Doubting Disciple
Items needed: None
Note: You might want to talk to a couple of people in the congregation and let them be ready to talk about something that Jesus has done for them.
- Minister
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Well, good morning.
- Children
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Good morning.
- Minister
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Oh. That wasn’t very excited. Let’s hear that again.
- Children
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Good morning.
- Minister
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Oh, much better. Thank you so much. I want to see if you remember the name of the man that got to baptize Jesus. Say it out loud if you know it.
- Children
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John the Baptist.
- Minister
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That’s right. Not only did he get to baptize Jesus, he heard God’s voice come from heaven and say, “This is my son whom I am well pleased.” You would think somebody like John the Baptist would live his days always being a true and faithful believer. He did, but there are some questions that he had one time. You know what? He would go about preaching and doing the things that he was supposed to do, but 1 time he told this king, he said, “Hey, King, I’m sorry, but you are doing the wrong thing right now.”
The king got mad at him, and you know what the king did? He put him in ... What do you think?
- Children
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Jail.
- Minister
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He put him in jail. I think you’ve probably seen pictures of people in jail, haven’t you?
- Children
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Yeah.
- Minister
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You know they’re like in this one little room. There’s nobody to talk to. Maybe you can’t move around very much. You can’t see the sunshine. John was in that jail cell for probably about 2 years is what I read. He started having some thoughts about, “Did I really hear God’s voice coming out of the Heaven’s? I don’t know. I just don’t know. Maybe it was just ... I don’t know if it was true or not.” One time a couple of the disciples came and visited John in jail.
John said, “Hey. I’m just having some doubts here. Will you go tell Jesus ... Will you go ask him is he really the one that we should look for, or is there somebody else?” The disciples went, and they found Jesus. Jesus when he heard this, didn’t get angry. He didn’t get mad and say, “How dare John for not believing.” What he did was, he said, “Listen guys. You go back and tell John exactly what you’ve seen. You’ve seen my touch people, and you’ve seen them get up off their sick beds.”
“You’ve seen me touch someone’s eyes. You’ve seen them go from being blind to having sight. You’ve seen my raise someone from the dead. Go tell John that.” They did. John was so happy to hear that his doubts were just not really anything that he should worry about. Sometimes when we are going through hard times, hearing stories from somebody else is a good thing because it makes our faith get stronger.
I want you to go with me when I do this because I’m afraid they might hurt me if y’all don’t go with me. Y’all stand up, and I want you to go with me, and I would like to see if there’s anybody that would just stand up and tell us a couple of sentences about what God has done for you. I’ll start. I’ll go first. When I was your age, I didn’t have a mom and daddy that would take me to church, but I did have a church right down the road from me.
They cared enough about me to come and pick me up and take me home every Sunday. That was a really good thing. Anybody want to share something about what God has done for you? Now come on. Oh, thank you, Miss Kathy. Y’all come on. Come on.
- Kathy
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God has cured me of cancer. When I was young, and I was very lonely, and I needed somebody to love me, God sent me my husband, and he loved me for 30 years.
- Minister
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Thank you, disciple. Anybody else want to share a story just maybe 1 more. Miss Julie?
- Julie
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Kind of like that. About 3 years ago when my mother was diagnosed with cancer, God saw our entire family through it, and here recently God has blessed me and Mr. Mike with a baby.
- Minister
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Thank you, Miss Julie. Anybody else just burning, got a burning desire to witness to these students, these children? Yes, ma’am.
- Speaker 5
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Hi, like you my parents didn’t take me to church. We had wonderful neighbors, and they took me to church, and I was in the 1st grade and I can remember that lesson because the teacher had a easel like, and she put up the bible story people on that scene. I can remember that scene to this day. You can’t keep me out of church afterwards.
- Minister
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Thank you. Kids, you know what, someday ... Y’all looking at me right here? One day maybe this week something bad might happen or you might have something that’s not too good that happens at school, and you might have questions about is God really listening to my prayers? You know what. If you go to any of these people out here, they’ll be willing to help talk you through it and tell you stories about what God has done in their lives. Right congregation?
- Congregation
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Right.
- Minister
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All right. Let’s have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much. (children echo) For others that tell us their stories. Amen.