You’re going to have a mountaintop experience where you see God and you finally know Him for who He is. But what I think church tends to do is make you feel like you’re supposed to be on fire all the time and you should always feel that. It’s not true. When you suddenly get into that valley, that really dark discouraging place, God is saying, ‘In the valley, remember the mountains. Remember when you were there with me. Remember that time you experienced Me and I was so real to you.’

If just that little bit of your mountaintop experience can come into your valley period, that’s what’s going to help you to hold on. That’s what will get you through your very shakeable faith. No one ever told me this in church: but when I read the Bible, I know it’s not supposed to be an everyday rocked-out Christian life. There are days that will be rough, but just those few times in your life: remember how God spoke to you.

— from this message

We’re just a bunch of broken people, we all struggle, we all experience this gap, so there are two options on how we can treat it. One: I can do what the world does, and I can beat you up with rules, religion, and performance. I can shame you into change, but that’s going to be like laying down bricks — it’s a lot of shape but no soul. It’s just bricks, not real growth. The second option is we can allow the grace of God to love us to a better place; we can grace each other to a better place than we were. Those are the only two options. You might say, ‘Won’t they abuse that?’ — but the only other option is to shame them, and that won’t work. It’s only the love of God that will be enough to tenderize your heart.

— from this message