God's Faithfulness

As I was thinking and praying this week and seeking the Lord about what it is I should say, the Holy Spirit made it very clear to me that today the focus is not to be on McLean Bible Church. What we've done, what we've achieved, even though we tried to do it for the glory of God, no, no, that the focus today needs to be on God, His sovereignty, His omnipotence, His faithfulness to this church over the last 50 years, because the reason that we're where we are and the way we are and what we are today is all because of Him. And so in that spirit, what I want to do today is have us look back over the last 50 years and I've picked five seminal moments in the history of McLean Bible Church that demonstrate the amazing faithfulness of God to this church that I want to talk to you about. But please, please remember these five points are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to God's faithfulness to this church. God's faithfulness has been a constant and unbroken stream running through the past 50 years here at this church. We're just going to pick five examples of it.

So are you ready? OK, here we go. Number one, let's begin with the founding of McLean Bible Church in 1961. There was no beltway.

There was no legion bridge across the Potomac. There was a small group of believers living here in McLean who were crossing the chain bridge and going to forth Presbyterian every week. But they had a passion and a yearning to establish a strong Bible preaching, Bible teaching, evangelistic church in northern Virginia. And so under the leadership of Dr. Ted Dykeman, five families, ten adults, the Dykeman's, the Wright's, the Hutchison's, the Roundy's and the Woodburn's got together in 1961 and established McLean Bible Church.

Our first service was Easter Sunday 1961 at Chester Brook Elementary School on Kirby Road. And to do this, Dr. Dykeman and his wife, Gloria, who's with the Lord, they out of their own personal funds agreed to pay the salary of the first pastor. They agreed to buy a parsonage for the first pastor. And they, along with those other four families, agreed to cover all the expenses of McLean Bible Church during those early years until the church could begin to pay for itself. Friends, in God's marvelous faithfulness, God provided the money for these folks to be able to do it.

Dr. Dykeman was an orthodontist. The other four families had modest jobs and modest incomes. And yet God provided the extra funds they needed to cover the cost of McLean Bible Church, this fledgling work for God in those early years. Number two, let's talk about God's faithfulness in providing us with our first facility. Now, as we all know, land prices in McLean, Virginia, are beyond beyond and they've been beyond beyond since, I don't know, beyond.

I mean, who knows? And so there was serious doubt as to whether we were ever going to have a church home or that we could ever afford a piece of property here in McLean, Virginia. And so the people of McLean Bible Church in the early 60s began to pray and they began to ask God to do something extraordinary with this. And so in 1963, when the final plans for the Beltway were codified, what happened was the Beltway, as it intersected Georgetown Pike, went right through a farm that this gentleman had and cut off six acres of his farm, leaving it inside the Beltway. The rest of his farm was outside the Beltway. And so the man decided he was going to sell those six acres.

I mean, you can't really put across the Beltway on a tractor, you know what I'm saying? So he said, I can't really use it. He didn't want to sell to a commercial establishment. He didn't want to sell to a to a hotel or anything like that. So McLean Bible Church approached him and said, Would you sell it to a church? And he said, OK. And so in 1964, we bought all six acres of this land. Guess how much we paid? Fifty five thousand dollars for all six acres. Oh, you should have been there and bought some land. Yes, you should have.

All right. And then, you know, what an act of God's faithfulness. I mean, God could have had the Beltway go anywhere God wanted the Beltway to go. But in faithfulness to McLean Bible Church, he had it chop off this six acre parcel. So McLean Bible Church could have a place to call home. And we built a little yellow brick building there on that property. And then that's where we grew during the 60s and 70s to a congregation of about a couple hundred people.

Number three, I'd like to move to 1980 when I was invited to come here as the pastor of McLean Bible Church. Now, I hesitate to call this event an act of God's faithfulness to McLean Bible Church. But I will call it an act of God's faithfulness to me and my family. I came to Christ in 1971 down at the University of North Carolina, and then I hitchhiked around the country with my dog.

That's me. And that's the only picture in existence of my dog, Noah, getting baptized with me. At least I assume that's what he was doing.

I don't have a clue what he was doing in the water. But then we hitchhiked around the country. My dog and I for a while came to Washington. I attended Capital Bible Seminary and graduated in 1975. I began teaching at Capital while I did my doctoral work at Johns Hopkins. But friends, I got bored teaching seminary.

I mean, look, don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of seminary and I believe in seminary education. But at least for me, I felt like I was part of the supply train.

You understand? I wanted to be on the front lines. I wanted to be leading a church to make an impact on its world and preaching the word of God every single week. And so Brenda and I began praying that God would open up a pastorate for me. And in 1980, Bill Poston, who was one of our elders here, approached me and said, Would you have any interest in being the pastor of McLean Bible Church? I said, Yeah, I would.

Well, that was great. But let's just say the candidate process went a little bumpy. There were a lot of people here who did not want me to come and be the senior pastor of this church. And looking back now, I totally get it. I mean, I was 31 years old.

Brenda was 28 years old. We were kids. I had never pastored a church in my life.

In those days, I knew more about probably leading a synagogue than I did leading a church. And the picture you see with the mustache, that ugly little thing on my face, people say, Yeah, you ever going to grow the mustache back? No, no. I grew it in the first place because I looked like a baby and I looked so young I needed to look older. I don't have that problem anymore.

So no, I'm not planning to grow it again. But anyway, the week before they were going to vote on me, it takes a 75% vote of the congregation, according to our church constitution, to call a pastor here. The week before they were going to vote, we had a question and answer time after the evening service. And one gentleman said to me, he said, Well, Reverend Solomon, he said, How much more than 75% would you need to get in order for you to feel confident that it's God's will for you to come as the pastor of this church? I said, sir, if I get 75%, it will be such a miracle that I'll know God wants me at this church. I said 75% plus one vote is all I'll need.

Well, many years later, Vic McCauley, the chairman of our congregation in those days said, He said, Look, you know, Lon, I never told you this before because I was afraid it would discourage you. But you know, in 1980, you only won by three votes. You said, Lon, how do you feel about that?

Friend, I feel fine about it. God is sovereign. God could have had two people vote the other way if he wanted to.

And if he had, Brenda and I would never have been here, but he had those people vote the way they did. And you guys have been stuck with me for 30 years. You've been stuck with me.

All right. Now, a while back, I got a letter from a church in Dallas and they invited me to consider becoming their pastor. And I wrote him back and I said this and I quote, I said, I'd like to express to you how honored I am that you would offer me the opportunity to be considered for the position of senior pastor.

However, I would like to withdraw my name from any further consideration. I went on to say it is my plan, God willing, to remain here at McLean Bible Church until I die or get fired, whichever comes first. And let me tell you why I feel this way, friends. I feel this way because it was an amazing act of God's faithfulness. Three votes that put me in this church to start with.

And I have no intention of being unfaithful to God and pulling myself out of this church until the Lord Jesus Christ himself moves me. Amen. Amen.

That's where I stand now. Let's move on to number four, another example of God's amazing faithfulness to this church. And that is what God did here. The blessings he gave us in the nineteen nineties. You know, in February of nineteen ninety one, I survived the no confidence vote on the part of the congregation here. That time I won by eight votes. Well, at least my popularity is going up.

Come on, I'm doing better. And after we won that vote, we decided the elders and I that now it would be time that we had a mandate to retool McLean Bible Church and make it into the church that you see today. And how did we try to retool it? Well, we tried to retool it into an outwardly focused, outreach driven, people centered, multi cultural, theologically sound, Christ centered impact all of Washington, D.C. for the Lord Church. And in his amazing faithfulness during the nineteen nineties, God provided leaders.

He provided volunteers. He provided resources that we needed to impact thousands of lives for Christ here in Washington and around the world and to build the ministries that we know as McLean Bible Church. Today, when I look back at all the Lord enabled us to do in the nineties, I've got to tell you, I'm amazed and I think you will be, too. The first thing we did is we codified our mission statement and I want you to say it with me.

All right. The mission of McLean Bible Church, say it with me now, is to make an impact on secular Washington with the message of Jesus Christ. And then in the 90s, we set out to align all of this church around that mission. In nineteen ninety one, we started Awana in nineteen ninety four. Jane Daniel came on our staff and recreated our women's ministry in nineteen ninety four. Ken Ball joined us and we started Frontline to reach young adults in nineteen ninety six. We started Access Ministry to to minister to children like Rusty and others with disabilities in nineteen ninety six. Turkey outreach started in nineteen ninety seven.

Not a sermon, just a thought went on the radio for the first time in nineteen ninety seven. We did our first global impact trip in nineteen ninety seven. We started the gathering for college age young people in nineteen ninety eight. Sue Langley retooled all of our children's ministry into kids quest, as you see it today. In nineteen ninety nine, we started the house in Anacostia in nineteen ninety nine.

We started Daybreak in Lincoln Heights in nineteen ninety nine. We started our small group ministry that's church wide. And in two thousand, Dale Sutherland came and turned our teenage ministry into the rock, as you see it today.

Whoa, what a decade, huh? And, you know, yeah, as we start to impact all of Washington with the gospel, God Malachi three ten opened the windows of heaven and poured out a blessing on us that we didn't even have room to store. The more impact we made, it seemed like the more resources the Lord kept sending us so we could keep on making more impact. And I'll tell you, through those years, God taught us a very important lesson. He taught us that his power is unlimited. He taught us that his resources are inexhaustible. And he taught us that whenever he asks us to step out in obedience and faith and attempt great things for God, we can always expect great things from God. God taught us that the very first question we should always ask here at McLean Bible Church is never can we afford it? Where's the money coming from? How are we going to do this and pay for it?

That's the wrong question. He taught us the right question to always ask is what is God's will? Does God want us to do this? Is God asking us to step out in obedience and faith and do this? And if we will step out in obedience and faith, God taught us the resources will always be there.

And that's how we've approached ministry ever since the 1990s and how we still do it today. You know, when we dedicated Jill's house back in the fall of 2010 at the ceremony, there were a couple of special ed teachers from Fairfax County, and I got to chatting with them and they were telling me about what happens when you reach 22 years old as a special ed student. You can't go to school anymore and there's not much else for you.

Not in Fairfax County, not Loudon County, nowhere around here. And I said, well, what do these children do? And they said, well, they I don't know. They stay home and their parents are aging, which is a real problem to take care of these. These aren't children anymore.

These are adults. And I said, well, you know what? We here at McLean Bible Church should do something about this. And they said, that'd be wonderful. So I talked to our elders about it. And then I got together in December of 2010 with four or five people from Access Ministry. And we all sat in my office. We talked about this. And at the end of the discussion, I pointed to each one of them. I said, you've prayed about this. You thought about this. Do you believe in your heart? God is calling us to do this.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I said, OK, so here's what we're going to do. I said in two weeks, the year will be over. First thing we're going to do is trust God to bring in enough money. So we end the year in the black operation.

Then we have to trust God to bring in four hundred and fifty thousand dollars more than that. To pay back the money we borrowed from ourselves to start our Bethesda campus. God bless you guys at Bethesda. You're all paid off. God bless you. All right.

Now. And then I said, so what we're going to do then, I said, how much will it cost us for all of eleven and all of twelve to pay for an adult program for young adults with disabilities? And they said two hundred thousand dollars. I said, OK, we are going to trust God for two hundred thousand dollars above all that.

So we can start this because I believe with all my heart, God's asking us to do this. So Brendan, I want vacation over the Christmas break. And I was getting daily emails from Bill Steele.

Let me know how things were going. You say you want vacation. Friends, there's no such thing as vacation from being the pastor of McLean Bible Church.

Sorry, there's no such thing. And so on December thirty first, we passed the point where we ended the year in the black. Praise God, man. I said, this is wonderful. Three days later, we had passed the point where we had the four hundred and fifty thousand dollars to pay back our Bethesda expenses.

Praise God. Then we got to January seventh and we had one hundred thousand dollars more extra. Well, but we we said we needed two, but we had one. And Brenda said to me, well, why don't we just start with one? And I said, no, no, no, no. We said we're trusting God for two. And if God can provide one, he can provide two.

And that's what we're doing. So Brendan, I went out for lunch and we sat down and I said, let me pray. And I said, God, forget lunch.

This has not forget lunch. Lord, I'm here to ask you for one hundred thousand dollars. And I said, I don't care where it comes from, Lord.

I don't care if it comes from stocks or bonds or out of somebody's mattress. I don't care where it comes from, but send us a check for one hundred thousand dollars. And Bill Steele had written me and said, Lon, it's January seventh.

We're probably not going to get any more envelopes in postmark December thirty first. I said, Lord, I don't care about that. You're bigger than that. We need a check for one hundred thousand dollars because I know you want us to do this ministry. I know it. So send us that check and bless this whatever. Amen.

We were eating. I don't know. So five o'clock that afternoon, I got an email from Bill Steele and Bill said, Lon, you're not going to believe what happened. You know, those those services that pay your bills for you, you know, they write the checks automatically and they often are a little behind. He said, we got a check in from one of those services postmark December thirty first.

But it just got here today. And you'll never guess how much that check was for. You want to guess one hundred thousand dollars to the penny. Yes, sir. And I want you to know that that adult program for children with disabilities started. I want you to see some of the young people that are attending here during the week.

We hope to expand this to hundreds and hundreds of children throughout these counties and give these children a place to go and a place to be loved and a place to serve. And let me tell you something. The only mistake I made is I should have asked for five hundred thousand dollars. What was I thinking? I must have been out of my mind while he asked for one.

All right. But one's what we needed and one's what we got. This is how we do it here at McLean Bible Church. And God taught us this in the 90s. We don't depend on gimmicks to get the resources we need for this church.

We don't depend on programs to get it. And we don't even depend on the people of this church to get it. We depend on the living, risen Christ of this church to provide for the needs of his church. Number five. And because God's faithful, he always has.

Number five. Finally, let's talk about the new campus that you're sitting in and beyond. You know, as we sought to be true to the mission that God had given us of reaching out to Washington, we began to grow. Now, growth's not everything, but we began to grow.

It's just a fact. We went from two morning services at Balls Hill Road to three morning services to four morning services. We parked at Cooper School. We shuttled from Langley High School. We had a half a mile backup of traffic on the on the Beltway waiting to get off the exit.

It was a mess. And so we began praying for a bigger church home from which we could impact more of Washington. So we looked and looked and looked. One realtor even said to me, Lon, he said, there is no piece of property like you're looking for in Tyson's Corner.

And if there were, you couldn't afford it anyway. He said, why don't you just sell your property and move to Loudoun County? I said, there's a good answer for that. The answer for that is that the name of this church is not Loudoun County Bible Church.

The name of this church is McLean Bible Church. And don't tell me what God can't do made me mad. Don't tell me God can't give us a piece of property like that. So we prayed for a year.

Nothing happened. Suddenly we heard the National Wildlife Federation property was for sale. That's where you're sitting today. I didn't even know this place was back behind the trees and I'd lived here 30 years.

Well, the National Wildlife Federation property is forty three point five acres, not twenty five. And it was four point five miles from Balls Hill Road. I came over. I visited it. And then I walked in here. I knew this is our church. So how do you know?

I can't tell you how I knew, but I knew. And so we tried to call the real estate agent. Nada wouldn't call us back.

Nothing. Finally, after calling for a month, the guy called us back and I said, we need to meet. He said no. I said, we need to meet. He said no. I said, we need to meet. He said no. I said, why do you keep saying no? He said, because there's no way financially you guys can perform on this thing.

Friends, in 1997, we had three thousand people attending McLean Bible Church and our total annual income annual was three million dollars. I said, don't you worry about that. Let's just have lunch. So we did. Finally, he agreed. And so this young Jewish real estate agent and I sat down and two of us going at it together at the table. And finally, I said to him, I said, look, I want you to know that this property is our property from the foundation of the world.

And all the National Wildlife Federation has been doing is holding it for us till we got ready for it. He said, but there are two other people ahead of you in line to buy it. I said, don't worry, they'll drop out. And I said, when they do, you call me. All right.

So about a month later, he called me. He said, you're not going to believe what happened. I said, I don't know.

I might try me. He said those two people dropped out, just like you said. I said, didn't I tell you this is our property from the foundation of the world? Well, when we met with the National Wildlife Federation board, not long after that, he stood up in front of the board and said, I recommend you sell this property to the McLean Bible Church. He said, I don't know. I don't fully get it. It's something about the foundation of the world. He said, I don't fully understand that.

He said, but I really think you should sell it to them. And so they did. Now it gets worse because after that, we had to go through the Fairfax County zoning and political process.

Oi, you talk about an adversarial, nasty 14 month process. And as we were approaching the end of that October, 1998, the chairwoman, Kate Handley of the board, then approached Stu Mendelson, our supervisor, and said, Stu, this McLean Bible Church thing is a loser. I've already done an informal poll of the board. You can't get the six votes out of ten that you need to pass it.

You need to drop this thing like a hot potato. Well, I'm so glad God is bigger than the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, aren't you? Yeah. And so Stu stuck with us in God's wonderful faithfulness. He turned Stu's heart towards us. And Dave Ballard and I went to see every single supervisor, all ten of them, and presented the situation, said, We need your vote. Will you vote for us? And friends, by the time the vote came in January 1999, the chairwoman turned out to be right. We did not get six votes out of ten. We got all ten votes, including hers.

Praise God for that, huh? But it gets worse. Now we had to pay for it. When we started off, we thought this was a thirty five million dollar project. It turned out to be a ninety three million dollar project. You say, Are you nuts?

You must be out of your mind to lead a church with a three million dollar income into a ninety three million dollar building program. Have you completely lost your mind? Well, some people would think I have, but not over this issue. No, I have not lost my mind. Friends, I have an omnipotent God.

I haven't lost my mind. And my omnipotent God has all the money in the world. And if we're walking in obedience with that God, money is never a problem. And so here we are, 13 years later, enjoying this wonderful facility. And, you know, we have paid the debt down on this facility to five million dollars. And by God's grace, in two years, we will burn the mortgage and be out of debt on McLean Bible Church. Praise God for that. And during all 13 of those years, the Lord also provided the resources for us to end every single year in the black operationally.

That's no small thing. Our budget last year was twenty five million dollars. Hey, and on top of that, we were able to build Jill's house to serve wonderful people like Rusty and others. And hey, on top of that, we were able to start building a spiritual beltway around Washington with two campuses in Prince William, one in Bethesda, one in Louden, one in Arlington, one in Silver Spring. And we were able also to start our Internet campus, which I thought at the beginning was the dumbest thing I ever heard. I said to my staff, who's going to sit and watch us on a computer somewhere? Well, right now we have 4000 people a week who sit and watch us on a computer somewhere around the world. Hey, Bruce, I don't know everything.

Huh? And all of this, my friends, what I'm trying to say, how much more faithful could God have been to this church over the last 50 years? How much more faithful could he have been?

Can we give God an expression of how much we appreciate him? You say, well, I got a question and my question is, how do you explain this? I mean, lots of other churches preach the gospel. Lots of other churches have sound doctrine. Lots of other churches are trying to serve God. They've never seen God use them like God has used us and made an impact through like God has used us to make. How do you explain this?

Friends, I have no logical explanation for this. All I can tell you is the Spirit of God does what the Spirit of God wants to do. But even though I can't tell you what we did to bring this blessing of God on this church, I can tell you some things we can do to lose it really quick. And that's what I want to talk to you about next week. I want to talk about looking forward to the next 50 or 100 years if the Lord tarries and how we keep the blessing of God on this church. I hope you'll be here for that. Now, we can't stop till we ask our question.

And this is our 50th anniversary. So what? So what do you think?

Can we really do a good job? Loudon, Prince William, Bethesda, all you guys, can we? All right. Come on. Here we go. Ready?

One, two, three. That was awesome. That was awesome. Good for you. You say, all right, Lon, so what? See, I've heard everything you said, but really, I don't see that that has much to do with me. Well, it does.

And very quickly, I'm going to tell you how. You know, God told Sarah she was going to have a child when she was 90 and she laughed. And the Lord said to her, Genesis Chapter 18, verse 14, Sarah, is anything too hard for the Lord? Don't limit me, Sarah. And God said to Jeremiah, Jeremiah 32, 27, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh is anything too hard for me?

Don't limit me, Jeremiah. And when Gabriel told Mary that she was going to have the Lord Jesus and she said, I'm a virgin, how's this going to happen? And Gabriel said to her, Luke one thirty seven, nothing is impossible with God. Don't limit God, Mary. And finally, Jesus told Peter Luke 18, 27, what is impossible with men is possible with God. Don't limit God, Peter. Folks, you know, as followers of Christ, I've seen it so many times. So often as we approach situations in life, we decide ahead of time what God can do and what God can't do, what God will do and what God won't do.

But as we've seen today from the history of McLean Bible Church, my friends, Ephesians three twenty. God can do exceedingly abundantly above anything we can ask or think or even imagine. And what's more, God wants to do that for you and me. Jeremiah thirty three three says, call unto me, God says, and I will show you great and mighty things that you can't even anticipate. But when we place limits on God in our puny unbelief, we get in the way of this.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is not a name it and claim it prosperity gospel message. I'm not saying if we approach God with no limits, that God will give us whatever we want him to give us.

That wouldn't even be good for us. I'm saying that in keeping with God's wise and good plan for our life, he has massive blessings he wants to bestow on us. Blessings of every kind, physical blessings, spiritual blessings, family blessings, career blessings, ministry blessings, inner soul blessings.

Just like he has bestowed on McLean Bible Church for the last 50 years. But we will never see these blessings if in our puny human unbelief we limit God. The way we need to approach God is to say, Lord, as a follower of Christ, the only thing that I'm going to allow to limit you is your own sovereign will for my life and your own sovereign plan for my life. You do whatever you want to do, Lord. I'm not even going to put limits on what I think you can do.

You be God. So let's close by saying this. Everything we've ever attempted over the last 50 years here at McLean Bible Church, at every critical point, we've had people telling us that what we were attempting for the Lord couldn't be done, that it was impossible, that it was too big for us, that it was beyond our capacity. I call these people the BTE club, the Back to Egypt club.

These are people who see everything through the lens of human reality. And their answer to everything is, we can't do it. It's just too hard for us.

It's too much. Where will we ever get the money from? Let's turn around and go back to Egypt.

You know what? If we'd have looked at things the way they looked at things, we would still be a little ingrown church meeting in a little yellow building, making little or no impact on this city for Christ. This is not how God calls us to see the world, my friends. God calls us to see the world through the lens of the word of God. And the word of God tells us that we have an unlimited God who has unlimited power. And he is prepared to do unlimited things for those people who will give him an unlimited platform in their lives. That's what the word of God teaches.

That's how we built this church. And that's how you need to build your life as a follower of Christ. So let me close by asking you the question, where do you need to take the limits off God in your life? Where do you need to trust God for something in your life that only God can do, to move an obstacle that looks immovable, to give you strength to face something that looks unfaceable, or to do something that looks undoable, to forgive someone who's done something unforgivable, or to meet medical needs or financial needs that seem unmeetable?

The issue is, will you stop listening to the Back to Egypt Club? And will you stop deciding in your own puny unbelief what God can do and instead let God decide what he will do? Call unto me, Jeremiah 33, and I will show you great and mighty things that you can't even anticipate. This is our God, and this is how he wants us to relate to him.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thanks for challenging us today from the history of McLean Bible Church and from Your Word. And remind us, Father, that just because something looks impossible, unlikely, undoable, doesn't mean a thing when we're dealing with God. Lord, give us that sense of Your greatness and Your omnipotence, that we're able to trust You, Lord, even through things that other people are trying to tell us is stupid, is silly.

Lord, help us to reject the Back to Egypt Club and the way they see the world. And help us to see the world the way the giants of the Word of God saw the world through the eyes of faith. Lord, Jesus changed the very way we live because we were here today. And we do thank You so much for the demonstration of Your faithfulness these last 50 years here at McLean. Challenge our personal lives with it. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? Amen. Amen.