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Good morning. How are we? It's good to be here. My name is Tyler Perkins and I serve as the

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Executive Director at the Idaho Falls Rescue Mission. And Pastor Scottie, oh thank you,

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thank you. Pastor Scottie asked me to share about the mission specifically and some of my story and

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how that relates to you. When I talked to Scottie and he told me what happened, I said, "Scottie,

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you know we could have just went to coffee." And he said, "Yeah, that would have been a lot cheaper."

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So before I jump in, will you pray with me? Father, I just ask that you show up and you speak

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through me and even if it's to one person today, Lord, we just ask that you use this message to

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speak to your people. And we ask these things in Jesus' mighty name, amen. Okay, so like I said,

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I really wanted to just, I asked Scottie, just where you at? Let me just continue sermon and

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wherever you're at. And he said, "No, I don't want you to preach a sermon. I want you to share about

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the mission. I want you to share with our congregation who you are so that our congregation

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can get to know you and get to know the mission." And I went, "Okay, all right." So who knows about

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the Idaho Falls Rescue Mission? Wow, awesome, awesome. So if any of you have heard everything

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I'm gonna say, don't ruin it for everyone else. Just smile, you'll get through it. My testimony,

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part of my story has a lot to do with, I'm just setting a timer as I'm talking or I will keep you

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here too long, for sure. But it has everything to do with why I'm here, why I'm here in front of you

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even. It is a direct result of my relationship with Jesus and being obedient to that. And so,

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I'm not gonna talk about what a horrible person I was before Jesus, which I was. I'm not gonna

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talk about all the sin that I was so good at, which I was. I'm not gonna talk about all the

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bad things and the bad man that I was, which is all true. And all of you who know anything about

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me can attest. And if you have an issue with it, my wife's right here, she'll tell you. I want to

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kind of start in, besides just a little bit of where I come from, when I became a believer in

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Jesus. So I was born and raised in Southern Nevada in the Mojave Desert. And it's funny because when

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we moved up here, we moved up by warm river outside of Ashton and we had all our friends

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and our little church family was like, "How are your kids adjusting to being so far out in the

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middle of nowhere?" And my kids were coming home and going, "Dad, this place is huge. There are

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people everywhere." So just that, you know, I come from a very ranchy, farmy, really, really small,

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really poor background and just had a zeal for sin. I really did. You know, we all struggle with

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it, but I really am an overachiever in some ways. So outside of that, I want to start with becoming

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a believer. In my mind, a believer is when you believe that God is real and even if you don't

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have some of that clarity in who God is and who His Son is, if you believe God is real, you're a

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believer. And the first several years of me becoming a believer, not until I was well into

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my adult life, and it made every mistake you can make, and I started doing things like going to

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church, and that made me feel really good. And I started thinking about others a little bit more

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than I used to, and I started helping people a little bit more. But I was still, you know,

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living my life, not really giving my whole life to Christ. And so that shallow dive, can I say that?

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Can I say that out loud? Shallow dive part of my life was good, it was a good step, but it was not

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what God had for me at all. Not even close. I was still trying to plan my future. And as I wrestled

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through that a little bit, some things started to happen. The more that I stayed in the Word of God

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and prayed and fasted to God, "Give me a mission, give me a mission, give me a mission," I still was

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doing it from my own kind of perspective and my own wants and needs. And in that shallow dive

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Christianity, guess what I did? I made a whole bunch of mistakes. Unbiblical mistakes. So I know

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that's a lot of your story, but I want to make some points here and use this part of my testimony to

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challenge and encourage. If we just get up and share our testimony, that's good. But what does

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testimony mean? Anybody looked it up? The definition says something along the lines, depending on what

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dictionary you use, proof and evidence of said topic in your life. It's the same word that we

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use in a court of law when you go to swear testimony in a court of law. It's proof and

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evidence in that case of whatever the topic is, the charges are, right? So when we share our

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testimony, we ought to be able to have specific proof and evidence of said topic, which happens

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to be Jesus. So the older I get, the less I talk about my stuff and the more I talk about Jesus in

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my life and evidence that He's in my life. When I was a shallow dive Christian, He wasn't in my

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life a whole bunch. And I was choosing the times when He was. So the challenge for you is to

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evaluate that, right? I'm not saying it's bad, and I'm not here to convict and make you feel bad,

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and in case I do, I brought some jokes to kind of offset that. And so my family's probably going to

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be embarrassed because there's a few dad jokes in here too. But our testimony has to show proof

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and evidence of Jesus. That's the purpose of sharing a testimony. So my Christian life,

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when I became a believer, that was kind of sketchy. You could see Jesus in my life when

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I brought it up. But I kept praying and I kept fasting and I kept in the Word and I kept studying,

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and God just kept pulling on me and pulling on me and pulling on me. And I finally got to this

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time in my life where I realized this isn't my life. This is God's life. And at that point,

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I started getting really radical and my wife thought I was losing it. I was losing it. I tell

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people all the time, "You kind of have to be a little bit crazy to follow Jesus." Especially

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from the perspective of the world, right? And so I started doing things like this. "Lord,

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I'm going to wake up tomorrow and I'm going to do whatever You have for me. Tell me what You

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want me to do today. Tell me where You want me to go today. What do You have for me?" Instead of,

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"Lord, I'm doing this and this and this. Please bless it if it be Your will." And things got

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pretty weird pretty quick for me. I immediately was burdened, overwhelmingly burdened for people

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who were struggling for the broken, the destitute, the addicted, and people in jail and prison. So

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much so that during this time in our marriage and our life, we're raising little kids. I started,

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we lived in a super rural area where there is no resources, there's no cities, there's not even a

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store. There's a couple of gas stations. And so I started designing, like researching and thinking

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and reading and praying the Word and putting these programs together. And I actually made a

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list of these programs that could help people. And I started doing them, talking to the sheriff and

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putting classes together and getting them okayed with probation, parole, and driving to the little,

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you know, driving 100 miles up the road to where the county jail was. And just doing all these

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things. I had no idea why or what I was doing. I was just on fire. And then some other weird

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things started happening, like, you know, my family stopped talking to me about certain things.

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My friends all said, "We're not your friends anymore. You're being crazy. We know who you

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are. What are you doing?" Sound familiar? I know a lot of you have been through this. And I just

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kept plugging away and working and making every mistake. Like I said, if you want to talk about

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mistakes made through a Christian life and sanctification, come talk to me. I'll make you

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feel pretty good. Share some of my war stories. You'll feel great about yourself. But the important

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part is Jesus was in it all, right? And I continue to give Jesus more and more of myself and my life.

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And as I did that, He started directing and showing and guiding and teaching and moving

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me in ways that I never would have guessed, including this whole kind of thing. It got so

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much to the point that I started a nonprofit, and I wrote down this list of programs that I

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was going to build and was building and having Bible classes and life coaching classes, the whole

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nine across the board. Things got pretty rough, and I made a lot of mistakes in that as well. And

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I finally got to the point where I said, "Lord, this ain't working. This one horse town ain't

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working anymore. Not a lot of people to help. The people that I do help don't want it." And then just

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the few people that were there for my support just didn't support me anymore. And so I said,

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"Right or wrong, Lord, I'm moving. Tell me where to move. I need you to tell me where to go." I'd

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never been to Idaho. Didn't much care for it, no offense. And He brought me to Ashton first. We were

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up there for a little bit for a couple of years, and my wife said, "You can do another winter up

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here if you want to, but you'll do it alone." At the same time, I had gone to a retreat, Old Faithful

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Christian Ranch, at the same time and met some homeless guys that the mission had brought up

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there for the first time. And at the time, I'm studying and mentoring under pastors to become

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a pastor because I thought, "It's God's life now. The next logical thing is pastoral, right?" That's

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how guys think most of the time. And I love the guys so much, I just started going down and

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volunteering at the mission. And I was praying and fasting, "Give me a mission, Lord. I'm ready. I

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think I'm ready. Give me a mission." So careful what you pray for. If you're giving it all to God,

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sometimes if it's His will, He'll give it to you, and then watch out. So that's how I came to the

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mission. I started volunteering there, never really wanted to work there, and the need was

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just obvious and everything. I still have this paper today. I got to learn the mission, and at

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one point they sat me down and said, "We really want you to work for us. Here's a breakdown of

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our programs and what we do and what we offer and why." And I read it, and I just melted. I was blown

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away. And I actually went home and pulled that old paper out from years ago in Nevada and put them

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together. And I had no idea. I've never been homeless. I've lived out of my truck a few times,

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but that's just because we were that honky where I grew up. And I put these pieces of paper together,

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and God had had me building programs that the mission offers. And visiting people in jail the

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same way that the mission offers, and even creating probation and parole biblical classes,

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and getting them okay through the state the way that rescue missions do it. And I was like,

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"Okay, well, I think that's a yes." And so I have never looked back, and it's been a really long

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journey. I still make a lot of mistakes. I just dove in. The last thing I want to say about this

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testimony part is it's about Jesus, right? Our testimony is about Jesus, and the proof and

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evidence in my life when people ask me, because people do down at the mission. They ask all the

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time. And I say, "I'm here. I'm with you. I'm praying for you. I would not be here. I would

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not care. I would not care about this church or anything else without Jesus." And He needs to work.

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He wants to work that mightily and powerfully through all of us. He has a mission for you. It

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might not be a gospel rescue mission, but it's a mission just as importantly. And if we will just

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continue to give more and more of ourselves to Jesus, He'll continue to give more and more of

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His life for you and make it really obvious, right? I think God's blessed me because of my

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stubbornness, because of my confidence to go make mistakes and just stay busy. "Lord, this is what

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I'm doing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not gonna sit down." And so I always encourage people

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to get up and do something. And if you mess it up, it's alright. And if it's not designed for you,

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you'll find out real quick. So that's a little bit about myself. That's all I'm gonna say about me.

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If you guys want to know more about me, I'll take you to coffee later. I want to talk a little bit

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about the mission because Scotty said, "I want you to talk about the mission and what you do and who

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you are, and I really want to educate our congregation." Because did you guys know that the

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mission is an outreach of this church? Ah, finally gotcha. Yeah, your church supports the Idaho Falls

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Rescue Mission. As a matter of fact, the mission is an outreach. So when somebody needs help from

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homelessness or food insecurity or addiction, then we step in and partner with your church. And so

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that's a ministry together, right? Yeah, and Scotty and I get along really well. We've known each

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other for a long time. The last couple of years we've got to know each other a lot better, and

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we're such hodunks that we hit it off and get along really good. And we're such knuckleheads

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that we really connect. As a matter of fact, he agreed to be one of my accountability partners

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a while ago, and so he's constantly giving me Scotty wisdom about fatherhood and ministry,

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and it's really good. So what about the mission, and what does that mean for you guys? Well, I want

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to go over some things that the mission does. Before that, I'm going to throw a couple of these

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jokes out just to test kind of if you're awake, break up the monotony a little bit. I don't often

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tell dad jokes, but when I do, he usually laughs. Okay. I adopted a dog from a blacksmith, and as

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soon as I brought him home, he made a bolt for the door. Okay, just making sure your blood's pumping.

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I'll throw a couple more. That's my last dad joke, but I got some other some other jokes.

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I have this thing, if you'll allow me to read it, and it's actually just a history of gospel

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rescue missions, which you guys are part of a gospel rescue mission, whether you want to be

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or not, by attending this church. We're part of you, and that relationship is really cohesive,

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and so Scotty asked me to educate you and share with you some about what a gospel rescue mission

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is. So I thought, okay, let's give you the whole story summary. So allow me to read this. "Down

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through the centuries in every society, a portion of the population has found itself poor and

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needier than the rest." That's not going to work. "Thankfully, compassionate people have been there

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to invite those needing help into their homes, into their places of worship, and into the

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organizations that they've created to provide aid and support. Countless numbers of these helpers

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have been motivated by the gospel that says we are to love our neighbors as ourselves,

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and that a relationship with Jesus can be life-transforming and provide the power to

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start anew. In the early 19th century in Scotland, one such helper was David Naismith. He's the first

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guy to start a mission. He started the first city mission to meet the physical and spiritual needs

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of those in society who were without means and struggling the most. And his model of ministry

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spread throughout the United Kingdom and eventually found its way across the Atlantic Ocean. In the

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United States, the work of gospel rescue missions is historically connected to the temperance

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movement of the 1800s." Fascinating history, Christian history, by the way, and so look up

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the temperance movement. It's fantastic. "In 1847, oh sorry, in 1836, various temperance societies

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merged to form the American Temperance Union, and the temperance movement was a tremendous success,

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and it was deeply connected to the gospel and to the local churches." Who, by the way, were just as

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clicky as we are today. That has not changed as much as people think. "In 1847, the word 'union'

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began referring to the uniting of various local churches of diverse denominational backgrounds

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into an interdenominational congregation to take care of the work of the church." The downtrodden,

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the broken, the poor. If you dig into that a little bit more, the history of it, as the West

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expanded in America and the cities blew up, more and more problem. The Wild West was so rampant

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with violence and addiction that it was crazy, but then the cities in the East and Midwest blew

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up and the churches couldn't handle it by themselves, so they came together and said,

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"Let's put time, treasure, and talent together and create a gospel rescue mission." So the original

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design is for the churches to own and operate these missions. So all we're trying to do is put

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that back right. We're a parachurch organization where the local churches come together to do the

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work of the church and make sure that the gospel can be shared and preached. So a good source of

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the history of the American effort to have various churches unite in the 1800s can be found in the

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term the Restoration Movement, which also happened in the 1800s and is a fascinating history. The

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Restoration Movement has been characterized by principles that are embodied in the slogans that

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are a part of our history as local missions. Where the Scriptures speak, we speak. Where the

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Scriptures are silent, we are silent. These are just a couple of our taglines throughout the

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years. In essentials, unity. In opinions, liberty. And in all things, love. No creed but Christ,

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no book but the Bible, no law but love. And those change and kind of evolve through the years,

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but, getting a phone call, sorry about that. But the thing to remember is that the gospel is the

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root of what we're doing and the reason why we're doing it. We do a lot of social services and take

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care of a lot of people that don't want anything to do with God, right? But we don't say, "Well,

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if you're not gonna believe in Jesus or you're not gonna read your Bible, you can't stay with

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us." Of course not. It's a net to do the work of the church and to net as many broken destitute

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people as we can and give them the opportunity to hear about Jesus. The rest of it is up to them.

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So by the late 1800s, city missions were springing up in urban areas throughout North America to

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serve those who were living every day in deep despair. And in 1906, the leaders of these

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multiplying city missions formed a network called the National Federation of Gospel Rescue Missions.

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They did this to learn from each other and to gain better support for the work that they were doing.

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They became the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions and then in 2018, changed again to

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City Gate Network. And so we're a network and we don't receive financial support from them,

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but we go to districts and nationals and I travel other gospel rescue missions and cities across the

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West and we compare notes. What's working? What's not? What's the problems? And it brings a lot of

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power and knowledge, helps us be more effective, impactful, and data-driven, which is important.

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So city missions in the New World quickly established a clear and compelling purpose,

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to pull people from safety, to pull people to safety from adverse conditions, poor choices,

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and bad habits that were leading to physical and spiritual death. Missions did this by meeting

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people's basic life needs. Food, clothing, shelter offered in settings where the Christian gospel

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was regularly preached and invitations were given to become a new creation in Christ, essentially

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to start over with a new life. I'm always reminding people that that's my story. I don't have

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homelessness in my past, but it doesn't matter. The cross brings us all to a place of equality,

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and that's your story too, right? So what we do is we provide everything that a person might need

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physically so that they can focus on something besides being stressed out about how they're

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going to eat or pay their bills or where they're going to sleep. And in that, we give the opportunity

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to hear the gospel. The lyrics of a popular church hymn of that day, "Rescue the Perishing," became

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the soundtrack for their ongoing labor of love. In fact, by the time city missions of Europe got

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established in North America, they became known as rescue missions. By the end of the 20th century,

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rescue missions were updating their approach to hospitality, strengthening their addiction recovery

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programs, and offering a wider variety of education and life skills courses. Some were even providing

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medical and—where's my other page? Hold on a second. Dental treatment. As the 21st century got

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underway, more missions were adding job training skills, job placement services, housing acquisition

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support, and much more, including follow-up with local churches. So we are not a church. We don't

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want to be. What we want to do is help you do the work of the church, and then when people give their

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life to Christ, we want to plug them back into the churches that support us. That way they have

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a body of Christ, a new family, to help take care of them. There are basically four ways that we try

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to move people from human suffering to human flourishing. The first is humanitarian aid,

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going to places where there is famine and delivering food, or to a place where there is an

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outbreak and offer medical care. It's digging wells where there is a drought, providing life-giving

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clean water. The second is disaster relief, rescuing people from their rooftops or storm

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cellars and taking them to gymnasiums or community centers, providing temporary aid and counsel,

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and eventually helping them repair or rebuild their houses and places of business. The third

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is community development, going to depressed neighborhoods, working with church leaders,

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civic group leaders, politicians, and concerned citizens to construct better housing, improve

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education, ensure safe recreation, and bring jobs and increased economic development. The fourth way

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that we try to move people from human suffering to human flourishing is life transformation,

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and though we are involved and engaged in humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and community

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development, this is what missions do. Helping individuals and families progress from destitution

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and bondage to the point where they are self-sufficient and giving back to their

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communities. We believe that the most powerful and complete long-lasting life transformation

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comes through and by a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's my story. I know it's your story,

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and so the mission is a place where that is the purpose, but we do so much more just for the

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few that should choose that path. So, did you learn anything about rescue missions? All right,

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we do all of those things. For our small community, what we're able to do and the

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resources we're able to provide is hands-down phenomenal. We say at the mission, you know,

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every day we're here to work ourselves out of a job. We're really serious about keeping homelessness

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down in our community so that it's not very visible, and we need the help of all of the

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church families and the community to do that. And we have so many stories. I kind of wanted to just

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come in and just spend an hour just giving you success stories. You know, in my own weird way,

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I'm a success story of the mission. Because of the mission, God has done so much restoration in my

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life. He's done so much in my children's life. He's done so much for our family, and there are,

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I know there are people in this audience right now in this congregation that have

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experienced radical life transformation at the mission. Like I said, it's something that's

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regular down there. People ask me all the time, "Well, you know, how come we don't see miracles

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like we used to?" And I said, "What's going on in your life?" We see it every day. What miracle is

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more powerful than the transformation of a heart by our Lord and Savior? Okay, getting too serious

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for you. I got to throw in some humor here. These are actual, I found these, these are actual

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misprints in church bulletins that actually went out in the bulletin. "During the absence of our

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pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon from EJ Stubbs. Scouts are saving

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aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple

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children." I think that was supposed to say four crippled children. "The low self-esteem support

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group will meet Thursday at 7 to 830. Please use the back door of the church. Thursday night,

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potluck dinner. Pray and medication to follow. This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Johnson

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to come forward and lay an egg on the altar." For those of you who have children and don't know it,

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we have a nursery downstairs. So give the leadership here a break, they're doing great.

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Those are great. People are funny, so I have some other things here. These are snippets from

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letters that were actually written from children to pastors about things that were heavy on their

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heart and their mind. The first one says, "Dear pastor, please say a prayer for our little league

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team. We need God's help. We're a new pitcher." Alexander, age 10. "Dear pastor, my father says

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I should learn the Ten Commandments, but I don't think I want to because we have enough rules

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already in my house." Age 10. "Dear pastor, I think a lot more people would come to your church if you

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moved it to Disneyland." Lorraine, age 9. "Dear pastor, I liked your sermon where you said that

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good health is more important than money, but I still want to raise in my allowance." Age 12.

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"Dear pastor, please pray for all the airline pilots because I'm flying to California tomorrow."

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"Dear pastor, I would like to go to heaven someday because I know my brother won't be there."

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Steven, age 8. "Dear pastor, I know God loves everybody, but he's never met my sister."

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Yours sincerely, Arnold, age 8. "Dear pastor, please say in your sermon that Peter

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Peterson has been a good boy all week. Love, Peter Peterson." "Dear pastor, my father should

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be a minister. Every day he gives us a sermon about something." And finally, "Dear pastor,

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I'm sorry I can't leave more money in my plate, but my father didn't give me a raise in my allowance.

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Could you have a sermon about a raise in my allowance, please?" Some of the stuff that

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comes with ministry. But we've got to laugh about it, especially in the business of rescue mission.

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You know, Jesus is the ultimate rescuer. And we talk about that, you know, almost every series

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that we go through, that's the principal foundation, right? Jesus is our rescuer. And once we're

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rescued, we give our life to him so that he can rescue more through us. That's it. We have our

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tagline, which is "Rescue, Recovery, Restoration," and that's kind of in order how we see things

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happen and how we've experienced things in our own life. And I just wanted to talk a little bit

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about them and the little bit of time we have left. A few minutes here. Rescue, Recovery,

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and Restoration seems like sometimes it's a distant thing that we don't have to deal with.

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But I was speaking to a friend this morning before service started, and we were talking about,

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you know, there are a lot more of your friends and family who have come through the mission than

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you're probably aware of. It's not something that's out of our realm. It's something that we

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put out on purpose, right? And I'm not going to challenge you on why we do that. You can go home

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and analyze that and pray about it with your families. But I know before God called me to

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this ministry, I did. I had no idea about homelessness. And you know what? My perspective

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on homelessness was not super, right? And so God's really pulled me through this understanding that

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the foot of the cross brings an equality to all of us. And even if you don't need rescuing, you know,

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a lot of people say, "Well, I have a house. I have food. I have a good job. I don't need to be

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rescued." And I remind them that in the Word, all through the Word, and the New Testament drills

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into this in several books, there are two kind of perspectives in the world, physical and spiritual.

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So when you say, "I don't need rescuing," which one are you talking about? God says, "We all need

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rescuing spiritually." And I need Jesus and to be rescued by Jesus just as much today as I did the

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first day that He rescued me. And you know what happens when I walk away from that? Nowadays,

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in my relationship, I go one day. I mean one day without my prayer and my time with the Lord

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and being in the Word and waking up and praying, "Take my life. Show me the path today, Lord. It's

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yours." And that old man comes back so quick. And until we're out of these physical bodies,

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that's just the process we're stuck in. There's no way around it, I promise you.

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So rescuing is in the physical sense that we help a lot of people with that, but the purpose is

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spiritual rescue, spiritual recovery, and spiritual restoration. And what I'd like you to do is to

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take those things home and pray about them and discuss them with your families and see if you've

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ever thought of it from that perspective. Put it on a board, on a whiteboard, and talk it out with

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your kids. Where are we at physically? What are we doing physically? And where are we at spiritually?

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What are we doing spiritually? And those three things, I promise you, will be very convicting,

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and they will start to allow the Lord to move you into ministry. If you're not in ministry now,

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well, let me just to close, I'll ask you this. Who's a teacher? Everybody raise your hand,

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that's a teacher. Oh man, I was hoping more of you'd raise your hand. I got news for you.

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You're teaching somebody every second of your life. There's always somebody that is watching

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you and listening to you, whether it's a stranger or an unbeliever or a child, a husband, a wife.

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We are all called when we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior to be teachers, right?

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Now whether we raise, like the scripture says, to be teachers at the pulpit, that's kind of a

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different conversation. But we're all teachers, we're all leading, and God calls every one of us

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and has, as Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and 10, you know, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 are really popular

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verses, but they leave 10 out too much. 10 explains work so perfectly that it doesn't have to be an

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issue. We should be talking about works because they're not ours, they're God's. Everything I'm

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doing at the mission right now, my entire life right now, is not my life, it's not the life I

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would have chosen, and it's not the life that my flesh likes all the time. It's the life that God

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had for me so that He can use me to save more. And you have the same thing going on in your life,

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right now. You don't have to work at a ministry to be in ministry. Scotty will tell you he's a

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perfect example, him and his brother, that sometimes the most powerful ministry happens

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at the job site, the construction site, outside of ministry. But it's all about saving souls,

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it's a rescue mission. Jesus teaches us how to do that. We have one here locally, come down and see

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what we're doing. Love to give you a tour and talk about it more. And just remember, we're part of

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this church. You have this, so if you're ever thinking if God puts it on your heart to help

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homeless, poor, addicted, broken, any kind of those services you can imagine, come and talk

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to us. That's the avenue that this church wants to handle those things. Okay? All right, allow me to

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pray. Father, we thank you so much for this time. Thank you for being able to come and share and

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hang out with this church body. And we ask, we thank you first of all, Lord, for their participation

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and their hearts and their giving and their support. We cannot do what we're doing at the

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mission without it. But I also ask, Lord, that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you challenge

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and convict where that needs to be done, the hearts and minds of the men and women in this

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congregation to bring them to a place where we're able to give our lives over to you in a more

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powerful and impactful way, Lord. And we just lift you up as the mighty awesome rescuer. And we ask

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these things in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

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[Applause]