its glorious liberty from the bondage of corruption. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of the body." That is a picture that death is used as an avenue in God's eyes, as an avenue to liberate us from this trapped body that we're in.

And especially Cory in these last years where he was sort of hunched over. And I'm sure there was pain there that we don't understand. He was trapped in this body. And Paul says that our bodies are groaning in travail, waiting for its full redemption. So God and David touched on this. He used the avenue of death to liberate us from our bondage of this body.

Paul asked the question in Romans 7, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And then he goes on in Romans 8 and explains that who's going to be the great deliverer? It's Jesus Christ. Another point I want to look at. Now, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:36, he told the church there, "Thou fool." Now, he was discussing the subject of the resurrection.

He says, "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die." That means that seed that you put in the ground, and they must have been farmers to understand. You put a seed in the ground. He says, "Except that thing die, it's not going to live again." So God chose the avenue, death as an avenue, to have the resurrection realized. And then he did that in the seed that we put in the ground to help us understand. The first process of growth is death. And there would be no resurrection without a death.

That's what he's saying. And Jesus says, "Except the corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone." So could we say that this is an avenue that God chose? He chose this thing called death to usher in the resurrection into our life. And he says that we shall all be changed. And I believe this is 1 Corinthians 15 where he's discussing the whole subject.

"When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' O death, where's thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" The sting of death is gone. The victory of the grave has lost its power. Why? Because we have come into a new life, the resurrection life. And it's only through this avenue of death that we can attain that. Otherwise, you're not going to have it.

So this is a blessing, is it not? This is why we can rejoice. It's why Brother Elisha said, "We're rejoicing," because they believe that their daddy has laid down this earthly tabernacle, and he went through the sting and the pain of death to be ushered into that new resurrected body, that body that knows no more pain. He died to die no more again. He lives to die no more. He's done with the death and done with the grave. That's over for him. He will never face that again. Never.

What a glorious ushering in of the new life, the resurrection life. We say goodbye to the sting of death. It lost its grip, its sting. O victory, O grave, where is thy victory? It's gone. Another point I want to bring out. This death, God chose to use it as a vehicle to go to our new house, our new home. We put point A to point B. We think in those terms. We either do it by car or bicycle or airplane or train. Point A to point B.

And God chose death to take us from here to there, to take us from what we know of as time. We live in time here. Those of us that are still breathing here, we're still in this time. He took that trip, and he went into eternity. Now, eternity is a place that has no end. And we understand from Scripture, eternity has two different places. Remember the story in Luke, I believe is it Luke 16, where Jesus uses the story of the rich man and Lazarus.

Now, the rich man was not right with God, and Lazarus was right with God. And the Bible says that Lazarus died and he was carried into a good place where there was comfort and bliss and joy. And then Jesus says, "The rich man also died, but he went to a different place." They both died. They both went into this thing. And it especially mentions they were buried. So they did what we're doing here today. Same thing. They both died. But they ended up in two different, drastic different places.

In fact, these places were so drastically different. If you remember, Abraham said that there's a great gulf between the two places. In fact, this gulf is so great. It's not a picket fence. It's not a little privacy fence. But the gulf is so great that no man can pass from one place to the other. And I'm here this time to just simply say the difference was between these two men, what they did with Jesus. That was the difference.

And I'm here to say if there's anyone here this morning that is not right with Jesus, there's no better time to get right than today. Because what you do with Jesus is going to make all the difference which place you're going to be forever. Remember Jesus at a burial at a death of Lazarus, the Mary, and Martha's brother? He said to Martha, he said, "He that believeth in me, though he were dead." So they believe Lazarus was dead, and I think he was. They buried him, and they put grave clothes on him.

And Jesus used that as an illustration. He said, "Just as Lazarus appears to be dead, if you align your life with Jesus, though you go through this process, though we pretend you're dead, using my understanding here, yet shall you live." And then he makes another very strong statement. He says, "He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Does that mean we'll never go to this box? No, we know that we're all going to die this kind of death.

But what Jesus is bringing out, I believe he's bringing out to us that the resurrection life already begins here. We have a foretaste of it. And then he says that when you go to this box and you're buried, it's just opening up. It's the beginning. It's not the beginning completely, but everything on this earth now is settled pertaining to the things, the former things, Revelations calls it. All the former things are settled.

And the foretaste that you experienced in this life is just going to be revealed in a great open way. So with that, I want to urge us, let's really make our calling and election sure. Let's use this opportunity this morning to understand that this elephant that we call death is going to be our appointment sooner or later, but it will happen. And let's do as Amos said to the children of Israel, "Prepare to meet thy God." And Balaam said in his prayer, "Let me die the death of the righteous." There's a difference.

We can die the death of the atheist or the unbeliever or maybe the believer that just is backslidden away from God. We can die that kind of death. But Balaam says, "Let me die the death of the saints, the death of the righteous." That's the kind of death we want to pursue, is be right with our God.

Solomon says, "The righteous has hope in his death." In closing, I just want to think about let's use this opportunity this morning as the psalmist, I believe it's Moses, that says, "Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." So prime time for us as we face and we are faced with this reality. Teach us now, those of us that are alive, teach us to number our days, that we might make a difference and apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Wherefore, my beloved, 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable." When we think of death for our own life and as we face it going forward, all of us, let's be steadfast. Let's be unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Let's make that our life from here forth. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. That's 1 Corinthians 15:58. I want to leave those closing words with all of us this morning. May God bless you.

I was asked to read the obituary and a few memories. Corey D. Byler, age 84, of Elliotsburg, passed away July 10th, 2026, at home. He was born November 5th, 1941, in Bellville to the late John Z. and Amelia Yoder Byler. Corey worked many years doing construction and in his later years was a cemetery caretaker.

He is survived by his children, Luke Byler, Elisha Byler, and wife Yolanda, John Byler and wife Beth, and Salome Peachy and husband Elam, 26 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, brother Ezra Byler and wife Mary Katherine, and sisters Sarah Beachy and husband Daniel and Phoebe Beachy and husband Melvin. Corey was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Elizabeth Myers, brothers Jake Byler, Jonas Byler, John Byler and Andy Byler, and sisters Fannie Hosteller and Maddie Martin. This first memory is written by Elisha.

He says, "By the grace of God, I am what I am." And his grace toward me was not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:10. Certainly, my father's life was in many ways a manifestation of the grace of God, overcoming physical challenges. In his older years, my father shared with me that his mother had told him that his birth was very difficult. It seems that possibly he experienced some mental challenges at birth. A few years later, he suffered a severe bout of measles, which permanently impaired his vision and hearing.

In spite of these physical challenges, he was always cheerful and thankful. It seems he was aware of his limitations and set himself to serving and facilitating others. His life work. At one point, while he was still single, he began to consider dedicating his life to mission work. Just when he was at the point of wanting to take initial steps in that direction, he was approached by Mark Zook. Mark was managing his aunt's farm.

His aunt was a widow and needed someone to manage her farm until her sons would be old enough to assume that responsibility. My father didn't really want to work on a farm. He had set his heart on mission work. However, after having prayed about the matter, he felt that it was God's will for him to take the farm responsibility so that Mark would be free to pursue his calling and missions.

As he thought things over, the thought came to him, "Mark will go and become famous and I won't." And essentially, that's what happened. For those of you who have never heard Mark's story, there is a documentary called E-Tao that tells the story. I would highly recommend watching the documentary. It is a very touching and inspiring story of how the Mount people of Papua New Guinea responded to the gospel. I never detected any resentment on my father's part with how things turned out.

His life career and legacy was that of facilitating others. John writes, "Teach us in every state to make thy will our own, and when the joys of sins depart, to live by faith alone." My father finished his life on this earth. Now I contemplate his responses to life and the choices he made. He chose to pursue what is good and right when he was young. He craved God's favor and blessing and was happy to endure hardship to gain the Lord's favor. He talked about as a youth associating with the more serious young people.

He wasn't interested in the joking and frivolity of a lot of the youth. As dementia took his mind, there were several phrases that we heard over and over. "Lord, for real, thank you, Lord. Live for Jesus and sing for Jesus" were phrases he would repeat over and over. Caring for him at times was really frustrating, and I felt impatient and exasperated with him at times. On the other hand, there was a side of him that was magnified. He was always thanking us for everything we did.

In the last eight months that we cared for him, he would say, "Thank you, Lord," over and over. It reminds me of my father. He even told the nurse at the hospital, "Thank you, Lord." I counted a privilege to have cared for my father, even though it was very difficult at times. It was very encouraging to see redemption and hope shining through the darkness of dementia. To watch him through the last days of his life, too weak to get out of bed, but still saying, "Thank you, Lord." It was very special to me.

About the last words he said were, "Everything's okay." When I asked how he's doing or if he needs anything, at that point, there wasn't much I could do for him. The Lord would have to see him through from there. People these days like to talk about being intentional. Daddy didn't talk like that, but he was just faithfully put God first. Every day he had family worship with us. He wasn't powerful, but he had endurance. He just kept going and didn't quit. Daddy wasn't good at making money.

He was so poor at managing money that my mother managed her finances. He didn't give us a lot of stuff, but what he gave us is much more precious. He showed us how to endure without complaint. He showed us his love for Jesus. His favorite song at the end of his life was, "Jesus loves me." I think he came to a place that all the deep theological stuff didn't really matter. What really mattered was that Jesus loved him, and for that, he was very grateful.

I also want to express gratitude to all the people who have cared for us through all of this. We are deeply grateful. Thank you to the Shippensburg Christian Fellowship Church for all your help and care with the funeral. I don't know what we would have done without you. Much gratitude also to our Heavenly Father, who is always faithful. Salome writes, "I'm blessed to have had a Godly father. Dad was a quiet man with integrity.

Growing up, I saw him start each morning with his own personal devotions and then family devotions after breakfast. At night, when I went to bed, it was usually to the sound of Dad and Mom praying together in their bedroom. Dad wasn't perfect, but I never doubted his love for God. Thank you, Dad, for the example you left me." A little over three years ago, after Dad had dementia, he moved into our home. He lived with our family for two and a half years.

It was hard to see his health decline, but even as he declined, he left us an example to follow. His life of prayer. His life of prayer is one of the things that touched our oldest daughter and brought her to the place of surrendering her life to Christ. She came to our bedroom one night with tears in her eyes. She told us that what touched her was Grandpa didn't have anything left of earthly value, and his mind and health were declining, but he never forgot to pray. His treasure wasn't in what this world offers.

It was in heaven. During the day, we would hear him saying, "Thank you, Jesus. Lord, help me to be a real Christian. Live for Jesus each day." He would ask visitors, "Are you a Christian?" He read his Bible more than any other book, and he loved to sing, "Jesus loves me." While I was in the hospital with him a week before he died, he sang it for the nurse. Even when his mind was failing, he was not a difficult person to care for. He was always thankful and grateful. Thank you, Dad, for the legacy you left me.

My prayer is that I can pass the same to my children. Jon and Beth, thank you for caring for Dad when I felt that I couldn't anymore. And to every friend that helped us over the years in caring for Dad, thank you. The support in these final days of putting Dad to rest has been very touching. I'm so thankful to be part of such a wonderful community. May God bless each of you. So we're going to finish up here with Grandpa's favorite song.

The last time I remember him singing it was he was laying in bed a couple of weeks ago, and I think there was other music playing, and he seemed to have everything tuned out, and he was just singing, clapping his hands real slow, and just singing. It didn't seem like he could hear anything else, really. He was kind of in his own little world. But he would sing it a lot to children, kind of to anybody, really. But let's sing, "Jesus loves me." Jesus loves me. I know. For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me. He. To die. Heaven's gates do open wide. He will wash away my sin. Let his little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.