Toronto Alliance Church

What do you do with the message of Easter the rest of the year, after the chocolate Easter eggs are gone? It's easy to blow past Easter and remain unchanged, easy to pack Easter into a box like we do Christmas decorations and wait till next April while our life settles into a routine. But Jesus means something very different from that. Imagine with if the Toronto Maple Leafs were to enter into...

There are times in our lives where it seems we ride on top of the waves, everything is going as it should. There are other times it's not so clear. Our feelings get hurt, we suffer disappointments, we get depressed. But the story that we want to look at here today, about the resurrection of Jesus, speaks to all who feel despondent and like life doesn't always pan out the way it should. May...

What was probably Winston Churchill's shortest speech went like this: "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never in nothing, great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never give in." And with that, he sat down. William Carey, the pioneer missionary to the modern missionary movement in the 17th century, said of his bio...

The songs we use during our service are chosen from the Christian Copyright License Incorporated database. As I was choosing the songs for today, I came across a song called "If I could win the lottery". That is quite real to us. We see how if we could come into a lot of money fast how many of our troubles would be solved. We are walking through the book of James and today's passage...

This morning I want to unpack a passage as we're walking through the book of James that I think is a passage for city dwellers. I grew up on the farm where our closest neighbor was a kilometre away but I've lived here in the city for many years. In the city, people make a lot of plans, they don't sit still, their calendars are full, they know where they want to go. There's clearly...

This week is our annual meeting and it gets me thinking about how God planted this church. He builds the church and keeps it going and he does it for a definite purpose. The question for us is how do we fulfill His purposes for us? And how do we thrive for a long time where God has put us? Much fruit has been born out of our church and God has done many things, but it's not just a past that we...

What's amazing the story of Joseph and his brothers is, there's the plans of man and then there's the plans of God. Joseph ends up ruling all of Egypt under Pharaoh, and his brothers end up coming to him and bowing down before him, the one that they sold. But Joseph is full of forgiveness for them because he's got a heavenly perspective. He says,"do not be distressed or angry...

There are a few words that were written on a tombstone in England. This is how it reads: "Beneath this stone, a lump of clay, lies Annabella Young who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue." Presumably May 24 is the day that she died. The tombstone reflects something of the struggle that we face in controlling our words, using our words for good purposes. Someone once asked, "...

We don't like things that are false. We don't like spam emails or calls. We don't like people trying to sell us things that are not the real thing. We don't like getting duped and we learn to be guarded because it seems like all those things are on the rise. I was thinking that that may be how many people in our world think and feel about the Church and about Christians in general....

Preacher: Andrew Hubbard Extra reading: Deuteronomy 16:18-20

Preacher: Bill Dyck Extra reading: Isaiah 55:6-13

I know a woman who got really sick and thought it was an issue with her stomach. It got so bad she had to go to the hospital. It turned out to be nothing serious and dissipated shortly after going to the hospital, but not before the doctors had taken all kinds of images. They found that everything was dissipating, but they said, "we see a couple spots on your lungs that you really should get...

We find ourselves sometimes in waiting rooms. What's interesting about the waiting room is that nobody is in a waiting room any longer than they have to be. Toronto General Hospital has a very nice waiting room, nice coaches, nice reading material. But nobody is in that waiting room one minute longer than they have to be. Nobody comes in from the streets and just sits there and reads the good...

We've been going through different themes through this year's advent Sundays. Today's theme is Peace. What comes to your mind, what issues, what situations are in need of peace? Where are you longing for peace? Today I will preach from Isaiah 9:1-7 on the things that make for peace. Extra reading: Luke 1:67-79 Preacher: Andrew Hubbard

I want to talk about good news. Good news is hard to find these days. There's big issues that everybody faces. Economic uncertainty, the reality of wars, and everybody feels it. People have to push a little harder through the messaging just to find good news. But everybody wants good news. Sometimes we're scraping the bottom of the barrel for good news. We get happy about Apple bringing ou...

People use the word "freedom" to describe many different things. The word "freedom" can be used when you find a better place to rent, or entering retirement. Children who grow up say that, or those fleeing persecuting government. It's a word that's used in many different ways. When you look at what God says about that word, though, our own description of "freedom&q...

God has created us for a purpose. We are created with something specific in mind. This is the last sermon in our series about living faithfully amid spiritual decline. In such an environment, thoughts of God's purpose for us aren't as common as doing what I want. But walking in the purposes of God, we do the greatest and most desirable things that we can with our life, bearing eternal frui...

We are going through a series on how to thrive as believer in a time of spiritual decline. We've been walking through the life of Elisha the prophet. It's really a time of decline and of great trouble in Israel. Israel at this time is split up into two parts. There is the South Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom, which in itself is already a really bad sign that there's division that has...

If there's one thing that would make a huge difference in our lives if we were to invest ourselves in it consistently, it is this the practice of worshiping God. Scripture commands us to worship. It says in Deuteronomy, "you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve." Today, I want to talk about the practical impact of a life that is devoted to worshiping God. Not...

There are certain qualities that are unique to God. No human possesses them. One is that he's present everywhere, all the time. That can never be said of anyone. He knows everything. That can never be said about anyone either. His power knows no limit. It's unique to God. He's eternal. He gives us eternity, but we have a definite beginning. He never had beginning. There are qualities t...

We live in a time of spiritual decline. Our nation is one, it seems, that wanders from God. But that doesn't mean that God stops working or that there aren't people eager to do his will. There's probably fewer of them, but they just stand out brighter, as bright lights against the dark backdrop. And God manifests his powers and his presence. God is still ruling, reigning, he's on t...

Much as we don't desire it, times of want come to us. In the last couple years, I've seen the need at our front door increasing. And many of us in the last year have changed where we shop, there are certain things we no longer buy or eat or do, because things are more expensive and the level of income hasn't changed. How do we live faithful to God in a season of financial want? How doe...

Some people feel that miracles are uncommon. I don't agree. I see a lot of miracles. I see God do a lot of extraordinary things. And in a day of spiritual decline, this is actually I think all the more so, the miracles become even more obvious. God doesn't change. Whatever the season we find ourselves in, God manifests himself to his people who follow him faithfully. I wanna think with you...

I called today's message "More than enough," focussing on how it is that God provides. He does that quite practically for what we at TAC do here in living in a city where things are more expensive all the time. The Bible says, "My God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory." Jesus teaches us to pray, "give us today our daily bread". We know G...

There's a saying in that comes out of scripture that reads, "Bad company corrupts good morals," or "Bad company corrupts good character". The thought behind it is for us to consider the company that we keep because there is an influence upon us and upon our character. Parents of course know this and have watched the effect of both great and not so great company on our kids....