Every Nation GTA | Church Toronto

We are creatures of desire, and so we must seek full fulfillment for our longings in the right place. In Psalm 63, the psalmists tough situation reveals his deep longing for God and it's captured by two seemingly opposite images that are key to understanding our longings. 

Sheila Thomson continues our Lent series by diving into Psalm 32, looking at how we are led to return to God (repentance). The Psalmist gives us a picture of the good life and the honest life, plus some good advice.

The Lenten season commemorates the time of testing Jesus experienced in the wilderness and that is where we begin in this message. Through Jesus experience, we are given a masterclass on the nature of temptation and its appeal to our primal impulses, and how to resist pursuing legitimate needs through illegitimate ways. 

This past Sunday we had a special guest Pavlo Lozynsky from Lviv, Ukraine share his “follow the call” story which resulted in his returning from Canada to his homeland. His church and ministry are now actively helping victims of war with practical needs and sharing the good news of the Gospel.

If you wear glasses you know the immediate difficultly you experience if you have lost them. Or similarly, if you have an out of date prescription the problem you have seeing clearly. But if you were born blind and then you are suddenly able to see, what would that be like? In this message, we look at the miracle of Jesus healing the blind man and the various responses that people had to this dramatic sign.

Life is filled with storms: financial, physical, emotional, spiritual, personal, global. Storms can blind our perspective and make us afraid. Yet, in this miraculous encounter with Jesus , we are reminded that although storms are inevitable, Jesus is Lord over the storm and is able to take us through the storm, whilst using the storm for our good.  

Maybe you've read or heard this story. One of the things we see as we encounter this miracle is God's ability to provide miraculously - multiplying a little & turning it into plenty. We see that when we bring something seemingly small to offer him, he can turn it into so much more.

Jesus encounter and miraculous healing of a man whod been lame for 38 years reveals much about how God loves us, and what we need if we too want to be made well. 

In our Western culture, we place a lot of faith in rationality, science and technology. Yet, for all the tremendous benefit they bring, the state of our world testifies that many problems are beyond our fixing. In this encounter with Jesus, we see the progression of the official's faith as he encounters his own hopeless situation. 

Perhaps one of the more well-known of Jesus miracles, it is intriguing that turning water into wine at a wedding in the small town of Cana is where Jesus chose to perform his first miracle. But it is packed with relevance for us today. 

In our final in person service for the year we light the fourth advent candle: the candle of love, sing Christmas Carols and Sheila Thomson shares Part 2 of our Christmas series Light in the Darkness. Jacob Moon also performs his original song Emmanuel.

This is literally a dark time of year with days shorter and nights longer in the winter months. Emotionally, many people struggle with the winter blues. Despite our advances as a society, our world still feels very dark. Scripture reveals that Christmas is about light breaking into darkness. The Christmas message acknowledges the darkness of our times, but in doing so, emphasizes the light and our yearning for it. 

Self-control is a virtue that can refer both to the strength to refrain from doing something that we shouldn't, but also to the strength of stepping up and acting when we should. In this final message in our Counterculture series, we look at how Christ makes self-control a very real possibility for us in regards to our desires and things we do. 

We can often over-value characteristics like strength, toughness and self-confidence, and see gentleness as weakness or timidity. Yet Jesus, despite his obvious power and status, describes himself as gentle and humble. This is what makes gentleness so countercultural in an oftentimes harsh world.  

Weve all felt the disappointment as weve witnessed political, business, sports or religious leaders “sell out” their core values and beliefs in compromise. Yet, if were honest, were guilty of compromise too. In this message, we look at the virtue of faithfulness as an expression of our love for God and others: what does it mean and how do we practice it in our daily lives?

When we are kind to others, what is our motive? Often we are kind not for the pure motive of helping an other, but so that we feel better about ourselves. But that is not the way God has shown His kindness to us. In this message we look at what it takes to really be kind and practical ways we can express that pure type of kindness to others.

In this message, guest speaker Gabe Bouch reminds us we cannot do what God has called us to do without the power of the Holy Spirit. So, how do we cooperate with the Holy Spirit?

Impatience is on the rise and it seems to bring out the worst in us. Resentment is often a signal of unmet expectation. In this message, we look at 4 ways Scripture talks about patience and how we can become more patient with others and within our circumstances. 

Though worry and anxiety are nothing new, in the past few years they seem to be on the rise in Canada and around the world. God's desire for us is that we would cast our cares on Him. So how do we live like this? How does peace  grow and flourish in our lives?

As we continue in our Counterculture series, we look at the virtue of joy being the disposition or inclination to see things from Gods perspective, and a weapon to combat despair. 

When Gods Spirit is active in our lives we can produce wonder attributes called the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness and self control. However, there is always a battle between other desires. In this message we look at how the fruit of love can overcome fear.

As we kick off our Fall teaching series, we dive deep into the countercultural way of life Jesus invites us into towards a life of true freedom, fulfillment and flourishing, the result of which bears fruit of God's transforming power in us. 

As we close out our REAL HOPE series, we look at the close and vital  relationship between faith, hope & love as well as what the key is to growing in them despite tough times. 

We all have some sort of issue facing us that seems unsurmountable -whether a health diagnosis, a relational family conflict, a workplace obstacle or perhaps a financial crisis. What do we do in the face of such real life challenges? In this message Pastor Bomi Roberson offers an inspiriting direct biblical response to give us real hope.

What do you do when life hits you hard and leaves you struggling? None of us is exempt from struggle or pain in our lives. But we don't need to walk alone. There is real comfort for your journey and real hope to be found in the world. In this message, we kick off a short series on hope: discovering real hope for the real world. 

Guest speaker Pastor Jon Owens from City of Lights church in Indianapolis brings this encouraging word on how God reveals Himself, meets our deepest needs, transforms us and then send us to help others.

As we close our summer series on the church, we turn to the words of Jesus specifically, and what he had to say about the church he would build. 

In this message on the practices of the early church we look at their devotion to prayer. Praying together - i.e., communal prayer - builds disciples, builds community, and builds unity.

As we continue in our series looking at what the early church was devoted to we see that day by day people were being added to the church. What made this group of followers of Jesus so attractive that people were willing to join even in the midst of severe persecution? What can we learn in our current context about how to have a winsome witness to those around us?

The early church was devoted to not only preach the gospel but to demonstrate it through practical ministry. The combination of preaching and demonstrating made an impact that even the Roman empire could not resist. In this message we look at three dimensions of sacrificial service that we can carry out today.

From the earliest days of the church, the practice of gathering together regularly for worship became a cornerstone of Christianity. In some nations today, the church gathering is declared illegal. Here in the West with our religious freedom, we dont face that threat and yet we see weekly worship decline steadily. What do we stand to lose if we dont see this as an important practice to build into our weekly rhythm?

In an age of increasing distraction, it becomes more important we devote ourselves to that which is good and true. In this message we look at the early churchs devotion to the words and teachings of Jesus in the hopes we too would devote ourselves to this practice. 

How many friends can you really have? In this message we look into the deep relationships that the early church shared with one another. Even Jesus had levels of relationships and we all need to understand these levels to thrive and flourish in life.

Devotion is a powerful act and what we devote ourselves to has a transforming affect on us. You could say, you become what you devoted yourself to, love or worship. In this first message in our summer series, ekklesia, we look at what the early church devoted themselves to then in order to consider what the church should devote herself to now.

Its amazing what can happen when the right person is in the right place at the right time serving the right purpose. This divine placement was evident in the Antioch church and went on to change the known world. What is your divine placement?

Despite Jesus being very clear to his followers that he wanted the gospel to go into every culture and to all people groups, the early church was still almost exclusively Jewish. That's why this story of the conversion of Cornelius and his household is so significant and a turning point, not just for Cornelius, but the entire mission of Jesus. 

Is anyone beyond the reach of God? In this message we look at the amazing transformation of Saul who was a persecutor of the early Christians. His story reminds us to never quit on people because God can reach and transform anyone.

As the Gospel continues to spread, the Spirit orchestrates an unlikely encounter that will transform the life of a man and take the Word of God to the ends of the earth.

The church scattered becomes the church on mission. Opposition leads to opportunity as God uses disruption to mobilize the entire church, not just a handful and the result is the movement of the gospel to new places and people. 

After a great start for the early church, Acts 8 records the devastation a certain Pharisee called Saul wreaks on the church in the wake of Stephen's execution. Will this persecution and scattering stop the message and mission of the church? How does the church react?

As we continue in our Moving Forward series as we regather and relaunch as a church, we look at the ways God has and will sustain, strengthen and support us despite whats happening around us. 

After looking at all Jesus accomplished on the cross over the past 5 weeks, we now look at the importance of getting this message out to the world. This week we look candidly at what hinders us from sharing this message of good news to those around us.

The resurrection of Jesus is more than a historical event or creedal proposition we affirm. It is personal and the basis for our hope: a living hope grounded in the past, focused on the future, and vital for the present. 

Crucifixion was scandalous and certainly not associated with anything celebratory or victorious for the victim. And yet, the early Christians came to see Christ crucified as the ultimate victory of God. How? For who? And what does it mean for us? 

As the earliest Christians came to retrospectively understand what was happening at the cross, they came to boast and glory in the cross as God's wisdom, power and Good News for all. In this message, we begin to unpack that good news, the significance of Jesus death and what it accomplished. 

Given what we know historically about the brutality, humiliation & scandal surrounding crucifixion, it seems strange that the very heart  of Christianity is the crucified Christ. In over 2000 years, no death has quite captured our attention like the crucifixion of Jesus. But what does it all mean? We kick off our Lenten series by looking at the scandal of the Cross. 

As our church begins to gather more freely and frequently as the restrictions from the pandemic ease, how can we make a greater kingdom impact? Two keys are suggested in this message: deeper relationships and practical ministry.

In part 3 of our sermon series on Mental & Emotional Health we look at how our past has profoundly shaped our present (for good and bad), but it does not have to determine our future. God invites us to rewrite our story that aligns more with his redemptive truth and grace made available to us through Jesus. Checkout some helpful resources as part of this My Story series here.   

In part two of our annual sermon series on mental and emotional health we look at how the broken story that we view others and the world with causes us emotional pain. The inner story in childhood that once helped us, now hinders. But there is hope as we move towards a truer story based on the reality of God's world and Christ's work – yes a world with brokenness – but also one of redemption and hope! Checkout some