Dennis R Wiles

FBC Arlington

Good Friday 2020

EASTER 2020

A Love Story

"Reconciled and Righteous"

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

GOOD FRIDAY – A day of solemn remembrance

RECONCILED!

RESTORED!

RIGHTEOUS!

REMEMBER!

Dennis R Wiles

FBC Arlington

Palm Sunday 2020

Sixth Sunday of Lent

EASTER 2020

A Love Story

The People of God

1 Peter 2:9-10

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

HOLY WEEK – joining hands and hearts with God’s people in our annual journey to the Cross and the Empty Tomb

THE CHURCH!!!!

IDENTITY – Who are we?

GROWTH – What is happening to us?

IMPACT – What is happening through us?

Dennis R Wiles

FBC Arlington

March 29, 2020

Fifth Sunday of Lent

EASTER 2020

A Love Story

He is Risen!

John 20:24-31

SURPRISE!!

DISBELIEF – unsurprisingly, many doubt the Resurrection of Jesus!

DEMONSTRATIVE PROOF – He is Risen!

DISCIPLE – confessing faith in Jesus qualifies us to be disciples!

DECLARATION – proclaiming the truth about Jesus is both evangelistic and encouraging!

Dennis R Wiles

FBC Arlington

March 22, 2020

Fourth Sunday of Lent

EASTER 2020

A Love Story

Jesus Christ!

John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Pre-Existent, Co-Existent, and Existent!

Creative Agent of the Trinity

Unrecognized by His own

Salvation

Incarnation

Restoration

Dennis R Wiles

FBC Arlington

March 15, 2020

Love is Always the Right Answer

1 Corinthians 13:7

Love is Always the Right Answer

1 Corinthians 13:7

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

CONVICTIONS: Our theological convictions provide stability in the face of the storm.

LOVE: God’s love for us, Our love for God, Our love for each other

“Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

“Together these four verbs picture love as a limitless, creative and transforming force empowering Christians to face whatever obstacle they encounter.”

-Patrick Mitchel, The Message of Love

PROTECT

TRUST

HOPE

PERSEVERE

Spread love, not a virus!

Dennis R Wiles

FBC Arlington

March 8, 2020

Second Sunday of Lent

EASTER 2020

A Love Story

The Force of Evil

Genesis 3:1-24 (I will only read Genesis 3:1-9)

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

The Tempter and Temptation

SEPARATION: Where? Why? What?

JUDGMENT: Curse, Guilt, Shame, Blame, Pain, Subjugation, Death

PARADISE LOST: No going back!

PROTEVANGELIUM: Hope and Love

We believe SALVATION IS GOD’S GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE! All human beings are created in the image of God. However, each person is a sinner and is separated from God. Only through accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can a person be restored into a relationship with God and receive the gift of eternal life.

Dennis R Wiles

FBC Arlington

March 1, 2020

EASTER 2020

A Love Story

A Purposeful Creator

Genesis 1:26-2:3

CREATOR – God alone is the Creator of all that exists. Creation is a representation of His will and is infused with His creative purpose.

IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD

Inherent Worth of Human Beings

Binary Expressions of Humanity

God’s Agents

Dominion

Relationship to God

-Special to God – crowned with glory

-Spiritual – breath of life

-Social – living in community

Dennis R Wiles

FBC Arlington

Ash Wednesday 2020

LOVE

What our world needs now is . . . Love!

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

-Jesus

EASTER 2020

A Love Story

Everything Starts with God!

Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

We believe EVERYTHING STARTS WITH GOD! He is the eternal, perfect, personal creator, sustainer and ruler of the universe. He is the only true God. He is one in His essence but has revealed Himself to mankind as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

ETERNAL - God is!

Dogmatics, in each and all of its divisions and subdivisions, with every one of its questions and answers, with all its biblical and historical assertions, with the whole range of its formal and material considerations, examinations and condensations, can first and last, as a whole and in part, say nothing else but that God is.

-Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics

INDEPENDENT - Immensitas – God exists independently of place and space. He is sine mensura – without measure.

PRESENT – God is eternally present!

PERSONAL – God is eternally personal!

Dennis R. Wiles

February 23, 2020

Love Is . . .

February 2020

February 2 - 25, 2020

Love is . . . for Everyone!

1 Corinthians 7:32-35

LOVE

What our world needs now is . . . Love!

Love is . . . for Everyone!

1 Corinthians 7:32-35

I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

Singleness

Singleness in America

FULLNESS: Theological and Practical

“If marriage shows us the shape of the gospel, singleness shows us its sufficiency.”

-Sam Allberry

FAMILY

FRIENDSHIP

FOCUS

FUTURE