Kearney First UMC Podcasts

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt asks how do you remember things?  Do you use a calendar, sticky notes, strings, or another method?  How do you remember all that God has done for you?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen asks, "Where is your safe space?"  Is it a physical space, a person, or a memory? How does David’s honesty in pouring out his complaint before God reflect his relationship with God? In what ways can we relate to David’s feelings of loneliness and being “overwhelmed” in our own lives? How can we cultivate the same level of trust...

Welcome to our Monday Morning podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt explores a little bit of the story of David hiding from Saul and Psalm 14.  He asks if you have ever felt alone even though people may have been around you?  Are we honest with God when we feel isolated or abandoned?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt explores the feelings of God knowing everything.  When you were a kid, did news of what you had been up to get home before you did? Did your parents seem to know everything? Is the idea of God knowing everything comforting or discomforting to you and why? What are the differences between “knowing” and “controlling” everything, and...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt walks through Psalm 139 and asks, "Can we surprise God?"

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt asks what was the last thing you saw that brought you a sense of awe? What is the main point of Genesis 1?  Does thinking about or believing in God as creator ask anything of you as an individual or us as humans? If so, what?  If the interpretive trajectory of the sermon on Genesis 1 (and 2) is new or different to you, what other q...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen reads part of the creation story in Genesis 1.  She asks how we are taking time to be in creation and how we care for it.  She share a little bit about the upcoming sermon series that looks at the same themes our children explored during Vacation Bible School.

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen shares part of her calling story and how it is not always a straight forward path.  What does it mean to discern God’s calling when you feel like you already have your life all figured out? What ways might God be nudging- or yanking- you out of your comfort zone? What would be one easy way and one harder way to respond to God’s...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen shares about getting a call, but not wanting to answer it right away.  Have you had a calling like this? She shares how we are given many callings throughout our lives that may or may not come when we are ready for them.  There is no such thing as being too old, too settled, or too stuck in our ways to answer God's call.

Welcome to our Sunday sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen shares some of the stories of women who have been influential in her call to ministry and what each one instilled in her.  What barriers are keeping us from answering God's call on our lives?

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen shares a little bit about our upcoming series.  Each of us receive a call from God, how do you answer this call?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  Today, things were a little different from a regular Sunday.  Our Annual Conference finished this weekend and Pastors Matt and Jo Ellen along with a laity member, Michelle, share about their experiences during conference. They ask, are you watching for God's joy?  Will you share your joy?

Welcome to our Monday morning podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt invites us to pray Psalm 100 with observation. Praise does not spring from a delusion that things are better than they are, but rather from the human capacity for joy.  Are our prayer definitions too small if we think we can only pray one way?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt invites us to ponder these questions: There is a significantly mystical quality to how scripture and we speak of the Holy Spirit. Does this mysticism bring you freedom, frustration, joy, or something else? Why? How far, or in whom, does the Holy Spirit’s work and presence go, do you believe? Why do you believe this? What is a gift...

Welcome to our Monday Morning podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt reads through Psalm 46 and invites us to ponder a few questions.  When have we experienced God being a present help in times of trouble?  When have we experienced times of trouble and felt like God was not our refuge or strength?  In what ways does God end violence through Jesus?  In what ways might God through Jesus call us to e...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at a hard scripture for graduates today.  Life has lots of lemons.  Some are good lemons that we can make into lemonade, others are not so good that we may struggle with.  What do we do with our lemons?  Have there been times in your life when you did not know where your life was going? Ponder a time in life when the pat...

Welcome to our Monday Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen offers a prayer for all of our graduates from little preschoolers through to doctoral students.  She encourages all of us to live into God's Will and lean on God in all stages of our lives.

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt invites us to think of times when others have offered us advice.  Did you take that advice right away?  Did you think about it for a while? Did you ask others for their opinions? Pastor Matt challenges us to foster relationships of grace and humility with one another so we may discover God guiding us to whole and beautiful lives to...

Welcome to our Monday morning podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt asks how do we take Jesus' yoke upon us?  How do we learn from Him?  Do we trust Jesus to be gentle and humble in heart like He says He is?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen reminds us that God calls each of us by name.  When God speaks, do we listen?  Our confirmation students are a gift to our church and the world.  We are so proud of them and the steps they've made in their faith journey!  Pastor Jo Ellen shares some of the letters the confirmands have written reflecting on why they wanted to be...

Welcome to our Monday Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt asks, "How do we know the right thing or the truth when finding our calling? How do we know when we are finding our calling? Do we expect God to speak in only certain ways to us or for us?"

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast! In this sermon, Pastor Matt asks if you are someone who trusts GPS or do you use it as a suggestion? How do we know what we hear on the news or social media is true or not?  How do we know when we need to make a change in our lives?  When we need help, does our pride or cultural pressure get in the way of asking others for the help or advice we need?  How have...

Welcome to our Monday Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt looks at the first part of Ruth asks, "How have you experienced an unexpected kindness or protection?"

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt invites us to think about how we know what God wants for us to do, say, or be?  Do we really believe that God cares about our decisions?  How do we test spirits to know if they come from God?  Do we take the time to be reflective and seek the Lord rather than to be quick to act?

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen invites us to think of when we've had unexpected messengers tell us something that made us think.  In the book of Numbers, Balaam's donkey talked to him.  Pastor Jo Ellen shares ponderings she's heard from children.  Who or what have been unexpected messengers for you?