This is going to sound strange… but hear me out. You need to quit going to Church.

You need to quit going to Church and start BEING THE CHURCH.
God wants more for you than church attendance. He has a great commission for you to fulfill and that will require more than showing up for an hour on sundays.
Church is more than a location. Church is more than a building. Church is translated in the Greek as EKKLESIA – Called out ones. The Church is a people, both individual and collective.
You are the Church! And you are His! Start being the city on a hill He has called you to be.
We were blessed to have Dustin & Lyxee Frugé with us today. They are praying about ministering to the nation of England through Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Listen to the vision they shared and then pray about joining with them by support and prayer.

I quit 3 – I quit going to Church | Redemption Church from Redemption Church on Vimeo.

I Quit Going To Church

Sermon notes by Chris Fluitt

Redemption Church Plano Tx

I quit 3: going to church (start being the church)
I Quit Bumper
Welcome to Redemption Church. I am Chris Fluitt and I am blessed to serve as the Lead Pastor.
I want to remind you about our anonymous Text line…
Our anonymous text message number is 214 856 0550. We love hearing from you. If you have question or comments about the sermon, redemption Church, or faith in Jesus… we want to hear from you.
I Quit Title
We are in the 3^rd week of our I QUIT series. If you missed the previous weeks then I want to encourage you to listen or watch them on our website or by subscribing to the podcast on iTunes.
The previous weeks we have challenged you to..

Quit hating your life
Quit loving your life

Today we want to challenge you to QUIT GOING TO CHURCH
Please do not gather your belongings and leave. I have not called you here to tell you that you shouldn’t be here. Let me explain…
I am not telling you that coming to worship with other believers is unbiblical. It is actually very biblical.
Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.(NIV)
If you believe in Jesus Christ you should meet together with other believers. We do this here on Sunday, or in small group meetings, in group or one on one bible studies, or in many other ways. Don’t stop meeting together Hebrews 10:25 tells us… I am not disagreeing with this scripture today.
All throughout the book of Acts and the epistles it showed how they gathered together. In Acts 2 when the Church is first born… Yes the Church of Jesus Christ was birthed in Acts 2!
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.(NIV) This was not a one time thing… but it was a pattern. It is how things should be done. BELIEVERS GATHER TOGETHER… But still I offer the challenge today to quit going to church… Let me explain.

God wants more for you than church attendance. His plan for you is so much bigger than you showing up to this same building at the same time every week. But for many, simply going to church is the defining feature of their faith.
Did they have faith? Well they went to church. Did they have a close relationship with God? I don’t know. All I can tell you is they were members of First United fill in the blank Church. Did they read their bible? Did they pray? Did they ever win someone to Jesus Christ? Not sure… alls I know is they would go to church on Sundays.
The great commission does not say… Go into all the world and invite people to your church service. It says to make disciples, it says to teach them about Jesus, it says preach repentance and to baptize… But it does not say to invite them to your local church service to hear your worship team sing and your pastor preach.
Wait are you trying to say you don’t want us to invite people to redemption church for their 3pm worship service? NO! I am not trying to say that… I want to exhort you to go way past that… to do more than simply go to church.
People bicker and fight over how they should have church services.

Musical taste and preference. Instrumentation
Order of service (liturgy, communion)
Dress code
Preaching style
Church building décor
Denomination (The name of the church)

This is the silly stuff that church people fight over. But today I challenge you to Quit going to Church and Start BEING the Church.

1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone–rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him–(NIV)
1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.(NIV)
1 Peter 2:6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”(NIV)
We sometimes call the Church God’s House. But God’s house is not a building. This building we are in right now is not God’s house.
Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.(NIV)
The Church/God’s House is not a building (it’s a people). We are His Spiritual House.

The word for Church in Greek is Ekklessia
It is what Jesus uses in Matthew 16:18…
Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.(NIV)
The word Church, the word Ekklesia does not mean a church building. Ekklessia means CALLED OUT ONES. ONES THAT HAVE BEEN CALLED OUT.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.(NIV)
Quit going to church… start being the church. Be a part of those that have been called out.

Now you might say that this is all semantical. Go to church… be the church… But let me present to you some language that is pervasive within the Christian culture that is unbiblical and I feel damaging. It centers on going to Church and not being the church.

“Belong to a church”
“My wife and I belong to such and such church. What church do you belong to?”
This has always made me feel weird. We don’t belong to the church. We belong to Jesus.
Romans 1:6 And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.(NIV)
Psalm 100:3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.(NIV)
You belong to Jesus, not Redemption Church. You don’t belong to the Church – You are the Church!
And that is great news. If something happens to your pastor – You still belong to Jesus. If something happens to your church building – You still belong to Jesus. If something happens to the person that introduced to Christ – You still belong to Jesus. If your church totally misses the point of the Gospel and turns their back on you – You still belong to Jesus.
Now you should be committed to the body of Christ. You should be committed to the lives of others. You should be a part of God’s kingdom and you can’t do that very well unless you are connected. But to say you belong to the Church… that the Church owns you… That is not correct.

When you just go to Church instead of being the Church – strange things occur.
Baptized into a church
There are some denominations that say you can’t be a part of the church until you are baptized. You are baptized into their Church. If you were baptized into another Christian Church you need to be baptized again to join this Church… sometimes they are even in the same denomination..
You are not baptized into the Church… You are the Church. You are the Ekklesia – You are one that Jesus Christ Himself is calling out of darkness. You are baptized into the savior! The Church is not your savior. The church is the ones that are being saved by Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.(NIV)
We are the Church. We are baptized into Christ. We are clothed in Christ.
Can I present to you the truth that there are church buildings on almost every corner with people that attend them on Sundays… but there are few people winning people to Jesus.. few that are fulfilling the great commission. The paradigm of going to church is failing. It was never God’s intention for you to go to Church.. it is His plan that you would be the Church.

Quit being average
Compare for a moment the average life of a first century Christian and the average life of a twenty-first century Christian living in the United States.
The 1^st century Christian understood their purpose of fulfilling the great commission. They were empowered by the Spirit. We read in the book of Acts that they gathered in their homes, they gathered in temples, they gathered outside the temple, wherever 2 or 3 were gathered they believed that Jesus was in their midst. They were bold! They didn’t call for the pastor or priest to come pray… They knew that Scripture said that BELIEVERS would lay hand on the sick and they would recover. They spoke truth with boldness and what started with 120 turned into 3000 in one day… They turned the world upside down.
The 21st century Christian goes to Church once every 4 weeks. The highlight of their Christian faith was when they said the sinner’s prayer. The average Christian has never won someone to Jesus. They don’t pick up their Bible. They don’t pray during the week.
Do not be the average Christian. Be a 1^st Century Christian.
Don’t go to Church – Be the Church
We have an opportunity to hear from some people who are not the average Christians. They are very active in missions through YWAM – Youth with a mission. They have a heart to work at a ywam base in England.
I want you to hear their vision. Please help me welcome Dustin and Lyxee Fruge.

You are the Church of Jesus Christ. As an individual you are His Church. But also as a collective we are His Church. That is why it is so important to join with other believers and help those in need.
ANTIOCH helped Jerusalem.

Be The Church
House God’s Presence
1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.(NIV)
Show His Love
Be Brave, courageous, & faithFULL

If you just go to church you can walk out of service. But if you are the church, then everywhere you walk, God’s presence dwells, miracles happen, people see Christ IN YOU.