From Alienated to Appointed
Summary
What does real discipleship look like — not in theory, but in your actual week? Guest preacher Taurel Davenport opens with an illustration from the movie Sonic 3: he fell asleep and missed five critical minutes, and the rest of the film made no sense — the villain's rage, his strange alliances, his destructive mission all seemed random. It wasn't until he rewatched it and caught what he'd missed that everything clicked. Taurel uses that moment to set up the whole message: the Apostle Paul, writing to the Colossians, assumes his readers already know the backstory of humanity — and without that backstory, the gospel doesn't fully make sense. Taurel's aim is to fill in those five minutes.
His first point, All Have Fallen, lays out the human condition. Colossians 1:21 opens with a striking phrase: "you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds." Taurel is clear this isn't addressed only to the Colossians — it's addressed to every human being. Romans 5:12 explains why: through Adam, sin entered the world and spread to all mankind, and every person born after him inherited a nature in rebellion against God. Because God is holy and sin cannot exist in His presence, the result is a deep and devastating alienation between Creator and creation. The Ten Commandments, Taurel explains, were never meant to fix this problem — they were meant to diagnose it, to show us that something is fundamentally broken.
But the Father did not leave humanity there. Jesus came, lived the perfect life no one else could live, and rather than returning to heaven on His own righteousness, He went to the cross and absorbed the full wrath of God on behalf of sinners. Taurel is careful to point out that the physical suffering of the crucifixion — the nails, the lashes, the crown of thorns — wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was that Jesus bore the wrath that we, as children of disobedience described in Ephesians 2:1-3, deserved. He was buried, and three days later God raised Him from the dead, because death had no rightful claim on the One who never sinned. Now, all who believe in Him receive a righteousness they didn't earn, and the very thing that alienated them from God is removed. This, Taurel says, is what Colossians 1:22 is celebrating — that God presents believers holy, blameless, and above reproach before Him.
Taurel's second point, Reinforcing the Solid Foundation, zeroes in on one small word: "if," at the start of Colossians 1:23 — "If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel you heard." Taurel observes that many people who once claimed to follow Christ have since walked away — not because the gospel failed them, but because they were never truly grounded in it. They heard fragments — God has a plan for your life, things are going to get better — things that may carry some truth, but make a terrible foundation on their own. When life doesn't match what they expected, they fall away. Jesus Himself, in Matthew 16:24-25, described discipleship in terms of self-denial, cross-bearing, and the willingness to lose one's life for His sake — a radically different promise than what many people signed up for.
This is where the sermon gets practical about what real discipleship actually looks like. Citing Ephesians 4:11 and following, Taurel reminds the congregation that God gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for one purpose: to equip the saints so they're no longer tossed about by every wind of doctrine. He shares a personal story of being approached at Walmart by someone pushing a works-based gospel, and how knowing Colossians 2:16 let him stand firm — though he's honest that he still went home afterward and prayed, asking God to show him the truth. The point: you can't be stable and steadfast on something you were never taught. Discipleship isn't optional, and it isn't only for pastors or theologians. Every believer is called to pick up the Word, cry out to God, and grow — and to learn more about what grounds that faith, our statement of beliefs is a good place to start.
Taurel's third point, Purposeful Suffering, draws from Paul's declaration in Colossians 1:24 that he rejoices in his sufferings for the church. Paul isn't suggesting Jesus's sacrifice was incomplete — he's filling in the gaps left by those unwilling to bear the cost of ministry. This is the heart of what real discipleship looks like day to day: it's messy. It demands time, vulnerability, discomfort, and the willingness to open your life to people who may drain you, challenge you, or misunderstand you. Taurel invokes the parable of the talents — the servant who buried his talent out of fear wasn't met with understanding; he was rebuked. In the same way, when believers fill their schedules so tightly there's no room for people, someone else is left carrying a burden they were meant to share. Real discipleship, Taurel says, isn't just Bible studies — it's inviting someone over while you fold laundry, taking them grocery shopping, letting them see the unpolished version of your life so they can see what following Jesus actually looks like.
In his final point, Opening the Floodgates, Taurel brings it home with the mystery revealed in Colossians 1:27 — Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul, a Hebrew of Hebrews who once persecuted the church, was radically transformed by an encounter with the risen Christ and sent to the very people he'd never have chosen: the Gentiles. People of different ethnicities, cultures, and backgrounds — people he'd have considered enemies. And he rejoiced in that calling, even through beatings, imprisonment, and rejection, because he knew it was the reason he was chosen. Taurel draws a direct line from Paul's mission to the mission of Grace Bible Church. The city around them is a mix of cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, and social classes — God isn't just sending His people into the world; He's bringing the world to them. The question Taurel leaves the congregation with is both personal and corporate: what will we do to make sure that every tribe, nation, and tongue in this city comes to know the riches of this mystery — Christ in them, the hope of glory?
If this raises the question of what a next step actually looks like for you, we'd love to help you figure that out — you can read more on our Next Steps page, hear more of the "Jesus Over Everything" series in our sermon archive, or simply join us on a Sunday and see what this looks like lived out.
