The Word, Holy Spirit, & Mission

Hello and welcome to the Arise Church Podcast.

We are so glad you're here and want to thank you for joining us

today for the audio version of our Sunday morning message.

We want to invite you to join us in person at our Sunday morning

celebration every Sunday at 10 AM.

We are located on Old Jenks Rd. in Apex, NC.

God. Bless you, God bless you.

My name is Jim Scott and I was saved after watching the movie

The Exorcist. I love to say that because I

love to celebrate the way God brings people to him.

You know, St. Jesus dies on the cross.

We talk about salvation, we preach salvation, we love

salvation, and then you hear the stories of how people get to

salvation. I went to see a girl's head spin

and met Christ. Now I've not watched that movie

since I saw it that first time in 1974 in Fresno, CA while I

was doing my undergraduate work to become a cop.

I I have not seen that movie since.

And I don't encourage you to use it in your evangelistic work in

your neighborhood, irrespective of the fact that we're coming up

on Halloween. And you might think, oh, God

speaking to me now, No, he is not speaking to you right now.

The legacy of the church is not found in the things they do now.

It's what comes from the church and its ministry.

And the body of Christ has produced you and me, men and

women who have been faithful to the proclamation.

Planting of seed in intentional and unintentional ways are why

we're here. And until Jesus returns, we

continue. And today I get to talk to you

about one family in this great body, this family called

Foursquare. I found Foursquare.

I was not born into Foursquare. I, as I said, law enforcement

was my first desire and passion. My highest desire was to drive

the wrong way on a one way street with my lights and siren

on. So you can see I was not

pointing high down here somewhere.

Found my way into ministry, found my way into serving and

wondering what God would do in and through me serving in the

body of Christ. And I found Foursquare because I

had to have an internship in my seminary.

Go find a church so you can practice.

And that church let me practice that.

That says a lot about the church today because I don't know in a

lot of places if people like me could have practiced.

They let that young man get up there who's not really sure what

he's doing in the Bible yet. Let him preach a sermon in front

of a bunch of a bunch of folks. How much stuff will he break

while he's up there? My uncle, who was a Christian,

was in that first service, that first preaching, and we got in

the foyer. He was telling me how great I

was doing. And as I grew in ministry, I

realized everything he said was not true.

It was aspirational. When he said it was a great

sermon, what he really meant is someday you're going to preach a

great sermon. But I got to do that with you.

You know what I mean? I got to do it with you.

I got to see the smiles and the frowns and almost falling

asleep, you know, the getting up and going to the bathroom.

I got to be with you, the body of Christ, and you shaped me.

That's what the church does. I want to talk to you about what

the Foursquare Church has done. One tribe, one group within this

body. When I was getting in between,

between the historic way, we took photographs with that thing

called a camera that they have in museums now and to what

really works now in terms of iCloud and having a phone.

You can do it anywhere at anytime, anyplace.

We began to digitize all of our old photos.

If you're my age, I'm 71 years of age, you've got a lot of

photos, boxes of heavy books called albums.

And we would take them out. And we didn't do it like with a

company. We took our phones and took

pictures of it. So in my phone, I've got

generations of photographs. My little grand nephew Silas was

in school, kind of preschool school, and they talked in one

class about where we come from. Because you all know you came

from somewhere. Unless you're Native American,

you weren't born here. We all came from somewhere and

that's a part of our story. Where was great, great, great,

great, great, great, great great grandma from.

Well, Silas says to me, Uncle Jim, can you tell me where we've

come from? And when I asked him why me, he

said you're old. And I assumed that he thought I

knew them all. You know you've met them.

Can you tell me about them? So Silas and I sat down on the

couch and we began to go through my phone and I'm showing him

pictures that looked old even in the in the photograph of the

picture. And I'm saying, this is your

uncle and this is your great grandma, and this is a cousin

that you've never met. And it just, you know, all the

telling stories. They work at this kind of job

and they lived in this area. And Silas was both interested

and disinterested. But at the same time, I noticed

that he was recognizing that whoever these people are, my

uncle has them on his phone. And they must be important

people, and they are important people because they've shaped

who the Scott family is. Foursquare has a similar kind of

story. If you believe that churches are

spiritual families and if you believe God gives birth to

movements, then it's not a stretch to say that God gave

birth to a church and that church now has adna or some kind

of legacy. That we were born for a reason

hasn't been that your your quest hasn't.

Haven't you wanted to know why you are here?

Have you ever cried out to heaven and said guy, why me?

Why here? Why in North Carolina or

Brooklyn or wherever it was on the same way we asked the

question about Foursquare God, why in 1923 in Los Angeles, CA

did a woman who was an evangelist plant a church that

grew to 22 services a week and sending missionaries around the

world? How did that happen with us and

what do you have in mind in us for that?

It's been 100 plus years and there's so much to say about

what the Holy Spirit has done through the Foursquare Church

and in the Foursquare Church. The impact of Sister McPherson,

Angela's Temple and all of the congregations that have grown

out of that, which includes this church in this community.

The generational influence, the church planting, the pastors who

have grown up as children and who are now leading that that

kind of legacy is happening all the time.

And it's around the world. The Foursquare Church today is

in 150 nations. In Brazil, it's over 14,000

churches. The Sri Lankan Foursquare Church

is the largest Christian Church ever in Solange, Sri Lanka.

That's your church around the world serving, doing great,

great things. And so today is about

celebrating, but not inappropriate celebrating.

I have no desire today to lift up Amy someone McPherson to some

kind of St. In fact, I will tell you how

broken she was. I don't want to celebrate the

good old days. Our church is 100 years old.

I'm 71, I've been alive 3/4 of that time.

And the good old days are old and they weren't that good.

It isn't about going back. It's about understanding backs,

looking forward as to what God might have for us in the future,

to understand our DNA, to understand Our Calling, to

understand the purposes of God in birthing us and then us

finding ourselves in that purpose because as we know, DNA

doesn't change. I was interested in reading my

Old Testament and recognizing when it was time to take the

land. God did not send the group in as

a whole. He gave them names, broke them

into tribes, and gave them a job.

I think the nominations today at their best, and we have not

always been at our best, but at our best.

Down nominations are a similar thing.

A family of people who come together to get an assignment

and do it. Wickliffe translates Bibles.

They don't do disaster relief. We don't fault them for not

doing disaster relief. That's not their job.

Their job is doing Bibles. They do their job well.

We have Bibles all around the world.

If they start doing disaster relief, they'll make less Bibles

and they won't be doing their job.

So what's Foursquare's job? That's part of the question we

want to answer today. So what can the past inform us

about what God intended and what He's working in and through us?

What does it mean that an evangelist planted a church that

became the leading church in America?

What does it mean that we're part of a denomination that has

more churches outside America then we have inside America?

What does it mean that on the front edge of our mission we

talked about leaving and going? Why are we like that?

Not faulting any other group in the world.

I speak against no church serving.

I want to know what we're supposed to do.

What are we called to do? Could there be a spiritual DNA

and identity available of an anointing available to us that

we can share in? Could it be that the question of

why you're here is because you are US and don't know it, You're

anointing, you're gifting, your calling is US and you don't know

it. And once you know it, you can

align and say, look, I'm being everything God called me to be

because I'm in the family I'm supposed to be in.

Maybe that could happen today for you.

I pray it will. What are the doors open to us

because of who we are? Not because of how great we are,

how perfect we are, our doctrine, but how God intended

us to serve what he intended us to do.

Foursquare Church identity is captured in three simple words.

Those three simple words are word, spirit, and mission.

Or more explicitly, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit and the

mission of God. Not the mission of Foursquare

Church. Our mission is measured by the

mission of God. Whether we're doing the right

thing has nothing to do with us. However dedicated we are.

However, the doctorate said whatever books we've written,

whatever sounds good, whether or not our mission is relevant and

right has nothing to do with what we've said.

It's what the book says. And if we're doing that, we have

a mission. So the Foursquare identity today

that you'll hear, it's going to be woven through stories and

pictures about the Word of God and about the movement of the

Holy Spirit and about the mission that we must serve.

Please hear me. Strategy and methods will always

change. They have to change and we won't

be relevant to speak the word. How shall they hear without a

preacher? And you preach differently in

2025 that you did in 1950. So I, I have no fault with the

Internet, have no fault with new methodologies and technologies.

You do what you have to do now to be heard.

But what does not change is the Word, the Holy Spirit and the

mission. And so today our effort is to

hopefully that perfectly God help us with this, to help you

capture that. And I really hope you see

yourself today. I pray you see yourself today.

We must never surrender our identity and we must never make

our methodologies and our strategy strategies sacred and

unchanging. We must always be rooted in the

word of God unapologetically. We must be caring to the

communities we serve. We must lift people above

politics and policies and the trends of the day.

We need to set a pace and set up a context where somebody might

someday might have seed planted in their heart intentionally or

unintentionally, and then go to a movie where a girl's head spin

and know what to do afterwards and know what to do afterwards.

Isn't that exciting? I mean, doesn't that inspire you

to greatness? Don't you?

Can you imagine you doing some great exploit right now?

If we can just plant a little seed and some good ground and

see what God does, My hope is that's what the Foursquare

Church will always be. This presentation humbly reminds

us of who we are as a movement, who we are in the Word of God,

who we are by the work of the Holy Spirit, and who we are as

we have served our mission for 102 years.

Amy Elizabeth Kennedy, known to us as Amy Symbol McPherson, was

born October 9th in 1890 in Ingersoll, ON.

Let me start by saying we were founded by an immigrant.

I'm going to settle that in you because immigrants have a bad

Rep right now. The church you're a part of was

founded by a Canadian citizen who came here to tell us about

Jesus and founded a great movement that's gone on for 102

years. She came here, she was raised in

Ingersoll, ON. She met Robert Simple, Robert

James Simple on August 12th, 19 O 8, while he was preaching an

evangelistic sermon in a Pentecostal rescue mission.

I've always wondered what that was like.

When this little girl who grows up to be a young lady goes into

a revival service of Pentecostal and Pentecostals around the turn

of the century, then they were way less tame than you are.

You know, people are nodding their head.

You've seen some of the videos. I mean, it's, you know, it's

flag marching and it's shouting and screaming and it's, it's

believing God and, and telling the truth and shaming the devil

and it's telling the testimony of what God has done in my life.

I imagine what Amy was like sitting there.

But what one thing we know about that is she was enlivened by the

fact that God was more than just someone.

We talked about in a book that he was alive and he was moving

and he was challenging people and he was filling people with

his power and God was doing something that man could not do.

So she fell in love with this guy and she married him.

And Robert and Amy got on a got on a boat, June 1910, took a

boat to China to be missionaries.

Now think for a second what that's like today.

We get on a plane to fly to China and if we're lucky, we'll

stop somewhere. We'll get there in a few hours.

But in 1910, you get on a boat, not a cruise ship.

You know, you're saying, well, I went to Alaska, not on her boat,

you didn't. And they took their boat there.

The tragedy is Robert, almost as soon as they got there,

contracted dysentery Milleri and died within months.

Amy didn't know she was pregnant and gave birth to Roberta.

Imagine being 20 years old in China for just months with a

brand new baby. She was confused, she was upset.

She didn't know what's going on. She returns to the United States

and this begins her life in ministry.

She gets back to the state. She's disoriented.

She don't know what to do, where to go.

She's got a baby. She goes back home to mom and

dad. God renews his call in her.

She begins to do evangelistic ministry and evangelistic work.

We'll talk about that in a moment.

And in doing that work, she begins to realize God has

anointed her for something. She meets Harold McPherson, she

marry, marries Harold McPherson. From that union, Rolf is born.

Rolf McPherson was the president of our Foursquare Church.

Following Amy's death, we've had Rolf in our home.

He's now with Jesus, He's been in our home.

It was delightful talking to him about the history and about his

mother and about what was going on in those days.

He loved Jesus, served our denomination for decades.

With two babies and a new husband.

They begin to evangelistic work, travelling around, running

around in an old car and telling people about Jesus.

It was very hard for Harold. He had committed to do it when

they married. But it's easy to say I'll go and

it's really hard to go to put a strain on their marriage, as you

can imagine. And after a while, they they

divorced. Now she's a divorced mother of

two in the ministry, a woman travelling around in a car

telling people about Jesus. It's in the context of that, in

that kind of event that God is working in and through her.

What is striking about her? And I want you to feel something

right now. The Bible says in Second

Corinthians 4/7 that we have this treasure in earthen

vessels, We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

Each of you is an earthen vessel with a treasure in it.

And sometimes the vessel cracks it breaks, it chips, it doesn't

look as good today as it did some years ago.

And this so describes Sister McPherson as she's going through

this tragedy and others in her life.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of

the power may be of God and not of us.

Please hear this. To the degree you let people see

your broken vessel, to that's the degree they will believe in

the power of God, because once they see how wrecked you are,

they know you got nothing to do with the good that's coming out

of your life. Now, we're not.

We don't want to do that. Some of us Polish up our vessels

pretty good, and we never talked about a crack in our vessels,

and then we mistakenly think you're the one that's creating

all of this. But that's a fool's errand that

will never, ever satisfy. We are broken vessels.

And when we can celebrate weakness, as the apostle Paul

said, therefore I will boast in my weakness that God may be

glorified. So I'm going to boast in Amy's

weakness for a moment. I want to tell you how broken

this woman was. She was vulnerable and lonely,

yet used to God. She was so fragile that at times

she was ill and depressed. She was a wife, a widow,

divorced, a single mom, remarried with the birth of a

son, and she was a wounded healer.

She experienced periodic physical illness, family and

personal relationship pain, and emotional problems.

Sister McPherson had an emotional nervous breakdown in

1931. She was out of the pulpit for a

year and there was a Watchtower service everyday praying that

she would live. There were troubling issues that

resulted in controversies. She may have had a medication

dependency on sleeping aids and other prescribed medication.

She died on September 27th, 1944, fifty three years of age.

From quote from her death certificate.

Shock contributed to an adrenal image and respiratory failure

from an accidental overdose of Barbatol compound.

The sleeping pills she was taking entered her bloodstream

through her intestine and she died.

She was a very troubled woman. She got married 1/3 time to

David Hutton and in a class that she was teaching in Life Bible

College, she broke down and began to cry.

In this very troubled marriage, it ended up in another divorce

and confessed to her students that I only married him because

I was lonely. She was a mess.

And yet she founded a movement that has trans transferred all

around the world and has some of the finest churches in the

world. Please hear this.

If God can use Amy, he can use you because you're only as

broken. You can only be as broken as

her. You're a mess.

You're only as much a mess as she was.

She was a mess and yet God used her.

I take great comfort in that. I tell Melinda all the time my

vessel's fine. Melinda looks at me and says

it's not all that fine. So I will bolster my weakness

today and tell you that to the degree I can get out of the way,

God will do great things through me and He will do great things

in you. Let me give you a little

historical context what Melinda's going to share with

you. It's important that you

understand the day she lived in to understand the greatness of

the things she did. You know, if you don't remember

the day, you don't remember what's going on.

You might think, oh, well, we see that all the time today.

You're going to hear things. You need to understand we're

never done before. She will have been the first.

You will hear these things, the historical context.

She began her ministry around 1913 when she was renewed in her

call. Woodrow Wilson was the

president, you know, so. OK, so we're starting this with

Woodrow 19141918. We have the World World War One,

so her ministry now is evangelistic around America

while we're fighting in Europe. In 1916, Jeanette Rankin of

Montana becomes the first woman elected to the House of

Representatives. A woman had never been in the

House of Representatives for the first time in 1916, Nineteenth

Amendment to the Constitution was ratified.

In 1920, ladies, you got the right to vote finally here.

This her ministry's going when she could not vote. 1932 Hattie

Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas becomes the first woman elected

to the Senate and was only on the ballot because her husband

had died. In this context, we have a woman

evangelist traveling around the country and building a church

that should cause you to go. Wow.

I wonder what obstacles she ran into.

Ladies who pastor today, what kinds of obstacles are today?

The word Foursquare is a wonderful word.

I love when I'm, you know, travelling.

I'm talking to people. What denomination?

Foursquare. Foursquare.

Is that the kids game. You guys are about the kids

game. Foursquare.

Foursquare has a distinct meaning.

I don't know anybody here like Rod Serling.

Twilight Zone. Have you watched it on TV?

If you haven't, you're not as old as me.

You didn't grow up with it, but you might see it on the sci-fi

Channel. Sometimes I'll do a marathon on

a day. Look for Mr. Dingle the Strong.

That's one of the Twilight Zone episodes and Mr. Dingle the

Strong is a kind of a wimpy guy. 22 headed spaceman.

Isn't this great to hear? 2 headed spaceman comes out of

space and lands in the end that he's at and they make him really

strong. He's tearing telephone books in

half. Telephone books, for those of

you that don't know, was a big book that had phone numbers.

Now why am I telling you all that?

Am I having a psychotic blip right now?

No, in Mr. Dingle the Strong, the word Foursquare is used.

Yes, I know. It's like they talked about our

church. No, they did not.

And it wasn't a children's game. It was the use of Foursquare.

In those early days, the word Foursquare meant strong, solid,

dependable. In the in that Mister Dingle the

Strong the bar keeper says I stand Foursquare behind booths

for women. When you said Foursquare back in

the day, you were saying something was strong and

dependable, but it was also an acronym for those things on your

building. We summarize the the work of

Jesus in for a critical cardinal beliefs.

He is a savior, the baptizer with the Holy Spirit, Amen, the

healer, the soon coming king. That's the four square gospel.

I had a pastor, theologian from another denomination really

pushed back and he said there is no denominational gospel.

There's only the gospel from the Bible.

You can't call it the Foursquare Gospel.

I said what denomination you are?

He told me. I said, what do you believe?

He told me. I said, that's your

denominations gospel. Whether or not it is the gospel

is the book. Here's what Foursquare believes.

Some of us know we believe. Here's what we believe.

He's a savior Baptizer with the Holy Spirit.

He's the healer. He's soon coming king.

That's what we believe. That is what we believe.

What else do you believe? We believe a lot of stuff, but

we believe that does do some of your beliefs change how they

modify get into eschatology? We can have a fight pre Trib,

post Trib, pan Trib. I mean, I just want the first

bus out, but whatever, you know what I mean?

Though there are theologies that we wrestle with, but here's what

we do not wrestle about. Savior, Baptizer with the Holy

Spirit, Healer and soon coming King.

And it it represents. The unchanging gospel.

And whatever denomination you are, you should believe those

four things. We'll allow divergent.

The body of Christ is a diverse body the the stream of orthodoxy

is wide. Believe me it it has width to

it. But what should never change the

Savior baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Here soon coming came Hebrews 13/8.

Is our verse Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and

forever? I don't know if you know the

story about how that came about. Let me read to you what Sister

McPherson wrote about why she picked that verse out of the

multitude of verses that she could have had.

Foursquare gospel means. Foursquare good news, I did not

want anything sad in the declaration of Angeles Temple.

When it came time to choose the central motto to appear above

the platform, someone suggested whoa, we have all sinned and

come short of the glory of God. But we all know that.

And anyway, that's not good news.

What is it? The heart of the good.

News, she said. The good news focuses on this

point. Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday, today and forever. That verse would become the

central motto of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Notice how she picked it. Good news, this motto was hand

carved onto a plaque that was printed as her presented to her

by the gypsy tribes whose king had come to Christ under her

ministry. And that was the motto that.

Stood in the sanctuary. Amy simple.

McPherson was a famous celebrity.

Famous celebrity in her time. In fact, the LA Times says that

she was the most famous woman in America in the 1920s and 1930s.

At least one story every single week was done about her in the

LA Times in the 1920s. And when I say famous, I mean

famous. Do you remember the song Hooray

for Hollywood? I mean, she was in Hollywood.

Hooray for Hollywood. Hollywood.

From Shirley Temple to Amy, Simple.

You're in that denomination that is famous.

And even in the Hollywood song. Did you know that?

Some of you know some. Of you are too young to even

know that song, there's pictures that show thousands gathered in

front of LA City Hall where Sister Amy and the mayor of the

city at the time, Shaw, reviewed a mile long procession of

Angeles Temple members and Foursquare Church pastors and

leaders with four bands going through the streets of LA for

our Four squares 13th Annual condition, the Los Angeles

Times. Most of these pictures and most

of the stats I'm going to give you today did not necessarily

come from our Foursquare archives.

It came through the newspapers of the day.

We've had so much fun finding all of these particular things

from the newspapers of the day. The Fresno Morning Republic, not

just in LA. Fresno, 1922 world renowned

evangelist will arrive in Fresno this morning at 11 O clock on

the Southern Pacific. She will be escorted by the

chairman of the local committee to City Hall where she will be

welcomed to Fresno by the mayor and the city officials.

But not just in LA, Kansas, Wichita, KS.

This is one of my favorite ones. 1922 The Wichita merchants

estimated that more than $100,000 was made in May because

of Amy coming to town. Thousands of people came from

out of town to hear Sister Amy. She was first and foremost an

evangelist. She would go wherever God called

her to go. In fact, there's a wonderful

story of one, one time of God calling her to go to this small

little town, into this small little church.

And so she gladly went to this little church and she was an

evangelist, so she wanted people to hear about Jesus.

So she goes into this little church and the very first Sunday

she looks and there's like three people in the church.

OK, well, she. Preaches her guts out.

She's preaching away preaching away to these three people.

Well, tomorrow, you know, there'll be more.

We're having a revival. This is going to be a revival

service. So the next day she comes and.

There's three people. Are just there, pastor.

Where is your congregation? It goes well.

This is my congregation. She looks out the doors of the

church. She goes.

Hmm, follow me. She grabs a chair from the from

the concrete from the church. She goes out in the middle of

the square of the church, OK of the city.

She goes out in the middle of the square and she gets on her

chair and she stands on the chair and does this.

All of a sudden, these people. Are all stopping and they're

saying what is going on with this weird lady that is standing

like this in the middle of the church in the middle of the the

community. Then all of a sudden she goes

hurry, hurry, come quick quick, quick all the people start just

falling there. They go right into the church.

She goes shut the doors. I want to tell you about Jesus.

It ends up. At the end of that week it is

told that there were over 500 salvations that happened because

she was willing to go outside of the church.

The love of winning souls for Jesus Christ sets a fire burning

in one bones soul. Winning is the most important

thing in the world. She was passionate about winning

souls. And she very boldly said, and

you know what? They're not going to necessarily

come to you. You've got to go outside the

doors of the church and you need to go to them.

San Diego Revival 1921 For years God's people in San Diego and

prayed. Lord, send us a revival of the

gospel of Jesus Christ that will awaken the churches and bring

sinners and hundreds to the cross.

Well, God opened the door and Amy and her team agreed to go to

San Diego. Get this one.

This is so fun. The Methodist, the Baptist, the

Presbyterians, the Pentecostals, and the Nazarene pastors all

work together along with the YMCA and the Epworth League and

many other Christian groups organizing this time together in

San Diego. Well, they decided they needed

to rent the biggest auditorium that they could find in San

Diego, so they found the Dreamland Center, the Dreamland

Arena. The Dreamland Arena was known

for their boxing matches. This was the place where

everybody went on Friday night to go to have their boxing

matches. So the the manager of the arena,

Sister, I really think it would be important if you could come

the night before your revival starts and just come and talk to

the people that are going to be there.

Imagine, did does anybody remember boxing?

I mean, I remember my, my dad was a Baptist minister and on

Wednesday nights we had to run home from church because he was

really into boxing. And I remember running home to

see see the boxing. Boxing.

Was the worst sinners in the community.

I mean, they were the ones that were cussing and spitting and

they were just screaming out, yelling.

So imagine sweet sister Amy in her white uniform and the other

women that were with her. There were probably some men

that were with her as well, going into this sinner's den of

iniquity. And she goes.

In and imagine they're all cussing.

She goes in the middle of the in the middle of the boxing time.

They lift up the cord for her to go in and here she is.

There's probably blood, There's probably teeth on the ground.

You know, I mean, it's a foxy arena and she goes in there.

She says, all right, tomorrow night, I invite you to come back

to this arena. We are going to see the biggest

fight of all times and you're going to see Jesus slump the

devil. Come on back, come on back.

In fact, don't you just come? I want you to bring the worst

thinner. You know the worst one is that

your husband is that you? You bring him because you're

going to see a fight tomorrow night.

Was she bold? She was so bold.

Come to find out, that arena only hold held 3000, so they had

to move it because this five week revival outgrew the outgrew

that arena. They took it to Balboa Park

where the police and park commissioners estimated that 10

to 30,000 people came, 10 to 30,000 people came because they

knew Jesus could slump the enemy.

Thousands were praying for Amy is said is is she would say it's

getting dark and there are lots and lots of people that we still

need to pray for. And we have out of that revival

in San Diego many, many documented healings.

Not just in. LA not just on the West Coast.

Boston Boston revival 1931 The Boston Globe says this at the

end of the revival the next morning.

Headline 40,000 Here Amy More than 5000 were turned away and

the officials were forced to close the door.

Boston. She was the only evangelist, the

only person to pack out the Boston God.

Portland Revival, a newspaper. From Boston, went to Portland

because of that. Well, if this little lady's

going to come to Boston, I need to find out about her and

whether or not she's going to really be accepted in Boston.

So this newspaperman said this about Sister Amy.

Amy's religion is a religion of joy.

There's happiness in it. Her voice is easy to listen to.

She does not appeal to the brain and try to hammer religion into

the heads of her audience. Rather, she appeals to the

hearts of her ears. She radiates friendliness.

She creates an atmosphere that is warning.

She is persuasive rather than forceful.

She's gracious and kindly rather than compelling.

Fundamentally, she takes the whole Bible literally from cover

to cover. She broke down the walls of

denominationalism you already heard about in San Diego, all

these denominations coming together to have her at at the

that the San Diego revival. But on the Cornerstone

Evangelist Temple, January 1st, 1923, it states this dedicated

bunch of the cause of interdenominational and

worldwide evangelism. On Dedication Sunday, over 70

denominational pastors walk down the aisle with her, dedicating

themselves to the Foursquare Gospel.

They were dedicating themselves to the Foursquare Church.

They were dedicating themselves to the Foursquare Gospel.

That Jesus is our Savior. Jesus is our baptized of the

Holy Spirit. Jesus is our our healer and

Jesus is our soon coming King. She held credentials with the

salvation of our army. She held credentials with the

Assembly of God. She held credentials with the

Methodist. She held credentials with the

Baptist Methodist Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church.

You'll see that on there she was called to build a revival center

where people would be saved, baptized in the Holy Spirit,

healed, trained, and sent out. Why?

Because Jesus was coming back soon.

We don't have time to fool around.

They were not saved to just sit in the church and be entertained

each week. Jesus is coming back.

You need to be ready and you need to get everybody else ready

as well. February 1923.

She opened up the Bible Institute, opening it up for

training people to train people of how to go out and tell people

about Jesus. October 1923, the first

Churchill planted right away she started planting churches.

February 27, first missionaries were sent out to I1927.

There were over 100 churches already planted all around

there. She broke down the walls of the

traditional church. She broke down the walls of the

traditional experience of the Church of the day.

Charlie Chaplin. She was in Hawaii and she was in

in Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin would help her

build her sets. She rode motorcycles down the

aisle. Sometimes people would say,

well, that story isn't really true.

She didn't really. I mean, come on, This little

lady wrote a motorcycle down the aisle of the Yes, she did.

Doctor Marcus Bach. We found this noted historian

who wrote an eyewitness account to it, and he said this.

The sermon was entitled The Green Light is on the Opening

Remarks. With a deafening roar of a

motorcycle speeding down the ramp, the world's greatest

evangelist sat in the saddle dressed as a speed cop.

She drove recklessly to the front of the auditorium, slammed

on the brakes, blew a screech on a police whistle, raised a white

glove hand to the congregation and shouted stop, you're headed

to hell. Now do you think you'd fall

asleep? In a sermon like that, I don't

think so. She had firemen repelling from

the balcony. She had live animals.

In fact, one of my favorite stories, I asked pastor if it

was OK for me to tell the story as it really happened.

She was going to preach on Adam and Eve and she was going to

preach about the Garden of Eden. So she had her step builders

build her a big set and these happened every single Sunday

night. She had these dramatic sermons.

So she had the set being built and it was the gardening Eden.

And just before they're getting ready to start service, she goes

out there and she goes, it looks kind of dead.

You know, we need some lights into this set.

So the circus was in town. She goes go down and get some

birds. You know, we need some birds,

just bring some birds on the platforms.

So she goes, the people go out and run out and get her some

birds and she puts them on the platform.

They have their wonderful worship time.

They're worshipping and praying to God.

She's getting ready to preach her sermon and she walks down

and she always walked in very dramatically and very royally.

She walked on that platform and all of a sudden this macabre

bird in the back of her platform, there was a go to

hell. This was a circus.

Bird. Can you imagine the people?

In the congregation. Did that bird just tell?

Sister Amy to go to hell. Well, she didn't let anything.

Go to waste, she goes. What did you say I go to hell,

she goes. Let.

Me tell you about hell. I want to tell you, you will go

to hell. And she gave the whole pile of

salvation. I'm sure, sure.

And we'll see that bird in heaven.

I'm sure we will see that we call bird in heaven.

Eventually. They asked why do I preach A

dramatic sermon? Who was her response?

Our God is a dramatic God. I can think of nothing more

dramatic than Elijah on the mountaintop, then rolling back

the Red Sea. Nothing more dramatic than the

crucifixion, the resurrection, his ascension, the tons of fire

on the day of Pentecost. I hope a dramatic God will shake

us up. Wait a minute.

Foursquare Church, I believe a dramatic God.

And what a dramatic God. To shake us up, Amy broke down

the walls of traditional pastoral experience.

Eventually, God gently but unquestionably began to show me

that he'd led me to Los Angeles to build a house under the Lord.

His message and courage shout for the Lord hath given you the

city. She pastored the whole city.

She had a parish Messiology. In other words, she didn't just

pastor her church. She believed God had given her

the whole city when men were out of prison, not men from the

church. When mid got out of prison, she

would find work for those men that got out of prison.

In fact, she had the city sisters that had a free

employment agency right there at the church. 150 a 150 people

would register every single month for free and there would

be employers and employees. So you need a job.

OK, here's an employer that has a job.

You need a person to work for you.

OK, here's some people that need to work.

She had that going on right there in the church.

Women having babies, not women in the church having babies.

If there were women in the city that were having babies, she

would have the women of the church being making the little

layouts they bought it and making blankets and having them

passed out to all the people in the city.

Roberta, her daughter, talks about when she lived in the

Parsonage, she never had her own room because mom was always

bringing home these young girls that got pregnant out of

wedlock, thrown out of their house.

She'd bring them home to her house and she'd have them live

with her her and live with her daughter until she had they had

the baby and then they would work it out AT though also

Angela's temple opened in Echo Park.

But she wanted the whole of the place that God has given her to

know about Jesus. So there was this little thing

that happened every New Year's Day in this little town called

Pasadena. So the Rose Parade, the year

that they opened up Angela's Temple, she put a float in the

Rose Parade. She won the grand prize.

Many times. She would put floats in the Rose

Parade because God had given her the city.

She would preach 10 to 15, preach 10 to 15 * a week.

Could you imagine that after 15 to 10 to 15 * a week?

The annual report in 1930 had the formal membership.

This was 1930. She was the first mega church.

Had 16,248 people. Just 77 years the church seated

5300 people and so there was standing room only many times.

Reports often that 2000 people were turned away every single

Sunday. A typical week would be 22

services throughout the building and around the campus, and there

were 130 Sunday school classes with an average of 2000 people

in the Sunday school classes. But get.

This remember the years that we're talking about here, the

Sunday School classes according to their Bulletin of 1925.

OK, if you speak English, this is where you need to go for your

English speaking classes. If you speak Spanish, this is

the Spanish classes. If you speak Japanese, this is

where you need to go for the Japanese spoken word.

If you speak Armenian, this is where you need to go, and if you

speak German, this is where you go.

She believed. That God had given her the city

and it didn't matter if you didn't speak English.

We need to reach the whole city for Jesus.

So how do we do it? We need to speak the heart

language. So let's speak the heart

language. She was known and best known as

a faith healer, but she did not like that title because she

would always say only Jesus heals, it's not me.

She had two classes on divine healing.

She had 3500 people in each class.

She had the students walking around and learning how to pray

for the sick. Doctor Jeffrey's one of our

fathers in the Faith, writes this.

One side of the temple was lying from the door, entering the

sanctuary to the platform with wheelchairs.

As hands were laid on those with infirmities, they would

immediately rise. They would immediately rise and

pushing their wheelchairs ahead of them, they would begin

praising the Lord. Crutches were thrown away, the

blind received their sight, the deaf herd still braces were

removed, and the list goes on and on and on.

Ambulances would drop people off in front of Angeles Temple and

then would drive away because they knew at the end of the

service they were not going to be needed.

The Parsonage today, you can go there and it has eyeglasses, has

crutches, has many kinds of things that were left behind

because of those miracle services.

But not only that, they have names and addresses that you can

go and check out that. This was really a true story at

the time. Of course these were documented

healings, but she more than once emphasized this.

I want to save souls, not cure ailments.

Jesus is the healer, but I'm only the office girl who opens

the door and says come on in Powerful.

She broke down the walls that separated people, languages,

socio economic, ethnicity and culture.

Amy was countercultural. She had Kingdom values over

world values. She loved people.

During the Depression, Angela's Temple commissary would feed and

clothe more than 1.5 million people, more than all of the LA

social services. You'll love this one because

thinking about Thanksgiving and thinking about being hungry?

December Bridal call 1926. Through a prominent meat

merchant of Pasadena, Sister's been offered the opportunity to

buy the choicest of meats at the unbelievable low rate of $5 for

£100. Many have donated or pledged

money toward the purchasing of this meat in this way for use in

the temple's newest aid to the unemployed, the soup kitchen,

where one may receive a good warm Stew, coffee and bread from

10:00 AM to 2:00 PM every single day.

She had the soup kitchen. Going during that time, Anthony

Quinn, the very famous Academy Award winner, said this.

If it wasn't for Amy, most of the Mexican people would have

died during the Depression. She didn't ask your race or

where you came from. If you were hungry and called

the church, within an hour a basket of food would be on your

doorstep. Amy.

Was counter cultural. She confronted and broke down

the walls of racism anchored in Jim Crow segregation laws, rules

and customs. One of our pastors, the late

Bishop Joe Sutton, one of our fine African American pastors,

he says this that in many Foursquare Church in Minneapolis

for many years stated that interdenominational in the 1920s

often included race as well as different churches theologies

coming together. One of the most painful issues,

especially in her day, was the relationship between blacks and

whites. Few, if any, Christian leaders

would even want to touch that subject.

Yet Sister the person did not deter away from it.

In January 19, 2819, eighteen Key West, FL after she held her

meetings with the white community, she said, Now I'm

going to hold it with the black community.

For the first time, blacks and whites worshipped together.

For the very first time, she travelled with an African

American singing group. Her daughter Roberta was

baptized by an African American pastor right here in the

Carolinas. Can you imagine that?

How much community standards of the South view that baptism?

She was brave, She was very brave.

She broke down walls of gender and age so that all can

minister. The good news.

The whole congregation was released on Sunday afternoons of

the children were given the sanctuary, the children held

revival services, the children prayed for the sick, the

children saw miracles. She didn't let the fact that she

was a woman hinder her at all. In fact, she had paparazzi

following her all over the place.

She was a celebrity. She had paparazzi following her

all over. And they would say to her

sister, do you like to hear a woman preach?

They thought, oh, we're going to get her.

She goes, well, no, not necessarily.

We got the headlines for tomorrow.

Sister doesn't like to hear a woman preach.

She goes on to say, But I don't really like to hear a man preach

either. But I.

Love to hear God speak and I don't care if it's from a man or

a woman, I want to hear God. She was a woman before her time.

Amy was not the first woman to purchase her own radio station,

but in 1924 she was the most certainly the first woman to own

and operate a Christian radio station.

By 1925, Spanish was spoken over the radio and occasionally could

even be heard all the way to Cuba and Australia.

KFSKSFG with its call letters was granted a permit to

broadcast television in November of 1931.

She was a woman before her time. At that time in 1946, there were

only 8000 televisions in homes. But she heard God and she was

ready to go for it. She was a songwriter that wrote

hundreds of songs and operas. She had a prayer tower that

prayed 24 hours a day. Just remember what?

Jim said to us right at the very beginning, she was an immigrant

from Canada. She was young, she was widowed.

She was twice divorced. She was a single mother.

She was lonely. She had family issues.

She had health issues. She had social issues,

especially as a female evangelist in the 1920s.

She was kidnapped 3 different times and she died way too young

at the. Age of 53.

Thank you, Melinda. Let's put up this the next one.

This is a children's department certificate for my mommy.

I had never heard the story. Of Angela's Temple or Amy Simple

MacPherson. I was not raised in a Christian

home. We never went to church.

I was dedicated as an infant in the Congregational Church in

Whittier, CA Didn't know anything about Angela's Temple.

I leave law enforcement, I find Foursquare, I develop a

relationship, I get credentialed, and I tell my mom

and my dad that I'm now a Foursquare minister.

My mother says is that. Angela's Temple.

He said. Yeah, Amy, simple.

McPherson, I said. Yeah, I hear her go in the

bedroom and she's in the closet and den was against the closet

wall and I can hear my mom in the boxes, you know, through the

wall looking for something. And she came out with two

certificates. 1 was. Abbs.

Certificate and this one my mother went to Angela's temple

for one year she. Went to Sunday school and look

how. Often she attended.

Look at all those stars. That's my.

Mommy, the reason I'm showing? You this the next one show the

next slide. The reason I'm showing you this

is that this is a larger from the top of that and notice what

it says. This is Angela's temple.

But notice how the children's department's assigned.

What's it say children's department of that's a Bible

college. Sister Mcpherson's children's

ministry was not a part of the church.

It was part of a Bible college. Not only does that speak of the.

Dignity she saw in children, but it also spoke to the fact that

she was telling children where they ought to be going.

The entire children's. Department was a part of that

Bible college, so wouldn't it make sense to a child when they

got to high school and then graduate, they should stay in

Bible college way before her time.

It's a it's a tremendous legacy to see, a tremendous legacy to

have. The Foursquare Church was

birthed in a single churches church Angela's temple.

I want to emphasize this. You're a part of a denomination,

a group that did not start by the collection of ministers or

from a church split or because of doctrinal disagreement.

We. Started in a.

Local church in Los Angeles A pastor with a global vision

locally expressed globally expressed today.

The Foursquare Church is a global church, the global

Foursquare Church with a shared local and global vision and

mission. So the question did you see

yourself and your passions in the stories of Sister Amy in

this developing church? The heart for people.

Heart for the needy to break down the barriers between us All

kinds of barriers. The gender barrier, Women and

men, racial barriers, socio socio economic barriers.

The preaching of the word of God.

Everyone preaching the word of God.

The love for children, seeing children's ministry missions.

Their first missionary did not go to Mexico.

Their first missionary went to India.

Desiring to see. God work and move.

What a. Tremendous.

Legacy. Her final statement to us

encapsulates, I think, a call that we need to hear today.

What God wants. Is playing people with the good

news in their hearts. We're willing to go and tell it

to others. The love of winning souls for

Jesus Christ sets a fire burning in one's bones.

Soul winning is the most important thing in the world.

So here's what she says. All I have is on the altar for

the Lord, and while I have my life and strength, I will put my

whole being into carrying out this Great Commission.

Our final. Photo is a remarkable photo.

It's a photo that has. Two things in it it has a

statement of incredible courage and a statement of strong

commitment. This photo is entitled.

Stretcher day at Revival was in the Municipal Auditorium in

Denver July 10th, 1921, the last day of a crusade that began on

June 19th. The newspapers in Denver say not

statistics from her ministry. Denver newspapers said that

500,000 people attended this crusade. 500,000 Half a.

Million people were in this crusade.

On Sunday, July. 10th which is this stretcher day.

Two articles in the Denver Post talked about this report about

this event. Denver Post reporter Albert

Stone said on every side was the audience 12,000 strong, filling

to capacity of the main floor, balconies and galleries.

And to this picture, he said it was a revival of bodies.

Another reporter, Alva. Swain said 1st, it's a great

article. First, he talks about his

credentials as a reporter, and he says it's so easy to write

about dead bodies and gang members and speakeasies and

illegal activity and robberies and murders.

Then he said. But it's quite another matter to

tell the story of Jesus through a little white gown woman having

the souls of 2000 at a clip, or raising from sick beds,

paralytics, consumptives, rheumatics and all other forms

of diseased bodies by the hundreds.

He did not know how to write about what was taking place.

Pastor, would you come up please?

This description speaks of the courage that I don't think I

know personally. And I want to say.

This, I know, this is really bold.

And you say, Jim, you have no idea and I don't.

But I would wonder if any pastor in North Carolina would invite

all the sick of their city to come and be placed on pallets

before the pulp before the pulpit to be prayed for.

I'm not faulting those pastors. I don't have the courage either.

There's no arrogance. In my statement, I'm talking

about this woman in Denver leaving so strongly.

This is a conviction that God heals, that she would take the

risk of embarrassment, ridicule in front of the world press to

do this kind of thing. Lay them before me so I can

pray. It's the kind of conviction.

And it's a kind of of courage that the church needs today.

That's why I'm ending with. This our denominations made

100,000 mistakes and we're in no way perfect.

And you go on the web, you can read all about this stuff.

No, we're not perfect, I confess that.

But the word? The Holy Spirit and the mission,

which is what is our identity, has remained true through the

generations of church development.

You're. In one of those.

Churches today, and if you see those three things here, we are

successful. We are propagating what we

believe. I'm so thankful today.

That because this was true once. Please hear this because this

was true once and this is my family.

This could be us again. Because it's us.

This picture is us. So wouldn't faith rise in 100

areas? Not just healing.

We would believe God to do exceedingly, abundantly

everything that we ask and think.

Let's see where you say I hope. Your heart is stirred like mine

is. Probably some of you when you

start. To pull out black and white

pictures, you think, oh cool history lesson.

But when I see these things, I see our future in full.

Colour. You know, I feel like our church

right now at Rise Church, we're still in seed form and a seed

doesn't look like much when you put it in the ground.

In fact, for a season, it disappears.

You see nothing and you can't even dig in and check in on it.

You're supposed to just leave it alone, make sure it's water and

then you know just about the right time it'll just sprout and

then it looks still like not much fact.

It's pretty vulnerable at that stage and I.

Feel like that's kind of. Where we are, we're like between

that seed form and just starting to sprout up.

But when I see these things and when I I've seen it before the.

Holy Spirit in me. Starts to burn.

Where you know, like what's? In me connects with what's in

that and I remember hearing one time a really famous minister,

also a lady, Marilyn Hickey, and one time she said healing is the

dinner bill. So when I see.

Healings and I see these things and it's why we pray often for

healing is it's not the end all, it's the dinner bill.

It's telling a world that's desperate in need come here,

you'll have help. And what they don't know is that

not only will your body be healed, but your soul will be

saved. But God will use the dinner bill

just as Jesus did. He healed them.

He healed them. He healed them, He healed them.

And so. It was at a conference, the one

that I mentioned earlier, that Jim and I were at together in

Denver, Co 100 years from this picture.

And we were standing in. This auditorium in downtown

Denver, I'd never seen the picture before.

He brought it to the conference and everything in me almost

exploded. Because, you know, God, there's

appointed times for things. So I'm standing in Denver, a

part of this movement 100 years to the year.

And we all are on this. Platform and God and the I mean

the Holy Spirit starts to just move and I just blurted out we

will see stretcher days again and it.

Wasn't. A hope.

It was like something in me. Rallied behind it.

And it was like, this will be us.

And I was thinking our movement and our denomination.

I wasn't so much at that time thinking of a rise church.

But I just sense that. The Lord, as I look around the

room and I see who God's brought to our church, I just feel like

the Lord's drawn many of you here because you have something

in you that says yes to this and that's why you're here.

It's because it won't be on one lady.

I mean, when I look at the the ministers, look at all these

people laying hands on people, they're in.

Suits. They're the women are in the

they're white robes. The patients are there.

There's every kind of color ministering there.

So it's not just Sister Amy. It's an entire army of people

ministering, ministering, ready to go, prayed, trained to do

this. This is where we're headed.

So some of you say, well, this doesn't make any sense to me.

That's all right. Just hang around long enough.

And you can spectate. While the rest of us move into

this, because we will, we will in Jesus name, would you close

your eyes right where you're at? I'm going to ask Pastor Jim.

And Melinda, both of them to pray over us that as elders in

this movement that we would receive as a church.

Not just good. Information, but the DNA.

And that some of you I. Just feel like today I just want

to welcome you to the Foursquare Church.

But you're now you got. This DNA you're, you're, you're

in the fam now. So I'm going to ask them to pray

and then we'll wrap up our time together.

We want to thank you again for. Joining us for the Arise Church

podcast, we hope you were encouraged by what you heard

today. You can find

[email protected] and on Instagram at Arise Church NC.

If you need prayer or support or are interested in learning more

about Arise Church, we encourage you to connect with us online or

in person at our Sunday morning service.

Thank you and God bless.