Kearney First UMC Podcasts

Life with the Shepherd: Preparing a Table

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? 

The Lost Paper

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.

Life with the Shepherd: For You Are With Me

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?" 

God's Care and Being a People of Caring

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?

Life with the Shepherd Breathing Us to Life

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.

God's Sustenance

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. 

Settling Down from Fear and Striving

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?

Tubing, Orientation, Disorientation, and Reorientation

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.

Life with the Shepherd: Beloved in the Wilderness

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. 

Psalm 23 and Lent

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.