Toronto Alliance Church

How does one live faithful to God amid spiritual decline of a city or of a nation? How does that happen? Our world is changing, and we'd probably say that many of the changes aren't positive. I think that we'd say that too causes us concern. And so here in these next few weeks, I want to think through that with you and some of our small groups are going to further unpack it. We'll...

Today we hear from several people about ways they serve at TAC and then hear Pastor Bill Dyck talk about what's so special about the Church. "I love hearing those testimonies of people serving in the Church. That's what the church is. The church is Christ but it's people and it's through the very ordinary service and the giftedness of ordinary folks in the church. I want to as...

What is it that makes people marvel? In the Marvel movies we see amazing creatures doing all kinds of superhuman things that capture the imagination. What is it that makes you marvel? Like your jaw just drops, and it stops you right there, and fills you with with a sense of amazement? Jesus also spoke of what makes people marvel. I want to do that here today. This is the closure of our summer serm...

This is the 2nd last sermon in the series "The Bottom Line that Really Matters" where we are going through our denomination's statement of faith point by point, to be renewed and refreshed in the things that we affirm as true and really hold to and care about. I was reading a book by Dallas Willard called The Divine Conspiracy. In it, he talks about how ideas have effects that are no...

Following our convictions and truths shapes our journey, guiding our choices along our life's path, like an adventure. Our Christian walk is like an adventure too."Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan embodies this idea, depicting characters Christian and Christiana on a journey of faith, encountering challenges where they learn that following God's path is best. This summer we...

This summer we are doing a series called the Bottom Line that Matters, walking through our statement of faith. This morning, we'll talk about salvation. The point is that the ideas of salvation matters and has traction. I listen to a podcast where the host is a professor who's read a lot of Russian literature. He made an interesting comment, that Russian writers of past - Dostoevsky, Tolst...

Seems like nothing brings a person into sadness and despair like illness. There could be other things, but it ranks right there in the top. A person could be going on just fine and dandy. Everything's just going the way we always dream and hope until a doctor gives some really bad news and our future suddenly becomes uncertain. But nothing renews hope like the possibility of a cure. And if the...

When someone says "what makes you tick", usually they are asking what motivates or interests you. But I want to get at something a bit deeper. When you think about humanity, at what point does humanity thrive? How are we supposed to be? How are we supposed to function, where I'm doing what I should be doing, where I am what I'm supposed to be, where I feel alive and I am in the g...

Jeremiah 23: "Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks rock in pieces?" Hebrews 4: "The word of God is living, it's active, it is sharper than any double edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and mouth, discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart." Psalm 100 and 19: "The word of God is a lamp to...

On a long flight, a plane sets a course and doesn't veer much right or left but keeps going straight for many hours. But imagine that the plane sets off on a slightly wrong course. By the end it is in a completely wrong country. This summer we're talking about the bottom line that matters, walking through our church's statement of faith and what Christians hold to. But why does it matt...

We're going through a series this summer about our denomination's statement of faith. Some people think these things about theology can be kind of boring. But the things in our doctrinal statement as a church define how God has shown himself to us. We believe that worshiping God correctly makes a big difference on our lives as well as how we think about things, how we process things, how w...

On the news we see wars going on - soldiers, tanks, guns. There's another war too that is going on that's much more serious, a war over ideas, systems of thought and truth. It's a deadly battle. I'd like this summer to systematically go through our church's statement of faith. For some, that is exciting, but for others, it brings an immediate yawn. But the truth matters. Recent...

During the summer we often look for a place of rest and rebuilding of our souls. When I grew up on the farm, there were different seasons, but in the city it's always hyper drive. We need different seasons, and summer can provide a bit of a step back. When we think of a safe, rejuvenating place for summer, maybe a certain place comes to mind, a place devoid of certain stresses. Maybe we think...

A win, win situation is one where everybody is a winner. When you run a race, or in a tournament, there's only one winner, it's not a win win. But if your boss were to say to you, "from now on, you can do your job from home", it's a win win. The boss somehow feels that the job can still be done, and you can do it all day in your pyjamas. When we choose to be generous, it'...

There are certain laws that govern our existence. I haven't thought much about it since I was in University, but there's these four laws of thermodynamics. But whether or not I think about them, they still govern my existence. For example, the law of gravity. I wasn't anxious about it when I woke up this morning, whether when I hit the floor, I would float up to the ceiling. I don'...

I once travelled to a place where there's not enough power for everyone. They do rotating power outages every day but never at the same time of day. If the power is on, you charge your phone or computer, you run your dishwasher and hope it doesn't stop mid cycle. I've also lived in houses where there's not enough power coming to the house. The lights go dim, the fan slows down. We...

We have a lot of desires. In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul writes, "Earnestly desire spiritual gifts". Is this desire on our radar? Is this something that we hold in our hearts? How we feel about spiritual gifts can be all over the map. We might not stand in the way but we might not seek them either. Another response is, why bother with what can be the source of such division in the ch...

I was thinking, if you want to really bring hope to a person, start talking about divine healing and pray for them, so that even a measure of the burden of illness or affliction or heaviness is lifted and light comes to the eyes. It is the afflictions that come to our bodies or to our minds that weigh us down so much, and has all through human history. So when Jesus comes and is known as one who h...

In today's message I want to speak to a few questions we might have: what assignment does God have for me? Not for me, but for each of us. What assignment does God have for us? What's our place in the church? Where do we fit in? Sometimes we wonder about these things and they're practical questions. These days we are talking about how to make the most of our spiritual gifts. When we&#3...

When doing a task at home, there's usually a tool to make the job easier. For baking, there's measuring cups, mixers, knives, that make the job easier and more precise. For building, there are drills, saws, measuring devices, etc. When the church was born, God distributed to the church lots of tools previously unheard of, to each one who believes. The scriptures call these tools spiritual...

One thing I don't think we ever tire of is getting gifts. We like getting gifts, thoughtful gifts, carefully chosen gifts. We love it. And the greatest gift giver of all is God because his gifts are so, so well chosen, so well suited. His gifts are delightful. When Jesus was raised from the dead and went to heaven, the Father sent his Spirit to live in the hearts of all who would believe him....

As children, we dared each other to do rather unwise things. Things that were beyond what we felt we had capacity for. It was a means to push a person beyond what they felt comfortable. When it comes to faith in God, when some people come to faith in Jesus, they have been longing for years for an opportunity. But for others the way to faith is fraught with difficulties. Doubts rise, or really comp...

How does one lean into uncertainty and maybe even unpleasantness with confidence and with joy? On Palm Sunday we celebrate Jesus joyfully entering the city of Jerusalem on the praises of all kinds of people for all they have seen him do and the fresh things they have heard him speak. They're full of joy because they've never experienced anything like it. As Jesus rides in, they are probabl...

Sometimes you will find small dogs, puny even, weighing maybe 2lbs, that have a massive bark and intimidate deeply. Much bigger dogs back away just at the size of the bark. We too are easily intimidated by things that shouldn't. We don't realize the punch we have as people bound to Christ and the effect our prayers have. We don't realize that the very thing that strikes intimidation in...

Growing up, on the farm immediately adjacent to ours, a man raised and trained racing horses. I would wander to the back of our farm and watch these horses just go around the track he built. He always put blinders on the horses. As a kid I wondered why. Now I see they do it in the big races too and it's probably a good thing for horses because it keeps them focused. But I think we do that when...