Younger Student Option: The Whole World In His Hands

(10 minutes, easy set up)
Preview “The Whole World in His Hands” on page 8 of the Rootedstudent book OR download the “The Whole World in His Hands” activity sheet. Also provide pens.

Learning Goal: Students will learn that life-changing power is available to all people who put their hope in the gospel.

Say: The hope we have in the gospel, as God’s treasured people, is not just a promise that changes the way we see ourselves but also how we see the whole world. Direct students to turn to page 8, then ask for six volunteers to look up the six verses listed on the page. Ask a volunteer to read a verse, then prompt each person to answer the following question. Ask: What does each verse say about the world?

• Mark 8:36 (Possible answers: Nothing in this world is more valuable than a person’s soul. No amount of worldly success is worth losing our soul. Eternity with God in heaven is greater than anything this world has to offer. Sin is never worth it.)
• Galatians 3:22 (Everyone in the world is trapped in sin, so faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way for anyone in the world to be saved.)
• 1 John 2:2 (Jesus sacrificed His perfect life for the sins of the whole world in order to make a right relationship with God possible.)
• Matthew 24:14 (The gospel will be heard by every people group in the world before the end of time. When the gospel has reached every nation in the world, then Jesus will return to judge or save the world.)
• Zephaniah 1:18 (In the end, the whole world will be judged for its sin. Everything in the world is temporary because God will put an end to it all. Nothing in this world is worthy of the worship that only God deserves.)
• John 3:16 (God loves the world so much that He gave His only Son, and now anyone in the world who believes in Him will not suffer the judgment described in Zephaniah but will live eternally in heaven.)