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Middle School

Focused on Jesus

  • Lesson 6
  • Fall 2025
  • By: RLD Editorial Team
  • October 12, 2025
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Lesson Focus:

Look to Jesus and live.

Bible Basis:

Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-17

Materials Needed:

Step 1:

  • Internet access

Step 4:

  • Paper
  • Pens/pencils

Summary & Links:

As they explore fixing their eyes on Jesus, students will watch a video about surviving a shark attack to illustrate how looking at the right thing can save your life.

Memory Verse:

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
—Hebrews 12:2a

Step 1:

As they explore fixing their eyes on Jesus, students will watch a video about surviving a shark attack to illustrate how looking at the right thing can save your life.

Materials Needed:

  • Internet access
  • Have you heard of someone who had a “near death” or life-threatening experience? Tell us about it. (Answers will vary, but students may talk about an accident of someone they know or something they heard on the news or saw in a movie. Be prepared to get things going with a story of your own if no one has anything to share.)

Following a summer of increased shark attacks on swimmers, one man made a video offering advice for how swimmers can avoid and survive a shark attack. Let’s take a look.

Share the following video [0:53]: How to Survive a Shark Attack 

  • What tips for survival stood out to you from this video? (Accept all reasonable responses.) 
  • What are some things that would NOT help someone survive an attack? (Accept all reasonable responses.)
  • When you are scared or in a desperate situation, what are some things you tend to focus on that aren’t helpful? (Accept all reasonable answers.)

The fact that life is short and bad things can happen shouldn’t be scary if we’re focused on the right thing. For swimmers who encounter a shark, looking at the right thing and taking action could save their life. One time, when the Israelites were close to death in the desert, God instructed them to look at something specific to live. Let’s find out what that was!

Looking for Steps 2 & 3?

You can find Steps 2 and 3 in your teacher’s guide. To purchase a teacher’s guide, please visit: Bible-in-Life or Echoes.

Step 4:

Materials Needed:

  • Paper
  • Pens/pencils

If your class is meeting online, invite students to bring supplies with them to class.

As we saw in the earlier video, survival instincts in the case of a shark attack can save a swimmer’s life. But as humans, we have an even greater need than survival. We need the salvation that only comes from Jesus Christ.

Ask a volunteer to read Hebrews 12:2. When we look to Jesus, He not only offers us eternal life but the best life during our years on earth. If you have never made the decision to follow Jesus and trust in Him for salvation, I would love to talk to you about that after we close in prayer. Help with sharing the Gospel with this age group is found in your teacher’s guide.

Distribute supplies (or invite students to have them ready at home). Have students draw a line down and across the paper to create four quadrants (or they may fold their papers to create four equal sections). Encourage students to label each quadrant with an area of his or her life. (Examples: home, school, friends, hobbies, future, etc.) Urge them to use the back of their paper to create more space for categories if needed. Instruct your students to write “What would change if I fixed my eyes on Jesus …” at the top of their papers.

The idea of death can be scary, but Jesus offers us life. How would different areas of your life be impacted if you kept your eyes on Jesus? For example, perhaps you wouldn’t worry about your future, knowing that Jesus already knows all the details and will be faithful to carry out all He has planned for you! 

As students write, you might want to play this music video in the background [3:03]: Lauren Daigle – “Look Up Child” (Audio)

Give students a few moments to think and write their answers in each quadrant. Keep this paper in your Bible this week to remind you that looking to Jesus brings life. As you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, He will deepen your faith and help you discover the purposes He has for your life.

If time permits invite (but do not require) volunteers to share a few things they wrote down.

Close in prayer.

Spread the word

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