Church180

Death isn’t a period. For those who trust Jesus, it’s a comma.Continuing Illuminate: Shining in the Shadows, Pastor Tony Collins picks up in Acts 22-23, where Paul is staring death in the face. A mob is shouting for his execution, a Roman commander is ready to have him flogged, and then he’s dragged before the religious council. Tony opens with the surprising history of Halloween, a harvest festival that missionaries redeemed as All Hallows’ Eve, to ask the question this weekend raises: what do we do with death?Tony walks through Paul’s calm under pressure, from his appeal to Roman citizenship to his bold declaration before the Sanhedrin that he’s on trial “because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” Our faith, Tony says, isn’t built on a moral code or on Jesus being a brilliant teacher. It’s built on an empty tomb. If Christ wasn’t raised, Paul tells the Corinthians, our faith is useless. But if He was, the grave isn’t a period. It’s a comma, and our goodbyes become “see you soon.”Tony then shows what that hope changes. It frees us from the “you only live once” striving and anxiety of our culture, lets us hold our lives with open hands, and gives us a reason to invite the people God has placed around us. Even in our darkest night, the resurrected Lord stands beside us and says what He told Paul in Acts 23:11: “Take courage.” The message closes with communion.Scripture: Acts 22:22-23:11; Philippians 1:21; 1 Corinthians 15; Mark 8:35; John 10:10

A culture in the dark can’t be argued into the kingdom, but it can’t argue with a changed life.It’s the weekend before Halloween, a holiday marked by darkness and masks, and Pastor Tony Collins opens with a question: what masks do we wear to hide who we really are? From there he takes us to Acts 21-22, where Paul returns to Jerusalem, is falsely accused, dragged out of the temple, and nearly beaten to death by a mob. Instead of arguing back, Paul asks for a chance to speak, and what he shares is his story: the day Jesus met him on the road to Damascus.Tony explains why a culture living without Jesus will keep producing chaos. He traces the cycle in the book of Judges, where people do what’s right in their own eyes, hit despair, cry out to God, and are delivered. But he challenges the church not to be so busy judging the world that we forget to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and not to think we can win people with the perfect argument.Through stories of changed lives, including a woman in Christchurch, New Zealand whose family came to faith after watching her transformation, and a prison baptism service where rival gang members embraced in the water, Tony makes the case that you cannot argue with the power of a changed life. The message closes with Acts 22:14-15 and a challenge: Jesus has called you to be His witness. Do you know your story, and are you willing to tell it?Scripture: Acts 21:27-22:16 (especially 22:14-15)

We rarely call them idols. We call them reasonable. The Holy Spirit’s work in us is to reroute our hearts back to Jesus.In this message from Rerouted, Pastor Tony Collins opens with a story from his own hometown, where one highway reroute reshaped the entire local economy. Then he takes us to Acts 19, where Paul’s ministry in Ephesus does the same thing. When a silversmith named Demetrius realizes the gospel is costing him his idol business, the whole city erupts into a two-hour riot.Tony’s point is that Demetrius’s problem is ours too. We rarely call our idols idols. We dress them up in acceptable excuses: “I’m just being responsible with my future,” “I’m just standing up for what’s right,” “I just want people’s approval.” Drawing on Timothy Keller’s four root idols (comfort, control, approval, and power), Tony invites us to ask what we’d be most afraid to lose, and shows how the Holy Spirit continually reroutes our hearts back to the throne of Jesus.Along the way, he makes a surprising claim: true faith doesn’t fight the culture, it reroutes our object of worship. Real change doesn’t come from telling everyone else how to live, but from people surrendering their own lives to Jesus. He also warns that challenging the idols in our own lives will meet resistance. The message closes at the Lord’s Table with communion and a reminder from John’s letter not to love the world or anything in it.Scripture: Acts 19:23-41; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; Galatians 1:10; 1 John 2:15-17

Sincere faith isn’t the same as real faith, and real surrender means burning the backup plan.In this message from Rerouted, Pastor Tony Collins takes us to Ephesus, a city full of magic, idols, and spiritual confusion. There Paul meets believers whose faith is sincere but incomplete. Tony opens with the story of a revival under the preacher Jonathan Edwards, a reminder that what the church needs most isn’t better production or more emotion. It’s the presence of God’s Spirit.From there, Tony walks through three warning lights in Acts 19:Sincere faith can still be incomplete. The world discipled us all week through what we watch and read, and Paul taught daily for two years so people could grow past a surface-level faith.Borrowed faith will fail you. The seven sons of Sceva try to use Jesus’ name without knowing Him, and it doesn’t end well. Someone else’s relationship with Jesus is not your relationship with Jesus.Real surrender is public, costly, and final. The Ephesian believers openly confess and burn their magic scrolls, worth a fortune, and the word of the Lord spreads. Tony ties it to the Asbury revival, which began with confession.The message closes with a question to sit with: what’s your scroll? What’s the backup plan, the old habit, or the thing you’re holding onto alongside Jesus?Scripture: Acts 19:1-22

In seasons of exhaustion, God doesn't just give you strength — He gives you people.Picking back up in Acts 18, Pastor Tony Collins meets Paul at what might be his lowest point yet: broke, alone, and by his own words arriving in Corinth "in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling," after being run out of city after city. Using his own story of hitting the wall during a marathon, Tony unpacks what it looks like when exhaustion finally catches up to us — and what God actually does about it.In Corinth, God doesn't just tell Paul to push through. He sends Aquila and Priscilla — a couple who take Paul in, put him to work alongside them, and become a real source of encouragement — and soon after, Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia with even more support. Tony makes the case that in our own seasons of burnout, God's plan was never for us to carry the weight alone — He provides people to help carry it. The message also traces a surprising turn: Sosthenes, the synagogue leader who once dragged Paul into court, later shows up as a co-author of 1 Corinthians — proof that God can turn even our opposition into partnership.Scripture: Acts 18:1–17

Before Paul preached a word in Athens, he grieved. What breaks God's heart should break ours too.In this message from Rerouted, Pastor Tony Collins takes us to one of the most striking scenes in Acts: Paul standing in Athens — a city overflowing with idols and philosophy — and what happens in him before he ever opens his mouth to preach. Scripture says he was "greatly distressed," his spirit stirred to agony at the sight of a city worshiping everything except the true God.Tony unpacks what it looks like for us to feel that same holy ache for the people around us — not anger at their brokenness, but grief that moves us to action — and walks through how Paul responds: not by burning bridges, but building them. Paul quotes the Athenians' own poets and points to their altar "to an unknown god" as a doorway into the gospel. Tony brings it home by naming our own modern-day idols — money, health, relationships, comfort, success — and asks the question underneath all of it: what's really sitting on the throne of your life?The message closes with the mixed response Paul actually got at Mars Hill — mockery, curiosity, and belief, all in the same crowd — and a challenge to keep speaking the truth in love and trust God with what happens next.Scripture: Acts 17:16–34

Some respond to Jesus with opposition. Some respond like the Bereans — searching the Scriptures for themselves. Which one are you?This week's message comes from guest speaker Pastor Ryan Ferrer, a church planter currently replanting a decades-old congregation in the community, sharing on the strength of partnership between churches. Continuing our Rerouted series through the book of Acts, Ryan picks up the story in Acts 17 as Paul and Silas carry the gospel into Thessalonica and Berea — and run straight into two very different reactions.In Thessalonica, opposition runs them out of town. In Berea, the response is the opposite: people who "received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." Ryan uses this contrast to ask a pointed question: what's really sitting on the throne of your heart — comfort, career, family, reputation? And are you the kind of person who takes someone else's word for who Jesus is, or the kind who searches it out for yourself?Because Jesus is King, Ryan reminds us, we can trust every reroute in our lives — even the ones we don't fully understand.Scripture: Acts 17:1–15

A closed door from God isn't a "no" — it's a redirect toward something better.In week 2 of Rerouted, Pastor Tony Collins digs into one of the strangest passages in Acts: Paul and his companions try to preach the gospel in Asia and Bithynia and are stopped — not by circumstance, but by the Holy Spirit himself (Acts 16:6–10). It's a confusing moment that raises a real question: why would God close a door to ministry that seems so clearly good?Tony shares his own story of being "rerouted" — a missionary assignment cut short, a dream church-planting opportunity that opened up and then slammed shut — and shows how, time and again, God's redirection isn't rejection. It's positioning. When Paul's closed doors in Asia led him instead to Macedonia (and eventually to Europe), the "no" became the doorway to a bigger purpose he couldn't have planned on his own.If you're currently staring at a closed door in your own life — a relationship, a job, a plan that fell through — this message will challenge you to ask a different question than "why not me?" Instead: "God, what are you positioning me for?"Scripture: Acts 16:6–10

In the finale of The Legacy Project, Pastor Tony Collins closes out this series by turning to Paul's letters to his spiritual son, Timothy. The church has carried the gospel forward like a relay race for over 2,000 years — and just like in a relay, the handoff is where legacies are won or lost.Drawing from 2 Timothy 1:7 ("God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline") and 1 Timothy 4:12 ("Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example..."), Tony calls younger generations to lead with courage and character, and challenges older generations to cheer them on instead of criticizing — making room instead of holding on too tight. Landing on Joshua's charge, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," and Paul's charge to "fight the good fight" (1 Timothy 6:11–12), Tony reminds the church that what's really being passed down isn't a program or a position — it's a fight worth entering, generation after generation.Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:7; 1 Timothy 4:12; 1 Timothy 6:11–12; Joshua 24:15

In Part 3 of The Legacy Project, Pastor Tony Collins makes a simple but convicting point: you cannot pass on a faith you have not first received yourself. Before we can hand legacy to the next generation, we have to keep growing in our own.Tracing Timothy's spiritual roots back through his grandmother Lois, his mother Eunice, and Paul himself (2 Timothy 3:14–17), Tony shows that authentic faith is something received, tested, and then passed on — never something we can fake our way through. Drawing on his own story of a formative college professor and J.I. Packer's words that "to disregard the study of God is to condemn oneself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded," Tony challenges the church to be lifelong learners at every age — whether you're 9 or 90, growth doesn't stop until we do.This message also includes a special word for educators (continuing the church's Back to School season) and a call for the whole church family to join together for an upcoming citywide Serve Day.Scripture: Acts 16:1–5; 2 Timothy 3:14–17