Toronto Alliance Church

Larry Crabb was a Christian counselor whose career was to lead the way into Christian counseling. The question for him was always, "What do you do with an aching soul?"One day at 2 a.m., he had an insight. He woke up his wife, saying: "The deepest longings for significance and security in my clients are needs that God actually intended to meet through the community of believers, through the church."It radically impacted everything he did after that.He was going everywhere, opening up counseling practices and opening up seminaries. But this insight told him that most of those needs, that aching, is met in and through the church, through a community of believers who gather together.Today I will make a pitch for small groups here in our church. I will read from Ephesians 4.Extra reading: Psalm 133Preacher: Bill Dyck

I want to talk about rest. The city knows nothing of rest. And we sometimes get drawn into that, we get sucked right into the drivenness, the competition.God, no matter where we are, means to lead us into rest. In the beginning, He created for six days, and then the seventh He took rest. Which is amazing because God never gets tired. We've got to rethink what rest is. Rest is not just for when we're tired.I want to think about rest here today and about all the things that God gives us and wants to give us in that. They get robbed from us because we don't know how to rest. We've become as driven as the city. We push, just like everyone else.Exodus 16.Preacher: Bill Dyck

In my school growing up, we did a sport called orienteering. We were given a compass and a map, and we were thrown into a forest that we'd never been in, with certain markers that we had to navigate. It was a race to find all the markers through a heavy wooded area where the paths were not clear. I did well at it. I learned to trust my compass.Navigating a forest is one thing. Far more challenging is navigating our way through life with all of its dangers, risks, and complexities. We've never been this way, none of us. And there's much more at risk than just getting lost in the woods.I called the sermon "The Divine Compass." If we are to trust the divine compass, God must lead, and we must learn to trust Him. This is easier said than done. We see that in the passage we're looking at today as part of the series "The God Who Rescues."Extra reading: John 10:1-6Preacher: Bill Dyck

Throughout the Old Testament, we see portraits of God's redemptive work. And as we look at Exodus 12, we see a portrait of redemption.I have titled the message this morning "An Old Testament Portrait of Redemption."When we speak about redemption, we are speaking about buying something back that was lost. The word redeem means to buy back. And in the biblical context, the word redeem means to buy back or to ransom someone who is in bondage or slavery.As we look at these verses today, I would like for us to see six things as we look at this Old Testament portrait of the redemptive work which God did for the Israelites, as revealed in these verses.Extra reading: 1 Peter 1:13-21Preacher: Graeme Ramgobin

People get themselves into trouble, and are in need of freedom from something that holds them.And God is the One sets captives free. When God calls people to Himself and they want to follow, often there's another master that is controls their life and drags them down. That master must be dealt with before they can follow God freely.This week I met a middle-aged woman who up until two years ago had been addicted to heavy drugs. She wanted to go back and finish school, to work and to be a steady presence for her children. She wanted to follow God, but there was this other master.A couple of years ago, she dropped to her knees and cried out to God that He would come and set her free so she could live. She suddenly felt soaked - her head, face, clothes, everything. But her clothes looked completely dry. She realized, "It's the love of God." She let it washed over and through her till she was free of that master. In September, she'll be going to school. She's free, to live, to follow God.God does it, and he calls us into the same thing.Extra reading: Revelation 15:1-8Preacher: Bill Dyck