Kearney First UMC Podcasts

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen reflects on Pastor Matt's sermon from Sunday.  She thinks about how quick children are to forgive and how Jesus provides an example on forgiveness.  Even before people said they were sorry, Jesus forgave.

Welcome to the Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at the story of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18.  He challenges us to put ourselves in Corrie Ten Boom's position. When approached by a former guard of the concentration camp she was held in asked for her forgiveness.... if you were in her position, would you have forgiven him?  Jesus shows us the kingdom of God is expe...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen shares about what a blessing children can be in our lives, both children who may be our own and children we interact with in society.  Children love and serve wholeheartedly, which may play into why Jesus calls us to follow Him like children.  Kindness is deep within the human soul that echos the compassionate goodness of God.

Welcome to our Sunday Morning Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at Matthew 18.  We are called to humility, to live as invitational witnesses of the Kingdom of God and to let go of pride.  Pride is focused on self, power, and creates division.  Humility is focused on others, that there is a place for everyone.  Be humble so others can see Jesus calling them through you.

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at Jesus' transfiguration and the story of the mustard seed.  She encourages us to ask questions and grow our faith using the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Read scripture as our base then use our reasoning, experiences, and traditions to guide our understanding.  God can take faith as small as a mustard seed and grow it exponentiall...

Welcome to our Sunday morning podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at Jesus' transfiguration.  She uses the example of butterflies to see Jesus' transfiguration as well as our own changes in our life journeys.  Sometimes, we are called to the mountaintop and sometimes we are called to lay low like a caterpillar in a cocoon.  Then we are called to fly.  Through each and every stage, God...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen shares a children's book that has a message we all need to hear from time to time.  God's love is everywhere.  No matter how big and loud or small and quiet life can be, God's love is there and always will be.

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at an exchange between Jesus, the pharisees, and the disciples.  Jesus says that what comes out of the mouth is what comes from the heart.  The seeds that God has not sown will be uprooted, but that which God has sown will grow.  We want what is planted in our hearts to be good.  How can we feed our hearts with good things?

Welcome to our Sunday sermon podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt looks at Jesus's interaction with the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15.  In this passage, we see lines that have been drawn and Jesus crossing them.  Have we seen any lines drawn in our lives?  Have we drawn our own lines?  Have we gotten too comfortable on the "right side/our side" of the line that we refuse to acknowledge the other...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt looks at Jesus intentionally taking time to be alone in Matthew 14 and the feeding of the 5000.  Taking time to be with God gives us space to be conduits through which God can and does work. Being still with God so that God's presence can become part of our presence with others. Have we been present enough to notice someone else's strug...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen explains that parables help us look forward to our "one day, someday" in Heaven.  The kingdom of Heaven is a great treasure to look forward to and we have a taste of now through living life with Jesus.

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt looks at the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of Yeast.  Both represent the Kingdom of Heaven and God's grace growing in and through us. Transformation takes time, but it does happen.

Welcome to the Sunday Sermon Podcast!  Please note, this sermon has a couple of audio corruption moments that we were unable to fix in editing. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at the parable of wheat and weeds.  Jesus didn't want us to wait to start living like Him.  "All who has ears, let them hear," includes us today!  What do you hear in...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt briefly talks about what a parable is from a literary genre perspective and reads the Parable of the Weeds from Matthew 13.  Matt invites us to think of the farmer in the story as God.  God knows how things will work out and has the patience to see things through.  God knows that we will grow.  God is active in our lives to draw out God...

Welcome to our Sunday morning Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt shares the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13.  Perhaps when you read or listen to this parable, you worry about what kinds of soil you are.  Matt invites us to take a step back and remember that this is the Parable of the Sower, not the Parable of the Soils.  Jesus shows us the shape of God's extravagantly generous and g...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13.  She makes note that you can read the parable literally or metaphorically, much like some stories in our lives.  How we tell our own stories of faith are sometimes told very literally while others have deeper or hidden meanings.  Having a community that we can share our stories with i...

Welcome to our Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Jen Gibbs invites us to take a look at the Sabbath.  Taking a Sabbath wasn't intended to be a luxury.  God declares that everyone and everything deserves rest.  Jen challenges us to go against he pressures of the world and take back time to rest rather than be pushed by society to always be busy.  Rather than seeing Sabbath as a burden in our...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen share some of her thoughts on Sabbath and how true the phase, "You don't know how much you need a Sabbath until you take one." really is.

Welcome to the Sunday Sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Jo Ellen looks at Jesus healing the bleeding woman and Jairus' daughter in Matthew 9.  As you listen, think about if you have ever needed healing.  In each of the stories shared in Matthew, no one earned Jesus' healings.  For some, they were coming to Jesus as a last resort.  It didn't matter how they came to Jesus, it mattered that the...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Matt looks at Matthew 8 which contains many stories of Jesus healing people.  He reflects on Jesus's identity as a healer and the nature of God's kingdom.

Welcome to our Sunday sermon podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at Matthew 7.  He comments that sometimes we see the Christian Life as a strict set of rules of "do this, don't do that."  In the sermon on the mount, there are a few rules and "do this, don't do that" examples, but as a whole, it is about living as a whole in society and how we treat others.  It is an introspective guide on...

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this episode, Pastor Jo Ellen shares a little bit about her time at the chautauqua in Ohio.  She reflects that we are all God's beloved.  There is no "us" or "them."  We are all loved and made whole in Jesus and we are called to seek God.

Welcome to our Sunday Morning Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt asks, "How do you define trust?"  We often see trust as transactional, but that's not the same with God.  God give with no strings attached.  We can trust in God who never gives up on us.

Welcome to our midweek podcast!  In this week's episode, Pastor Matt looks at the next section of Matthew 6 building off of his Sunday sermon.  The Sermon on the Mount includes Jesus' instructions to live His way and how to keep Jesus at the center of our lives.

Welcome to our Sunday Morning Podcast!  In this sermon, Pastor Matt looks at the next section of the Sermon on the Mount which contains the Lord's Prayer and a reordering on instructions when praying giving and fasting.  Through these reordered practices, Jesus invites us into the heart of God so that the holiness that God creates in us may be the spark that leads to our transformation and the wor...