Kearney First UMC Podcasts

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 together.

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 confirmed.

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 you experienced God's confirming grace in relationship with others?

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?

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? How does God prepare our tables?  If feeding sheep that aren't exactly like us takes courage, are we willing to act on that courage or do we grumble when the shepherd goes after the lost one? 

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 and overflow our cups.

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.  God delights in providing for us and supplying our needs. God is our Good Shepherd who provides us with sustenance. 

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 to care for us.  The shepherd  frees the sheep from fear, tension, aggravations, and guides them to green pastures and calm waters that have been prepared in advance for the sheep.  How do we experience God shepherding us?

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 with us.

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 and over.  The words "I lack nothing" in Psalm 23:1 are not words of denial, they are words of trust. Dependence on God is not a weakness. 

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 shine in us?  How can we live in a way that meet others where they are and walk with them?

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 Spirit through the church eclipses the old ways.  In life, when do we cover our faces or hearts before Jesus and His teaching as a way of hiding ourselves from His glory, beauty, and challenging way?  When do we turn back to the Lord and remove our veils? With whom do we reflect the face of Christ?

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 Matt reminds us that God's grace is with us and we are to love the Lord our God with all that we have.  How often to we forget what "all" really means?    Jesus gives us the courage to stop protecting and holding back things of ourselves from him, so that we can follow him wholeheartedly.

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?  Why did the writer phrase it like that?

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 hand in shaping who we are and what we believe.  What do you surround yourself with?  How do we engage better as Church people in our community and culture?

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 focus on shapes us, what are you focused on?

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 the Church and from Christians is to see Jesus.  Do you live in a way that shows Christ?

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?

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 cuts out around the 23:11 mark.  We apologize for this inconvenience.

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 with God.  Belief isn't a mental exercise, it's a light that shapes our living.  Jesus, the light and life of God, persistently shows up before we feel we holy enough.  Grace comes before we are ready.  Belief isn't pretending that life is fine, it is choosing to live by the light that has already dawned.

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 in service and being present in our community.  Where is your joy?  

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 peace and uplift those in need.  God helps us re-center our vision onto a Holy and good leader, building a kingdom of peace in our midst.

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 learns the world is better with him in it.  The same can be said for you.  The promise of Christ gives us hope.  What are your hopes?

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 the world, tell all people the good news, and that Jesus will be with us until the end of the age, God will never leave us.

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 Jesus.  Jesus is the sign that God's kingdom has come and we are to continue to be Church for all people.

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 part is as you breathe in and the second part is as you breathe out.  "God, be my strength every morning...and save me in my distress."