October 13, 2019 AM Jerry Brown

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Be faithful to recognize, day by day, all the gifts that you've given us.

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How you've so blessed us. How you've so richly blessed us.

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Help us to be grateful. Help us to offer up to you the sacrifices of thanksgiving.

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We thank you for Jerry, for his 80 years. What a blessing to know this couple, their family.

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Thank you for bringing them our way. Thank you for bringing us together. You have blessed us with friends and brothers and sisters.

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I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed, and the second program is about to begin.

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I think they have something planned. Guess we're waiting, center stage.

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Well, thank you all on behalf of mom and dad for coming tonight. I know you guys are very special to my parents.

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I was thinking earlier about a, I was thinking earlier about a time, a recording

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I heard from many years ago when mom and dad came to visit the church, and us kids were back in Washington.

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But I was listening to the recording, and dad said that when they first came into this church the first time,

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I guess it would be nearly 40 years ago now, that the church building itself was rather humble, but it was the heart of the people that he really loved.

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And so I know you guys are his spiritual family, and he loves you guys dearly.

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So I'm just gonna read a quick thing about dad's life. He was born in Seattle, October 7, 1939.

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Graduated Federal Way, Washington in 1958. Went to college, Central Washington State College, and met my mother,

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Jan, in February of 1963. Graduated and was commissioned into the Air Force June of 1963.

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They were married August 18, 1963. He flew the T -37, T -38, and then got his first assignment at Fairchild, Washington, flying the

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B -52. Went to Southeast Asia for a year in September 69th, and then he retired in Albuquerque, October 1, 1983.

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There's a few things that stick out to me when I think about my dad. One is his military service.

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I often think about him during that time, a guy in his early 30s flying a million dollar machine, 10 million to be exact.

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Yes, I looked it up. Around the jungles of Southeast Asia, with people shooting at him and trying to kill him.

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I'm sure you can imagine that this would be mentally distressing, to say the least. And the fact that he was able to withstand that, fly his plane, command a crew, and do his job of being ready to rescue downed pilots is amazing to me.

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In my early 30s, I was running a construction crew, and while I did get 20 or 30 feet off the ground at times,

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I was still connected to it. And I'm certain that no one was aiming anything more dangerous than a nail gun at me, and that ingest.

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I won't get into any specifics about the situations he was in while there. I feel honored to have been told about those, but I've only heard about them in the last 10 years ago, which is a picture of his modesty.

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And that leads to my next point about his military career. Dad has never been a military man, in quotes.

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And in that, he didn't insist on being treated like an officer by his kids. He didn't attempt to run his house like a squadron.

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I never got the impression that the military was more than just a job for him. He was always just dad to us.

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If I ever went to the base with him, I was always impressed and surprised at how other officers treated him. People of all shapes and sizes would snap to and salute him as he walked by.

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I don't remember the first time I saw this happen, but I do remember that whenever it did, it made me feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof.

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Made me feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof. In fact, once I got it in my head that it would be respectful to start calling him sir, and I began doing so.

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It wasn't long until he pulled me aside and explained to me that there were billions of people who could rightfully call him sir, whether out of respect or obligation to his rank.

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But there were only four people in the whole world who could rightfully call him dad, and that's what he preferred.

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Needless to say, I didn't call him sir anymore. The humility he showed in light of his military rank and accomplishments always impressed me.

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Something else I always think about is his hairdo. I rather like it. I've been trying to emulate it.

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What do you think? Am I getting it down? All right. Quite.

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The other thing I think about with him, and most of all, is his consistency. Dad has always been very consistent.

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This can be seen in no place better than his desire to follow God's word. One of the reasons, in fact, we're here in Oklahoma is because of dad's consistency.

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When dad retired from the Air Force in New Mexico, we moved to Washington, dad's home, where we were going to buy a place and live there for the rest of our lives.

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This was dad's idea that none of us opposed, but it was his idea and something that he wanted. This wasn't exactly how it played out.

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We moved four times before we found a suitable house, and if that had been dad's main goal, you would think that he would have hung on to it for dear life.

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But when our church started doing things that were not reconcilable to the scriptures, the change was immediate.

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Because of his desire to raise a family in a godly manner, he began questioning our church authorities. Their answers did not satisfy him or match up to what the

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Bible says. And after unsuccessfully requesting that they reconsider their stance, he decided that we had to get to a church body that ordered their way according to God's word.

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At that, we pulled up stakes and moved back to Oklahoma to a little place called Sunnyside Baptist. Maybe you've heard of it.

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His consistency to follow God's word regardless of the consequences, even to his dreams, is why this happened.

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And through our lives as kids, we could rely on this consistency. We didn't always like it, but it was still comforting to know that where he stood on things was where he would stand.

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And he stood on nothing more stringently than God's word. Jeff, would you like to come up here?

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Does that work? I have some good memories about dad.

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When I was in my teenage years, I read an autobiography of a test pilot called

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Chuck Yeager. I thought it was a remarkable story. He did a lot of remarkable things. But something that impressed me about the book was his discussion of things that he did off -duty.

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And it was something I'd never really heard about. He spent a lot of time drinking and cavorting with his buddies and doing all kinds of crazy things.

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And I look back on it, that was something I never knew anything about because dad finished up work and came home because he wanted to be with his family.

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I think his lack of military social life might have even cost him in promotions because he wasn't necessarily buddy -buddy with the friends that he worked with that way.

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He was there to serve and do his job. And so it was a real blessing to us that he didn't have any interest in that.

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So I thought, looking back on it, that's a good memory. And another thing, dad loved to work with his hands, and he's done anything from home repairs to making special things for us.

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I remember making a triple bunk bed for us when we were in Okinawa and a little short on space in the bedroom. And I liked having the top bunk.

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When I was much younger, he made me a replica of a double -barrel shotgun that was remarkably close to his fancy Browning 12 -gauge.

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And I still have it. It's kind of beat up. I probably grieved him a little bit when

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I used it like the guys in the movies use guns, throwing it around and whatever. It's got some wear and tear.

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But it was quite a remarkable thing. I remember making a really tall swing set for us when we lived in Tuttle when

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I was pretty young. It was kind of hard to get going pumping, but it was really great if you could talk dad into doing a run -through push, it would give you quite a ride because it was so high.

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But he's done things all our lives and still does to show his generosity and his love for us.

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I remember every time we moved someplace new, we would spend lots of time looking for a church and kind of analyzing the various churches and finding the one that was going to work the best for being a church home.

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In recent years, dad's mentioned more and more the verses from Psalm 90 where it says,

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The days of our years are three -score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four -score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, and they're soon cut off and we fly away.

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He says, I'm getting closer, I'm getting closer. And I've always liked that psalm.

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I've always found it to be very profound. But one of the most interesting things about it is,

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I don't know if Moses wrote that when he was 80 years old. You look at the timeline and it looks like he could have, but I don't really know.

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But Moses lived to be 120 years. It is soon cut off and we fly away.

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Soon was 40 years. So I don't think that verse needs to be an epilogue, maybe an introduction to the next chapter.

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But I don't think it's a sentence. It's just kind of a milestone maybe.

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I don't know. But later on in the psalm it says, Make us glad in the years when you have afflicted us, or in the days you have afflicted us, in the years where we have seen evil, and let your work appear to your children, and let your work appear to your servants, and your glory to their children.

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And my wish for Dad in his 80th year is that he would continue to see

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God's work in his family life. I know his family's life. I know often he'll reminisce about things in the past and things that our family's been through and that he's been through, and he'll see

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God's hand in it. He'll say, Well, God was protecting me at that time or God was leading us. And my wish is for him to continue to see that and that his children and grandchildren would see

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God's glory in his life and in his obedience to God. I guess we have

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Jason from Hawaii here who wanted to read his. Can you hear me,

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Jason? Let me see if I can make it where we can hear you. All right.

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Go ahead. It's good to see you all.

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We miss you. So I'm happy that we're able to make a connection here to wish

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Dad a happy birthday. My thoughts are that my dad is someone who would never claim to be perfect.

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He's proven to be faithful to his wife, to his family, and he's proven to be faithful to his faith.

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So as I grow in my own family, I just realized, and my respect grows on a daily basis as I experience the similar challenges that I know

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Dad faced, and he was at a similar station in life and career and family. So thank you for demonstrating your patience, your thoughtfulness in difficult decisions that when

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I was younger I thought were so simple. So thank you for partnering with Mom.

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Thank you for leading, for being transparent in your successes, and for being honest about areas you wish you would have done better in because it's done nothing but help me to see where I can improve.

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Thank you for also partnering with Mom to provide broad shoulders on which your children and grandchildren can stand on.

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So I believe this is the most basic demonstration of the

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Great Commission. This is how faith is spread on the deepest level. This is how disciples are made for generations, and I thank you for that.

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So may our God bless you as you begin your eighth decade, and aloha from your children here.

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We love you. Thank you. Happy birthday,

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Papa. We'll see you later. Thank you. Bye now.

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Now we'd like to get all the family up here to take a picture. I'm sorry?

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Okay. You want to hang on for a minute? Sure, I can. Okay. Do whatever.

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Can you guys come up here? Can you guys come on up here? We'll take a picture real quick.

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I would just like to wish my dad a happy birthday, happy 80th birthday, and thank you for the years of faithfulness, your stability has created for me the strength that I needed, the staying power that I needed all those years, and all of our moves.

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You and Mom made our home a haven 20 times over, and I'm grateful for that, just like has been said before, and I'm grateful.

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Mom wants to say something. I thought this would be easier than it is now.

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So I appreciate what the kids shared. Jerry and I met in February.

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We were married in August, and then we moved, and I had lived in one spot all my life until I was a junior in high school.

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So I was excited about traveling the world, and travel we did.

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We had lots of fun. The three verses that just mean the most to me that I think describe

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Jerry, Genesis 18 -19 says, For I know him that he will command his children in his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the

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Lord and do justice and judgment. We didn't know the Lord when we were married, but eight years later we met

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Chaplain Fulton that led us to the Lord, and there was a dynamic difference in our lives from that time on.

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Jerry was like he said, stalwart. We went to church.

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We found churches. We traveled a lot on weekends, and we would stop on Sundays and find a little church and go to it, and we met more wonderful people across this country just on Sunday afternoon as we would go to the churches.

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So that was fun. Proverbs 20 says, The just man walketh in his integrity, and his children are blessed after him.

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I'm so grateful for the blessing that he's caused on our children's lives, and to watch them raise up their children.

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It's fun to teach your own children scripture, but it's a whole lot more fun to see your grandchildren memorizing scripture, and I'm so grateful for each of them.

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Proverbs 17 -6 says, Children's children are the crown of an old man, and the glory of children are their fathers.

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And those are my three favorite verses for Jerry. I'm grateful for him.

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I'm grateful for his steadfastness, and I'm grateful for the way he's led his family.

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So thank you. So if you'll come up here, we can get a picture with him.

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Who's going to take the picture? Lisa. Yeah, you can hold them up and let them be in the picture.