Part 1: The Upside Down (The Alternative Community) // Ty Gibson

as a teenager I had an experience that you would not expect someone like me to have had when you when you look at me right this very moment I was a part of a Southern California subculture as a teenager I was a part of a a group of societal misfits and this particular group the adults called a gang sounds horrible doesn't it we didn't call ourselves a gang we called ourselves the real blankety blank blank and there were a number of words we use to describe how real we were and the reason why we craved realness is because everything in our world quite honestly seemed fake all of us were from homes that we didn't want to go home to all of us were from environments where the people who were there were either too drugged up or drunk to care or so disconnected from their children that it was inconsequential whether we were coming or going or whether we even came home I ended up being a part of this particular group by invitation by actually agreeing to be led into a park at midnight and to undergo an initiation process it was kind of like baptism but not so the young man that extended the invitation to me led me into this dark Park at midnight and I found myself standing before a park bench at a distance where I was told to stop and I could see the silhouette of some dark figure sitting on the bench his voice was pretty ominous for a kid like me who didn't know what he was getting himself into the voice of the figure on the bench said do you want in and I said yes I was going through puberty my voice was changing yes I want in I want in and then he spoke these words he said if when we're through with you you're still standing you're in and with that teenagers began to emerge from the shadows in the stark park and they lined up in front of me and each one thrust their fist in to my body one after another after another after another while I was trying with all the energy I could muster to remain standing because I wanted in so bad I was left standing somehow introductions were made we were mostly white kids and our charismatic leader was a slightly older Mexican kid named sly we heard that his name was actually Frankie Gonzales I think that's more believable but he gave himself the name sly and he bestowed a name upon me Casper as in Casper the Friendly Ghost and they all laughed when the name was given to me and he taught me how to be adept with a spray paint can and the name Casper was then all over Los Angeles over the next few months he was charismatic he was somebody who when he came out of the shadows had facial hair he was a little older than us and we were all completely enraptured with his ideas about the world in the way things ought to be I adored him I loved this guy and we followed him around the city as teenage boys with nowhere to go and nobody cared we followed him around and we did whatever he told us to do he was an amazing guy I wish wouldn't it be weird to just meet him again today somehow see what he's doing who he is and what became of his life but there there we were a subculture we were an alternative community that's what we were we had our own value system in fact we had rules they were all made up by Sly but we obeyed the rules there weren't a lot of them the rules were number one never hit a girl that's a good rule it stayed with me all these years rule number two don't talk trash about anybody's mom say whatever you want but all the dads out there but don't talk trash about anybody's mom rule number three and I thought this was interesting never snitch to the police on anybody we were a subculture we were an alternative community we had our own justice system and rule number four there were only four of them never cry never cry but if you were really drunk and you cried about your mom's situation you'd be given a pass somehow in this group of boys none of us wanted to hurt girls and all of us loved our moms even though our moms all of them were severely broken drug addicts alcoholics passed out on sofas and not in tune enough with life to know whether we even came home we all listened to the same music there were two characteristics in the music that we listen to we'd get together in sli's garage and we would listen to music that spoke to our rage about the world and somehow music that spoke about something we longed for that we didn't have a name for that's the kind of music we listen to angry music longing music and also Peter Frampton Comes Alive which had just come out and it's an amazing album so we listened that was the only ear candy we were allowed everything else was and then there was Peter Frampton so there we were a subculture a bunch of teen years we all rode skateboards we all wore off-the-wall vans we all wore 501 Levi's and no underwear I do not know what that was about but we were a subculture the world I suggest to you is a failed system and we all know it if we stopped long enough to think it through the world is a failed system in our world desperately needs my world as a teenager desperately needed our world desperately needs now an alternative system an alternative community a value system that somehow goes against the grain of all the pain and the suffering and the violation and the abuse that's going on in our world today's message is simply titled the upside down for reasons that will become obvious I want to encourage you if you're a note-taker pull out your story line journal and write down the words alternative community I want to encourage you to group your notes around this concept the alternative community but first just let's be frank let's be honest let's have a moment of introspection together Christianity the church has become the most boring thing on earth and it's not just boring for boring sake we know that it's boring because all the statistics communicate to us that we're losing ground Christianity is in a nosedive the whole thing is sinking out of sight Western Europe where I spend quite a bit of time Christianity is basically a byword people snicker and laugh about it under their breath a poll was done in Amsterdam with two questions just two questions question number one do you want anything to do with Christianity and eight out of ten people said no question number two in the Amsterdam poll in Western Europe do you want anything to do with Jesus and the numbers flipped eight out of ten people said Jesus sure Christianity no somehow somehow we have undergone a terrible terrible change in Christian history there's a bumper sticker around town here you'll see it sometimes Jesus called the other day said he wants his religion back Christianity has been co-opted a heist has occurred ideologically the church has to a significant degree become servant to a failed system and it's not just boring people aren't just vanishing because we're not putting off on enough of a show it's not just boring it's worse than boring it's conformist the church has conformed to the world Christianity has largely become an extension of the world's value system with a religious twist with just a little bit of a Jesus flavor to it and people who are thinking intelligent people people who read people who think people who process reality they see through the veneer they see straight through the veneer and here's the fact of the matter if the church is like the world the church is on necessary the last thing the church needs to do is to imbibe the value system of identity politics either on the right or the left end of the spectrum you and I are called to be a part of a kingdom that transcends anything this world has to offer so we're in a situation that is nothing short of dire we have an emergency on her hand Christianity in the West is dying and it's dying for a reason but the Christianity of Christ and the Apostles was anything but boring and it certainly wasn't conformist in fact the Christianity launched by Jesus and His apostles was an alternative way of being human it was the thing it was the real it was the real way to be human and it was an experiment that nobody had yet tried in human history we know that it was non conformist because of the historical record in Acts chapter 17 verse 6 don't miss a word of this they dragged this is the religious leaders the Pharisees those who presided over temple services those who showed up every Shabbat every Sabbath morning and led church worship service those people the religious elite dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city crying out these who have turned the world upside down have come here too now they're here these people these people who are inverting reality itself these people who are turning our whole system upside down they're here now and they're trying to push their value system on us verse 7 of x17 says Jason as they continue the religious leaders Jason has harbored them and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar note what the issue was saying there is another king and his name is Jesus that's what the Apostles were saying their message was not a post mortem say the sinner's prayer so you can go to heaven after you died they were bucking the system they were overturning the entire value system of the world they were suggesting a whole new way to be and it brought the rage out of the religious leaders in elite and what was their charge their turning the world upside down they're turning the world upside down but you'll see in the text that the issue was a rather political issue what was the Rob what was the tension well Christ or Caesar choose the apostles were saying listen they're Caesar and his entire system and everything that it includes and then there's Jesus there's the Christ and he's the new king he's the Lord he's the one and his value system is completely different the religious leaders were beholden to Caesar and Jesus was a threat to their cozy position that's what was going on in the book of Acts that's what was going on in the early Apostolic Church they were a threat to the prevailing system why well the text told us why Acts chapter 17 isn't pulling any punches Jason was dragged out into the street and beaten because he was preaching a Jesus who was a rival ruler offering a rival system this is this this wasn't this was not this was not nice cute platitudinous Christianity this this wasn't a movement that just showed up once a week to hang out in a building together and to sing songs that make us feel good emotionally this was a revolution you guys political empires how ever have always used religion to dominate the masses if there's anything true of history its this political leaders always co-opt hijack more like it religion and the church in order to advance their agenda and the church as political vassal vassal just means a servant to a given entity in this case this the state political idol ideology left or right I don't care we're a part of the kingdom of Christ his values transcend political barriers well first of all we see in history and I'll give you four examples Constantinian Christianity what is Constantinian Christianity well Constantinian Christianity is that Christianity that arose out of Constantine the first marching on Rome in 312 and as he was marching on Rome he claims that he saw a sign in the sky there was some kind of some kind of natural disaster or some kind of supernatural sign from who knows who I think I know who claiming to be from God and his military officer says God is trying to tell us something and what God was trying to tell them was represented in what Constantine imagined he saw or did see in that sign that occurred in the sky the Cairo which is simply the first two letters of the Greek word for Christos which is the Latin so there was a sign it was interpreted to be the sign of the Cross and man and Constantine claims that he had a dream you guys in which Jesus appeared to him the Roman Emperor Jesus appeared to him and Jesus said to him these words by this eyeing the sign of the Cross by this sign conquer in other words begin advancing a political regime in the name of Jesus that uses the sword and political manipulation in order to secure yet since by the sign of the Cross from this point forward we have a sordid history that unfolds that is nothing short of astounding in the horrific sense and we have the birth of papal Christianity papal Christianity that is the church completely co-opted by the state emerged out of Constantine's conversion he marched his entire army through a river and said you're all baptized we're all Christians now now drive your sword in two human bodies and anybody who doesn't convert to our Jesus will die and it was out of that that papal Christianity what we call Catholicism emerge John H Yoder Mennonite theologian and historian called this the Constantinian shift you may want to explore this concept if you're a historian or you have any interest at all in political revolution Yoder suggested that the Constantinian shift was essentially that point that bridge of a ology in which Constantinian Christianity gave birth to the papacy and it was essentially defined by Yoder as the integration of the imperial government with the church sit up and take notice because history repeats what is history repeat because people who are power mongers always go after the majority vote that's why if you're not in tune to the Past look at the past and you'll see the present and you'll see the future that's how history works the fact is that papal Christianity laid the ground for it work for Nazi Christianity now if that's not an oxymoron what possibly could be and yet Adolf Hitler said we tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity why because our movement is Christian the movement of the Third Reich was Christian in quote marks by Hitler's own profession and all of Christianity in Europe basically buckled to the political pressures and became a part of Hitler's Nazi Germany there were very few Protestants or Catholics who were left standing with convictions enough to call it what it was and there was dietrich bonhoeffer oh my goodness this guy was amazing dietrich bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian and a pastor who found within his gospel guts and fortitude the courage to stand up against the Nazi regime that was co-opting christianity for its political ends and he said and I quote Bonhoeffer silence in the face of evil is itself evil let it register not to speak is to speak not to act is to act Bonhoeffer had it right neutrality in a religious and political crisis is betrayal to the kingdom of Christ but then there's American Christianity whatever that is are you paying attention the military industrial complex as it's called which is basically a financial machine for fueling Christian politics so that Christian corporations and businessman can sell weapons worldwide so that other nations can wage war on one another and we're the police over the whole thing watching it all go down and chi-ching chi-ching cashing in every step of the way American Christianity give me a break it's not Christianity this thing that is pervading our culture right now that is using the name of Jesus for ideology politics is nowhere in the vicinity of the Lord Jesus Christ to the degree that the church becomes loyal to any political party it denies Christ the church is not to be the engine the voting bloc of any political ideology or party our loyalties are higher the church is an alternative community and I would suggest to you that it's nothing short of revolutionary part ways with insipid cotton candy sweet Christianity and commit yourself to something that has substance Christianity is an alternative community because first of all Christianity the real deal is an alternative to nationalism what is the alternative to nationalism a transnational thing called the church that brings people to Jesus out of every nation kindred tongue and people the church is an alternative to vengeance and the cycle of redemptive violence so-called by inserting forgiveness and reconciliation as the way forward to resolve conflicts the church is an alternative to individualism and now we're speaking economically it's an alternative individualism and what's the alternative corporate responsibility are you hurting let me help if something gone wrong in your life I'm here for you voluntarily the church is an alternative to materialism praise God and what's the alternative to materialism generosity stewardship that takes note of what's happening in the world around us and lends a helping hand and ultimately the church is an alternative community for a really good reason because the church is at its base an alternative to meritocracy that is to merit systems in general and the alternative to human beings meriting is grace the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to pour grace upon the human race grace upon grace John chapter 1 says in Jesus we see an unbounded love that supersedes all national political ethnic identity grace is the word the wildly popular Netflix television series stranger things postulates the idea that there's something called the upside down what's the upside down well the upside down is an alternative universe that overlaps the world in which we are consciously living and in this series strangely enough the good world is the one that we're all operating in and the diabolical dark world the upside-down world well that's where evil and monsters lurk well the exact opposite is the truth of the matter the church is a parallel universe with a revolutionary value system calculated to define over term overturned the dominant world system the truth of the matter is the world that we conscious of that we're living in day by day by day this world in which we're living is where monsters lurk politically economically socially and the church itself is the upside down the church itself is the system that overturns all systems the church is actually the upside down because the church is the only thing when it lives up to its identity and mission the church is the only thing that is right-side up the church is the only way to be human to become part of the church is to become part of a new storyline about a new way to be human so Marvis welcome to the upside down Laura welcome to the upside down welcome everybody to the upside down it's the right way up welcome to the alternative community that is the Church of Jesus Christ which is the only true way to truly be human hey thanks so much for watching we hope that message was a blessing to you God's Word is powerful it penetrates into our minds into our hearts brings about transformation in every aspect of our lives listen we don't want you to miss any content so again we want to encourage you to click on subscribe and track with the content that's going to be coming out week after week and if you'd like to partner with us in this global Ministry of taking the gospel of 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Channel: Storyline Church

Views: 8,276

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Keywords: storylinechurch, thealternativecommunity, tygibson

Id: ugPxzaQyOR0

Length: 28min 24sec (1704 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 22 2019