C.H. Qualls

HOPE

1.16.13

Priorities

Opening Questions

  • What are my priorities?
  • Do I have my priorities in the correct order?
  • Which of my priorities do I need to move around?
  • What is God’s order of priorities for a middle/high school student?
  • How can I keep my priorities in order?

God’s order of Priorities for a middle/high school student

1.)Relationship with God

  1. How often do you have a Quiet time
  2. How often do you attend church events?
  3. What is your ministry?
  4. Who are you witnessing to?

2.)Your view of yourself

  1. Do you have a healthy self image?
  2. When you see yourself, do you see Christ or yourself?
  3. If you are a Christ follower:
  4. Galatians 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
  5. Are you good or bad?
  6. Are you a hypocrite or are you “all in”?
  7. Are you happy with what you look like?
  8. Remember, you are made in the image of God:
  9. Gen 1:27 - So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

3.)Relationship with family

  1. Honor your parents:
  2. Exodus 20:12 - Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
  3. Matthew 19:19 - Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.' "
  4. Take care of your siblings
  5. Get along with relatives

4.)Relationship with friends

  1. Do you have real friends?
  2. Proverbs 17:17 - A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
  3. Do your friends pick you up or bring you down?
  4. Proverbs 22:24 - Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered,
  5. Ecc. 4:10 - If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
  6. Do you need to get rid of old friends and make new ones?

5.)Academics

  1. Give it your all
  2. I Cor. 9:24 - Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
  3. Make sure that you study, Don’t use the God abuse card

6.)Extra curricular activity (choir, sports, band, ROTC)

  1. Play for His glory, not your own
  2. I Cor. 9:25-27 - Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

7.)Job

  1. Unless you have to, never work over 15 hrs while in high school

8.)Dating Relationship

  1. Remain sexually pure
  2. I Cor. 6:18 - Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body
  3. Love your partner like a sister or brother

God’s list of Disciplines that help develop our priorities

  • Silence
  • Psalm 37:7 - Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
  • Psalm 46:10 - Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
  • Prayer
  • Matthew 6:5-15
  • Fasting
  • Matthew 6:16-18
  • giving
  • Financial
  • Malachi 3:10
  • Less Fortunate
  • Matthew 6:1-4

How can I keep my priorities in order?

1.) Get an accountability partner

  • Ecc. 4:12 - Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Small Group Activities

  • Have students list their top 10 priorities
  • Have them do a God’s top five list
  • Then have them do a world’s view top five list