Father gave it to him , and he said , " You ' re the Christ . You ' re the son of the living God ." I can ' t wait to watch this replay in heaven . But just the satisfaction , I think that came on Jesus ' face when he realized Peter had actually caught a glimpse of who He really was . And then this crazy exchange happens where Jesus gives to Peter what was , everything that was lost in the garden in a sense , He gives back to him . He ' s like , “ Here ' s the keys and on this rock , I ' m going to build my church , and the gates of hell will not overcome it ”. And so , for me , to bring that down to songwriting , I love those moments where we can , as songwriters , see a part of God that maybe we ' ve never seen before , and help the church see a side of God ' s face they ' ve never seen before . And to have one of those moments like Peter had where you ' re seeing who Jesus really is .
Just why Cory ' s here , I ' ll never forget the first time Cory played “ Reckless Love ”. I got to see a side of God ' s face I hadn ' t seen before . Cory helped me see a part of Jesus that I had never felt and seen before . And the song itself enabled me to say something to God that I ' ve ... it ' s almost something I ' ve always wanted to say to God , but I didn ' t know how to say it to Him .
My passion in songwriting is first of all , for myself , I want to find out who God is for me like Peter did in that moment . And I want to put it in my own words . And then after I have that moment and that place of like , okay , I want to write a song around this part of who God is for me , then crafting the language and building a bridge between God ' s heart and the church ' s heart , where they can ... I like to challenge the church to say something maybe they ' ve never said before .
But then at the same time , serve them in a way that we ' re wooing them into the deeper waters , maybe a place they ' ve never been before , and creating a space for their heart and God ' s heart to have a collision like Peter and Jesus had in that moment . Because I love that moment , because after Peter declares who Jesus is , Jesus is like , " Now that you know who I am , let me introduce you Peter , to who you are ." And then there ' s that moment where Jesus speaks back over Peter ’ s identity . And as songwriters I think for me , my favorite moments is when we leave the written song and we move into the new song of the moment between God ' s heart and our heart . And that ' s one of my favorite parts is when we can create these songs . And sometimes it ' s the simplest ones that become these diving boards for people to be able to sing these new songs to God .
[ Cory ] Just so you know , Johnny , I will be stealing that whole bit , I mean because that was absolute fire . That is now mine . ( laughs )
[ WM ] You both are contributors within