1 Timothy 6:10 – “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

Money is amoral, but the love of money isn’t.  This is poignantly  seen in a survey of people asking what they would do for $10 million.

• Would abandon their entire family (25%)
• Would abandon their church (25%)
• Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
• Would give up their American citizenship (16%)
• Would leave their spouses (16%)
• Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
• Would kill a stranger (7%)
• Would put their children up for adoption (3%)

So what should our attitude toward money be?  Listen as Shane continues his series of messages on James, at Grace Evangelical Free Church, looking at James 5:1-6.

Presumptions can get us into trouble can’t they?  James deals with the sin of presumptuousness, in James 4:13-17, which comes from a wrong understanding of ourselves, in relation to our own lives and ambitions.

That can certainly get us into trouble.  We assure ourselves that time is on our side and at our disposal.  We make our plans as if personal ability and the profit motive were the only issues to take into account.  We often overlook our own frailty.

Listen as Shane Vander Hart explains from James the danger that is involved in making presumptions.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin, (James 4:13-17).

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It seems like we live in a world that is full of conflict.  From the family members and local disputes to international disputes and wars.  We even have conflict within the Church over things as important as doctrine and as petty as carpet color.

How do we exercise wisdom in the midst of all of this?  Listen as Shane Vander Hart unpacks James 4:1-12 in his series on the Book of James at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Indianola.  The Apostle James gives instruction on the cause and cure of conflict in our lives.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:1-12, ESV)

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We have a lot of knowledge at our fingertips.  The total amount of information at our disposal doubles every four years.  Our world has plenty of knowledge and education, but it doesn’t necessarily bring along wisdom.

Shane Vander Hart continuing his series in James at Grace Evangelical Free Church looks what James has to say about wisdom that is required in the life of the believer to see God’s purpose to be worked out in the midst of trials we face.

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Communication is expressing how we feel and what we think, yet it is increasingly difficult to communicate in such a way that our speech honors the Lord. What we say and how we say it can either have a tremendously positive effect or a tremendously negative effect.

Words are powerful.

That uncontrollable force in many of our lives is the focus of James 3:1-12 as Shane Vander Hart continues his series in James at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Indianola, IA.

*Just a note, there were technical difficulties the Sunday Shane’s message on “Real Faith” – James 2:14-26 was given and that is why it is being skipped over.  Sorry!

When we think of bigotry and prejudice we often think of race, but it takes other subtle forms as well.  A subtle prejudice of younger people toward the elderly.  Adults being prejudice toward teenagers.  We see doctrinal divisions over non-fundamentals of the faith.  Even with musical preferences!  We all have our personal preferences about who we are comfortable being around.  The early church was no different.

Shane Vander Hart in his third message in his series on James, shares James’ warning concerning partiality.  After exhorting the church to be doers of the word, James exposes the hypocrisy of those who say they are, but still discriminate against those who are downtrodden – the poor among them.  We still see this in the church today as well.

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Shane Vander Hart continues in his series in James at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Indianola, IA.  Often times believers stop at simply hearing and reading God’s Word, but we are to do much more than that.  We are to put it into practice – to be doers of God’s Word.

Listen as Shane shares about how God’s life-giving word can transform our lives when put into practice.

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Shane Vander Hart kicks off a new series in James, at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Indianola, by looking at something that we’ll all face at some point in our lives – trials.  They may be financial, they could be health related, perhaps relational in nature, or even include persecution.  James says something very peculiar regarding trails – “Count it all joy… when (we) meet trials of various kinds,” (James 1:2, ESV).  Why would he say that?  Isn’t that impossible to do, especially when we are often dead set on avoiding trials?

Listen to find out.  Don’t forget that you can subscribe to this podcast to listen to it using iTunes or another podcatcher.

“Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost, but now I’m found.  Was blind, but now I see.”

The first verse from the best known hymn of all time, but do we really understand how amazing God’s grace really is?

Listen as Shane Vander Hart teaches on the grace of God as he continues in his attributes of God series at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Indianola, IA.

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Continuing with the attributes of God series at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Indianola, this message deals with a well know attribute of God – His love.  God’s love should prompt us to worship and serve Him.  His love is fully demonstrated through Jesus’ sacrifice.

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