I want to welcome you this evening to the memorial service for Cheryl Lynn Hallis. We're gathered together tonight to comfort one another and share the mutual sorrow of one another, as well as celebrate the life of Cheryl, who though she struggled so much, Many times she pointed us to Christ in so many ways. And so we want to say a final goodbye. And we want to honor the memory of someone who we could in many ways call our sister. And we want to give comfort to those who are hurting. And this is the day that the Lord has made We will rejoice and be glad in it. For though we did not have Cheryl long enough, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away and blessed be the name of the Lord. The Lord is good all the time. And today is no different. And I believe it would honor the Lord if we would rejoice that Cheryl had the gospel and she professed faith in an unfailing Savior. Though her faith was weak as ours is, our Savior never fails. Will you join me as we begin with a word of prayer? Let's stand together as we pray. Our Father, we thank you that your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is King of kings and Lord of lords. We thank you that he has destroyed the power of death for all those who trust in him. We thank you for the life of our sweet sister, Cheryl Lynn Hallis. Lord, her days were so short, much shorter than what we would have wanted. But, O Father, your ways are perfect and you make no mistakes. And so, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, be glorified as we remember the life of our sister Cheryl. In the name of Jesus we ask, amen. If you have your program, let us sing What a Friend We Have in Jesus. all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit ♪ Needless thing we bear ♪ ♪ All because we do not carry ♪ ♪ Everything to God in prayer ♪ ♪ Have we trials and temptations ♪ ♪ Is there trouble ♪ ♪ We should never be discouraged ♪ ♪ Take it to the Lord in prayer ♪ ♪ Can we find a friend so faithful ♪ ♪ Who will all our sorrows share ♪ You may be seated at this time. Mr. Bill Schlipp will come and read from the Apostle Paul's epistle to the Romans, chapter eight. Hello everyone. It's a very hopeful passage of scripture. No doubt Cheryl had a song to this one. We know that anyone that knew her knew that she longed with every fiber of her being to be as close to Jesus as she could. And this is such a beautiful passage of scripture. As I said, I know she has a song to this. This is Romans chapter eight. verses 28 through 39. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God, and are called according to His purpose for them. For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him, and He gave them right standing with Himself, and He promised them glory. What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God who gave us Christ also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No, he is the one who has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for He is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? Even the scriptures say, for your sake we are killed every day. We are being slaughtered like sheep. No, despite all these things, every overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. At this time, I'd like to read the story of the life of Cheryl Hallis. It's found in your program on the very back. Cheryl Lynn Hallis was born on April 18, 1966. She was the eldest of two children and was raised in Hanover Park, Illinois. She graduated from Arlington Heights High School in 1984. After high school, she dedicated herself to software engineering, earning a degree in computer science from Northern Illinois University in 1988. Cheryl was a brilliant and successful software engineer for Annexter International in Deerfield, Illinois, retiring in 2011. She had a deep love for music and was unusually talented on the accordion, guitar, and the piano. While she never had formal lessons, she could play each instrument with ease. After Cheryl came to know Christ as her Savior in 2007, she began to write what she called her scriptures in song, in which she memorized over 320 Bible verses and passages through song. She was always encouraging everyone around her with her scripture songs. Cheryl also very much enjoyed athletic activities. In the past she completed 50 mile bike races as well as triathlons. She loved the outdoors, walking through the woods, nature hikes, camping, and the simple outdoor life. Cheryl believed in a very simple way of life. Even though as a software engineer she made a generous income, she shopped all her life at resale shops and thrift stores. Most of all, Cheryl was a woman who put her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In spite of the fact that she had a difficult childhood and as a result struggled most of her life, she sought to cling to Christ and kept returning to him for her refuge. Though she often longed for full assurance of God's love for herself, she constantly showed his love to others. Cheryl is survived by her mother, Alex, her younger brother, John, and her fiance, Dr. Brian Gulich. Let's stand again and let's sing together, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. I once was blind It was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. ♪ I first believed ♪ ♪ Through many dangers, toils, and snares ♪ ♪ I have already come to thee ♪ when we've been God's grace. You may be seated. At this time, we would like to invite anyone who feels led to come and share a memory, a thought about the life of our sister Cheryl. Maybe you'd like to share a scripture verse. something that captivated your heart with her life. And so is there anyone that would like to share a brief memory? I know that sometimes it's hard to speak in front of others, but just imagine if Cheryl was right here and she would so enjoy that. Anyone that would like to share something about her life? I guess I'll go ahead and say something. Cheryl, one of the things I loved was after church, I often saw her with Tim Peltz up here. And Cheryl, you know, she struggled so much. There was always an anxiety in her heart, except when she was praying or reading scripture or singing. And so after services, she just wanted to stay around church. She felt safe with her church family. And it was so joyous to see her relieved. And I often saw her after the service with Tim Peltz. Tim Peltz would say, let's do this one, and it'd be some song nobody ever heard of, but Cheryl knew it. And Cheryl could play it by heart on the guitar, and she would play, and everyone would be mulling around after the service, talking with each other, and there would be this heavenly music proceeding from the guitar and from the piano. And I took great pleasure as my eye glinted up here and I would see Cheryl just, it seemed like the Lord Jesus was up here playing with them. And I think about what music and how it's a gift to God's children and how it expresses love that is inexpressible in mere words. And Cheryl was often very alone and she hated being alone. She just hated it. And so what she would do is she would sing scripture songs. And Sasha, if you have a scripture song, that one that I told you about, could you just play that? This is Cheryl singing one of her scripture songs. Let's just listen to it. It's Isaiah. 41, verses 9 and 10. You, whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you, not cast you off. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. ♪ And call from its farthest corners ♪ ♪ Saying to you, you are my servant ♪ ♪ I have chosen you and I've cast you out ♪ ♪ Be undone, for I am with you ♪ ♪ Be undismayed, for I am your God ♪ ♪ I'll strengthen you, I will help you ♪ ♪ I will uphold you in my righteousness ♪ whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, you are my servant. I've chosen you and not cast you off. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you in my righteous right. She wrote so many of those and we have, she gave me probably 14 or 15 of those songs and we're gonna put them on our website so that you can enjoy them. I can say personally that I have often listened to them. You can ask my wife and how they bring things, just the reality of God when I listened. And if you were ever in a conversation with her and you started quoting a Bible verse, she would start singing that Bible verse. It's just one of the most unusual gifts that the Lord would give such a humble, broken person, a desperate, desperate person, but one who kept turning and turning and turning to Jesus. And I think often, when I think of Cheryl, I know that there are warnings to us in scripture. And I often think of William Cooper and the friend of the one who wrote Amazing Grace, John Newton. And John Newton often found his friend Cooper in awful states of mind, to where he wanted to end it. And Newton, at least, I think it was half a dozen occasions, saved his life. But there are many times when, with God's servants, that someone's not there. And we all have felt that we should have been there. I know, Brian, most of all, and our heart goes out to you, but we trust in the providence of God. And His providence and His way is perfect. One thing that we can take comfort in is that here at Cheryl's memorial service, she can confess Jesus Christ as her savior. Sasha, would you play her testimony of salvation? Before I came to know Christ, I was in a Bible study where we were studying the sovereignty of God, a doctrine that I do not ever remember studying in the over 20 years that I had been attending church. I was raised in an atheist environment and started going to like one of those seekers-oriented types of churches back when I was probably in my teens. So in this Bible study, we were discussing how God is in control of absolutely everything, including the bad or evil things that occur. To prove this, we turn to Acts 4, 27, 28. For truly in the city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. And this is the part that shocked me, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. This blew me away. God made sure that Herod and Pontius Pilate were there to crucify Christ. At the time, I was struggling with the fact that it seemed unfair that I was worse of a sinner than most because of my severely traumatic childhood. A counselor had once mentioned that the sins I struggled with were so typical of a woman who had undergone my experiences and that I shouldn't be surprised at my condition. One day during this time I happened to open my Bible for some reason. I didn't often read my Bible since the words were just that, words. I happened to open up to 1 John 2, 3 through 4. And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. The thought then immediately occurred to me that I was most likely not a Christian. That was the first time I really ever questioned whether or not I was in the faith. Within either days or weeks of coming to this conclusion, I found myself at my favorite park, looking upward at the sky through my car windshield. I was motivated to prayer, expressing frustration at being worse of a sinner than most, and that there was nothing I could do in myself to please God, that it was absolutely hopeless if I were required to please God through my own efforts. Then it was as though God answered me back in my thoughts. I know you can do nothing to please me. I created you. This is why you need a savior. The next day I found myself walking through the same park, amazingly, thanking God in specific detail for each horrible thing that happened to me in my life. I thanked God for each abusive person and was cringing at the thought that one less event or one less abusive person may have been present, lest I wouldn't have been brought to the point where I realized I was a sinner in need of a savior. I saw my horrific past as a means to carry out something amazing, bringing me broken to the cross, just as God made sure the terrible things took place to make sure Christ was crucified. I was immediately a different person. I looked at everything differently. How I came to know Christ. I realized that I had to come to Christ by faith. There was nothing I could do but to call out to the Savior. It was as though I received an entirely new operating system in my mind and a disgrambler to understand the scriptures. I saw everything through the lens of the Bible. I also saw Christianity and the gospel as something entirely different than what I saw and heard for 20 years in the church. Doctrines that I used to hate were now screaming at me from the pages of the Bible and became the gospel to me. No amount of apologetics or human reasoning could have wrought this change in me. This was a supernatural miracle of regeneration, Titus 3.5. It was a state of being I could neither choose nor reject. I was blind, and now I could see out of nothing I did for myself, as if afflicted suddenly with a mental illness. But this was a mental wellness. I was dumbfounded. I was a new creation. At this time, I also had an overwhelming love and forgiveness toward those who had abused me. I realized that they were dead and blind in their trespasses and sins and needed to be made alive just as I had been made alive. Apart from God's grace, I realized I had the ability to do the same wicked things they did and even worse. I was even able to reconcile with one of these people that I hadn't seen in 18 years last summer. And the only reason why I was able to allow that time and go up to this person was because I had realized that apart from Christ, we're all dead. I was amazed at how the scriptures described what had happened to me and what my condition was before my eyes were opened. that I was dead, I was made alive, and that God will sustain me to the end. I became ravenous to study the word and to read and hear sermons by those who now saw the scriptures the way I was seeing them. I also find it my greatest joy in life to be putting the scriptures to music for memorization. To date, I have over 300 verses that are hidden in my heart by His grace. My confession of Christ. I am coming today to confess Christ publicly. He is my righteousness. He is everything. I am nothing. My old self is nailed to the cross with Christ, and through his resurrection, I am also made alive with him. I can't explain it, I just know it's true. Since I've come to Christ, I have failed miserably at times. He has revealed spiritual pride in me and allowed me to fail, to show me my absolute dependence on him to do anything righteous or pleasing to him. I thank him for the failures. I am now not as judgmental over people I can now say that I finally see that Christ loves me and that it is very amazing to me. What I am learning is that the love of Christ controls me. I do not fear his punishment, but am breathtaking that he wants to do good to me. I want to serve him because he is good. I picture myself as a damaged jet, barely landing, so weak. That's what I am. I am so weak and dependent on Christ. I want to glory in my infirmities and boast in my weakness. In coming to this church for membership, I believe the Lord has given me a fellowship of believers that is balanced in both truth and grace. The verse that I desire to live out the rest of my days on this earth, and it was mentioned earlier, Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified in Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Thanks. Don't you miss her? Jesus said, if we confess him before men, he will confess us before his father, which is in heaven. And though Cheryl, as she mentioned, struggled so much and lacked assurance, the Lord says in 1 John, that when our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. He's greater than our lives. And I think we'll be very surprised the greatness of God and the horridness of our own souls when we see Jesus. Well, this is a time that I think Cheryl would want us to praise the Lord. And so, yes, would you come up here? Thank you. Thank you, sister. I'm surprised I'm up here. I just want to say about Cheryl that most of the conversations, and we had many, were all about Christ and very deep things of the Lord. She often encouraged me, though she was so broken. And one of the last things that she said to me in passing was to listen to a Paul Washer sermon about I can't even remember the name. I've been sitting here trying to think of the name, but it was it was to encourage me in Christ. And so I just want to thank the Lord for Cheryl and. That's wonderful. Thank you. Praise the Lord. Anyone else like to share? About Cheryl, Brother Bill, come on up here. If you'd like to share, just come up and sit in the front row so we know who's next. You know, there's a couple of things that really stick out about Cheryl. I remember when she first started coming to church, she always sat in the back and she was prim and proper and, you know, we were wondering who this person was. And I remember it was either the first Sunday or second Sunday standing in the old church just hanging out and introduced myself and we started to talk about scripture and she was very quiet and then when I we came across a verse that she knew well she started to sing and it was like somebody hit a switch and yeah you know what I mean she went from this quiet person to an entertainer but she was boasting in Christ with everything she was doing A few of us were in Bible study with her, and like Danette just said, very deep stuff, very concerned, very meticulous in the way she handled the Word. And, you know, you get to watch, as she got more comfortable, you watch her evolve. And I remember she would come up here after church, as Pastor said, she'd be up here playing, and Tim would be here, and you'd know she was here by her red hat. She had this red knit hat that she would wear, you know. And she'd stick out like a sore thumb, but she was happy as a clam up here with her music and, as Pastor said, with her friends. And then the other thing I remember is, you know, she was so slim, but we'd get together and you could watch her eat. Boy, she could eat like you would not believe. I don't know how she stayed so slim. But she would come over and we'd go to different people's houses for Bible study and she really enjoyed the food. But we always enjoyed being with her and we were always sad when she didn't come. But it was just a blessing to know her and even just to learn from her and her life. And I just thank God for her. What I remember most about Cheryl, regardless to how she may have been struggling or what she may have been going through, she always had praise coming from her mouth. She always praised the Lord. It was a constant reminder to me, you know, to stop complaining about what I'm going through or things of that nature, you know. She kept it real, you know. She said in her testimony that she boasted in her infirmities, in her weaknesses. And this is something that she did. And it's a constant reminder to me that, you know, we all struggle and we all are weak, you know. We all got to go through something, but in spite of whatever we may be struggling with You know, always go back to Christ, because this is something she always did. You know, she always found herself back at Christ. You know, that's the most that I remember about her. And that's the biggest thing that stick out to me. And, you know, I'm glad to be here. I'm glad we was able to celebrate her memory. Because this is what she would want, us to praise God, because this is what she did. So. Thank you. For those who don't know, my name is Steve. My family and Cheryl's family actually celebrated almost every holiday together, meaning Thanksgiving and Christmas, for at least 10 years, if not more, maybe 15. Maybe more than that. My memory fails me. So I'm used to seeing her, and this holiday season that just passed was definitely a traumatic blow when she wasn't with us for Thanksgiving or for, well, she won't be with us this coming Wednesday for Christmas. And she will be dearly missed. May I ask, when was that testimony that recorded? 2011. 2011. So not too long ago. Praise God. Thank you for sharing that so much. And thank you so much for Living Hope, this church, for performing this memorial service. It is a blessing. I've known Sherry almost all my life. She used to babysit me when I was very young. And like I said, our families get together all the time. She's very intelligent. And thank you whoever wrote the back, the back of the program, the testimony there. That is very accurate. Very accurate to a T, actually, of who she was and her character. And so much more. And so much more than could be put on a half a sheet of paper. Thank you for the recordings and just reflecting on who she was and who she is. It's difficult and we're all mournful and thinking about it. And I'm sorry for my jumbled thoughts. I'm still trying to process it myself as it's so sudden. But I thank God for her confession of faith and I thank God for her belief And though we all struggle, we all go through trials and our hearts are always wrestling, and sometimes we can wonder, as Cheryl often did, as Sherry often did, as we called her. And I'm reminded of Romans 7, and a lot of scholars debate whether Romans 7 is really about Paul himself speaking as a Christian or is he speaking about an unbeliever and I'm not gonna get into that debate now but I'll just say it does show the anguish in the heart even for a believer whether he was speaking of a believer or not is inconsequential at this point but it does show the wrestling in the heart and I believe we all have our I don't want to use the term demons, but our struggles that we all, our trials, even Paul himself had a thorn in the flesh that he begged God multiple times to remove. And Sherry's were very evident for her. But the one thing that I rejoice in is that she kept fighting. It was difficult for her. in her past and even in her modern, even up to the end, she kept fighting and kept fighting and kept fighting. And I'm so thankful again for the testimony and these recorded songs that we remember her by to remind us of that confession, remind us of that encouragement that she gave to all of us. And I praise God for that. I do have one request. If we could also pray for her family. I don't think her family is really here. I don't see anybody too much except one. But her mother especially I think is going through a very difficult time. If you can remember her mother who is in Arkansas at the moment, it's just a shock. And I think there's that state of almost when emotional shock becomes physical Dehabilitation. You just don't know what to do. So if we can remember her family during this time as well, that they would be able to heal and overcome and mourn. There needs to be a time for mourning and then a time for for healing again, to come up out of that. Again, thank you so much, pastor and congregation, for this time. I remember her fondly, and I'm encouraged by her to continue fighting, even with the trials and tribulations I face daily. And I'm encouraged by her strength in the midst of it all. She's dearly missed, dearly loved. My name is Eric and I knew Cheryl in a different way besides church. I know most of everyone here is from church and Some people from childhood, the first time she heard my name, I said, my name is Eric and I'm an alcoholic. And I met Sherry, Cheryl in AA. And I was actually dating somebody at the time. And afterwards, we would go out for what we call fellowship. We'd go get coffee, get something to eat. And I would always, sitting at a table, I'd say, why don't you come with us? And Cheryl was very shy. She could be uncomfortable in a room full of people. Even though she was surrounded by friends, she lived a very tortured life. And I didn't know that at the time. And as the year progressed, I broke up with my girlfriend, and I didn't see Cheryl for a long time. And one time she finally said, yes, let's go out and get something to eat. And we'd hang out, and we'd drink coffee and talk. I drove a wrecker for a living at the time, and we would go to meetings and go out and eat, and I had the tow truck, and I'd say, let's go out on a tow. I'd get a call, and she'd come with. We started dating, and our Saturday night tradition was eating pizza and watching movies and going out and picking up cars from accidents and DUIs and stalled cars on the highway, and she was the first one to put her shoes on and run out the door. I really cared about Cheryl a lot, and the relationship didn't last as dating, but the friendship remained. She was a very loving and caring person, and she cared about a lot of people. She cared about everyone, and she was very, you know, she lived a very tortured life, you know, and when I found out, when her mother called me, you know, and I, even though we weren't dating, you know, I tried to keep the friendship open, and I'd stop by where she lived at Crabtree on the motorcycle and talk to her. Or I'd say, you know, I'd say, you know where I'm at. And it was trying to remain a gateway for recovery for her. And when her mother called me and told me what happened, I got very angry. And I wasn't angry at Cheryl. I was angry at the disease of alcoholism that took her from us. And it's a very hard thing to put down. And it's the demons and it's the voices in your head that you hear. that make you go to that as a way of comforting yourself. And there is an easier, softer way, unfortunately, but it's a very strong demon to overcome. And I've been to too many of these with people that I've cared about, you know, and it doesn't get easier. And, you know, I knew Cheryl in a lot of different ways, where I knew her as a person in recovery, a person struggling with addiction, but always I knew her as a person that loved Jesus. and loves God and was very excited to talk about it. And if you started talking, you couldn't stop her from talking. She really loved it. And she, that was the one thing that, you know, I'm a recovering Catholic. I believe in, I'm more spiritual than religious now just because of, you know, the things that I've been through in my life. But we could talk about religion and, you know, it was, sometimes we get a little heated sometimes because her beliefs are different than mine. But that was okay. And I accepted Cheryl for who she was. And I think she accepted me for who I was. And like I said, even though the relationship didn't last, the friendship did. And I'm very grateful to have known Cheryl and have her in my life for as short of a time as I did. I only knew her for six years. And I'll say this one. She didn't really have She didn't dabble at anything. One time I said, I work out over here and there's a computer. Let's go see what time there's a movie at. And while I was doing that, she did 15 dead hang pull-ups while talking to me. I was on the computer trying to find this time for a movie. She loved to work out. She loved learning about scriptures. She loved reading. She did love going to thrift stores. She would go and take me there. And she'd have 37 different items and it would cost her $12. She did very well. She had a very successful job and she drove a car with over 220,000 miles on it for a very long time and lived a very frugal, simple existence because she didn't care about that stuff, you know. She cared about, you know, she wanted to feel love and she wanted to have companionship and she found it. She struggled with that. She wanted to find that in God and, you know, I do take comfort knowing that she's not hurting anymore and that she's not, you know, having to suffer anymore. And she's with God now. I am a very firm believer of that. So thank you. Thank you, Eric. Thank you so much. At this time, I'd like to invite Mr. Cedric Andrews to come and read the psalm that we're going to meditate on in conclusion, Psalm 147. Praise the Lord. For it is good to sing praises to our God. For it is pleasant, any song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. I'm going to read that again. He said, He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names. great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Make melody to our God on the lyre. He covers the heavens with clouds. He prepares rain for the earth. He makes grass grow on the hills. He gives the to the beast their food, and to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man. But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. Let us consider the love of God as we hear the song, Sheltered in the Arms of God. I feel the touch of hands so kind and tender. They're leading me in paths that I must trod. When Jesus walks beside me. For I'm sheltered in the arms of God. So let the storms rage high, the dark clouds rise. ♪ For I'm sheltered safe within the arms of God ♪ ♪ He walks with me and what on earth shall harm me ♪ ♪ For I'm sheltered in the arms of God ♪ Come home, my child, it's the last mile you must trod. I'll fall asleep at a wake in Port New Haven. Sheltered safe within the arms of God. So let the storms rage high, the dark clouds rise. They won't worry me, for I'm sheltered safe within the arms of God. For I'm sheltered in the arms of God. Well, if you have your Bible, I'd like to look at Psalm 147. But before we do that, let's look at Ecclesiastes. And it says in Ecclesiastes 7, and by the way, this was one of Cheryl's favorite books. And the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes is not existentialism. but it is that everything is meaningless outside of knowing and fearing God, specifically through his son, Jesus Christ, as he is revealed in the New Testament. And one of the things that the wisest man that lived in his day, he said this, it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. He says, the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. And he says, that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of the mourning, the heart of fools in the house of mirth. And this is exactly what Cheryl expressed in her testimony when she thanked God for the devastating anguish that she went through almost every single day of her life. I don't think she lived a day without pain, but she thanked God for it because it made her meditate on her creator. Now, one of the things we need to consider, and I think Cheryl if she could speak at her own memorial service, she would say that God is good. And all the time, God is good. And the other thing she would have one of those debates, Eric, she would have one of these debates. She would say that evil is not caused by God. Evil is caused by us. And though she was hurt in many ways by evil people, She also had a heart that was corrupted, as all of us do. And she knew that Christ was the only remedy, the one who would be so compassionate as Almighty God to come human flesh as we celebrate in this Christmas season. I think even the day of Cheryl's death is appropriate to remind us that God and His Son, Jesus Christ, is the healer of the brokenhearted, that He came to wipe away death. Death is a stench, death is a sting, death is ugly, and the wages of sin is death. In God, there is no sin. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. But in us is sin, in Adam all die, and in Christ, all who trust in him will be made alive. Christ came into this world to abolish sin and death and hell. And this is what Cheryl trusted in. Though weakly, though as our brother said in Romans 7, Paul talked about the struggle between the flesh and the spirit, and there's always a battle going on. And though Cheryl failed, she confessed openly her sins. Who does that? I think that is evidence of her being a child of God. She never said she was perfect, but she would always get up and crawl back to Christ. And she never felt worthy, as none of us ever feel worthy. What a beautiful picture of the gospel. Oh, ugly, messy sometimes. But we are not our own Savior. There's only one who is the Savior, Jesus Christ. And He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And so we look at Psalm 147. Another debate we might have, if Cheryl was here, is she would say, Matt, why couldn't you preach Psalm 88 or Psalm 77? Because those are lament psalms. She was always meditating on the fact that there was someone who was experiencing the darkness that she experienced. And David often, King David, the man after God's own heart, he often was the only one that Cheryl felt like she could relate with. Because he was being chased by a king named Saul who wanted to kill him. And often trembling in the back of a cold cave after sleeping with no one that really loved him, sleeping in the back of a damn cave, opening his eyes night after night, scribbling things down, like God has forgotten to be gracious to me. Cheryl could relate to those kinds of things. There are so many times we could say there's two sides to Cheryl, but there's two sides to you. There are those times when we know we're nothing, there's no hope. There's nothing in us. We look and there's a void. And then we turn our gaze to the Lord. And we begin to praise and we forget about the devastating corruption of our own wicked and filthy hearts. We turn to the Lord who is gracious. Gracious. That is, He loves us not based on anything in us. He loves us because He's good. And He demonstrates His love to us. And that while we were yet sinners, while we were yet corrupt, while we were yet dead in sin, Christ died for us. We deserve to pay that. Christ died for us. And so we look at four things in this brief time that we have. Number one, As it says in verse 1, praise the Lord. Amen? We need to praise the Lord tonight. Cheryl's not the Savior, you're not the Savior. We can't save ourselves. Cheryl couldn't save herself, but she looked to one who could. Praise the Lord. For it is good to sing praises to our God. For it is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. That's something to sing about. That's what Sheryl's saying about all the time. He gathers the outcasts. Praise the Lord. Praise His name. It's pleasant. It takes the burden off of us when we sing to the Lord. We weren't meant to be in this sin-cursed world. God created a world without sin. We corrupted it. That was not God's design. His design is absolute perfection and joy, and everything good that is in the earth is a reflection of him. Everything ugly is a reflection of selfishness, which is not God. God is selfless. We are selfish. And so we're all outcasts. That's the truth. Cheryl was really not all that unusual, except that she was unusually transparent. Let's learn something from that. We all say how embarrassed we would be if a DVD of our life played before everyone. Well, Cheryl was so transparent. I can remember one time she was struggling and she publicly got up and she confessed her sin. I couldn't believe it. This is amazing that God would open his arms to the outcasts and all of us are the outcasts. and when we realize that he calls the sinners to himself. And you look at the Gospels, and it's story after story of some Syrophoenician woman that everyone had forgotten about, or some woman that had some disease that everyone had forgotten about, some blind man, some crippled woman, some kid that just kept throwing himself into a fire, some guy in the woods who kept banging his head against the rocks, and nobody had an answer. For these people, that's who Jesus comes to save. Praise the Lord! Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, consider your calling, brothers. Not many wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were noble birth. But God chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chooses what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chooses what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing those that are. so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption from God. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. God only calls the misfits. And as was sung earlier by Cheryl herself, One of her favorite verses was Isaiah 41, 9 and 10. You whom I called from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you and have not cast you off. Fear not, I am with you. Be not dismayed, I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Praise the Lord. Second, experience his healing. Look at verse three of Psalm 147. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Don't we need healing? He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Can He do it? Can He do it? Can He do it? Can He heal us? Well, it says He determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names. Great is the Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble and He casts the wicked to the ground. The beauty of these verses right here astounds me. He doesn't just tell us a science lesson for the sake of a science lesson. The reason that he says God is great and numbers and names the stars is to say that he will heal and he will lift up the humble and the broken. And there is a distinguishing characteristic that gives me great joy and hope tonight, especially in light of Cheryl's life. There is a difference between broken, humble, sinful people and proud, wicked, sinful people. The Puritans, one of them, Jeremiah Burroughs, wrote a book about the difference between the spots of the righteous and the spots of the wicked. Both sin, both have spots. But the motivation and the focus is completely different. And I think we can say that Cheryl's motivation and her focus was on the Lord. She kept going back to the Lord, and she was as confounded as any of us. Why? She didn't have certain victories in her life, but she persevered. She kept persevering. She kept getting up, and a righteous person falls down seven times, the perfect number, infinite amount of times, but keeps getting back up. That was Cheryl. We need to learn from this. The people who are in danger are those who don't know that they're sick. God didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Those who are not sick don't need a physician. And as we look at the law of God, we know it's like a mirror, and it shows that we are utterly corrupted. and in need of a Savior, a great Savior. Is God good? I think we determine that, praise the Lord. But is He great? Is He big enough to heal us? Is He big enough to take away our sins? Yes, He is. And how did He demonstrate that in us? By making us perfect while we're walking on this earth? In a sense, He does bring us from darkness to light, yes. There is that miracle of regeneration that Cheryl talked about. But glory doesn't come until we see Jesus face to face. So where do we see where everything is laid right and everything makes sense? At the cross of Jesus Christ, we are justified. and it has nothing to do with us and our works. It has everything to do with what Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary. He shouted out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Can you answer that question? Why did the father forsake the son? because you deserve to be forsaken. And I deserved to be forsaken. And he was forsaken in your place. He was forsaken in my place. He was forsaken, bless God, in Cheryl Lynn Hallis' place. The just was forsaken for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, as Peter says. And so He is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through Him. So praise the Lord tonight, now. Don't wait until it's too late. Praise Him now. Pick up an accordion. Pick up a guitar. Play the piano. Play something. Praise the Lord. and experience his healing. He's not only good, he's great. Sing to the Lord, look at verses seven through nine. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, make melody to our God on the lyre, or the lyre. The lyre was a stringed instrument. Sheryl loved to play stringed instruments. It says he covers the heavens with clouds. He prepares rain for them, for the earth. He makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food and to the young ravens that cry. In other words, isn't it amazing? God rules every detail of the cosmos. He lets us in on who feeds those birds that keep making those noises outside your window. Who is it that sustains the crickets? Who brings the rain that pelts against your window panes? Yeah, he's all interested in that, but look, he's interested in your melodies to him. Way more than he is the pelting of the rain on the window. or the bubbles of the fish in the deep depths of the ocean that nobody sees. He maintains those fish every day. But He wants to hear your voice. He wants to hear you sing. He made you, and now's the time to sing. You say there's nothing to sing about. You got your eyes in the wrong place. You gotta put your eyes off of your circumstances and onto the great, loving, compassionate God. It became a human being, died on a forsaken hill because he loves you. And finally, we need to fear the Lord. There's a young lady in our church, about 13, 14 years old. One day she thinks she's saved, the next day she's certain that she's not saved, like so many of God's people. Cheryl was that way. I think I'm saved, I'm not sure, who knows? And one of the things that Christians often struggle with is the fear of the Lord. Well, I should have joy, but I fear him. I tremble before him so much. How can I really be saved? Well, that is a sign that you are saved. You ought to tremble before the Lord. Now, not just tremble, there ought to also be joy, but there ought to be trembling. Look at verse 10, his delight. It's not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. Fear and love come together before God. It's not a fear like a terror. It is a fear in the sense that He is Almighty God and He could justly crush us and it would be just and right and good and holy and pure and sincere and without guile. But He doesn't. The word steadfast is chesed in Hebrew, and it means God's loyal love. It means everyone else will fail you, everyone else will stab you in the back, everyone else will talk bad about you, they'll gossip about you, they'll hurt you. Not our God. When he sets his love upon you, he says, I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you. I may chasten you. He says to the Corinthians, because in certain ways in your life you're not conforming to my will in regards to the Lord's table and in regards to certain other areas of their life. He said, some of you are sick and some of you sleep. In other words, some of you I've taken home early. You know, if God would never have dealt with Cheryl, I would fear for her soul. The fact that he took her early gives me a peace and a hope. And we ought to be afraid when God doesn't deal with us. Praise the Lord. That's what Cheryl would tell you tonight. Praise Him. Experience His healing. Sing to the Lord. And she would tell you, fear the Lord because He's so loving. Fear disappointing Him. Fear not walking with Him. Fear wasting one moment of your life without Him. Go to Him, cling to Him, fear Him, love Him, seek Him, follow Him. And so I think it is appropriate tonight as we close that we would stand together and we would sing, not great is our faithfulness or great is our goodness, but great is God's faithfulness. Let's sing that tonight. There is no. morning by morning new mercies I see ♪ Is thy faithfulness pardon to me ♪ ♪ Pardon for sin and the peace that endureth ♪ ♪ Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide ♪ ♪ Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside ♪ ♪ Great is thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Great is thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Morning by morning new mercies I see ♪ Will you pray with me? Oh Lord, we remember the life of our sister Cheryl Lynn Hallis. And we thank you. That though she and all of us are mighty sinners, You are a mighty Savior. And we thank you for every day that we had with her. The Lord you gave, Lord you have taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord. We thank you that you are the shepherd of all those who put their trust in you. And we praise you for your goodness that you would save wretches like us. And we praise you for your greatness that you can save wretches like us. You rule the universe. You name the stars. You can surely save us. We praise you that you loved Cheryl Lynn Hallis and that we loved her and knew her. And we thank you that though it was feeble and broken, that her life was, the purpose was to bring honor and glory to you through Jesus. And we pray for anyone here, as she would want us to, to pray for anyone here that is without Christ as Savior, that a day of mourning would be turned into a day of rejoicing. And now, Lord, for those who are grieving, those who are hit so hard by her death, we commit Cheryl's soul to You. And we ask that You would bring closure and completion to her life. And Father, in this time of Christmas that You have providentially chosen to call her back to be with You, that we would celebrate that You heal the brokenhearted, and that you do not put out a smoking wick. Oh no, Lord. You blow on it and you bring it back to life. Father, we thank you. that you can and you do and that you are and that you have healed the brokenhearted and we pray that you would heal all of us here through the blood of Jesus, through his righteousness, through his redemption, through his power, for his glory, for his honor, for his blessedness forever and forever and forever and forever, Lord. For You are worthy of all of our songs and all of our praises, Lord. Help us to praise You more. Help us to sing to You more. Help us to love You and love one another more and more and more. Thank You for the life of Your servant. We bless You in the name of Jesus. Amen.