Kearney First UMC Podcasts

Welcome to our Monday podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen invites us to ponder things in our lives that are just, true, honorable, pure, and pleasing?  How can we think about these things more?

Happy Easter!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt invites us to ponder how do we know what is true?  We know the Easter story, but how do we know it is true?  What does the resurrection free you from today?  What is Christ calling us to today?  The resurrection is less about an intellectual knowing, than it is about God creating in us the space to wonder for the sake of knowing.

Welcome to our Monday Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt challenges us to change our expectations.  We tend to see what we expect to see and miss what is unexpected.  If we have an idea of what we expect Jesus to be, we may miss Him when He shows up.

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen shares that it takes courage to go where Jesus calls us to go.  We have a calling to share the good news and to be in community outside of our church building walls.  Do you know your neighbors?  God desires goodness and love, not perfection.  God seeks us out wherever we are.  Are you willing to be a neighbor?

Welcome to our Monday Morning podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen reads part of Matthew 21 and asks us to listen for where Jesus' pivotal moments in life might be.  As we approach Holy Week, where have the pivotal moments in your life and faith life been?  How have we seen God change us in God's light?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen shares about a recent mission trip to Kansas City.  She shares how one pastor cares for his community, and how shepherds in ancient times care for their sheep.  They would go to a grassy "table," clear it of weeds and snakes, anoint sheep with oil to protect them from bugs, and let them eat peacefully.  How are we like sheep? H...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast! In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen reflects on Psalm 23:5 and the passages leading up to Holy Week in Matthew.  She shares her ongoing struggle in losing the same piece of paper twice and how great her rejoicing will be when she finally finds it.  God searches relentlessly for us to bring us home.  God desires to set a table before us and to anoint us with oil...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at the life of David and asks us to ponder when we have walked through dark valleys.  How is our prayer life?  In our prayers, do we ever shift from talking to God in a third person "He" to a second person "You?" 

Welcome to the Monday Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt asks, "How does God's promise to seek and restore shape our understanding of care?"  As Pastor Matt reads a passage from Ezekiel, which verbs that describe what God does jump out at you?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen invites us to ponder who our shepherd is.  God desires we continue to thirst after what feeds our souls.  Jesus shows us how to be inclusive, to love, and to care for each other.  We are called to be community and to be led beside still waters.

Welcome to our Monday Morning podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen shares a bit more of Psalm 23.  She encourages us as we go through this season of Lent, to consider building a good habit of reading the Bible more or offering additional prayer.  Lent is often a season of giving up, but it could be a season of building up, too.  We should want to keep the good habits we build beyond Lent.  G...

Welcome to the Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt asks if we ever "feel like we are made to lie down in green pastures?"  Does it feel like we are being put in "time-out" by God?  What if this sense of God's absence or punishment is a lapse in translation?  The original greek work for "he makes me lie down down" actually means "to rest or settle down."  God is a shepherd who comes...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt shares a story from his time as a camp counselor and how it ties in with a passage from Isaiah.  God will be with us through everything.  God is still our God through the peace and through the trial.  This season of Lent is a time to embrace the movement from orientation to disorientation to reorientation and discover God indeed...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jen Gibbs looks at Psalm 23:1 and the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4.  Jesus is our good shepherd who knows His sheep by name.  We belong to the shepherd in three unique ways: we are created as objects of divine affection, we are purchased by Jesus' sacrifice, and we are cared for by God through the Holy Spirit.  God chooses us over a...

Welcome to our Monday Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen invites us to read Psalm 23.  She invites us to put ourselves in the scripture and reflect on where we have had valleys in our lives.  During this season of lent, Jo Ellen challenges us to read through Psalm 23 each day.

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at the transfiguration of Jesus.  There is something about being a the mountain top and looking out over the world that gives us a new perspective.  What perspective does seeing Jesus transfigured and raised give us?  How do we follow Jesus from the peak down the mountain?  How can we live in a way that lets Jesus' light shin...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt takes a look at a passage from 2 Corinthians and Exodus 34.  Both mention Moses veiling his face but for different reasons.  In Exodus, it is to cover his radiance after meeting with God.  In 2 Corinthians, Paul says it is to cover a fading glory.  Jesus' life and calling removes the veil of the old ways.  The movement of the Spi...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at the story of the rich young man and Jesus.  When told that he must give all he has away, the rich young man walks away from Jesus feeling sad.  What was he protecting or withholding from Jesus, or using as an excuse not to follow Jesus?  What things must change?  What things do we protect or hold back from Jesus?  Pastor M...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt reflects on the story of Zacchaeus using a read, see what jumps out, discuss or reflect, and read again method.  Do the same things stand out? What do we conclude from them?  Does something else stand out? Can we imagine what it was like at that point in history?  Can we feel the emotion of the crowds or individuals involved?  Wh...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen invites us to think about what it is to be a "Christian."  We were never meant to experience the Christian life alone.  It is meant to be spent together from times of grief to times of celebration.  The "Church" is a people, not a building.  We learn more about each other and God in community.  Our community and culture have a...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt invites us to think about our reflective practices.  When or where have we intentionally or accidentally discovered the created world declaring God's glory?  What was our response?  Do we cultivate time to reflect or do we keep busy with other things?  Do we act on our reflections and discoveries or do we keep them to ourselves?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen shares some statistics about the Bible and what it means to Christians.  Did you know it is one of the most purchased books yet one of the least read?  The Bible is a workbook.  It is something that you use, study, take notes on, and read over and over again.  It guides our beliefs and should shape our actions.  If what we focu...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen invites us to think of people who have demonstrated characteristics of graciousness, holiness, caring, and equipping in our lives.

Welcome to the Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at the ways we are called and marked by God.  Salvation includes living out Jesus' instructions.  That is why there is so much time dedicated to instruction on how to live in the gospels.  Being complete in love must include giving of ourselves.  To act on our values is an active choice we make.  The thing people need from th...

Welcome to our Monday Morning Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt asks, what is the good news we proclaim as church and followers of Jesus?  Is this good news to us and to others?  Do we all need to be doing the exact same thing to be living into the "good news?"  Is the "good news" we claim reflected in how we live our lives?