Colossians 2:1 I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,

"struggle" agōn.

The word agōn captures the idea of striving, not in the sense of desperate hopelessness, but in the sense of focused determination—fighting for something that is worth the struggle.

Colossians 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged,

may be encouraged = parakaleō.
Para to come alongside,
kaleo to call

#1 Community

Colossians 2:2  knit together in love,

The more connected we are, the more powerful we become.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10,12 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.

#2 Competency

Competency – the ongoing development of knowledge, encompassing not just the acquisition of information, but also the ability to apply, refine, and expand upon it through experience and continual learning.

Colossians 2:2-3 To reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Ambiguity leads to anxiety

The Goal: A Courageous and Competent Community

Everything you’re searching for—wisdom for life, understanding for the journey, purpose for your soul—it’s all found in Jesus.

Colossians 2:6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

The same way you received Him is the same way you walk in Him.

walk - to walk around.

Everywhere I go, I should be walking around in Him

Colossians 2:7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

The deeper your roots go in Jesus, the more steady and purposeful your steps become.

Get solid in the fundamentals: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

What we understand clearly, we can explain clearly. — J.C. Ryle

Colossians 2:7 built up in him

Don’t try to live your life apart from the person you’ve built it upon.

The same place you got rooted is the same place you build from.

If you’re rooted in Christ, you’re meant to be built up and established in Him.

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Colossians 2:7 abounding in thanksgiving.

If you don’t like the output change the input.

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Colossians 2:9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

theotēs—It means the very essence of God, the full, undiminished reality of God.

When Paul says the 'fullness of deity' dwells in Christ, he’s saying everything God is, everything He has, and everything He does—His power, His wisdom, His authority—dwells fully in Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just reflect God; He is the totality of God, in all His completeness, made visible to us. If you want to know God, look at Jesus, because in Him, you have everything God is. — Tim Keller

Colossians 2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

The fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and if you have made Jesus your Lord, His fullness now dwells in you!

Colossians 2:11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands,

God wants to do something in you that’s built by Him, and only Him.

All the fullness of deity is in Him, and in Him, we are made full.