Toronto Alliance Church

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...

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...