
Hosted by Kearney First UMC, NE · EN

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.