Toronto Alliance Church

On Boxing Day 2004, there was a huge tsunami that hit parts of Asia. And there was a picture that was all over the internet of the moment people on the beach, vacationing, realized that a gigantic wave was crossing the boundary between sea and land bringing great destruction. The people in the picture are running as fast as they can away from the wave, desperate to get to safety, except there's on...

God with us. Everything about that statement is remarkable. Just three words, God with us. When you feel alone, that touches us. When you feel trapped and hopeless, it meets us, God with us. When you're fearful and vulnerable. When that's what you feel, it meets us, God with us. When you're in a storm, it meets us, God with us. When the way is not clear, those words are precious, God with us. When...

This summer our son became married in Germany. We flew there and were hosted in the home of a woman maybe 75 year old who had recently lost her husband to illness. She herself was dealing with cancer. The treatments had already claimed all of her hair, so she wore a head covering the whole time. And shortly after we left, she went for a double mastectomy. What struck us about this woman, though sh...

What would you say if somebody were to ask you, "What's the pathway to God?" It's a big question. Does he even exist? In such a scientific age, if you can't see him, how would I find him? I wanna look at that today out of Zechariah 12, a pathway to God, a pathway to renewed relationship with God. The passage takes us down the long pipe of time until the very last days of plan...

How do you maintain hope when you have disappointment? Is it possible to have joy when you're surrounded by discouragement? How do you carry on when things don't go your way? One way to deal with it is not to get your hopes up. But that's not a great way to go through life. It's easy in those times to have doubts about God. I've met people who've been in leadership of churc...

By our house, there's a tailor. An elderly woman who works long hours. I was walking the dog at 9:30 last night and there she was on a Saturday night, not even watching the Blue Jays game, repairing clothes. What makes this woman amazing is that she totally runs against the tide of fast fashion or throwaway culture. She'll fix anything. And she takes delight in it. What I want to talk abou...

For a number of years, I have worked in the field of construction. And if there is a project that is falling behind schedule, there are ways in which you can get the work done quicker. For example, you can add more people, you can add more resources, or you can work longer hours. But when it comes to the work of the Lord, it can only be accomplished by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. God uses...

When God does a new thing, which is definitely what the book of Zechariah is all about, it's not just a desirable future. What makes it amazing is that he releases us from the grip of a painful past. The grip of things like guilt and shame. Guilt is black and white, either we're guilty or not. But shame isn't so straightforward. Maybe it's something we did. Maybe it's what othe...

I enjoy trains, train tracks, train stations, riding on trains. Things with trains are pretty straightforward and clear if there's just two tracks, one line. But the nearer to the city center, the more switches there are, so that you can have a dozen tracks side by side and move from one to the other. Some large trains can be 100 cars, but it just takes a little switch that moves 3 centimeters...

The expression "Prisoners of hope" comes out of the book of Zechariah. It means you can't escape hope. Usually imprisonment is a negative thing, but Zechariah talks about being prisoners of hope--no matter how trying times might be, to come back to hope again and again. There may be things we've waited for for a long time. The outlook gets a little depressing. How do you keep looking ahead with ho...

The title of the message this morning is "Reflecting Jesus Christ wherever we are". We're going to be looking at a time in the life of Daniel. And I believe that there are some guidelines which we can take from this time in the life of Daniel which can help us in reflecting the Lord Jesus Christ, wherever we are. In our homes, in our schools, in our workplaces, anywhere in the secula...

I think the church generally is remarkable. I love the church. But TAC is a remarkable church. People are involved in so many ways and are eager to do so. I asked five people to give testimonies, and all five said yes, no hesitation - though my list was much longer. I'm praying all the time, "Lord, bring workers for the harvest. Bring workers that are needed." But sometimes there are...

When our lives become overly complicated, it's often a call to get back to the basics. We recently had a wedding in our family. Any wedding is complicated. You have guests and a meal, details in the ceremony itself, a website. When it's an international wedding, even to get a marriage license, and all the people flying in, the whole thing can become quite complicated. As a pastor, I've...

What is your sign that summer is ending? For me, when I start hearing on the radio that little jingle, "let's go to the Ex", that is my signal that summer is coming to an end. Also, when I drive down the DVP and I start to see that orange and yellow coming out, I'm like, "ah, fall is coming." And before I know it, it's a sea of colour. So, what's my point? Fall...

Psalm 134

Our service comes from Psalm 133, a psalm about Christian community. When Bill gave me this psalm to speak from, I will be honest with you, I didn't get it. I haven't had the greatest experience in church. I've felt the clickiness, the cold shoulders. I have literally been pushed out of some circles. It felt like nobody wanted me around. It hurt, especially as a new believer. It left m...

Trivial Pursuit used to be a popular game that tested your ability to know trivia, useless facts about everything under the sun. Some people were very good at it, and I definitely was not. Have you ever seen the power of God change a life? Change your life? It is so far from trivial. That is what we desire. It's what people desire more than anything. Nobody likes to be dragged away down a path...

There's a lot of things that we find joy in. Last week, there was a car race here in the city. The indie is free. So I went there for a couple hours. I really love that. We have different things that we enjoy. But there is something that unites us, that gives us way more joy than any of those things, indie races or anything. It's the worship of God. It just tops it all. The more we know Go...

While preparing this message, I thought back to individuals in my life who have experienced great hardship in the form of opposition from people, where people have come and stood in their way and made life very hard for them. And yet, the same people are joyful and thankful, and they're resilient. It's an amazing thing. Knocked down but not knocked out. That's what I want to talk about...

I believe that the sin of pride is destroying the lives of so many people. And this sin has taken and will take many people to Hell. I'm not only speaking about those persons who do not know Jesus Christ. But Christians too. Pride is a very dangerous sin. The Bible tells us clearly that God hates pride. He loves humility. Humility is one of the marks of a person who is a follower of Jesus Chri...

You've probably never considered yourself a city builder. But the truth is that we all are, for good or for bad. We're walking through the fifteen Psalms of Ascents, meaning, they're going up. Every year the Jews went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They're going up to worship. Each of these Psalms introduces a different aspect of our journey. We're journeying through the seasons o...

We each desire that our lives be spent meaningfully. It frustrates us if it seems like our lives are pointless, if there's a season where we feel our wheels are spinning and we're not going anywhere but we're putting in a lot of effort. We desire to have focus and purpose, a meaningfulness. If there's ever a sense that we're doing something in vain, it frustrates us to the core...

There's a lot of people who like to restore things and lots of things that can be restored. You hear about people who restore phones, others who restore cars. Some like restoring houses, or leather or furniture. You can have somebody restore windows on your computer. There's all kinds of things that are sort of lost and can be restored, and some people really like to do that. But the thing...

In 2012, I lost my mother to cancer. And I remember being there in the hospital room with her during her last moments. I remember the look on her face. I remember the words she said to me before she passed. I had just started my 2nd year at the university back home. As I was putting the final touches on this message, I started to think about that time in my life. I asked myself this question: How...

What are the advantages to following God? I see a lot of people's struggle and sometimes fall away. Which is a real drag. The advantages of the world sometimes seem so great that it seems we should give up on God, but really, what are the advantages for those who trust God? If somebody were to put you in a corner and ask you that question, what would you say? There's a lot of places in the Bible w...