Week 10: WISDOM AND INSECURITY

 

If you would like to print this study, or have trouble viewing it on your screen, you can download the Microsoft Word document below.

 

On Sunday at church Leon preached on what “Wisdom Wants to Say to Our Insecurity”. Please make sure you have watched Sunday’s sermon before Community Group.

 
 

Read this overview

It may be counterintuitive, but according to the Bible, insecurity is what Paul calls “confidence in the flesh.” But how does it make sense that insecurity and confidence can be related? 

Every coin has two sides. On the top side, confidence in the flesh is the self-assurance that comes from possessing those attributes that supposedly determine worthiness. But the bottom side of the coin is just as dangerous: the insecurity that comes from not possessing them. In both cases, we place our confidence in personal attributes we think bring life. God’s wisdom on insecurity is not for us to pursue validation and approval in the things we do, but to TRUST in the Lord and discover . . . the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Begin with silence and prayer 

[5 minutes]

Sit down, get comfortable and ask someone to pray aloud for the study.

Then spend a few minutes in silence. Ask God to help us remove distractions from our minds, listen to what He is saying to and through each of us and change our lives accordingly.

 

DEBRIEF

Reflect on last week’s study application (smaller groups)

[10 minutes]

Last week Travis had us thinking about the complexity/impossibility of taming the tongue. We saw that there is a vital partnership with the Holy Spirit if we are to see any transformation. “It is the Spirit who can enable us to tame our tongues when we cannot grasp control for ourselves.” 

We then thought about 4 places to apply this thinking:

  1. Nurture godliness rather than selfish ambition. 

  2. Pray that God would give you an awareness of your words. 

  3. Redirect negativity, sarcasm and complaining into confession and gratitude.

  4. Practice speaking words that build up, encourage and comfort. 

It’s time now to check in with one another. Talk about what you discovered this week.

 

You might like to reflect on some of Travis’ suggestions in last week’s study

  •  Set aside time each day (or during the week) to connect with Jesus. You can do this by reading his Word, through prayer, through a conversation with a brother or sister in Christ, through quite reflection, 

  • Pray before and after conversations you had. Ask God to reveal to you if they were encouraging or destructive, helpful or harmful? Pray God draw things to your mind that you make work on and change.

  • If you are feeling upset, frustrated, angry, hurt, cry out to God. 

Find someone who needs encouragement and encourage them!

 

DEEP DIVE

Open to the Bible together (whole group)

[15 minutes]

Have somebody read the following text: 

  • Philippians 3:1-9

Talk about the following questions: 

  1. Paul is concerned about seemingly godly people who are instructing the believers in Philippi that they need to observe certain practices [like circumcision] in order to be right with God. This is a performance-based salvation narrative. What is the connection between this issue and the topic of insecurity?

  2. In what ways do we do similar things still? As a group form up a list of the ways that performance can inform your thinking about yourself.

  3. In v7 Paul talks about ‘considering everything a loss’ – What do you think this looks like in reality? What would this kind of thinking look like applied to your family, friends, work, recreation  . . . ?

  4. “Paul tells us to abandon finding our worth in anything other than Christ and his redemptive work on our behalf. Privately cycling through another round of self-derision cannot be compared to abandoning ourselves to the service of others. The weariness of continual grumbling cannot be compared to the gain of godly contentment. The fickle admiration of people cannot be compared to the hearty approval of the Almighty. The wobbly confidence we maintain in ourselves cannot be compared to the surpassing worth of confidence in Christ.”

a.     What stops you from letting go of your insecurities and grounding your identity in Christ?

b.     Repeatedly Paul uses the word ‘consider’ [beginning of v7, beginning and end of v8]. Why is ‘considering’ so important? What do you think it looked like in his day to day experience?

 

DISCIPLESHIP

Application for the coming week: 

[5 minutes]

Insecurity might not feel good to us, but there is a deeper problem with insecurity that may well reflect something sinful.

Think about these four possibilities:

1.     Insecurity & our Distraction with Self

Insecurity mucks up our ability to do what God made us to do: love him and others. How many times have you been in a situation where you should have offered care to someone or approached God privately in prayer, but your mind is slogging through another round of how awkward you look in your flanno that morning or how much smarter the person you’re talking to is? Being self-conscious is being conscious of self. We are not loving others when we are obsessing with ourselves; we are not in humility counting them as more significant and more worthy (Phil. 2:3).

2.     Insecurity & Dissatisfaction with God

Insecurity is often nothing more than grumbling for better manna. We are sick of adequate nourishment; we want extraordinary flavour. We don’t like what God has given—money, position, appearance, personality—and we grumble for something better. Such discontentment is a snare of “many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim. 6:9). Insecurity is not sin primarily because it is an insult to our value (though it is), but because it is an insult to God’s wisdom.

3.     Insecurity & our Justification from Others

Insecurity reveals that we long for justification before people more than before God. We care more about the attributes we think make us worthy before people than we do about what makes us worthy before the Almighty. Righteousness is what pleases the Lord. But we would rather have an enviable reputation.

4.     Insecurity & our Justification by Works

Insecurity shows that we are still in some way believing that our justification is based upon our own attributes and accomplishments. Most of us are not tempted to think ourselves worthy because we are of the tribe of Benjamin, but we may wish we at least had a better career, more impressive children, another degree behind our name. But finding confidence in those things is a direct rival to finding confidence in Christ.

Are there things that this list identifies that you need to repent over?

Work through these discussion questions: 

[10 minutes]

READ Philippians 4:4-9

1.     Paul’s advice to the Church in Philippi is to:

  • REJOICE 4:4

  • PRAY 4:6

  • THINK 4:7

  • APPLY 4:8

How is this pattern helpful?

Take a moment to reflect together on v7. 

Ask: When it comes to your identity and your self-talk do you do the opposite of this instruction?

Do you give thought to whatever is UNTRUE, whatever is IGNOBLE, whatever is WRONG, whatever is IMPURE, whatever is UNLOVELY, whatever in NOT ADMIRABLE – and NOTHING that is excellent or praiseworthy? 

STOP DOING THAT!!

2.     What is the “Impossible Application” of all this to your feelings of insecurity? What can you no longer think about God & yourself?

3.     How could you incorporate REJOICE – PRAY – THINK – APPLY into your day-to-day rhythm this week? 

 

Close in prayer 

[15 minutes]