Richard Loch Memorial

Greetings and good morning. We're gathered here this morning for certainly memorial service, but more than that. We mark the going home of Richard Locke. And so as we gather here this morning, I think it's certainly one thing to keep in mind. Yes, there are memories, and we'll share some of those a little bit later. Some good ones, maybe even some funny ones. There is a missing of Richard that will go on for a time.

But right now, Richard is better off than he has ever been. And so we have much to rejoice over for his sake. And a rejoicing that we will one day share with him. As he is face to face with the Lord now, So those who believe also will be. Let's take a moment to just put this time into the Lord's hands. Join me. Lord, we thank you that as we're gathered here this morning that we can count upon your very faithfulness.

What eternal life you have already begun in Richard at the point in which he believed you have taken to its next next step. by your decision. And Lord, we can rejoice this morning that He is with you face to face. And what a rejoicing that is, Lord. He will never again shed a tear or grieve or be in sorrow, but instead rejoice with you moment by moment and glorify your name.

And Lord, as we gather, we pray for our own hearts and our own minds. that we would have indeed your perspective on this. And we thank you that we do not have to take the world's that you are indeed the God of all comfort. We praise you for that. We give you thanks. And we thank you for where Richard is not just the place. But the person that he is before the Lord of glory. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. We, in looking at the memorial half, if you will, of today's service, want to just kind of review some of the highlights of Richard's life. Richard was born May 4th, 1934, in Hayward, Wisconsin, to Ann Locke and Charles Locke. He spent the first part of his life going back and forth to Madison, Wisconsin. You see, Richard was born with club feet.

Many of us may not have even known that, but it was something that was a significant issue in the first years of his life as his parents sought to find some kind of a solution and resolution of that. At one point in time, the doctor even said, just cut him off. They said no. And so as we saw him here up until this last week, he walked in here for the last 25 years because of that insistence, no, we're not going to do that. So this is a good thing.

He attended the country school, Wheeler, and then his family moved there and he went to Hayward Grade and Hayward High School, graduating in 1952. After he graduated, he moved to Chicago and worked for the Nelson Company for a couple of years. Then he decided to join the Air Force. He spent about two decades with the Air Force, retiring around 1974. And after that, he went to work there in California. and then moved to Denver and worked for E.F. Hutton until E.F. Hutton decided to move the office to Atlanta. And from there on he had a few different jobs.

He was active here at Holly Hills for about two and a half decades and many of you have been here for longer than I have long and fond recollections of Richard here. And one of the reasons we shows this picture, a great smile. And that's a good way to remember Richard. I'm sure a lot of you look at that smile and say, yeah, I've seen that before. Richard was raised in the Catholic faith.

He came to a point, however, when he heard the gospel message and he realized that he was indeed in need of the Savior. He, at that point in time, accepted the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. As we look here at this last week and Richard's passing, it ends what will be earthly memories, but it begins for him a time of eternity that will be without parallel.

When here in this church body some months back we studied Ephesians 2.7, it says that it will take eternity for the Lord to reveal all the grace. And that means millions of years is not long enough.

Richard has begun that time. He has begun that time of continuing revelation of God's grace. As the way we put it here, it's like an eternity of gasping and, ah, great discovery. That time has begun for him. So as we have certainly memories, and we'll take a look at some more of those memories here this morning, Richard has incomparable discoveries taking place begun even now And we look to the Lord for that Let's turn your hymnals to 394 blessed assurance.

Yeah, please Blessed assurance Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Pair of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission. perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, You may be seated.

We're going to ask Mike and Hal to share with us out of God's work. When Hal didn't stand up, I thought, well, I guess I'm going first. Richard Locke, gee, probably in the early 80s, Don and I were talking about coming down here. We came to Holly Hills and Richard was sitting right there.

Natalie dressed, you know, tweed jacket. He looked terrific. And I always remember him like that. Have you ever met a friendlier guy? Well, I got to thinking at the Tuesday Bible study, when we first found out the news, it was a joyful time. We had a great day because we were rejoicing that Richard was home. And so I got to thinking. That's where I'd like to be, that's where we all would really like to be given the choice, so home free.

Now, the father has every believer whom he chooses in eternity past every single one of them. Whom he promised to his son safely and eternal eternally in his risen son. And this is the father's will. Whom he has sent. And this is the father's will, who has sent me that all that he has given me, I should lose nothing. but should raise it up again in that last day." In his prayer to his father in the garden, he said, Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am.

That's where Richard is right now. That they may behold my glory. So we know where he is and we also know what he's doing right now. Which Thou hast given me, for Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world. So the Lord Jesus prayed this prayer on the eve of his death on the cross. It was all settled. And he had it had been settled since eternity past.

It was there we were chosen in him, the father, having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his own will. The Lord Jesus had to die. in order to bring us to himself, in order to fulfill the eternal calling of the father who has chosen us in him. Except a grain of wheat fall in the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. So it's interesting.

If you think about one of the things we talked about on Tuesday, if Richard had a choice, Of of being hanging out with us studying the word of God on Tuesday or doing what he was doing at that present time, which would he pick? There wasn't any choice. He would stay right where he was. He would never he would never leave the beholding of the Lord. The other thought I had about him and about his going home is that.

The Lord Jesus Christ loves us so much. that at the very instant that our task is completed here, we're gone because he wants us in his company. He wants us to be in fellowship with him. He wants us to behold his glory unobstructed from now on. And so I'm really very excited about Richard and I, as best I can, I envy him. Thank you.

If you want to turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and just follow what I'm going to be reading, and if you don't, that's okay. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, starting at verse 1, it says, For we know that if our earthly tent, which is our house or body, is torn down, We have a building from God, a house or body, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For indeed, in this house or body, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. And as much as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent or body, we groan, And this is the second time it uses the word groan. The question is, what are we groaning about? Well, first of all, groaning is an inward expression or feeling of sorrow. Why are we sorrowful in this body? We're sorrowful in this body because we're in this body and we're not at home with the Lord.

The more intimacy that we have with the Lord, the more the groaning. The more we know him, the more we're going to grow to be with him. So continuing in verse four, it says being burdened because we do not want to be in clothed, but to be clothed in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Notice something. For Richard, the groaning is over. And there's no more burden, no more heaviness in the various trials that the Lord allowed Richard to go through in his walk here. How wonderful is that? Not to have the burden anymore. And we can be joyous in Richard's homecoming.

And do you notice what? Verse 4 said that he's swallowed up by life. And there's a definite article there, not to teach, but he's swallowed up by the life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoa, isn't that something? In verse 5, it says, now, he who prepared us for this very purpose is God. who gave us the Spirit as a pledge or down payment. And it's talking about the Holy Spirit, that we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us as God's pledge. In verse 6, it says, therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Note something about Richard. Richard has a change of address. It's no longer Denver, Colorado. If you want to address anything to Richard, you address it to the third heaven, because that's where he is.

And then in verse 9, it says, therefore, we have confidence. We have this fixed certainty, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him. Amen? Amen. You have in the handout here a sheet we'd like to have you take out. And I've got some. OK. Though in death the poor adore Thee, in tenets I've learned To love Thee with my great heart and soul.

The Lord's your hymn, keeps your fires of all the raging, cherubim and seraphim. Understand, for as praising in the heavens we are, Holy, holy is the Lord. Oh, mother, holy son, Holy Spirit, we need Thee, O innocent, holy One. Undivided God we claim Thee And adoring in the deep How we sing Your praise to Thee I think Richard would have liked a German song.

Wenn ich ihn nur hauge, wenn er mein Uhr hinkt, Seine Treue nie vergisst, Weil sich nichts vom Leide Fühle hat nichts als Andacht, Lieb' und Freude. Wenn ich ihn nur habe, lass ich alles gern, Volk an meinem und deinem, Seige sind nur meinem Herrn, Lasse still die anderen, Breite Lichter voller Staaten wandern.

Wo ich ihn nur habe, ist mein Vaterland, Und er hat's bald mit jeder Gabe, Wie ein Herbteil, We're now like, like Hal, you had offered to start our time off here. We'd like to have a time of sharing of memories. I think this would be something initially a few people have been lined up and then we'd like to open the mic. We can just carry this around to whoever would like to also share some memories with us and that would be great.

Just so you know, the first two hymns that we sang were two of Richard's favorite hymns, and that's why we've been singing them. The second one, we didn't do to it very well because we didn't know it very well, but it was his favorite. There was something different about last Sunday when Lindy and I came to church. What was different was that Richard wasn't at the door to greet us. and waiting for Lindy and myself because you see on every wedding anniversary Richard was there standing at the door with his Bible underhand and on top of the Bible would be a white hallmark card with his beautiful handwriting and I can't tell you And I should mention that our anniversary was just this past Thursday. So Richard was always there the Sunday before our anniversary, standing at the door, ready to greet us.

And I can't tell you how many times Richard saved me. You get the picture. When I saw Richard with that white card, I said, what's happening this week? But Richard wasn't there. And he always wanted to congratulate us face-to-face with a big hug. So we didn't have the face-to-face fellowship with Richard on Sunday because he was having face-to-face fellowship with someone else. Were we jealous? Not in the least, because he was having face-to-face fellowship with his Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's so much better. Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, it says, For we now see in the mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully. just as I also have been known, or fully known. Richard's and our seeing and knowing the Lord is somewhat imperfect while we're here. But Richard is seeing and knowing his Lord perfectly because he's face to face with him.

And this is Think about, I want you to think about this. This is the ultimate fulfillment of God's eternal purpose, sharing his very glory with us, with Richard. So sorrow for Richard is out of the question. Christians are not to sorrow as others who have no hope or no certainty. We have absolute certainty as to where Richard is. He's face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ. And our only response can be that of joy and praise to God. Amen. Yeah. Somebody else would like to share something. Art.

I look like Richard, don't I, the way I walk? Some of you oldies here at Holly Hills will remember that in the mid-70s, Holly Hills would have some intensive weekends up at Pingree Park, the summer campus of CSU's Forestry Service, and Richard, it must have been either in It must have been right after Richard had found Holly Hills and started attending here.

He didn't have a car, so he rode up there with Doris and I, and in the afternoons we would, after Bible study in the morning and of course in the evening, we would have some free time. A number of us began to hike, and Richard was having some difficulty with his feet, so the group went on. Richard and I sat down beside a bubbling stream, and Richard shared with me how he had been reborn, as he put it then, and he told me some of his experiences in in the Air Force.

Regrettably, there was one that he had purchased a home with another couple and somehow or other this couple, I don't know exactly how to put it, but Richard lost his investment in that home. He wasn't bitter about it, but he just shared it. I will remember Richard. Richard is looking down upon us. One of the attributes of Richard, the Bible tells us that we should honor our fathers and our mothers. And Richard took his dear mother Anne and provided a home for her in her later years while they were here. And I want to bring this to a close, but Richard this morning, or today, not today, Richard is in heaven looking down upon us.

You'll remember how he would get up here and he would say greetings to my brothers and my sisters, and he is waiting in heaven to greet all of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, as He did and as He does, surely like He never had here. As Hal has mentioned, He has had the privilege to meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ face to face. The necklace I have on was given to me by Richard. The necklace I have on was given to me by Richard. It was his mother's. You know, it's kind of funny when you look back at the times after Richard died.

He used to... I thought there for a while he was pulling a con job on me. And I realized that it was a matter that he just liked to be with someone. Because he would ask me if... Later on it became a responsibility of Ralph's and And Roberts, to take him over to the hospital for his visit with his doctor, for a long time, I would take him. He never really followed the schedule.

He was likely to say, I need to go on a certain such and such a day, such and such a time. And they'd say, would you be able to? And I'd say, sure. I'd say, well, being a self-employed, you should interrupt here to pay Paul on that. So I would do that. And I didn't realize anything until last Tuesday.

But he did a lot of that because not only did he just like being with me, and I enjoy being with him, we've had a lot of things to share back and forth. And we've talked about the Lord a great deal. And he just liked being with people. And I know that he would be pleased today. And I know he is pleased today. All of you are here. sharing this time with you. I love this picture of Richard, this up here. I think it's the way he looks right now. And it just so looks like him the way he always was. He was a happy person, a gentle person, and But I'm so happy for him.

When I first heard that he was gone, I had a variety of feelings. I think one of them, of course, was shock. I was so surprised. And then another one was kind of like, well, she has been left out. And then another one was, all of us have one less person here on this right now who prays for us every day.

Because I really believe that he was one of our best and our warriors. He always wanted to know how everybody was. And if you ever told him anything, he always had the sense that he prayed for us so much. And I know over the years with our problems, Richard was one person who was always praying. He was always so tender toward us, and he loved our children.

He came here to the church in 1978. which was, we had arrived in late 77. And so we've known him a long time, and I kind of, our kids kind of grew up with Richard in their life during the first 12 years that we were here at Holland Hills. And the reason for that really was not just that they knew him here, but that we had the singles out at our house a lot during those years. And it was quite a good group. We had a lot of, well they weren't all young people either, as Richard was probably in his Maybe his fifties at that time, or at least his late forties. Anyway, he was out of the Air Force. And so we kind of got to know him, and our children kind of grew up with him. And so that's one reason I know he praised him over the years and always had them close to his heart. So I think maybe that was all I was going to say.

But we love Richard, and I'm just really happy that he is a meaningful man. Thank you. It's indeed an honor to be now with Richard in my life. I got acquainted with Richard here a couple of years ago in my spare time, because I've spent here a lot of hills. And I'd sure like to echo what Abel just said. I was out in the winter for a school day, and I know you're here for a school day, and probably for each one of us, it's been a long day.

And another thing, too, I recently met a good friend, and we were in church, and he gave me one of his cards again, and you know, it's so interesting how Little incidents in life, at the time, seemed rather insignificant. Later on, they turned out to be milestones in your life. And the Lord spoke of, you know, when we recently had a get-together on Easter Sunday, Well, there's Bob and Margaret from the house, and Mr. Pritchard asked if he could hang a light up, and he said, well certainly I should. And he had no idea what a pleasure it was to be able to spend that time alone with Mr. Pritchard and just relax and enjoy that great time that we had. I really value Richard's impact on my life, because he's always so faithful to me.

I wanted to say one other good thing, too, about that birthday. You know, Richard, that's the thing, you were just here the other day, and you witnessed everyone. I just wanted you to say, when I was playing the Ardipathan several years ago, it seemed like Rishi was coming in about the third year, and I gave him an 815, and he would sit down, and he would just listen to me say, and he would, that, that song that the holy God would praise, now, he didn't want to sing that song. I never did those stuff before now. He came out and said that was the ending of the stand. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song.

He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song. He loved that song.

He Somehow, as I stand here and look at Richard's picture, I expect to hear, many of you don't know me. And I look around and I think, there isn't anybody here that doesn't. We're going to miss him, but what a joy it is to know where he's at. On that picture, kind of a little funny story about it. As you know, we were taking these pictures back in the back room of the Roscoe, of the directory. And the owner was standing behind me, and he was smiling.

And Richard had that rather light smile on his face. No one else had smiled quite that much. And so I tried to calm him down just a little bit. And I said, Richard, Maybe if you don't smile quite so much, and the minute I would push the button, I don't know, it was like it was intuition on his part, the minute I'd do that, the smile would come on.

I shot that picture three times, and that's the one that we chose because you could not get him not to smile. I met Richard at the Tuesday study probably ten years ago, and it's already been said, but I don't know that I've ever met a kinder, gentler man than him.

And it's true, I know that he prayed for us, and whenever we would leave him, he would ask how it was, and I knew that he was praying for us. I would probably think I would remember the most was his love for her daughter. and the way that he would smile at her, and the way that she would reach to him. It's just beautiful to see the love between them. Both Gail and Dave have mentioned how Richard Price love their children in. And that is something that I, though Richard never had children of his own, he really did love the children of this congregation and the children that he knew and loved. They were important to him and he loved them. And my son mentioned the other day that he always used to value the water in the pond. And that's his love for the children. in going to various places with Richard and spending time with him.

But one of the things that he shared was that he, in various places in the Air Force, was stationed in northern Edinburgh. He got to spend time in places that were a lot of places that And so it's neat to hear those stories for him to kind of picture in his mind in these very same places. And, uh, so that was an easy case. I mean, it was also easy to hear, uh, Fischer's purpose was, uh, to do the very things that I had taken him to do.

Uh, he would always look to the Lord and pray to the Lord, and say, you know, Lord, you saved me. And the Lord would say to him, you know, Lord, you have privileged me to be, you know, a very precious, uh, person. And, uh, Lord did, uh, The other thing that I want to share with you is the first Sunday that Vern reached here was my dad's service. And Richard came to my dad's service.

And it's kind of funny, after that, because he lost his mom. And he took a doctor, my mom, and he would ask every Sunday, how's mom? He wouldn't say, how's your mother? He'd say, how's mom? And, you know, as a poor mother, that just says that she had to be healthy, that she was there. She cried in the morning.

We came out to Holly Hills a couple years back, about three years ago. And we were part of a church in Virginia that had a young adult group, and we pretty much just come out with other people our age. Kind of like a policy group. One of the first things we enjoyed about Pali Yoga was we got to get along with other people. So Richard was one of the first guys that I shoot the ball with, and I would just talk to him. I'm sorry for you, but you still have to let me down. You didn't notice me? All charity and help is what's in us. Face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face what will it be?

When with rapture I behold Him. Is Christ to die for me? Face to face I shall behold Him. Far beyond the starry sky Faced to face in all His glory I shall see Him by and by Only faintly now I see Him With the darkling veil between. But a blessed day is coming, When His glory shall be seen. Face to face I shall behold Him, Far beyond the starry sky These two faiths in all His glory They shall see Him by and by But rejoicing in His presence When our vanished grief and pain, When the crooked ways are straightened, And the dark things shall be plain, Face to face I shall behold Him Far beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory I shall see Him by and by Face to face, O blissful moment, face to face to see and know. Face to face with my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who loves me so. Face to face I shall behold Him Far beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory I shall see Him by and by Let's remain standing for a closing prayer here.

Lord, certainly we've had a time here of remembrance. And Lord, what a marvelous rejoicing. A rejoicing that shall never end for Richard. And Lord, we who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ have that same blessed hope. What a marvelous hope. And Lord, for Richard, that hope is no longer hope because it's fulfilled. He sees you face to face. How wonderful, how marvelous, what a wonderful hope we have. We just pray and thank you for this time of sharing, a time of rejoicing and celebration in Richard's graduation. In Jesus' name, amen. We invite you to remain afterwards or refreshments downstairs and enjoy a time of fellowship together.