Kearney First UMC Podcasts

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen shares we are a people of practice.  We are called to new life in Christ that is shared with others. the effect of our faith should be evident ot others.  If you are on a sports team or play an instrument and you never practice, do you get better?  We need to practice our faith and being like Jesus. Please note, Jo Ellen's mic...

Welcome to our Monday podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen encourages to think about how we will live out our practices of faith in the new year.  Jesus calls us to live into our faith that is real, vital and growing.  Discipleship takes work and preparation, it's not a passive thing.

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt asks, "How are you growing like Jesus or closer to Jesus?  How are you 'growing up' in your salvation?"  Salvation is not a one and done event.  It is a lifelong journey that Jesus calls us to.

Welcome to our Monday Podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt share a little bit about the future of this podcast and the reason behind the change in the release date.  He asks, how can we live so that we might be most fully shaped by Jesus?  How are we following Jesus?

Welcome to our podcast!  This is our Christmas Eve service from 2025.  Pastor Matt looks at the Polar Express and ponders how hard it can be to believe.  The trouble isn't believing that Jesus was born, the trouble is believing Jesus' birth makes a livable difference in our lives.  At Christmas, God gives of God's self by giving us Jesus who is the light of the world who guides us to live in unity...

Merry Christmas!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen reads the Christmas Story from Luke 2 and shares a special Christmas blessing to you and yours.

Welcome to the Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and asks if we ever feel melancholy at Christmas time?  Of if Christmas has ever felt "not like Christmas" before?  God gives of God's self in Jesus to give us courage to live in the melancholy and uncertainty of life.  We are never alone, for God is always with us.

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen encourages us to think of how we show love.  Jesus is the greatest gift of love from God.  How can we share God's love with others?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen shares that Joy is not something we engineer, but something God gives us.  In today's reading, Isaiah tells about a release and restoration in community with God.  It is a song of hope and joy.  When we find relationship and family in God, we are released from the troubles of this world and restored in God's joy  Joy can found...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt says the season of Advent is a time of waiting, but what does waiting look like?  What are the practices that help us wait faithfully or through which God transforms us into the Kingdom Jesus is creating?

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  Pastor Matt begins this sermon with a brief history of what is going on when Isaiah writes today's passage and why Isaiah calls King Ahaz a stump.  Have you ever felt "Stump-ish?"  Have things ever not gone how you planned or as fruitful as you'd like?  Do you ever fell cut off from that which was once thriving?  Isaiah says a ruler is coming who will promote...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen invites us to ponder what hope looks like for us and for the world.  Jo Ellen prays that we look for the little bits of hope in everyday, no matter how small they may be.

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  This sermon begins our Advent series.  Pastor Jo Ellen shares that Advent is a time to prepare and hope for the promise of Jesus's birth.  One of our movie pairings this week was "Spirited" in which the main character learns that one small good thing a day can make a big difference towards a better world.  In "It's A Wonderful Life,"  the main character learn...

Happy Thanksgiving!  In this episode, Pastor Matt shares a little about the end of Matthew and a brief look at Advent.  The story of Jesus has always been rooted in God being with us always.  From the opening genealogy of Matthew that shows Jesus' lineage from Abraham (and the promise God would make him a nation that would impact the world), to Jesus's Great Commission to the disciples to go into...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at the disciples asking Jesus when the temple will be destroyed, what sign will there be for the coming of God's kingdom, and Jesus' response in the Parable of Sheep and Goats.  It is a parable of vision, showing what being a follower of Jesus looks like.  It is encouragement to have endurance of faith and to keep following J...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen shares a bit from the end of Matthew.  She encourages us to be thankful for Jesus promising to be with us to the end of the age.  We may have struggles in our lives, but how wonderful it is to have a God who walks with us.  At the end of this episode, Jo Ellen shares a breath prayer, a type of prayer that has two parts.  The first p...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jen Gibbs shares a little bit about what United Campus Ministries does and how it serves students.  She preaches on the Parables of the Talents  and challenges us to think about what we have been given.  God has entrusted us with many valuable talents.  How are we using them?  No matter how many or how few talents one may have, everyone...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen reflects on the importance of being church community outside the church walls and shares about upcoming events.  She asks "How would it change your life if you were to wait expectantly for the return of Christ?  What do you wait expectantly for?"

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at parts of Matthew 21 and 22 which is a collection of parables.  It is not enough just to know scripture in our heads and reason it, but to do something with it. Our words need action to back them up.  We can say to God's calling, but if we don't act on our words, they mean nothing.  How can we shape our lives like Jesus...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt looks at Jesus' instructions to His disciples to retrieve a donkey and Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.  In our lives, we may be called to do things that are uncomfortable or result in confrontation.  Jesus equips us to handle these situations.  We do not have to know exactly how the perfect prayer or devotion is said in order to answer Jes...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at Matthew 20:20-28.  Jesus flips the order of the world in the sense of power.  The world operates with "power over" and almost always turns to oppression, violence, abuse, and control that ignores or devalues the most vulnerable. We don't always see the subtle way power "power over" shapes our lives, hearts, relationships,...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt looks at Matthew 20:29-34 when the blind men call out to Jesus for healing.  How are we called to healing?  We may think that we can't heal others in the same way Jesus did, but being the means by which God begins to heal someone may be as simple as hearing and listening when someone calls out, then showing and acting with compassion to...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at the Parable of the Generous Vineyard Owner in Matthew 20.  In our western culture, we often finding ourselves comparing ourselves to others.  We look at the work we've done and easily take responsibility when things go well, but may just as easily shift blame away from us when things do not go well.  When someone is having...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt reflects on the recent Orders and Fellowship Gathering which was themed: Loving God by Addressing Christian Nationalism.  Matt shares some of the things he learned and offers some of the ponderings he is working through.  One of the points the speaker of the conference made was "When we fuse our Christian and American identities, it is...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at Matthew 19 and how Jesus interacts with children and the rich young man.  She poses the question, if you only had 2 minutes to grab what you treasure, who or what would you grab?  Jesus treasured children in a society that saw children as workers and property.  Jesus invited children to be right next to Him and blessed...