INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — A minister who murdered an Independence man gave his eulogy prior to being charged with the crime. Pastor David Love performed Randy Stone’s eulogy after having an affair with Stone’s wife, Teresa, and killing him. Below is the text from the words that Love spoke at Stone’s funeral.
“Thank you and Jesus said because I live you shall live also. Randy Stone’s name was on the sign over his office at the insurance agency and how many here really know that Teresa was an agent of that place. She was the cement and the glue, wasn’t she?
To see what the victim’s mother has to say about her son’s murder click here.
We come to the Word of God to try to reconcile the difference between man’s point of view and that death seems so permanent and God’s point of view that death is precious. The Bible says in Psalm 116:15, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
We sit here today and we weep not just because of the separation from our loved one but because of all the questions that death brings.
Questions like why… why him? Why now? Without answers death seems so cold. Death seems so distant. It seems so long. Death seems so permanent.
How can this death be completely turned to victory? Nothing here looks like victory to me.
We look to this casket and the body here and all the flowers and all the things gathered around… and we say, ‘But we anticipated that he would grow old. We anticipated that he would do more things together.’ What with the word anticipation and death being swallowed up in victory. How could this be good at all?
But Isaiah 25 anticipates something about God.
‘But anything that defies God. Anything built up that defies God….’ he is saying here in Isaiah 25 in these first three verses that you can anticipate if something is built up to defy God. God will judge that.
You can anticipate that God will judge this.
I came to this city 11 years ago and in March of 1999 I met Randy Stone. Randy Stone was still in the reserves in the Army and he was active in the military and he would tell me things about his military service.
Y2K. Any body can relate to Y2K? Raise your hand. Y2K. Now, Randy was capital Y2K. I met Randy he said, ‘Hey, I am putting MREs in my basement. I’ve got water,’ he said. Now one thing about Randy Stone, I loved it when I was around him, but I usually wanted my wife to be between Randy and me because if you would ever sit by him he would bruise your arm, now wouldn’t he?
He said every airplane is going to fall out of the sky at the moment of Y2K. All the money in the bank, you’d better get your money out of the bank. He was just big on that. You what he was anticipating? A storm. And he was making his refuge. That’s what he knew to do. That was Randy.
Bound hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was bound with a napkin, Jesus said unto them, ‘Lose him and let him go,’ and I am going to say that to you today. If you know something about the Lord and you anticipate what he has in Randy’s home going lose him and let him go.
John 14:19, Jesus said, ‘Because I live, you shall live also.’ So you think you’re living now. What Randy’s experience now makes this life not so precious anymore. What he has experienced now is what is truly precious in the presence of God. This causes death to be swallowed up in victory when Jesus says ‘because I live, you shall live also,’ that’s identification.
Preparation the final word is the word preparation. You see there is nothing more that we can do for Randy Stone. There is nothing more that we can do for him.
He’ll never have another thought in this body or another emotion. Another hunger pain. He’ll never be able to sign another policy or kiss his wife on this side of glory.
The preparation now is all about what he did before last Wednesday to be precious in the sight of the Lord. At death, you’ve got to make a preparation. He prepared himself to meet Jesus and only Jesus can take his soul to heaven.
Clara, I’m glad you didn’t have anymore Randys, but, boy, did you have one. Randy’s death is not in vain.
