Good afternoon. We're here this afternoon to celebrate the memory and mourn the loss of Larry Trimble. We're told in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 5, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with a comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you and Lord, I just thank you for the truth of that scripture. Lord, I thank you for the promise that your Holy Spirit will comfort us even in our deepest affliction, even in our greatest time of grief. And so, Lord, we would like to claim that promise today as we come to this time of saying goodbye, this time of remembering. Lord, we want to trust that you are that God of all comfort.

And Lord, we just pray that over this family and over these friends today. In Jesus' name, amen. Larry Wayne Trimble, 71, of Arkansas City, died Wednesday, December 8, 2021, at his residence. Larry was born September 19, 1950, to Willard K. in Winona, R. Gay Pearson, Trimble, in Topeka, Kansas. He grew up in Valley Falls, Kansas, where he attended and graduated in 1968 from Valley Falls High School, where he enjoyed playing football.

He was employed with the Santa Fe Railroad BNSF Railway on September 1, 1968, as a trackman working in Emporia, Kansas. Subsequently, was promoted to foreman, then relief track supervisor in July of 1972. In October of 1977, he was promoted to a trackman, and he was promoted to a trackman, promoted to rail train supervisor, headquartered in Amarillo, Texas, and traveled the railroad system for three years. In July of 1980, he moved to Pueblo, Colorado as assistant roadmaster and then promoted to roadmaster in December of 1986. Larry was relocated to Arkansas City as roadmaster

in April of 1990, where he retired December of 2005. Larry was in the Army Reserve from August of 1970 until honorably discharged from the United States Army May 14th of 1976. Larry enjoyed team roping with his faithful horse, Paul, and he traveled the team roping circuit with his team roping partner until his railroad career kept him on the road a lot. He enjoyed playing cards, fishing lakes, either from the shore or from his bass boat, and then from the airboats on the river.

He married Tammy R. Davis on June 1st of 1991 in La Junta, Colorado. He is survived by his wife, Tammy Trimble of the home, brother, Bob Trimble of Silverdale, Washington, sisters, Christine Weaver and Fred, Carolyn Sindiker and Robert, or excuse me, Richard, all of Topeka, and several nieces and nephews. Larry was preceded in death by his parents, sister, Betty Perriman, and Sandra Trimble. As I said, we're here today, first of all, to celebrate a memory.

Memories are what we have to hold on to of those that have gone before us. And as I sat down the other day with the family to talk over some memories, Tammy began sharing her heart and began sharing the things that she had written down that she remembered the most about Larry. And I said, would you mind writing all that down? Because I'd really like to share kind of what you have to say. And so she very graciously wrote out a list of some of her memories. And I would

just like to read that for you. Now, hang on. And there's Kleenex all over the place in here because I was tearing up a little bit reading this. So I'll do the best that I can. This is from Tammy. Larry Trimble, aka Lair, Trim, L-Train, thanks, Glenn. Walter, thanks, Henson's. And of course, other terms of endearment. He grew up in humble means in a small town in Valley Falls, Kansas. He was a typical spirited

young boy. He liked watching Western shows. One time was inspired by one to get his mom's knife out of the kitchen drawer, take it outside and try to throw the knife at the tree to make it stick. However, the knife bounced back and stuck in his shin. The only pain he really felt was the fear of his mom. He had to restore her knife tip and return the drawer before she got home. He did all that before he even took

care of his wound. He would tell stories of riding his bike 10 miles one way to help a farmer load hay. a farmer load hay and didn't even get paid for it he just wanted to be busy he didn't understand the kids of these days he was from a different era he was a left tackle in the high school football team he broke his leg and played the rest of the game on the broken leg later to find out it was indeed broken his older brother bob shared a story in the mid 70s where larry had a dirt bike and bob who was in the navy was home on leave and he rode larry's bike and got hurt larry's dad credited larry with that incident since larry was pretty free spirited he got a lot of the credit for

things from dad and maybe a little too much attention too larry enjoyed team roping as well as attending rodeos he was very supportive of his close friends in their rodeo and horse showing ventures he enjoyed playing cards fishing fly fishing boating watching and reading history programs as well as reading old west character history books lewis and clark expedition history etc he enjoyed watching football as well and appreciated woodworking talents he marveled at his brother bob's ability he worked for the railroad and was very dedicated spending long days and long weeks even some vacations working larry was the neighborhood watch he daily would drive around the hood taking the dog for a ride in the hood

he would check in with the neighbors when he would see them out and he'd stop and chat he would be a curmudgeon at times i'm glad we figured out how to spell that by the way he would be a curmudgeon at times and so he was nicknamed walter after the puppet so whenever walter shows showed himself we made sure he knew about it and laughed we would burn pastures with neighbors with the neighbors help and one time we we burned the yard and the fire was going towards the barn and i was frantically trying to get water to put the fire out and he was such a cool hen luke he said what are you doing i was out of breath and he was very calm i can't remember whose pasture we were burning but we were getting a bit concerned with

the burn and larry's very calm low-key demeanor response was eh let her burn he loved to fish every weekend that he was not on call and we would stay out past dark and he wanted me to love it every bit as much as he did once i cast my line and i turned my back to take a nap because i didn't love it as much as he did and of course was awoken when with a whirling fishing line resulting in a 10 pound catfish he was more excited than i was he enjoyed his john boat his bass boat and then airboating he loved doing three things with the cat fish last night i was in mid Middleton tonight версions off camera now let's go to my bonafide if you're not eating you try to match my collection on

360s on the sandbars. He loved the dogs that we had. Two of them were dump dogs. The last dump dog that we adopted was Goldie. He had warned me not to pet her or feed her because she'd never go away. The next day I got home from work and he had that yellow dog loaded in the back of his truck, petting it and feeding it the exact way he told me not to. He was an analytical type.

I'd want to jump in and take care of something and deal with the consequences later and he would sit back and think things through. He thought I was crazy. I thought he was slow and then I finally learned. I finally learned what he was thinking. He loved to tease and joke people and really appreciated it when you gave it back. After I lost a sense of taste and smell, he would come in the

kitchen and say, what you're burning? And of course I'd react. Exactly the way he wanted me to. Many times he'd scare the you-know-what out of me just by showing up, mostly in the laundry room. And then it started happening that in turn, that in turn would react to my scare. What a mess we were. He enjoyed a wide genre of music from all eras, blues, opera, etc. Music in the movies moved him. Thus the songs that we're going to play in the video.

And from what I understand, I'm adding this next part. He was always humming a song. Larry loved deeply and he was pretty ooey gooey on the inside. Most people didn't know that. Larry was a deep well. He knew stuff that I had no idea where he got it from. And I'd ask him, who are you and where'd you pull that from? I'd go shopping with the girls and he'd always ask me if I got myself anything. How's that for a husband? When I'd go

on walks, he was my athletic supporter. He would bring me the water. He was a great nurse when I had need and he was very attentive. We loved to laugh and have a good time together. I got to tell you, when I read that, all I could think was, that's a couple that really knew each other well and loved each other deeply. Because that's what memories allow us to do. At this time, the family has put together a

slideshow that will hopefully jog some memories for you as well.

As I mentioned, not only are we here to celebrate the life, we're also here to grieve the loss. We're told in the book of Ecclesiastes that for everything that there is a season, life's really made up of seasons. I mean, personally, I've come to understand that one of the most difficult seasons that we come to on this earth is a season of grief. And that's where we are now.

Some time ago, the Lord gave me some words about grief and dealing with it. So there's three words I would like to present to you as you process this time of grief. The first word is the word remember. Memories are kind of interesting, aren't they? Memories are like photos in our mind. I bet as we watch this video slideshow, each of those photos did something a little bit different to you. For some of them, they brought up some laughter.

For some of them, they brought up some sadness. For some of them, they brought up some sadness. They brought up some tears. But each of them took you back to a place. It took you back to a place where you remembered what was going on, what was happening at that point in time, and it almost felt like you were there again. It usually brought up a story. Our memories are kind of like that.

They're kind of like a photo slideshow in our mind. And as we begin shuffling back through the photo slideshow of all of the different events that take place, it's so important to do because those memories bring up a lot of different thoughts, events, and emotions. I read an article recently about tears. As someone who's a very emotional person, I appreciate this because you know that God gave us three different kinds of tears.

There are basal tears, reflexive tears, and emotional tears. Basal tears are what happens when your eye needs to have something flushed out of it, perhaps some dust gets in your eye or something along those lines. And they're very good, and they have a healing property because not only do they coat the eye, but they protect the eye from what's taking place. There's reflexive tears that take place, perhaps, fellas, when your wife plucks one of your eyebrows or something along those lines because it's sticking out a little further than it should.

And when something painful happens, your eyes automatically produce tears. It's a natural reflex of the body, which is why they're called reflexive tears. But do you know what they've discovered about this third type of tears, this third type of tears called emotional? Emotional tears, they have found, actually relieve stress and release endorphins. The endorphins that are called the feel-good emotions that come out.

Now as you rival through some of those memories in your mind, I bet sometimes you're a little nervous to bring some of them up because as you circulate through some of those memories, the thing that you don't want to happen is going to happen. You think, oh no, I'm going to start crying. Do you know that that's actually one of the more healing things that you can do? That's why remembering is so important. As you face a difficult time, and as you allow those memories to flow,

begin to flow along with it. And that's actually one of the healthiest things that we can do as human beings, is we can allow those emotions to flow because there's actually a healing property in our tears. You see, remembering is so important because not only is there a healing aspect because of the tears that flow, but remembering is what keeps that person alive in our minds. You see, each of those photos in your mind are not just singular events. They are a collection of an

individual. And the collection of all of those memories, they are a collection of an individual. and the collection of all of those memories actually actually represent that person's legacy so i would encourage you first of all to remember the second word that i would present to you is the word rest the word rest what do we rest in well first of all we rest in god's mercy we rest in god's mercy god's mercy i think has become for me one of the most important things that i can rest in because i'm well aware of the sinful nature that we all have as human beings and it's interesting to see how in small and big areas of our lives we see god's mercy shown even in situations like this it was interesting because even as tammy was recounting to me the things

that took place she said and i was just so in awe of how merciful god was so we rest in god's mercy but you know what else we rest in we rest in god's unchanging nature we rest in god's unchanging nature i think one of the things that can happen to us especially when something sudden takes place like this is we can begin to question whether or not god has changed has god changed is he different than he was the day before i found out this news is he different than he was the day before i had to face this hardship and i can tell you right now that we can rest in the unchanging nature of god and part of god's unchanging nature is his sovereignty so let's talk about that and now we can talk about how we can get to the unchanging nature of god

that is why i want to read a scripture from isaiah with one of the verses that tammy shared with me the other day it's out of the book of isaiah chapter 43 verses 12 and 13. it says it is i who have declared and saved and proclaimed and there was no strange god among you so you are my witnesses declares the lord and i am god even from eternity i am he and there's none who can deliver out of my hand i act and who can reverse it rest in the unchanging nature of God, because whether everything is going exactly the way that we want for it to go, or everything is going the exact opposite of the way that we want for it to go, we can rest in the fact that God has not changed. He is still the sovereign, good, and

loving God that he was two weeks ago as he is today. But the last thing that we rest in is we rest in God's ability to make even the bad things good. We rest in God's ability to turn what in our lives can be tragedy, what in our lives can be hardship, what in our lives can be our greatest grief, and we watch as God actually turns something good, turns that into something good in our lives. We don't always see it right now. As I've mentioned before, I've learned to stop asking

the question, why? Because on top side of planet earth, we may never know the answer to the question, why? I instead have learned to ask the question, what? What, God, do you want to do right now? What do you want to do through this? What do you want to do in me? What do you want to do in the lives of others? Because I can rest in the fact that God makes even the bad things good, and because

I can rest in that, I've learned to start asking, Lord, what? What good thing do you want to bring out of something that I have a very hard time seeing any good in right now? And so not only do we remember, we rest. But then the third word that I would like to give to you is the word refuge. The word refuge literally means a place of shelter, only I would like to substitute a word

for shelter there. I would like to call it a place of hope, because I think hope is one of the things that we're missing right now. Not only because of the reason why we're here today, because sometimes when we face death, it can feel a little bit hopeless, but also in our culture, it feels like a very hopeless culture that we live in right now. And as I have faced grief and loss in my own life, the Lord has brought me to a passage of scripture that for me, for 2021, has been probably the most important passage of scripture in my own life. That of Psalm 40. It says, I waited patiently for

the Lord and he inclined to me and he heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction and out of the miry clay, and he set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. He put their bodies He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust

and has not turned to the proud nor to those who lapse into falsehood. That psalm has meant so much to me because of not only what it presents as far as what the psalmist had been going through, but what the psalmist presents and how God responded to what he was going through. You see, the psalmist presents for us exactly what was going on in his life at that point in time. He said it felt like he had fallen into the miry clay and had fallen into a pit of destruction.

That word destruction is kind of interesting. That word destruction literally means a roar like the roaring of a wave. Now, I find that interesting because in facing seasons like this, it can sometimes feel like the noise around you is greater than you can take in. Sometimes it feels like all of the noise in your ears, from the grief or whatever it is that you're going through can be so heavy that you're not quite sure what to do to it, do with it.

Do you know what else I've noticed about the roar of a wave? Having been someone who lived in California and watched guys try to surf the waves, I've seen how powerful waves are. A young man who I love very dearly, I watched stand at the edge of the ocean where the water meets the beach and I watched him stand there as a very large young man who could handle just about anything. I watched him stand there as a very large young man who could handle just about anything.

I watched him stand there as a very large young man who could handle just about anything. I watched a wave come up and it absolutely wiped him out and drove him into the sand. We, of course, laughed very hard because he didn't see it coming and I didn't see it coming and I didn't think anything could ever knock him down quite like that. But can I say that sometimes that's what grief does to us?

That's the pit that he describes there. It's a pit that is so loud and so powerful that it knocks you down and leaves you feeling like I have no idea what hit me. He says, Because that's the pit that he was in. He felt like there was roaring noise all around him and it was too powerful for him to take in. But I loved what the psalmist says he did. It says that he cried for help.

He says, The Lord inclined to me and he heard my cry, my cry for help. And I'd like you to take note as to how God responded to this. The first thing it says that he does is it says, God inclined to me. Now that word inclined means to turn to or to bow down and listen. That gives us a little bit of an indication of how God acts, towards us when we cry to him for help.

The idea is given of a small child who comes up to their father and says, Daddy, I have a question for you. And so the dad turns and kneels down and listens. That's the idea that we're given by the psalmist here when he says, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and he heard my cry. Not only does God turn his ear and stoop down to listen to us, but that word heard literally means to listen attentively or carefully.

Isn't that great? Does that not give you a beautiful picture of hope of who God is for us in our lives? When we go through difficult times, when we go through times of grief, times that are too hard for us is that God hears the cry of those who would call to him. And not only does he turn and bend down so that he can listen to what we have to say, but he listens attentively to all the things that are coming out of our mouth.

But not only does he listen attentively to all the things that are coming out of our mouth, he listens to all attentively to all of the things that are in our heart that we don't always know how to verbalize. Because I don't know about you, but every now and then the things that are on the inside of me, I can't come up with words for. And that's saying something for a guy that makes us living talking. Sometimes I just can't come up with words to say things.

And all I can do is groan. And God says, I heard that. Because he listens attentively. And then did you notice what God did? God doesn't just bend down and listen and listen really attentively and say, that's a bummer. I hope you make it out. No, what does he do? It says he, he brought me up. He set my feet upon a rock and he gave me a whole brand new song to sing.

See, brothers and sisters in Christ, we have hope in Christ. We have hope because he is worthy of all of our hope. He is our greatest place of refuge. The only step that you and I have to take to find true hope in our lives is to cry out for help. Because you know what we're told in the book of Romans? We're told that he saves. He saves all those who call upon him.

He saves us all if we're willing to cry out to him for help. I would like to close this message with a little bit of a challenge. I have failed giving this challenge on a few of the services I've done here recently. And the Lord convicted me of that. You see, the very first funeral that I ever did, the Lord gave me a scripture out of the book of Ecclesiastes.

And he told me I should share this scripture every time I do a funeral. The book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 7, verse 2, says this. It is better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man. And the living takes it to heart. You see, there's a challenge for all of us here because we realize something. We realize that we all have a destiny that we will face.

You see, here's the thing about life. None of us makes it out alive. And so there's a challenge that's laid down for all of us. The challenge is this. Where is your hope today? Because if your hope is not in Christ, well, then you've got an interesting challenge to face at the end of life, don't you? In Christ, there is so much hope. In Christ, there is so much peace that we can face.

Not only facing the things of life today, but facing eternity. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. would do the work that only your Holy Spirit can do in the hearts of each person that's here today. Lord, that your word would do or that your Holy Spirit would do the work that only you can do in the hearts of those that are grieving and in the hearts of those that truly need hope in their life. Father, I thank you for your unchanging nature. Lord, I thank you for how good you are to us.

And I pray that you would be with this family and with these friends as we go out from this place. May their hearts be healed. Lord, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.