Unveiling Grace: The Film (Full Presentation)

first of all just state your name and where's the effect that you give us permission to use this video alright my my name is J Graham I Joseph Warren Lynn cave Wilder my name is nat Wilder and I'm giving the Main Street Church in Brigham City permissioned to use my personal testimony okay my name is Michael Wilder my name is Stephan Dennis you can use this any way you see fit and helping bring people to Christ all right my name is Mike and Wilder I'm Steve Kay and you can use this tape for whatever you want to use it for I give full permission to use this tape in whatever manner he sees fit unless it makes me look bad I give you my permission to use this footage as it may please the Lord [Music] I was born into a very faithful and loving Mormon home my siblings and I were raised in the LDS faith I grew up in the healthiest Church and I believed I believed it with all my heart my parents were both very devout LDS believers I went to church faithfully we were always active we always prayed together we always read the scriptures together my parents always held leadership positions in the church our lives as latter-day saints was really very good I mean we were really busy Mike was a high councilor and in a couple of bishop bricks and I had been a Relief Society president a couple of times a young women's president primary president a state primary president my mother was actually a professor of Brigham Young University for a number of years we have three sons and they all served missions you know just following the religion the Mormon religion was was all I needed we had a real heart for the church we believed in the church you know I felt like I always had a testimony even from the time I was I was a little kid I I felt like you know the church was true we went on temple trips we fulfilled callings we bore testimony of Christ we read our scriptures we obeyed the Prophet I didn't know any different I didn't know any better it's just you know the LDS Church was was the only way you know ever since I was a little kid I was always taught that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the LDS Church was the only true church on earth life was basically happy you know you thought you had all the answers you didn't even think that there was any world outside Mormonism you know Mormonism was it I was lived in a Mormon bubble I was so naive that I didn't really think that there was a life outside of the Mormon Church that had tons of missionary friends and and quite a few friend good friends in the church that we you know do home teaching go to church act I really enjoyed everything about it I mean I I I enjoyed you know the idea that that God spoke to this one man and that he was my prophet and that you know as long as I was following what he was saying that I knew that you know I was doing the right thing probably the thing that I liked most about the Mormon Church was feeling that feeling of security and I actually enjoyed the restrictions of of being a Mormon and I know that sounds strange but I enjoyed it because it was a way for me to measure my my spirituality with God you know to be honest I wasn't aware that I was looking for something I thought I thought I had what I needed it was just something we believed and grew up believing together I wasn't seeking the truth because I thought I had it I was really essentially a born-again Christian before I joined the LDS Church strangely enough about a month or two after coming to Christ I met some Mormon missionaries and the fact that the name Jesus Christ was so essential in the church's image and everything made me really believe that it was it was a Christian organization we were converts Mike and I at the age of 25 missionaries knocked on our door when we were married but didn't have any children and he actually was the one who was pretty excited about the church and I tried it with him we decided we'd do it together things were fine kids were well-behaved and and we worked hard and I bet it was six months before I was doing the tears and the testimony thing right along with everybody else and then we were just kind of dug in and never gave it a second thought when I was 16 my dad passed away and for me that was really kind of a turning point in my life where I had to decide what I believed in I kind of had a crisis of faith I needed some security to know that I would see him again and in the Mormon Church offered that in the doctrine of eternal marriage and eternal families and so that was something that I really latched on to I was known in my ward as having a really strong testimony of the church especially when I got closer to my mission I began to study the Scriptures a lot and you know straight in my life out so that I could be worthy when I was in high school I was trying to to make myself worthy to go on a mission I actually used to go to the temple every morning at like 5 o'clock 5:30 to do baptisms for the dead and that was a way that I felt like I was making myself holy because we were taught that we had to obey these certain Commandments in order to be worthy of God and all my life I believed what the Book of Mormon says where you're saved by grace after all you can do after I graduate from high school and got ready to go on a mission I was actually given special permission by the church to go to the temple early and and do these endowments and I remember the first time I went and I was just it was the most amazing experience for me and it actually became such an obsession that I requested to the temple president if I could actually work in the temple become a full-time temple worker actually became the youngest full-time temple worker in the history of the modern the the Mater Church when you're just turned 19 then you send in your papers because when you're a male I'm in the Mormon Church you're expected it was a commandment for all worthy males to go on a mission I was actually really excited going mission I got a call to Orlando Florida I couldn't wait to get on that plane and you know every missionary has high expectations that you're gonna convert the world because it's true you know and there's just no other reality I went because I believed that it was what God wanted me to do when I was a missionary we had to get up at 6:30 every morning and then study for three and a half hours before we left for the day so basically at 9:30 we were out the door proselyting it was just a constant search to look for that one golden person that you know God would place in our laps to teach the gospel of the Mormon Church and that would accept it the people that were influenced into the LDS Church were people who were looking for something more we convinced them that we offer that something more God began to change my life in amazing ways about six months into my two-year mission experience and it happened when my mission companion and I showed up at Calvary Baptist Church in Winter Garden Florida we talked to the pastor and we say you know we have this message and and we want to share with you the message of the restored gospel and and he said okay he said I'll listen and so for about an hour my companion I teach him about you know how were you know we're saved by these works you know how Joseph Smith restored the true gospel how you restored the true priesthood and and how you know the one true church the only way to be saved is now on the earth and if you're baptized in that church and you perform the proper ordinances and works then then you can be saved you know and that was our good news that was the message of salvation and you know as we finished he just looked me in the eye and he said you know I appreciate what you've told me but it's wrong in my heart just you know they just sunk so deep and at that point I just wanted to just shut up you know I just wanted to shut down I didn't want to hear anything he had to say because I knew that I wasn't gonna like what he was gonna have to say after that and he started to teach us and he did it in a way that was so loving and he did it in a way you know that was so sincere that it kind of it forced me to open up my heart even a little bit even though I didn't I didn't want to it was just the way that he the way he approached it you know I could tell that he had the sincere desire to help us and he opened up the Bible and and he just started to read from the words of Jesus and His apostles what the true gospel really was and he started to read you know things like Ephesians 2 you know how we were dead in our sins you know but but God sent Jesus Christ to make us alive to save us and that by grace we are saved not by works and I was just thinking you know this guy he's so lost he died he doesn't know you know he's been deceived by the devil in thinking that salvation is that easy and the problem though is that you know everything he was teaching was coming right out of the Bible it really frustrated me and it made me so angry as I sat there and listened there was a small small part of me that was amazed by what he was saying but there was a larger part of me because of the training I had been given that was just angry you know we're not wrong you're wrong all I could do is say well I know the Joseph Smith was a prophet I know that the Book of Mormon is true regardless of what the Bible may say one of the things he said right at the end of the meeting was he challenged me and this is a challenge that ended up completely turning my life upside down and he said I challenge you to read the Bible as a child basically to prove him wrong through the Bible he said if you read the Bible as a child you will see that for the very first time you know your eyes will be open and you will see that this gospel that you have lit been living is not the gospel of Jesus Christ it is not the good news that that was brought in the New Testament and oh man that made me so upset and and I really I took his challenge and I took his challenge not to give him the satisfaction but I took the challenge so that I could solidify my faith in the Mormon Church through the Bible and I figured if this is God's true church if this is the only way and God's love is so great that he wants us all to be saved surely he's gonna make it obvious you know he's not gonna hide it so I said surely I can prove that the Mormon Church is true through the Bible that's when God began to do an incredible work in my life and and every day that I sat down and started reading the New Testament I I came across the this exact same message of salvation that this pastor had told me well while I was on the mission I met Micah Wilder and he was a fellow missionary so we became close friends really quickly and he just encouraged me to start reading the Bible and at that time I was really focused on bringing people into the church and you know we I had lots of baptisms and stuff and so you know I was doing what the Mormon Church and the mission wanted me to do at the same time I started reading the Bible and things started changing in my heart and I started realizing that things I believe didn't line up with the Bible and I remember we reread this one in Matthew I think where it says that whoever humbles himself will be exalted and whoever exalts himself will be humbled and and I remember I read it and it really struck me because I started realizing I was exalting myself and and and the Bible said that I would be humbled if I exalted myself and I was like oh that that doesn't sound good actually the word it used in the King James Version was a baised which you know like like struck down or something I was like man I don't want that happened to me so that was one thing that just you know God started like you know pricking me you know with with these things that I had never realized before one of the scriptures that really hit me was you know the one where Jesus says you know many will come to me and say Lord Lord haven't we done all these amazing works you know in your name and Jesus says I never knew you and and you know he says not everyone that comes to me saying Lord Lord will enter in the kingdom of heaven but he that does the will of my father and I said well what is the will of the father and in John Jesus says that the will of the Father is to believe in the son and I'm thinking you know wow you know all these people that come to Jesus and say look at our works look at the things we've done look how righteous we are you know he's gonna he's gonna say I never knew you but those who come to him saying I believe in the son I believe in Jesus Christ I accept him as my savior that is the will of the Father those are the people that are gonna receive salvation and I just it really it really brought me to tears because I realized that my whole life I I had had everything backwards you know where I was trying to earn salvation when it was a gift that was being handed to me so freely by Jesus Christ and all I had to do was accept it all I had to do was have faith that Jesus loved me that much that he could give his life as a ransom for mine and and thereby accepting that gift I can be saved I could have eternal life I could live with God and and in it I I just I was so confused and I was almost scared because Here I am a Mormon missionary I'm starting to come into this understanding of what it means to be a true Christian what the true gospel is and it completely contradicts everything that I've ever been taught and everything that I have ever believed I go through this long process over months and months of reading the Bible and I was a new person I had become born-again and I'm a Mormon missionary I'm supposed to go out teaching people that salvation comes through this church and a no other way and I didn't believe that anymore aye-aye-aye I understood that that nobody is saved but through the name of Jesus Christ and that he is the way the truth and the life and there is you know there is nothing else there's no other way that we can be saved than then through Jesus Christ and through his sacrifice and I was good friends with Michael and they said I've been studying the Bible every day you know for for the last like year and the Word of God does not line up with what the LDS Church says when the message of the the Bible was opened up to me it was it was very liberating as a missionary in Denmark there were a few times Christians witnessed to me and another Christian witnessed to me and his name is Micah he's actually my brother I didn't know he was a Christian at the time but he he was a born-again Christian and he his witness brought back to memory some of those witnesses other Christians that had and and because of the mercy of Jesus Christ and His grace I for some reason not of my own doing but I I did not outright reject what I heard and I gave it some thought I gave it time to give the seed time to grow in my heart and began to examine examine those claims in the Word of God in the Bible Micah was traveling this road on his mission he gave us just hints in his emails and of course the emails I'm sure probably monitored by his mission later but he did give us some hints that let us know that he was having some real questions and those did begin to open up questions for us as well now when did I really start questioning I think when Micah was on his mission and he was challenging us to read the Bible you know I started reading in a Bible Micah was the one who knew the truth first and then his brother and then actually his brother his sister and Mike and I all kind of came out together but we weren't definitely on the tail end of that we were hanging on tilba till the very end this process actually was a was a gradual one for me because I said it was it was so engrained in me it was so hard for me to just accept the Living Word as as truth there's things that you kind of put up on the shelf and you counted as just having faith these things start to add out the shelf gets heavier and then once when someone witnesses to you the Word of God and you begin to feel the weight of that shelf it eventually breaks and I realized I did not need to be a member of the Mormon Church in order to receive salvation and so I had come to that conclusion based on my own personal experiences and what I had read up at that point in the Word of God that you know just because you're not Mormon doesn't mean God doesn't have a place for you and having or in other words you don't need the Mormon Authority in order to make it to heaven [Music] when I was on my mission we went and visited this lady and she told us that she used to be a Relief Society president and said really Wow well that's incredible well you know why haven't you been Church lately and so she started to explain her story to us again really really sweet really nice non-attacking and she just talked about the prophecy of Joseph Smith about the temple and Independence Missouri and how it would be raised in this generation and you know that that no one would be able to stop it etc etc and I was one of the prophecies of Joseph Smith and then later on in another section of the Doctrine and Covenants Joseph Smith or the Lord through Joseph Smith supposedly says that you know this temple was was brought to nothing because of the wickedness of my people you know it because of their wickedness God couldn't do something basically but she presented us with this conundrum kind of and sent us on our way and I was really frustrated and really angry because she presented points that I mean you know I really just couldn't you know say anything against so I completed my mission I served with honor and everything else you know even though I had those those brief struggles throughout my mission I went back to BYU to continue that after my mission and part of the curriculum at BYU was to take classes on religion as so as soon as I got back to BYU I said well great you know I'll study the epistles because I had always had arguments with different Baptist ministers and things on my mission and they were always quoting out of the epistles so we started studying the writings of Paul and I just remember reading where Paul talks about that it's better for a man not to marry and to remain single in the Lord so that he can serve the kingdom of God fully without any distraction and so one day in class I raised my hand and it was kind of a question-and-answer time and I asked the teacher what about this first you know why does it say that we don't need to be married when the LDS Church teaches very clear that we do need to be married for salvation in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom and the whole class just kind of went silent and stared at me like I was a monster or something for asking such a question and there was kind of this this tense pause and the teacher just looked at me and said well it's one of the mysteries of the gospel and we don't have all the answers right now okay next question and just moved on and just totally breezed over with no answer and I was so frustrated at the time because that was a serious struggle I'd had while reading the New Testament what is Paul talking about and I got no answer it was just avoided so what any rate he just like with my mission overall at BYU I had a great experience and I really enjoyed it but there were just these few moments where where God just started planting seeds in my heart and showing me that things weren't quite what I thought they were while I was on my mission in Florida I met several people who were converts to the Mormon Church and they had a desire to bring together a group of former missionaries as musicians to make Mormon gospel music so so basically like a Mormon band I was really interested in that so I came back after my mission for the summers in-between my years at BYU I didn't rate the the next summer I went back this is when Micah Wilder had just gotten off his mission came out to be a part of the band and also Joseph Warren I started noticing that members of the band weren't going to church anymore to the Mormon Church one day one of the members of the band started talking to me about some doctrine or other and I don't remember what it was but I asked him well who told you that and this person said to me well are you ready for some meat and I said oh yeah of course I am you know I I you know I I thought I was pretty knowledgeable and scholarly in the gospel and everything else and and so I said yeah sure you know show me the meat you know so and so the very first thing that he said to me was Joseph Smith was a false prophet and I wasn't prepared for that at all I was really shocked and appalled you know right right from the moment that he said that and offended and I was just so angry and so frustrated and and this moment was different from every other moment I'd had in the past where God had reached out to me and pointed out something that was wrong with the LDS Church in that in this moment I no longer could just set it aside and put it on the back shelf this time it was staring me in the face and I couldn't get rid of it and the bizarre thing is that really it wasn't anything that I hadn't heard before I had heard people on my mission tell me that Joseph Smith was a false prophet or that you know he was a polygamist or anything else but this time I knew when I heard it and it wasn't because of who it came from or anything else I really believed it was the Spirit of God convicting me that this was true that Joseph Smith was not the man that I thought he was that I should not be following him and that and that what I had been raised in what I had devoted my life to was it was a lie [Music] and that was really really hard to come to grips with that and I was so angry because I wanted so bad to to not know that and to just go on being blissfully ignorant and and continue in my LDS existence that I had you know given so much time and energy to but I couldn't move backwards I had to move forward and it was a really really hard time for me because for a couple of days I I didn't believe in any of the Mormon doctrine and I didn't believe in the Bible either I believed in nothing that they had taught me so for a few days I was basically like an atheist agnostic type you know I thought maybe there was a god out there but why would he raised me in this false religion just to tear me out of it and leave me confused and luckily I had all the guys in the band you know close at hand and they pointed me towards the Bible and you know it's interesting to me now that I think for me if somebody had come up to me and shared the Bible with me and I I even studied the Bibles of Mormon and in that that class at BYU when I read it I felt like I was reading through a veil you know I I was reading it but it just seems so blocked from me I couldn't understand what Paul's talking about where he talks about I don't need to be married for a salvation you know that were saved by grace and all of our own works lest any man should boast you know what is he talking about it was all nonsense when I finally started reading the Bible after I had had this transformation it was just amazing to me how it opened up and I was really just blown away and and surprised at how clear it was I had never supposed and and reading it at BYU that I would ever be able to make sense of the Bible but suddenly with all the Mormon doctrine and principles that I had instilled in me that I had taken as true without any test when all that was cleared away and stripped away the Word of God was living and active and it was pure and it was simple it wasn't confusing anymore about three years went by after my mission I was married already in the Mormon temple and had a wife and we had a child on the way and I started hearing things you know from other returned missionaries that I knew that there are some people from the Orlando mission that we're leaving the Mormon Church and that took me by surprise and because I thought well I didn't really want to hear the details at the time but it's where it started to get out more and that they were you know they had actually fully renounced Mormonism and formed this Christian band Adams Road and I knew some friends and some more members there were friends with them while they were out there and so they got to the point where I just you know called them up one day and I said hey guys what's going on my curiosity wasn't without certain things going on in my life as well like I was starting to question certain things and I think that that struggle was what led me to have that just the curiosity to simply ask you know why are you guys leaving the church you know what's going on why are you forming this Christian band that's against Mormonism and Adams Road was you know brand-new at the time it was a newborn ministry and so they basically told me point blank why they left the Mormon Church so these were ongoing conversations over the course of several weeks to begin with and I was asking a lot of questions but my questions were from the perspective of the Mormon gospel you know like well what do you believe about the spirit world or what do you believe about those who never received the gospel you know things like that what about temples and eventually they just came out and told me look the reason you're having all these questions is because chills Smith is simply a false prophet nothing that he said or did can stand up to the Word of God you know what if you test it with the Bible you know go into the Bible read Hebrews read the Gospel of John read Acts I mean all of the epistles and get into the old law and how Christ fulfilled the law and you'll understand exactly what we're talking about it was an interesting experience because you know I was having these conversations in secret from my wife I was growing and developing I was doing all of this research in the Bible without her knowledge basically what happened was she could tell over time that I was not latching on to the Mormon gospel anymore eventually one day it just I just couldn't hold it in any longer and she's like you don't believe in the church anymore and I can't remember exactly how the conversation went but basically I confess and I said no I don't believe in the church anymore you know what I believe I believe in Jesus I believe in the Bible but I don't believe in the LDS Church anymore and she was very very upset and in fact I was quite confident she was gonna divorce me but the worst just came out of me and and I confessed she went to the LDS temple in tears she said you know I'll be right back so she came home from the temple that night just went straight to bed we didn't really talk about anything until the next day and still she was really frustrated she came to me the next day and she said okay you know show me the scriptures in the Bible you know show me what you've been researching what you've been reading and so I did I just gave her my personal study notes I said here this is what I've been studying you know read this read these and and she read it she spent quite a you know she's been awhile studying and she just could not believe what was in the Bible that she had never known before but she had never read before in her whole life about Christ fulfilling the law and the prophets when and God does not dwell in temples made with hands you know that the God is building a spiritual house made of a body of believers being Christ the body of Christ she read all the scriptures and she came to me and she she couldn't believe it and I remember one time she told me that a little while later that she had prayed to know if temples were part of God's plan she said that she practically heard an audio voice that she knew was God say no and that have been confirmed with what was in the Bible you know what temples really were and what Christ had done and fulfilling a law you know at that point she was on the bandwagon and I don't think it was much more than a week after I you know told her that I didn't believe in Mormonism anymore she was on the bandwagon with me and we were you know studying the Bible together and learning together even after I left the Mormon Church I still wasn't truly born again I still didn't truly have Jesus in my heart because I wasn't willing to accept his word or his authority then it was actually not until months if not even a year so later from this understanding that um I don't need the Mormon Church to the understanding that the Bible is God's undefiled war that is his final authority it is the truth and when I came to that conclusion when when I finally opened my heart to that open my heart to accepting the word as truth God God did amazing things through me and I just realized that I believe everything the word said when I was Mormon I believed in the Bible but I didn't believe in it I definitely did struggle with the Bible when I was Mormon because I believed just what I was taught that it that it was the Word of God as far as it was translated correctly but they never tell you what's translated correctly what's not one of the articles of faith is that that you know we believe in the Bible as far as this translated correctly well they say that it hasn't been translated correctly their eighth article of faith states that we believe in the Bible as far as is translated correctly so anytime there seem to be a conflict in the scriptures with the Bible against Mormon doctrine you would say oh that's an error in a Bible all the years that we were in the church you know multiple times has said as a family you need to read The Book of Mormon as a family you need agreed to book a Mormon but never ever was a call like as a family you should read the New Testament he never had that the whole idea that the Bible isn't reliable as a smokescreen set up by the church so that people won't read the Bible so therefore you know do they really believe in the Bible I wanted to know the words of Christ because that was all I trusted and then I realized Christ doesn't even is the whole book of Mormon that for one long section of 3rd Nephi but when I went to the Bible and read John 1:1 then I was rear-ended that Christ was the word and eventually realized the whole Bible is the word I'm not sure the Spirit didn't teach me that by reading reading the New Testament it was really simple for me trusting the Bible I just fell in love with it once I once I realized that well Jesus had said that I can trust these words then I mean I just grasped onto it it was really just the issue of just reading it and when I started reading it and not and not to try to solidify my beliefs in the Mormon Church but reading it just to say ok god this if this is your word then just teach me just tell me what your truth is and I'll believe it and that's when my eyes began to get open reading the New Testament was was really the point of my life where I felt for the first time really felt Jesus's presence in my heart and and so you know it's difficult to say you know what is my basis for believing in the Bible now other than to say you know I'm taking God's word for it because you know I'm not taking any man's word for it or anything else one of the huge things that hit me was whoa we sold this God short this God can do anything this God knows all things he's all places and he can do all things if you read it and you you know you have an open heart to what God's gonna teach you he will touch your heart and you will believe it it's as simple as that Jesus himself said heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away I just completely fell in love with the gospel III don't know any other way to explain it but in reading Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and reading the ministry in the life of Jesus Christ and the things he taught and the way that he taught it it just it was so right the Word of God is is exactly what it says it is it is based on grace and the salvation that comes through Christ's atonement on the cross by his blood shed for us alone and that's the the whole message of the gospel then once I read what Christ said then I started to trust his apostles because they've been with him and they'd heard so I'm thinking well that's kind of a secondhand account then I'll trust those words and then I eventually got into things like Acts and Hebrews and some of the later stuff but at first it was I will only trust the words of Christ what he says only but they weren't they weren't in the Book of Mormon and they weren't in the Doctrine and Covenants and they weren't in the pearl of great price but they were in the Bible and I had remembered reading I think it's John one that says in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God so I had already put together in my head then that that Christ was the word and then the more I read in the New Testament I realized not just Christ's words were the word but this entire Bible was the word the Mormons that say the Bible's corrupt it was mistranslated this and that no heaven and earth will pass away but his word will never pass away and you know don't you think God is is smarter than man don't you think that you know he could Trump the devil but by keeping his word together God is is bigger and better than we could ever give him credit for and that if he wants us to have his truth he will make a way for it to happen I would say probably the main thing I struggled with the most when I was you know in growing up in the LDS faith was I really wanted to be righteous and not just appear righteous I honestly really didn't want to be internally righteous no matter how hard I tried no matter how much I prayed no matter how much I read my scriptures followed the advice of church leaders or anything else and I could never become perfect I could never you know totally purge myself of all sins you know going back to the being saved by grace after all you can do I you know I always felt like I was never doing enough and I was never I was never measuring up and even though even though I was living the commandments outwardly I just I still felt like something was missing I think everyone to a certain degree is wallowing in their own hypocrisy and and but everyone was unaware of each other's sad state I really struggled with you know seeing the people around me who were also in the LDS Church and seeing their apparent righteousness and wanting to be like I thought they were I really thought that that they had overcome their sins overcome their weaknesses and we're you know going strong and and there were a few times where I talked to close friends of mine in the LDS Church and asked them you know have you ever you know struggled with this or struggled with that and the response was always the same you know I was always no no you struggle with that really you know it's kind of like this you know like like really your imperfect I did feel alone in the struggle because you see the people you know you just think man that there's such good people they're so righteous and you just see they're outside and you and you know how you're feeling inside and you look at how these people look outwardly and it's just hard to you know you're like man well they can't be struggling with the same stuff I am but yeah I mean I wanted to show my outward righteousness as much as possibly because I believed that I was worthy because I was doing everything right but I was growing more aware of the struggle I had become very aware that you know I was not worthy inside you know despite what I did on the outside despite going through the motions I was not at peace inside with myself I was dissatisfied that the church really was not helping me to become a better person inside you know I wasn't feeling inner peace but rather the struggles that I was experiencing I felt like I was burying more and more and putting on this facade and prayer and paying my tithing and all this stuff wasn't making me have inner peace you know I would just say okay god I'm gonna be perfect now you know I'm I just I love you I'm gonna follow you I'm gonna commit myself to you and and then I would slip up and and it would be it would honestly I would get so depressed and and just I mean it way there were some times you know even in high school I just get so depressed I didn't even want to live because I couldn't hold myself up to the standard that I thought I should be living you know because I wasn't perfect because I kept sinning over and over and over knowing that it was wrong and just thinking oh you know God why you know why can't I overcome this one of the big misconceptions that I had as a Mormon missionary and that a lot of Mormons have about what Christians believe is that that Christians simply believe that you believe in Jesus and then you can do whatever you want Mormons believe and and look at Christians as people that just say oh well I believe in Jesus Christ I believe so I'm saved and I can do whatever I want just go and I can go sin I can just do whatever and I'll just repent and I'll be fine because I'm saved but when you become a Christian when you become born-again and you accept the Lord Jesus Christ like it says in and in the book of Romans you know that if you if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth then then you will be saved that's that's what the word says but the thing is is is once you are saved you know once you've made that confession once you've had that that that cleansing water washed through you then you live a life as a disciple of Jesus Christ because faith true faith is life changing and that's what James is teaching is that you know the evidence of true faith is going to come with good works is that if you have true faith then you're gonna show that true faith through good works but those works have nothing to do with your salvation but but the point is that our hearts have been changed and we've been turned toward God that's what repentance is to change our mind because before we were living for our flesh and living for whatever we wanted to but when we become born of God then we turn toward him no matter what standard you hold yourself to you're gonna slip and fall you know but Jesus Christ died so that he could raise us up you know with him and be in a place that we could never get ourselves to but knowing that the Jesus Christ is gonna pick me up and carry me that's an amazing amazing feeling I feel like this journey into Mormonism wasn't a fluke but possibly planned by God himself for the very purpose of learning to love Mormons understand Mormons because I was one most of my life for that reason I can't walk away and and know the things I know and have this new life and not want you to know also the truth when you read the words of the Savior himself when you come to know the Savior himself by reading his words you'll find out it's not the same Savior it's a different Christ and guess what in the Bible Awards of different price so Mormonism is one of those different Christ that the Savior himself says to be careful of and to stay away from so at first I wanted to run as far as fast as like Hannah was embarrassed by the fact that I'd been duped or deceived and that I'd lived this life we lost a religion but we gained Christ and that's a good trait that's a good trait and that's the unique thing about is given up a religion to get that relationship with Christ there's a wonderful exchange any time you deal with Christ you come out ahead and and we came out here but yes there was a cost but one of the things that Jesus said you know was that that we have to be willing to give up everything for him you know if we're not willing to forsake you know father or mother or brothers or sisters or children or lands or everything for his name you know that we're not worthy of him and that we have to you know basically lay down our own lives take up our cross and follow him in order to be his disciple the promise that Jesus gives us in the Bible is that anybody that lose that gives up father or mother or wife or children or brother or sister or land or anything for his sake that they will receive a hundredfold in this life and eternal life in the next to come and that promise is is from Jesus himself so if you believe Jesus and you believe that he's speaking the truth then you can have faith in that and and I know it's really scary to to you know jump out of that security and and and to risk losing your relationships with your loved ones and I know you would think that Oh what Jesus wouldn't want me to do that there was no way but jesus said that he came with a sword he didn't come to bring peace he said that the enemies in our lives will be those in our own household and it'll be father against son and mother against daughter and I I'll just be a living testimony that that is true it's apt in my life one of the things I was most worried about was telling my family because I had heard other guys in the band tell me their story about when they left the Mormon Church and they told their families what they had found in Christ so I was really worried about my mom though but I trusted God and I knew in the word that it said I should not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ and so I girded up my loins so to speak and and I you know said a little prayer in my heart and I called my mom and I just kind of laid it all out and said mom I don't believe in the Mormon Church anymore you know Joseph Smith was a false prophet but I do believe in Jesus Christ and he's everything I live for now and he is the reason that I'm living the life that I lived today and I just laid it all out and I braced myself and there was just a brief pause on the phone and I was really expecting my mom to say I don't love you anymore son you know get the end Satan you know or something like that but instead she said ah what a relief I didn't believe in it anymore either I was just keeping it up because I raised you in it you know and uh so I I was just kind of like surprised like mom why didn't you tell me that you didn't believe in this and she said well I raised you in it you know I couldn't backslide on you and change my story about after I've spent you know 20 years you know indoctrinating even this thing I felt like I had to keep it up and especially because I was you know this righteous kid in my family I was the kid that did everything the Mormon Church wanted me to do you know she didn't want me to judge her for coming out of the Mormon Church if anything she was worried I would reject her and and so you know it's just not the reaction I expected at all but but really just goes to show that you know if you have any doubts in the Mormon Church or struggling with with believing certain things realize that you're not alone that there are lots of people out there who are struggling with it that are afraid to leave for various reasons and you know you're not alone in that if you hear something in Mormonism that sounds a little off entertain it go trace it down research and find out what other people have said do not shut the door do not put up a wall because what if you're wrong what if what you've believed all your life isn't the real Christ it does have eternal consequences that truth is everything Christ said he came to testify of truth truth is everything and every day I pray to discern so that I can sort truth from error because I know now how serious error can take you down the wrong path so my friends I'm here and willing to talk it's a public life and it's not always pleasant but it is part of being a Christian and so the glory be his words cannot describe the feeling of you know finally knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in a way that you've always wanted to because I you know I had always wanted to know him and you know that was kind of the whole focus of my life up to my mission was was having a personal relationship with him but never feeling like I could really get there but reading his word for the very first time and and you know being washed clean by that word and understanding what his gospel really was that's you know that's what changed my life and and I finally for the first time in my life had this incredible personal relationship with Jesus Christ you know there was no barrier there's no man between me and him you know I I felt like you know I was with him and he was with me and he loved me and his arms were around me and it was just you know indescribable and so you know for the church to say that that you know my salvation was at stake it didn't mean anything because I I was so secure in Jesus Christ I had this relationship with him that I was so sure that that he had saved me you know from my sin by the work that he did on the cross that that you know I was I was a complete and total peace and I would want to read this scripture to you in Philippians chapter 3 verse 7 Paul says whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ indeed I count everything is lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ so this is Paul saying that he lost everything so he could gain Christ and he does and he counts all those things that he had in his life that he used to count his gain he counts them as rubbish as garbage compared to knowing Jesus Christ and I just want to tell you that that Jesus is so much more rewarding than anything you you think you treasure now so I just encourage you to to take that step out because there is life after the Mormon Church and it's so much better because it's free in Jesus Christ and in his love oh yeah it's worth it because this world means nothing only thing that matters is the Lord Jesus Christ and we have him we have everything forever it's worth it it's absolutely worth it if you read the Bible as a child would seek for answers I can promise you you know without a doubt that you will see what the true gospel of Jesus Christ really is it just will open up your your eyes nothing can contend with the Word of God you know God's Word in the Bible is so pure and perfect that I can't substitute it with anything you can contend with the Word of God for a sharper than a two-edged sword we want all people to have an opportunity to come to Christ these are latter days you are right about that Mormons and things are fast happening and we're given one lifetime to make these decisions and so we all have to make the most of it because we could be gone in an instant read the true gospel of Jesus Christ from the mouth of the Savior and from the mouth of his apostles and and and you know watch her life completely change and just let go of all these other things you know that that holds you captive and all these things that I believed that I had to do in order to prove myself to God they just fell away I said I can't prove myself to God but it doesn't matter he loves me because I've accepted you know the sacrifice of Jesus Christ I have faith in Him I believe in him and it'll never be the same [Music] you [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Sacred Groves

Views: 193,708

Rating: 4.7988896 out of 5

Keywords: mormon, mormonism, lds, adams, road, unveiling, grace, micah, wilder, lynn, matt, michael, jay, graham, steve, kay, joseph, warren, stefan, dennis

Id: Dl0c5nl6u48

Length: 55min 31sec (3331 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2011