Toronto Alliance Church

Rev. John Cook speaks on the parable of the vineyard workers out of Matthew 20:1-16.

For many years we were part of a church in Northern British Columbia. One of the most memorable invitations I received was after moving away. The men in that church asked if I would speak at their retreat. I'd have to take a couple planes just to get there, then everybody would get on another plane and go as far north as planes go. Then several helicopters would take us as far north as helicopters...

Growing up, what I enjoyed most about Sundays is that we always had people over after church. I had a lot of fun on Sunday afternoons with all kinds of folks who came over from our church, both new people and regular people. When I moved away for college, I wasn't so much doing the inviting, but others from the church took me in. What I remember is not the food but their kindness, the warmth,...

Over the years, our church has, by the grace of God, seen many people turn to faith in Christ in the different things that we've done. And I think we're getting better at helping those people leave their patterns and other things and really truly walk with Christ, setting other things aside and just going on with Jesus. That's what the Lord Jesus gave for us to do. Those are his last w...

I want to talk today about the power of volunteering, working from an old Testament passage. It's about where God gives his people an important work to do. They're going to build the Tabernacle that will be a symbol of God's presence and the place on earth where His presence would be manifest. God is everywhere but his presence particularly was in and through the Tabernacle. And the wh...

I very much believe in the power of God. It can show up in any way, but one thing the Bible says that is interesting is that the power of God is made perfect in weakness. This is a huge invitation to us because we have weakness. We're all qualified for experiencing the power of God because we have a lot of weakness. But I also believe in the Church, which has weakness and is therefore qualifie...

This morning, we're gonna continue to look at first John. And one thing about first John is that John loves to talk about things over and over. Like in chapter three, John talks about love. And today in chapter four, which you just heard, is a lot of love and love and love. It's also about love. If I ask you to tell me your love story, you might tell me something like how I found my loved...

In 2023, Webster dictionary picked a word of the year. My hint is, when we scroll on social media and we look through all the pictures, do you ever wonder is that picture real or is that family truly that happy? Another thing that has come up with AI is, did that student really write that paper? Did I really prepare this sermon or did AI do it for me? With all of that, the 2023 word of the year is...

I was walking with two of my grandchildren recently, a boy and a girl. It had just rained. The girl is a little princess and the boy loves mud puddles. They were walking beside each other when the boy stomps in a deep mud puddle and soaks his sister almost up to her waist, which completely exasperated her and she cried out expressing her deepest frustration, trying to wipe the mud off. Well, he wa...

When I was a boy we heard that the Prime Minister of Canada was coming to our little town to make a speech to become re-elected. My dad took me along. The stage was the back of a truck. Everybody stood around and waited for his appearing. All at once a black limousine pulls up, and Pierre Elliott Trudeau stepped out and walked up the little stairs on the back of the truck. I don't remember a t...

Sometimes things get lost in translation. Once when my son was a boy he ordered hot chocolate at a nice coffee shop and somehow they heard "espresso", which was very disappointing for him. Another level of frustration is a DIY project where the instructions, guaranteed to be very simple, confuse you so much that you wonder if it's easier to just set them aside and figure it out yours...

We're going through a series in the letter of 1 John. It's a short letter, but it's a wonderful thing to walk through this series and familiarize ourselves with this book and what God has to say to us. All things in Scripture are old but speak fresh to us in our very lives right now. We're in the middle of chapter 2. It's a bit of an interruption in the argument in the letter....

How do you know that you know God? Some people think it's arrogant to even say that you could know God. But the scriptures teach that we can know him. Though Jesus said that there are people who, when they stand before him, even though they say, "we we did many mighty miracles in your name and we drove demons in your name," he'll look at them and say, "I never knew you at al...

Pastor Bill talks about how we can walk in the light. Preacher: Bill Dyck Extra Reading: Genesis 3:1-24

I want to talk about navigating the season of life, change and transition. I don't think we like change, though sometimes it's thrust upon us, like in times of sickness, job loss, or students graduating to the next phase. But God is in it. He is in change. I began thinking about transition when certain members of the church were facing big transition. Members of the congregation retiring a...

The movie Ford vs Ferrari is about a 24h grueling Le Mans car race that happens in Europe. At the time the movie takes place, Ferrari was the only car used because they were unbeatable. Ford was known for their family cars, but Mr Ford wanted to find his way into racing. Ford had their struggles. But the year came where they won. All three Ford cars made it to the finish, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. And whe...

A girl was given two loonies by her dad. He told her she could do anything she wanted with one, but the other was definitely to be given to God on Sunday at church. The girl nodded in agreement. She asked if she could go to the candy store with visions of all that she could buy with her dollar. She happily skipped toward the store holding tightly the two loonies. As she was skipping along, she tri...

I was raised in a home that modeled generosity. My mother had no income but developed a massive garden to be generous. My father was known for his generosity to neighbors and he gave faithfully financially to the Church, whether or not the farm made money. My father forgave a $50,000 debt I owed him to cover a down payment on a house. I was able to work off $5-7k of it, but we were raising 4 kids...

Pentecost Sunday message. Extra reading: Joel 2:28-32a Preacher: Bill Dyck

We are people who have received much from God. We've been forgiven of our sins. He gives us his Spirit. He gives us a new nature. He says, the old nature is gone and there's a new, divine nature that is given to us. He gives to us a holy calling to enter into his purposes, into works that we've been prepared in advance to do. For that, each one is given spiritual gifts, enabling us fro...

When I entered ministry, I didn't realize how dependent I was on God. I didn't realize how little I could affect any kind of change in anything. I didn't see how little love I had in my heart. I was detail oriented, able to manage many things, and had lots of capacity. But I didn't see how utterly ineffective I was at practically everything spiritually. The Scriptures talk about ho...

We spend a lot of energy, time and money becoming equipped for some skill. This is really important to do. We're glad that people have equipped themselves when we take our car to a mechanic or when we go to the hospital. We're glad that the doctor and nurses have equipped themselves. Anytime we get on the streetcar or the subway, we're glad the drivers know what they're doing. Ther...

We feel pretty ordinary. We feel too tired, we can't manage life as we'd like, especially in some of the secret places. We can't get all the strings tied up in our lives the way that we wish we could, we hate pain. But in the middle of it all, there is an extraordinary dimension because God invades our lives and it catches us by surprise. He graciously invades our lives and brings mean...