Talk

Confidence in a World Full of Chaos

Ben Stuart
March, 7, 2021

How can we be confident, competent people during an increasingly anxious day?

Continuing in our collection, Above All Earthly Powers, Ben Stuart teaches us the importance of having a firm foundation that’s rooted and established in Christ and how that will help us navigate a chaotic world.

Key Takeaway

Paul is encouraging the church to be a competent and confident community full of courageous people. This community is informed, so they are stable, which appeals to a chaotic world. Everything we need we have in Christ and people take notice.

The key text is Colossians 2:1-12.

  1. Struggle. Colossians 2:1-3

    • The Greek word for struggle is agon, which is where we get the word agony. Paul is conveying that he is toiling and contending for them. These are the things he is fighting for them on...

    • to encourage their hearts

    • to be in the community and knit together. If you want to be a courageous person, you need to be in the community.

    • to reach full knowledge and be competent.

    • Paul is trying to create a competent and confident community that encourages courageous people. They are stable because they are informed.

    • What people long for is hidden and rooted in Christ. The fullness of wisdom and knowledge is in Him.

  2. Strategy. Colossians 2:4-7

    • How do we have a competent community in Christ? Paul says to walk in Him. How do we walk in Him? By receiving Him. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 talks about receiving the Gospel.

    • 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 talks about communion and how Jesus's body is broken and His blood is poured out for us, and we receive it. So the same way you received Him, walk in Him. You choose to walk in Him. We received Him as Lord, and we walk with Him as Lord. Being Lord is a very big deal. He always gets your "yes". Saying "No, Lord." is an oxymoron. If I claim to have access to the Lord Almighty, it should impact my life. The world expects to see this.

    • The word "walk" means to "walk around in Him," meaning He is with you at all times. You can't leave Him behind wherever you don't want to abide by Him.

    • In Chapter 1, Paul prayed for the outcomes. In Chapter 2, He preaches the inputs. He is praying that you bear fruit, but you have to be rooted. There are things we have no control over, the fruit is of the Lord, but we have to choose to be rooted. Colossians 2:7 gives us four ways to walk in Him.

      • Rooted- get solid fundamentals of the faith, choose to be in the Word, and let it change your life. Know the ins and outs of Jesus, His life, death, burial, and resurrection.

      • Built up in Him- solid, reinforced

      • Established in the faith- add knowledge and understanding. You don't get a base in Christ and then go somewhere else for your sexual ethic, finances, or worth and value.

      • Abounding in thankfulness- you're so filled up in Him that it changes the way you interact with others

  3. Seduction is all around us. Colossians 2:8

    • People and things are constantly trying to knock you off base. We are longing for fulfillment, and Paul is warning them not to look anywhere else. In Him, the fullness of the Deity is in Jesus, and we are in Him. That's where we are going to be full as well. There's nothing over your life that He is not over.

“
"Whatever you need, you already have in Jesus."
”
Ben Stuart

Discussion Questions

  1. How do you handle an anxious day?

  2. Why did Paul use the words "struggle" (ESV) and "contend" (NIV) in Colossians 2:1? What is he trying to convey?

  3. What were the three things Paul was fighting for on their behalf? What is he trying to create?

  4. How do we have a competent community in Christ?

  5. In the same way we received Jesus, we walk in Him. How does 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 and 15:1-4 support this idea of receiving?

  6. Ben made references to cell phone usage as being something that we use to justify being uncivil towards each other or for validation of a kind of life we want to live. Knowing that "walk" in this passage means "to walk around in Him," in what ways are we forsaking what God has called us to when we use technology in this way?

  7. Read Colossians 2:7. What are the four ways we can walk in Christ?

  8. Have you ever been tempted to leave Jesus behind because you wanted to do things your way? How is that demeaning Christ's Lordship over your life?

  9. As the world is chaotic around you, what is something in Christians that causes them to stop and pay attention?

  10. How does Colossians 2:9-12 encourage you in who you are in Christ?

Scripture References

1I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.
2My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,
3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
5For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,
7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
10and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
11In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ,
12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

On Denying the Incarnation

1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

God’s Love and Ours

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,
24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,
“This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
1Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Ben Stuart
Ben Stuart
Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.