Episodes

  • The Problem of Worship - July 6, 2025

    The Problem of Worship - July 6, 2025
    Jul 7 2025

    Ryan Chandler
    July 6, 2025

    The Problem of Worship

    Scripture: Psalm 95

    Psalm 95:7d-11

    Psalm 95:1-7c

    When God is the focus of your worship, you discover your true meaning and purpose in life.

    The Call to Worship

    The Reason for Worship

    The Result of Worship

    The Call to Worship
    Psalm 95:1-2

    The Reason for Worship

    Psalm 95:3-5

    The Result of Worship
    Psalm 95:6-7c
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    23 mins
  • Flourishing Fruitfulness: Love Others! - June 29, 2025

    Flourishing Fruitfulness: Love Others! - June 29, 2025
    Jun 30 2025

    Dennis R. Wiles

    First Baptist Arlington

    June 29, 2025

    Flourishing Together

    First Baptist Arlington

    2025 – 2030

    2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew)

    SUMMER 2025: You Are Here!

    June 1 – August 2, 2025

    Psalm 1

    Flourishing Fruitfulness: Love Others!

    Matthew 22:34-40


    Psalm 1 Tree – A Flourishing Person

    Two Questions from Human Flourishing Measure (One Slide)

    -Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

    -I understand my purpose in life.

    FOUNDATION: Who am I? Why am I here?

    FORMATION: What is happening TO me?

    FRUITFULNESS: What is happening THROUGH me?

    COMMAND: The first command in the Bible is found in Genesis 1:28 – “Be fruitful . . . “

    This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

    -John 15:8

    Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23) – remember the fruitfulness of the seed that fell on good soil.

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

    -Galatians 5:22-23

    GREATEST COMMAND: Love your neighbor as yourself.

    Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD . . . When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

    -Leviticus 19:18, 33-34

    Jesus is not simply advocating an emotional attachment or an abstract love. Rather, love here indicates a concrete responsibility, the act of being useful and beneficial to one’s neighbors, both Jew and Gentile. To love is to give to someone what that person needs. In the same way that individuals are called to care for themselves responsibly and attune their lives to carry out God’s will in their lives, they are to give themselves to others to care for them responsibly and help them attune their lives to carry out God’s will.

    -Michael J. Wilkins, The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew

    COMMUNITY: We are to love the people in our community through our actions.

    CIRCLE: We are to love the people within our “circle” through our actions.

    COMMISSION: We are to love the people of God’s world through our actions.
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    36 mins
  • Flourishing Formation: Seek God’s Kingdom! - June 22, 2025

    Flourishing Formation: Seek God’s Kingdom! - June 22, 2025
    Jun 23 2025
    Dennis R. Wiles First Baptist Arlington June 22, 2025 Flourishing Together First Baptist Arlington 2025 – 2030 2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew) SUMMER 2025: You Are Here! June 1 – August 2, 2025 Psalm 1 Flourishing Formation: Seek God’s Kingdom! Matthew 6:25-34 Psalm 1 Tree – A Flourishing Person FOUNDATION: Who am I? Why am I here? FORMATION: What is happening TO me? METAMORPHOSIS – Derived from the Greek word, metamorphóō – which means “to change or to transform.” This word is used in Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2 to express the “transfiguration” of Christ. MORPH – The Greek word morphé (shape or form) is combined with prefixes in the New Testament, resulting in words like conformed or transformed. These words are often connected to the process of spiritual formation. Spiritual Formation is a universal human phenomenon. Spiritual formation, without regard to any specifically religious context or tradition, is the process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite “form” or character. It is a process that happens to everyone. The most despicable as well as the most admirable of persons have had a spiritual formation. -Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart Spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself. -Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart The ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal . . . The ways employed in our North American culture are conspicuously impersonal: programs, organizations, techniques, general guidelines, information detached from place. In matters of ways and means, the vocabulary of numbers is preferred over names, ideologies crowd out ideas, the gray fog of abstraction absorbs the sharp particularities of the recognizable face and the familiar street . . . My concern is provoked by the observation that so many understand themselves to be followers of Jesus, without hesitation, and apparently without thinking, embrace the ways and means of the culture as they go about their daily living “in Jesus’ name” . . . They seem to suppose that “getting on in the world” means getting on in the world on the world’s terms, and that the ways of Jesus are useful only in a compartmentalized area of the life labeled “religious” . . . This is wrong thinking, and wrong living. Jesus is an alternative to the dominant ways of the world, not a supplement to them. -Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way Jesus’ model of apprenticeship was a far cry from our Western educational system . . . To follow Jesus, then, meant to walk alongside him in a posture of listening, learning, observation. Obedience, and imitation. For Jesus’ first apprentices, the goal wasn’t to pass a test, get a degree, or receive a certificate to frame on your office wall; it was to master the art of living in God’s good world by learning from Jesus how to make steady progress into the kingdom of God. It was less like learning chemistry and more like learning jujitsu. -John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way THE SACRAMENTAL JOURNEY – The Christian life is a holy, sacred, mysterious journey as we learn to glorify God by following The Jesus Way in the fulfillment of His mission. thesacramentaljourney.org A Disciple: A person being formed by Jesus as they follow Him in accomplishing His mission. How can we be formed, conformed, transformed – as followers of Jesus? PROHIBITION: Stop worrying! Quit the practice of total self-reliance! Herein lies a deep irony of human existence. According to Jesus’s teachings, when people seek to keep everything together and provide for themselves apart from God, the result is not the sought-after peace, but rather, anxiety. -Jonathan T. Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing PRACTICE: Seek God’s Kingdom . . . first! PROMISE: God will provide! 2 Corinthians 3:7-18
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    36 mins
  • Flourishing Foundation: Love God! - June 15, 2025

    Flourishing Foundation: Love God! - June 15, 2025
    Jun 16 2025

    Dennis R. Wiles

    First Baptist Arlington

    June 15, 2025

    Father’s Day


    Flourishing Together

    First Baptist Arlington

    2025 – 2030

    2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew)

    SUMMER 2025: You Are Here!

    June 1 – August 2, 2025

    Psalm 1

    Flourishing Foundation: Love God!

    Matthew 22:24-40

    Theme for 2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    Theme for Summer 2025: You Are Here!

    HUMAN FLOURISHING: One of the domains currently being researched in the Global Flourishing Study is Meaning and Purpose.

    Two Questions from Human Flourishing Measure (One Slide)

    -Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

    -I understand my purpose in life.

    FOUNDATION: Who am I? Why am I here?

    IMAGE OF GOD: God has designed human beings to flourish in a loving relationship with Him. God has always desired for His people to know and love Him.

    Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.

    -Hosea 4:1-2

    For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

    -Hosea 6:6

    HEART: The will or heart of a human being is the seat of decision-making.

    MIND: The mind is the center of thought and feeling.

    SOUL: The integrating and organizing principle of a human being.
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    37 mins
  • Humanity’s Glory - June 8, 2025

    Humanity’s Glory - June 8, 2025
    Jun 9 2025
    Dennis R. Wiles First Baptist Arlington June 8, 2025 Pentecost Sunday Flourishing Together First Baptist Arlington 2025 – 2030 2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew) SUMMER 2025: You Are Here! June 1 – August 2, 2025 Psalm 1 Humanity’s Glory Psalm 8 I’m going to use the vocabulary test from Children’s Camp – so we can put the word on the screen first – and then add the definition when I call for it: ALAMAK - Expressing surprise, shock, dismay, or outrage. SPELT - A species of wheat, once much cultivated in Europe and the Middle East until superseded by common wheat but now again being grown for its different agronomic and nutritional properties. PROCRASTIBAKING - The act of baking or cooking as a way to avoid doing something else, usually tasks that are less enjoyable. GENERATION ALPHA - A term used to describe the generation of people born between the early 2010s and the mid 2020s and following Generation Z, noted in particular as the first generation to be born in the era of widespread use of online communications. Theme for 2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ Theme for Summer 2025: You Are Here! HUMAN FLOURISHING: One of the domains currently being researched in the Global Flourishing Study is Meaning and Purpose. Two Questions from Human Flourishing Measure (One Slide) -Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile? -I understand my purpose in life. “WHAT EMINENT PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE” – Journal of Humanistic Psychology: 1. Life is primarily to be enjoyed and experienced. Enjoy the moment and the journey. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Cary Grant, Janis Joplin, and Sinclair Lewis 2. We live to express compassion to others, to love, to serve. Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama 3. Life is unknowable, a mystery. Albert Camus, Bob Dylan, and Stephen Hawking 4. Life has no meaning. Joseph Conrad, Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka, Bertrand Russell, Jean Paul Sartre, and Clarence Darrow-Darrow compared life to a ship that is "tossed by every wave and by every wind; a ship headed to no port and no harbor, with no rudder, no compass, no pilot, simply floating for a time, then lost in the waves." 5. We are to worship God and prepare for the afterlife. Desmond Tutu, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa 6. Life is a struggle. Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, and Jonathan Swift 7. We are to create our own meaning of life. Carl Sagan, Simone DeBeauvoir, and Carl Jung8. Life is a joke. Albert Camus, Charlie Chaplin, Lou Reed, and Oscar Wilde - Charlie Chaplin described life as "a tragedy when seen in close-up but a comedy in the long shot." The rock star Lou Reed said, "Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony." Where can human beings find ultimate meaning? PSALM 8 – “This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be, celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who He is and what He has done, and relating us and our world to Him; all with a masterly economy of words, and in a spirit of mingled joy and awe.” -Derek Kidner, MAJESTY AND GLORY – Everything starts with God! MANKIND – Created in God’s image, crowned with God’s glory, and chosen as God’s co-rulers!
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    34 mins
  • Creation Testifies! - June 1, 2025

    Creation Testifies! - June 1, 2025
    Jun 2 2025

    Dennis R. Wiles

    First Baptist Arlington

    June 1, 2025

    Flourishing Together

    First Baptist Arlington

    2025 – 2030

    2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew)

    SUMMER 2025: You Are Here!

    June 1 – August 2, 2025

    Psalm 1

    Creation Testifies!

    Psalm 19:1-6

    Theme for 2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    Theme for Summer 2025: You Are Here!

    HUMAN FLOURISHING: One of the domains currently being researched in the Global Flourishing Study is Meaning and Purpose.

    The search for the purpose for life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point—ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like What do I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my life? The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfilment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God.

    -Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life


    Everything starts with God!


    God is a Personal Being!

    God has infused His creation with purpose and meaning.
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    28 mins
  • Walk This Way . . . Together! - May 25, 2025

    Walk This Way . . . Together! - May 25, 2025
    May 26 2025

    Dennis R. Wiles

    First Baptist Arlington

    May 25, 2025

    Flourishing Together

    First Baptist Arlington

    2025 – 2030

    2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew)

    SPRING 2025: Walk This Way!

    April 27 – May 31, 2025

    Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

    Jesus (Matthew 5:48)

    Walk This Way . . . Together!

    Colossians 3:1-17

    Theme for 2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    Theme for 2026: Flourishing Together: Transformed on The Jesus Way

    Theme for 2027: Flourishing Together: Impacting Our World for Christ

    Six Domains of Human Flourishing

    • Happiness and Life Satisfaction
    • Mental and Physical Health
    • Meaning and Purpose
    • Character and Virtue
    • Close Social Relationships
    • Material and Financial Stability

    WINTER: Happiness and Life Satisfaction

    EASTER: Easter!

    SPRING: Character and Virtue

    SUMMER: Meaning and Purpose

    AUGUST: Mental and Physical Health

    FALL: Close Social Relationships

    MISSIONS: Missions!

    ADVENT: Advent!

    CHARACTER AND VIRTUE – Colossians 3

    -Love is the greatest virtue!

    -As our character is transformed, we exchange vices for virtues.

    -Our character is expressed through virtuous living in community with fellow believers.

    Life in the Kingdom of God is meant to be lived in community. The virtues listed in Colossians 3 are relational in nature. In other words, the practicing of virtuous living takes place in the context of community. We are to treat each other according to the ethic set forth by the New Testament. Virtuous living emerges from a redeemed Christian character. Our character is also shaped by our decision to live fully into a virtuous life. When we do so, we live in such a way that is beneficial to others. This is a blessed life. This is actually what is known as . . . flourishing!

    BELONGING: In the Body of Christ, we all belong to Jesus and all human barriers erode in the face of this Age to Come reality!

    BELIEVING: We are joined together by the incredible power of the Gospel – the message of Christ!

    BEHAVING: We live together in community through accountable relationships, admonishing each other, serving the interests of the Kingdom of God together . . . for the glory of God!
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    37 mins
  • Designer Fashions - May 18, 2025

    Designer Fashions - May 18, 2025
    May 19 2025

    Dennis R. Wiles

    First Baptist Arlington

    May 18, 2025

    High School Grads

    Flourishing Together

    First Baptist Arlington

    2025 – 2030

    2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew)

    SPRING 2025: Walk This Way!

    April 27 – May 31, 2025

    Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

    Jesus (Matthew 5:48)

    Designer Fashions

    Colossians 3:1-17

    Theme for 2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ

    Theme for Spring 2025: Walk This Way!

    HUMAN FLOURISHING: One of the domains currently being researched in the Global Flourishing Study is Character and Virtue.

    INAUGURATED ESCHATOLOGY: We live in the intersection of This Present Evil Age and The Age to Come. Personal application of this reality is seen in the Apostle Paul’s teachings that the transformation of our inner character, revealed through virtuous living, is the anticipation of our promised future state as believers in the Age to Come.

    I’m going to begin the message with a series of photos of Fashion Designers – to quiz the congregation to see if they know them by sight:

    Coco Chanel

    Calvin Klein

    Girogio Armani

    Ralph Lauren

    Tom Ford

    Donna Karan

    God is the original Fashion Designer!

    We must deal radically with our earthly nature!

    These clothes no longer fit!

    In Christ, we’ve been fitted for a new wardrobe by the greatest Fashion Designer!
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    39 mins