Toronto Alliance Church

Many of our stories have big chapters where we were mistreated, experiencing harshness, cruelty, spitefulness. It is difficult to shake off those experiences. I hear of people released from prison after they've been there a long time, 20-30 years, when evidence come to light showing their innocence. At the original hearing, a false witness swayed the jury. The Bible is full of such stories. Joseph...

Put the big rocks in the jar first. That's what Stephen Covey said. The jar is our time, it's our energy, it's our capacity. We try to fill the jar with sand and pebbles first, those things that are not as important but that can very easily fill our time. Later, we try to put the big rocks, those activities that are most important to our success, that really make our life count. But if we fill the...

In a world of drunk drivers, where people blow up airports, all the unexpected things in our lives, where do we find security and protection? When we bought our house, there were a lot of locks on the door. It really struck me. But then I learned that the woman who lived there had a son who was murdered. We have these issues that come in our hearts and we seek to fortify and protect ourselves from...

When I was young, one of my greatest fears was being misrepresented. If people were speaking lies about me or misrepresenting me, it hit something that was deeper in me than perhaps anything else. Then I entered pastoral ministry here in the heart of the city, only to find that I was face to face with that all the time. I want to begin from now till the end of June to walk through what's called th...

Why dare to believe in Jesus? The simple answer is because he is so worth it. But the Easter story, straightforward as it is, isn't always straightforward. Because, the disciples, who knew better than anybody, on Easter Sunday morning were full of doubt. Daring to believe takes courage because we have doubts. We have certain experiences in our life we don't know what to do with. And we have questi...

There are times maybe we feel like our lives are going nowhere. We might not know how we got there, but it's a very frustrating place to be. We feel stuck and there's little fruit or effectiveness. Nobody feels much passion about being there, right? It's a dark place. That's the context for Palm Sunday and our text today. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the praises of people who had s...

I remember growing up in a rural community seeing barn fires from time to time. You could see them from a great distance. The wood from these 200 year old structures is dry. When they catch fire, you can't hope to put them out. The firefighters focus on protecting the buildings around. People come from great distances because you can't help see the night sky lit up. They come to help, to d...

We are a people who live from the heart. Our generation is one that lives from the heart. Authenticity is very important to our culture, maybe it's the most important thing. And God teaches us to love him with our heart. But he also says to love him with all of our mind. He says to love him also with all of our soul. And to love him with all of our strength. I wanna talk about that here today....

Have you heard people ask, "Why doesn't God answer my prayers? How come God answer other people's prayers but not mine?" These questions are frustrating to people. How can we be people who experience God answering our prayers? In today's passage in the book of Mark, there are two stories back to back where Jesus asks the same question: "What do you want me to do for you?...

We walk down difficult roads. We each have our own own portion of hardship. They're paths of sacrifice and almost always beyond our ability. We find ourselves stretched beyond anything that we have known or experienced. Usually in those paths, there's no turning back. Let's say it's something in our family, which is actually what we're going to be looking at here today. When trouble comes right wi...

Some journeys that we go on are straightforward. For example, it was straightforward for me to get to church this morning. Some journeys are more complicated, like, my son is becoming married to a girl outside of Canada which poses a lot of complications. It'll happen, but the way there is complicated. Our journey with Jesus has complications in it. There are surprises along the way. In the Go...

Faith is not static, but a thing that grows. I don't think that's always how we think of faith. We think, "that person's got a lot of faith, and I don't have much". Or "that person has a lot of faith in this area, and I have faith in that area". But God means for our faith to grow in all the areas in our life, and for us to become more and more familiar with rec...

Faith in God is a powerful thing. Faith opens the way for God to act. God looks for it, God treasures it wherever it is found. But even as faith is such a powerful thing, so is unbelief. Unbelief shuts the way. Unbelief closes the door against God. As great faith amazes God, so does unbelief. I want to grow in faith. I want to develop my faith. I want to trust God more in areas where it's been...

I want to talk here today about fighting fear through faith. Faith is the opposite of fear, but storms tend to rattle us. As much as we talk about being people of faith, the reality of walking through a storm and living in a storm, the nature of a storm is that we're not in control. They're big bigger than us, they are unwelcome, they're powerful, they threaten us, and they fill us wit...

It's a privilege to serve God. But as we serve God, he draws us into assignments that are bigger than we are. God-sized assignments, much as it might make us feel uncomfortable at points. Strong faith, stronger faith, is required. This raises a question, can faith grow? Sometimes we think that faith is a static thing, that I'm given a certain portion of faith, and I know other people who have more...

Even though we're people of faith and we want to live lives of faith, our faith is always mixed with unbelief. It seems like faith and unbelief collide in us daily. We believe in the goodness and the sovereignty of God, yet our minds can sometimes be consumed with other things. For example, the bank account can make us depressed And make us despondent over an uncertain future. Or, though we know o...

God can do so much more than you and I. But the question is how do we access that? It would be simplest if he just went and did all the things that we know we'd love for him to do. Why doesn't he do all those things alone? The short answer is because he's looking for faith. He's looking for people who will trust him. Still there's something in us that says, I wish we could find a way around all th...

There are people in my life who live in the States and they give me access to the places where they stay. They are very nice places. They're gated communities where if your name is not on the list, you cannot enter. They say, "Michael, you can come with your family and stay here." Not only that, when I get there, there's stuff inside that's then free to me. I didn't pay for any of it. I walk in an...

When I was in university I joined an a-cappella choir. I don't remember a lot of the songs. But I remember one. It stood out to me at that time, and I've thought often of it. It was called the Peaceable Kingdom. The whole song was a quote from the prophet Isaiah. And it was all about the kingdom of God and the kingdom as it was yet to come. It had imagery in it that just captured my mind. That's w...

If you're a person of hope in these days, people think you delusional. How can you seriously feel hope? There's so many things that are difficult. But we are a people of hope. Our God is a God of hope. Over this Advent season, I want to strengthen that we are a people of hope and God calls us to be messengers of hope. The theme for this Advent is "Your Kingdom Come". Though Jesus talked about the...

Rev. Gerald Hogenbirk speaks on the power of selflessly serving Christ with our life. Extra Reading: Psalm 67 Preacher: Rev. Gerald Hogenbirk

What do you do when you face impossible circumstances, with the odds stacked against you? A threatening situation might strike fear in you, and maybe a lot of anxiety. It can be very discouraging. We tend to look at these situations entirely negatively, because they're stressful. They are something to be avoided. It's something to escape from. But seen from another point of view, maybe God is wish...

When you think of courageous people, who do you think of? Maybe someone who fought an illness, or who showed strength in danger, someone who confronted intimidation. Everybody feels fear but this person overcomes it and pushes through and did something. What about people who stood against some kind of evil? Who are the kind of people God uses in this world to overthrow evil? We think of some great...

Who are our friends? And does it matter? Try talking to your kids about that and you will realize that it's an issue that can make people defensive. We see it in others more than we see it ourselves. We see with our kids how much is at stake but I don't know if we see it with ourselves. These days we are walking through the book of 2 Chronicles and the life of Jehoshaphat. Today's message is title...