**Today is the last #TakeawayThursday in the #BlogPod Series.  I will continue to post the links to podcasts that I love on the “Some of my Favorite Things” Page !

Grit Factor: Gateway Church-Lisa Bevere

So today is #TakeawayThursday5 in response to #BlogPod5!

Don’t forget to comment on the blog or tweet your takeaways with #BlogPod5 and #TakeawayThursday5. It’s a conversation, like a bookclub but with podcasts:)

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#TakeawayThursday5 Takeaways:

This is one of the boldest and best messages I have ever savored! I heard Lisa Bevere preach at the Colour conference a few years ago and her zeal for the Lord is contagious.  Lisa shares in such a way that you leave full of God’s grace, mercy and love, yet hungering for more of That Jesus! She brings the Word to life and her transparency draws you in like a friend.

Her words are truly anointed.  I literally listened to the message 4 times, taking notes to share takeaways.

I pray you are blessed by the gold sifted out.  I would love to hear from you and what God spoke to your heart through this message!

***Everything in blue below is from Romans 1:19-32 MSG 

What  is the Grit factor?

“The Grit Factor” is the passion for long term goals, coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve objectives.

It is a perseverance that overcomes obstacles that lie in or on an individual path.

“If you are going through hell you just keep going.”  Winston Churchhill

Gritty people have awareness of what they are looking for, of what they hope to see.   If they do not see it, they understand it is not the end of the story and they are going to just keep going!

It is time for the church to just keep going.

The attack we are seeing in this generation is not about our history; it is about our destiny!

We need to up our grit factor, but we also need to up our godly factor.

Going to the book of Romans to unpack the grit factor:

Romans 1:19 -22 MSG- The basic reality of God…

“…But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.”

When we take a long and thoughtful look at what is created, we have a connection with the creator!

Take a long and thoughtful look!  

Pause and ponder!

Everything in our culture screams for us to scroll down, drive through, retweet, reblog, repost etc…   Our culture is trying to distract us from who we really are.

When we take a long and thoughtful look, we can’t help but ask,

“What the heck happened?”

What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life…

We need to close the gap with gritty and godly and this happens with God’s word and worship!

Worship is not acknowledgment or admiration.

Worship is bowing the knee!

Worship is when

what God says is higher than my opinion!

Worship is submitting to His will and His ways!

***Our culture has trivialized itself into silliness and confusion, becoming illiterate regarding life!

It is time for a change.  We should not call lies truth!

We ,The church, have been intimidated to not say anything because of the judging card.

Speaking the truth in love is not judging people.

Speaking the truth in love is restoring clarity and boundaries to people that have lost their way!

If we don’t speak the truth in love who is going to?

When someone truly “speaks the Truth in love,” it will not be mean and legalistic, but if we hold back the truth and only tell people what they want to hear, we will continue to  breed deception!

…They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. 

So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

It looks as if our culture is worshiping a fake God!  That fake god can be a mean spirited legalistic god.   ISIS is not showing a real god and if we do not show the real God, the God Who gives us the Sword of the Spirit so that we set people free, instead of beating them up,

then the world is not going to see the real God!

Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

Refusing to know God they didn’t know how to be human either!

An attack on gender is an attack on the image of God.

We were created male AND female, in GOD’s image and being male AND female, with all of their complexities and all of their difficulties, actually creates a dependency on God!

The more we press into God, the more human HE makes us.

The more I press into God, the more HE reveals the real me!

Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

**This is not God making them pay!!!

This is the result of believing the lie and going to anything and everything

(gurus, psychics, drugs, alcohol, doctors, and anyone who promises to make you better, full, well, fixed, different etc…)

instead of to the One who created us in the first place, to try and feel whole.

…Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose…

…They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!”

This may be the reality of our day and our earth but that is not our reality!

We are ambassadors of Heaven walking the face of the earth!

So let’s talk now about the reality of us:

Romans 2 MSG

1-2 Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.

3-4 You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.

God is kind but he is not soft!

He takes us firmly by the hand and takes us into a radical life change!

A watching world doesn’t expect “christians” to be perfect, but they do expect us to be humble!  They do expect us to be taken by the hand and led into a radical life change, not doing the same things the world is doing and saying it is covered by grace,

because the truth is:

we are called to clothe the naked in the world, not get naked with the world,

to be bedside with the world, not in bed with the world,

to feed the hungry and thirsty in the world, not hunger and thirst for what the world hungers and thirsts for!

AND THEY ARE WATCHING AND WAITING TO SEE IF WHAT WE HAVE IS REAL AND THEY ARE DISAPPOINTED WHEN WE COMPROMISE!

We are carriers of God’s image, name, love and power and His anointing should be evident in our lives!

Dear Lord,

May we be a holy people, set apart by and for You!

Help us walk out our belief that

our best days are before us!

Please examine our hearts Lord, and show us,  “What are the areas of our lives where we are not living in worship?”

     Lord show us those spaces that YOU can invade by Your Spirit and then do what only You can do!

Thank you Lord, that we will be a generation that gets to see You up close.   Give us boldness to speak Your Truth out loud and in love, and may we lay hold of Your promises, knowing the victory is already won.

Father, take us by the hand and lead us into a radical life change, lighting the path with Your crazy love, for those coming behind us to find You!

In Jesus Precious name,

Amen