Adams Road Piano

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Hey fireflies. Last week we interviewed Micah Wilder from Adams Road Ministry and now it is our extreme pleasure to interview his brother Matt. Matt served a two-year mission in Denmark from 2002 to 2004. He came to Christ after months of study initiated by his brother Micah who was sent home early from his mission for his profession of the biblical Jesus. Matt studied the New Testament and attended Christian worship events to learn more about Christianity.

God showed him through the reading of the word the Holy Bible that Jesus saves by grace through faith apart from works. Welcome to the show, Matt. We're excited to have you here with us. Oh, thanks.

So glad to be here today. Awesome. Well, first things first.

There's a question that our listeners are dying to know. Does pineapple belong on pizza? You know, I'll be honest.

Pineapple isn't my favorite, but I do like a little sweet with the meat. So it's not bad. Okay. Nice.

So you're a little halfway on that. You're willing to... I eat it. I eat pineapple with pizza, but it's not my number one go-to move. It's like the state pizza in Utah. So, I mean, you're forced to eat it at some point, some kind of church gathering. Right.

Sometimes you just kind of got to go with the flows. Awesome. Well, that'll solve that issue, you know, that people have been fighting for months over that.

So glad we finally got the definitive answer. There you go. So, I'm Matthew. You're Matt. So I'll just call you as Matt. So we'll keep it straight if that's all right with you. Yeah. It sounds good. Or you can call me the nuclear Calvinist.

People call me that sometimes. So it's a long explanation for that. So yeah. So Matt, so would you like to describe for our listeners on the podcast how you were converted from Mormonism to Christianity?

Yeah, sure. So I'll try to keep this short and simple. So basically, I was raised in the Mormon church, grew up in the Midwest in Indiana. When I was about 16, between my sophomore and junior year, my family moved from the heart of the Midwest to the heart of Mormonism. We moved from Indiana to Utah, Alpine, Utah, which was about 98-99% Mormon at the time. And I finished my high school there and then served a two-year Mormon mission for the Mormon church.

I went to Denmark. So went on the streets for two years, learned their language, and tried to convince Danes that they needed to join this institution in order to have a chance to earn eternal life. I remember one day confronting a Christian woman and trying to convert her to Mormonism or preach that message to her. And she responded by just sharing a very simple message and asking me a very compelling question. She said, Why can't what Jesus did on the cross be enough for you?

And that made me so angry at the time. I think I was convicted by the simplicity of what that that message or that question was getting to. And that's the fact that the message of the cross was foolishness for me at the time.

I love what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 18, that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And so I just remember that question really impacting me as a Mormon missionary, but it didn't cause me to like, change my mind right away or anything. But I continued and finished that two year Mormon mission trip and then was back at Utah and then studying piano performance at BYU University there in Utah, and really loved it. One of the things that I always struggled with growing up was just having an assurance that I was forgiven for my sins. From the time I was a young teenager, early teen to the time that God saved me, like I would cry out at night sometimes wanting to just know that I was forgiven and loved by God and doing everything in my power to try to do everything the Mormon church told me to do to be made right with God.

But I just never, you know, I never dealt with this guilty conscience I had. So this is something I struggled with on and off throughout my life and going into my college years. And so while I was at BYU, I remember this one instance where you're required to take some religion courses there to focus on Mormon teachings and doctrines and stuff. And I remember one day the religion professor decided for whatever reason he was going to show the video of a worship, a video of a Christian worship team in their congregation singing the song Amazing Grace. And that really impacted me. It actually moved me to tears.

And for some reason, like I was really just impacted by the message of that song. And I believe God through the Holy Spirit was really beginning to draw me to Jesus and open my heart to biblical Christianity. It was around this time in my life that Micah got saved.

As you mentioned, my younger brother Micah was on this interview, I guess, the other week. And his testimony in a nutshell is that he was a Mormon missionary trying to convert a Baptist pastor and got a challenge to read the Bible. He read the Bible thinking he could validate Mormonism and prove this guy wrong. And God ended up changing Micah's life through him reading the New Testament. And so he made a profession of faith in front of a bunch of Mormon missionaries and got sent home early, got in trouble because of his profession of faith.

And then we had a chance as a family to confront him and ask him what was going on. And that's where he shared the good news of Jesus Christ with me and everything that he had learned through reading the New Testament, and then gave me that same challenge that that Christian minister had given him to read the Bible as a child. And because of all these things going on in my life, kind of dealing with this guilty conscience and kind of having some doubts myself about Mormonism by the grace of God, I actually took this challenge and started reading and studying the New Testament, like in a different way than I had as a Mormon and really kind of approaching the Bible as if that is actually God's final authority. It's his word.

I can trust that I can rely on it. I can just seek God through his word through the Bible and then find a relationship in that way. But I just remember, for example, getting to the book of Hebrews and being convinced that any system of laws and ordinances wasn't going to be sufficient to cleanse me from my guilty conscience, but that the blood of Jesus would be able to do that for me. I love Hebrews 9 14. It says, How much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And here I was in this religious system that I was realizing I was doing all these quote unquote dead works that I was trusting in for my salvation, these ordinances and whatever. But God was calling me to realize that I was dead in my sins and in my trespasses and that I couldn't rely on these dead works of this religion to be saved. But I had to turn from them, repent and believe this good news, the simplicity that Christ died for my sins, was buried and was raised on the third day, all of this for my justification or so that I could be declared not guilty before God.

One of my favorite verses that I came across in the book of Hebrews is that next chapter in chapter 10 verse 14. It says, By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. That's a big theme in Mormonism is eternal progression and becoming perfect through the works that you're doing. But I was realizing that I could find perfection in Christ, that I could rest in him and that he had done all the work that was necessary for me to have eternal life. And I simply needed to receive this as a free gift through faith. And I love in Hebrews chapter 10, it goes on to say, Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.

I think it's just a beautiful picture of what Jesus did in my life, that the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed me from my sin and that my heart personally was sprinkled clean from that evil conscience through coming to know Jesus Christ and his love was poured into my heart through his Holy Spirit that was given to me when I believed. And so I became born again in spirit and the old had passed away that he would come. No longer did I have this fear that I was going to be condemned.

No longer did I wonder whether I was forgiven for my sins. But Jesus, like immersed me, baptized me into this, this relationship with him that was full of love and peace and joy and assurance, and giving me this desire to want to share this good news with other people. And so I got saved back in 2006 by the grace of God through the hearing of God's word and believing Jesus Christ. And then God called me out of my religious system, out of my pursuits at BYU into ministry eventually. And so I ended up joining Adams Road and I've been with the ministry now for many, many years. And thank God for the opportunity to be able to just follow him wherever he's called me and be able to share this love of Jesus with other people. And my Baptist blood was boiling. I was like, I want to just jump up and say, Amen, brother. That's great. That's great.

Thank you. I resonated so much with a lot of what you said, like never feeling truly forgiven as a kid, you know, always feeling like you're on this hamster wheel is how I compare it to never really getting that goal. And then once you realize, and the book of Hebrews too, I love the book of Hebrews. Once you understand what it says, it's like, why did I not understand this?

Or why did I not study this? You know, it's so beautiful. Everything points to Jesus. So yeah. Great. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. That is awesome.

Thank you for sharing. Now I want you to kind of go back and think to the first moment when Micah told you and approached you about biblical Christianity. And what was your first impression or your first thought and feelings related to that? Yeah, first of all, I was kind of shocked.

I was like, what changed your mind? I mean, here, I hadn't seen my brother in almost four years, because I'm a couple years older than him. I went off to Denmark for two years. By the time I got back to where our family lived in Utah, he had just been sent off to Florida. And so I have this assumption in my mind that he's going out zealously proclaiming Mormonism and that nothing is derailed that, right? And then all of a sudden, towards the end of his two year Mormon mission trip, he only had about three weeks left. He's getting sent home and told that this guy's like an apostate from the leadership and stuff. I'm like, what's going on?

Like, oh, you're off your rockers. You know, what happened, Micah? And so that was my first thought initially. And so he shared the message of grace with me. And the thing that initially came to mind, which I think is common for people in Mormonism, at least it was for me, is like I had this assumption that when people claim that they're saved by grace, it means that they're lazy. I almost think like, yeah, being saved by grace, it's too easy.

It wasn't fair. Like, like, so believing such a doctrine is just a cop out so that you can live however you want. That's kind of how I thought of my brother. Maybe he's dealing with some sins in his life. And this is his way of kind of excusing and justifying his new lifestyle. I don't know.

That's, you know, so I've got those questions. Another thing, you're raised to believe in the Mormon Church that mainstream Christianity is corrupt and full of division. So I'm thinking, well, why would you leave Mormonism for for like biblical Christianity when, you know, in my mind, like, it's, it's corrupt, it's full of division, like, they can't translate the Bible, they don't understand anything properly, like, why would you leave this this true institution and organization for something much less worthy. And the other thing that was really actually grabbed a hold of my attention was this idea of forgiveness. I remember Micah just emphasizing and kind of tying it to the idea of King David and the forgiveness he received from Christ, you know, he sinned against God through Bathsheba and killing Bathsheba's husband. And yet God put his transgressions behind him, he covered his sin and forgave him.

And, you know, in the Mormon Church, that's something that actually Joseph Smith changed in his translation of the Book of Mormon that King David wasn't actually forgiven. And so I almost had this whole kind of different idea of what it means to earn forgiveness. And so again, remember, I was talking about how I spent my entire life trying to earn God's forgiveness and never really being sure that I had attained this this status. But Micah was claiming forgiveness is a free gift, it's attained simply through faith in Christ.

And so to me, honestly, that just sounded too good to be true. Like I honestly wanted the biblical Christian message to be true concerning forgiveness, because I never had really felt forgiven for my sins as a Mormon. I worked so hard to try to earn that forgiveness, but I was always feeling so guilty and condemned. So again, I had my doubts, but I was I was like, that kind of I was really curious, like, what do you mean you can be forgiven and that this is a free gift? Yeah, I think as Latter-day Saints, as Latter-day Saints, yeah, we're kind of raised in this environment where it's almost kind of like the American individualist environment, you know, I grew up in that time where it's like, you can't get something for nothing. So that was that was the same idea with forgiveness, like, oh, you can't just be forgiven. I mean, what you just want to ask forgiveness, and that's it, you know, the concept was so foreign to us.

Yeah. And then it's, it's crazy when you think about it now looking back, like, why did I ever hold on to such a system that wants to hold me hostage from something that God gives freely, you know? But yeah, thank you for sharing that. I also wanted to talk a little bit about a little bit more about your mission experience. You talked about your time as a missionary in Denmark. I was a missionary in Europe as well. I served in the Belgium and France, dabbled a little bit in Netherlands, but I didn't speak Dutch. So that's another story for another time. But yeah, it's if your mission was anything like mine, I left between 2007 2009. And you said you were from 2002 to 2004.

Exactly. I think the conditions are probably pretty similar based on also my conversations with Paul, because he also served in Europe. It's a little bit it's a difficult place to serve people in general are not very open to religion. And so when you served your mission and you returned home, did you struggle with your questions about being a return missionary and of your identity and Mormonism? Did it affect how you were willing to accept the biblical gospel or to reject it? Did pressure of being returned missionary affect you? So yeah, like multiple questions, but just, you know, take it however you want.

Yeah, that's a great question. It's a good thing to bring up just to bring a little bit of context to what it means for anybody who's a return missionary who's facing that kind of prospect of Oh, it is biblical Christianity the past for me, but but what does that mean? What does that implicate? I prided myself on the fact I was returned missionary, I'm serving a Mormon mission for a male, it's like a rite of passage for the culture of a place like BYU, where I went being what they call them an RN, return missionary, I think that's what they call them. So being an RN, it's everything. You being a missionary was hard. And I mean, I felt like I earned my stripes. Like I went through two years of very, I mean, you're learning a language, you go on the street every day, seven days a week. And you're basically, it's exhausting. It was for me, it was exhausting and burdensome. I didn't particularly enjoy the Mormon mission trip.

But I did it because I believe that that's what I was supposed to be doing. It's actually not uncommon for Mormon missionaries to deal with depression and emotional issues. You have to think about it, we're preaching a false gospel, we dealt with rejection on a daily basis, as you mentioned, Europe, Scandinavia, places like that, they're not even interested, for the most part, a lot of people even speaking about any kind of spiritual things or religion in general. So nonetheless, when you're bringing, you know, this particular sect of religion, that's kind of extreme in a lot of ways, it was hard to, there was a lot of rejection. And you dealt with that on a daily basis.

You're away from your friends and your family, you're not even allowed to call them on the phone, but once or twice a year, at least at the time that I went. And so I felt like I had earned, you know, this right, I had something that I invested a lot of my life into at that point. And so then I come home, I come home, being a Mormon, excuse me, being a returned missionary was a huge part of my identity in Mormonism. But honestly, the longer I had been off my mission, kind of that importance faded. And what became more important to me, honestly, was wanting to simply find peace and grace.

Because I was again, I was dealing in this life with so much guilt and so much fear that I that became less important for me. But but you're right, like the culture of being in a place like BYU, you're not a return missionary, you're not going to find a girl today, you know, so on and so forth, like people, it's, it's just a hard place to be, and not be returned missionary. Yeah. So remind me of the timeline, you return home from your mission 2004. Yeah. And Micah get off his mission in 2006. Is that right?

Exactly. So he got off his mission in early 2006. I was a junior at BYU, I went a year to college before my mission. And then after my mission, I went for a couple more years. And I was, you know, partway through my junior year when Micah got saved in January of 2006. Yep.

It's actually funny. I don't think I mentioned this in my testimony, but I was actually dating the Mormon girl who I met at BYU. At the time, we ended up getting married, and we ended up both getting saved and came out of Christian Mormonism in the biblical Christianity and knowing Jesus, but that was a big part of the journey was kind of as God was changing me like communicating what was going on in my life with her and then seeing just how God took us both on our own kind of journeys and in our own timeline to coming to know him. Yeah. Praise God.

I was reading your bio on your website about that. And I was just amazed how God worked through you, through your brother, through your wife. You know, it's just we have a gracious God who's willing to show his mercy despite the fact that we don't deserve it. So yeah.

Yes, we do. Amen. All right. Onto the next question. So you have a special love and gift for music, composing it and playing the piano. So what got you into music?

Yeah, it's hard to say. Like, I began taking lessons when I was six. And according to my parents, I would sit and bang on the piano as a young child, maybe as young as two or three. And I think they finally just decided they got tired of hearing me bang random noises on the piano. So you need to take lessons. So apparently, I was really interested from the time I was just a little wee kid and been doing it ever since.

Right. So you said you grew up loving music, and you grew up banging on the piano, as you said, as a young kid. Eventually, you stopped banging, right? And you actually started learning your, your chords and all that stuff, your progressions.

Apparently, yeah, at some point that happened. So and so is it family that taught you mostly or tutors or school or, you know, yeah, everything. So my great grandmother was a concert pianist. And it kind of like music was always something this in the family. And then my mom played the piano as well. I took lessons from the time I was six all the way through high school. But yeah, I ended up that's what I studied in college was piano performance at BYU.

So yeah, I majored there. I went for a year before my Mormon mission came back off my mission actually utilize music a lot on my Mormon mission and then continued and I was partway through my you know, I finished up my junior year of school when I got saved and ended up walking away and leaving all those things behind. So my background is more classical piano. Like, for example, while I was at BYU, I studied works like Rachmaninoff preludes, Beethoven sonatas, Bach preludes and fugues. One of my favorite things to play was Rachmaninoff second concerto. If you haven't heard that it's a beautiful piece. But yeah, it's been years since I've, you know, fiddled with any of this stuff since I got saved this, this is kind of all in the past.

But, but it was a fun season of my life, studying music. And it's interesting how even before I got saved, God kind of has a plan in our lives, right. And but then he can take what we meant for one thing, and he can turn it for his glory.

It's good. Yeah, amen. And, and your your willingness to embrace the biblical gospel, even while you were almost you're close to the end, like you could see the end the finish line for your degree at BYU. Yeah. And then I was reading your bio about how, at that point, you felt like you could no longer you could no longer fulfill all of the questions of the the for the ecclesiastical interviews that you had to maintain your student your student membership at BYU. So can you tell us a little bit more about this decision?

You know, like maybe the thoughts are going through your head and everything? Sure. Yeah. So as you mentioned, there's an honor code agreement. Basically, you have to have what's called like an ecclesiastical endorsement. And so one of the things in the honor code, at least at the time was disaffiliation from the church from the Mormon Church, if you're a good standing member meant that they would they could discontinue your studies at the university. And so like, that was kind of where I stood, I kind of just felt that it was like, there wasn't really a choice. It was one or the other. It's like, if I'm going to follow Jesus and be a biblical Christian and stand for that, then I would need to make a choice between finishing my degree or being a Christian. Like, but it wasn't an easy thing. And that's what I struggled with. Um, but I've came over time, I've come over time and kind of learned that knowing and following Jesus would be more fulfilling than pursuing my own plans. Like honestly, that's what I wanted to do. I wrestled with God for a while.

I was like, God, why can't I just like lay low a little longer and finish my degree? You know, that would be, that would be easier. And I've worked so hard for this, like, can I have it? And I just think back, you know, things like in Luke nine, where Jesus tells people, you know, they're, they're looking for excuses, they want to follow Jesus, but first they've got other priorities, right? Well, suffer me first, Lord, to do this. Let me first say farewell to my family.

And then I'll follow you. And Jesus says things like, um, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back as fit for the kingdom of God. So I kind of got to this moment, this realization where I just, I just needed to make a choice there and then realize what, what was God calling me to do as a Christian and who was music going to play a role in that? And so it was kind of like, just, I had to throw all my chips out on the table and say, God, like, it's yours. Like, if you want me to do this, I want to do it the way you want me to do it.

Otherwise, you know, like, send me in the direction you want. And so it kind of makes me think of Ephesians two 10, that were his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so it was an interesting process. When I got saved was discerning and figuring out what was God's call for me as a Christian. Obviously there's clear call for all of us as believers, and we can read in God's word, what it means to be a believer and what are some of the things we should be doing. But yeah, I believe that the Holy Spirit called me to a special ministry of music as well. And so that was kind of what led me into being a part of Adam's Road is it's a music ministry, but the heart and the focus isn't as much to music as it is really just testifying to the gospel of the grace of God and using music as a tool to glorify a great God and savior and to emphasize the power and the significance of God's word in transforming lives. Here we had come out of this, this, this, I had this life where I was in a drought, right?

I mean, I was starving. I was thirsting for God's word. I didn't know it until I finally received it. Now that I've been satisfied, now that I've been fulfilled in Christ, like my desire then is like this mentality that Jesus gives us when he says in John 6 63, the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. And so there's spirit, there's life in God's word and in proclaiming it and sharing it with other people. Amen. Praise God. That's beautiful. I love that. Like combining the music and scripture together and the music that you play is so beautiful too.

And I love it. You're listening to outer brightness, a podcast for post Mormons who are drawn by God to walk with Jesus rather than turn away. Outer brightness, outer brightness, outer brightness.

There's no weeping and wailing and mashing of teeth here except when Michael's hangry that is. We were all born and raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, more commonly referred to as the Mormon faith. All of us have left that religion and have been drawn to faith in Jesus Christ based on biblical teachings. The name of our podcast, outer brightness reflects John 1 9, which calls Jesus the true light, which gives light to everyone. We have found life beyond Mormonism to be brighter than we were told it would be. And the light we have is not our own.

It comes to us from without thus outer brightness. Our purpose is to share our journeys of faith and what God has done in drawing us to his son. We have conversations about all aspects of that transition, the fears, challenges, joys, and everything in between.

We're glad you found us and we hope you'll stick around. So when you're creating music, what does your creative process kind of look like, like when you're sitting down and creating music for what you do? Sure.

So great question. For me, composing music kind of comes in flashes. Often the actual composition process for a particular piece, it could happen very quickly in a matter of a few hours, even minutes. Sometimes I'm just like in a certain mood reflecting on a certain subject in scripture, for example, and I'll start playing a melody or a chord progression that comes to me from within. And then, you know, if it turns into anything or becomes anything good, I give all credit and glory to God. I don't like composing if I don't feel inspired.

I don't like forcing it, if it's not necessary. And so there are certain seasons where I'll do a lot of writing, if there's a purpose for it, but other seasons where I don't really do a lot. If there isn't a need or what I feel would be like a calling from the Holy Spirit to write music, then I don't. There's always the technical side of it, too. So there's certain maintenance aspects of being a musician that you do, whether you're, you know, inspired to create new music or not.

But I definitely enjoy those seasons and those times where, where I get to be a part of that process of creating music. So, yeah. Awesome. So what do you do? I know.

Sorry. Like, sometimes I feel that like, in the creative process, when I'm going through something difficult and painful, sometimes those seasons seem to be more fruitful, ironically, like, and maybe it's because I'm relying more on Jesus, or I'm seeking him out because of those particular trials. But a lot of times, it's in those seasons that ends up yielding something unique and beautiful versus like, you know, other times.

Yeah. So you would tie the success or I don't know how you would, I had a word that but the, you know, the music, you know, when you're on a good point in a good place, when you're producing music, it's, you would say it's tied your spirituality, but are there other things that maybe get your creative juices flowing, you know, like, do you have hobbies, you know, you go on hikes, or, you know, I know you played sports in your background, you played? Was it was a basketball? Yeah, basketball growing up, but I'm a I love being out in God's creation. I love being out in nature. And I love running. So I just my way to escape and kind of get out and just to clear my mind and stuff, which is kind of therapeutic for me, it's just to go on runs in the forest or whatever, you know, for if I'm on the road somewhere, and we're in the mountains, and I have a chance to go off for an hour or so and just kind of be with God in that sense, and, and stuff, I really enjoy getting out and about and kind of having some of that space and that isolation to be with God and commune with him that way. Yeah, that's great.

Usually when I'm lacking in creative juices for whatever I'm working on, I eat ice cream, and then you end up looking like I do. So I should probably I should probably I should probably follow your route. Rather than Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, I knew I saw that you had you'd placed like, you're like state champions, right in high school. Yeah, yeah, we were our high school basketball team. My senior year, we were state champions.

Yeah, that's great. So do you not play anymore? Or do you still play?

I played I would play like in church, pick up games once a week for a few years. And then and then I like, hurt my finger really bad one time playing and I just got like paranoid. So I'm like, I'm not gonna do it anymore. Because I don't like break my hand or something. Like, if I wasn't wasn't a musician or something, I would enjoy it. So I picked up, I found something that I enjoy doing running that has less of I think a risk for for what I do as a musician. So so yeah, I buy do I did enjoy playing basketball. But it's probably been a good decade since I really played.

That's good. I was when you when you mentioned that you played at a church, I thought maybe he has a cameo on that. That terrible Mormon movie church ball. Oh, those are the days, right? Yeah, we all we all grew up, you know, playing some kind of sport in the cultural hall, right? Like there's somebody's somebody's trying to do. Yep.

Somebody's trying to have a Boy Scout meeting in the next room or like, you know, young, young women's activity and we're playing basketball and they come and say, Hey, be quiet. Yeah, so true. It's kind of great. It's like, even though, you know, we said we have, you know, we've embraced the biblical gospel and we trust in Christ alone to save us.

You know, there's still a lot of great memories we have as kids probably, you know, growing up in the church and yeah, absolutely those kinds of activities. For sure. Yeah. So no ill will towards like Mormon people or anything. I love them.

And it's just like, because of that, because of that fact that I love him, I want to reach out to them and share the truth with them. That's great. Yeah. Sorry to detour into these other things, but if you can't tell, I'm not the musically inclined that's Brianna's territory. So like, you know, I'll divert into other, other areas, but for sure. Yes.

All right. So you talked, you already talked about, uh, Adams road. So, uh, could you tell us a little bit more about the ministry? Like maybe the timeline of when it started, who plays a part in it, uh, who plays which instruments and, and, you know, just, just more details about the ministry.

Yeah. So, um, we've been together since 2006 and we're all former Mormon Christians and God's brought, taken us all out of Mormonism into a saving or personal relationship with him. Really mainly our main focus is just sharing testimony and using God's word in that.

And also we write music together collaboratively as a group. And the big focus is just putting God's word in our lyrics. And so that again, God, we believe God's word is living and active sharper than a two-edged sword. And so that his word will not return void. And so again, we, we, um, want to make sure that everything we do like aligns with his word. And so if we bring forth a project or a message, we're always testing it against scripture and making sure that we collaborate on the process and that we're all on the same page with that. And so, so, and then about five years ago, um, a little side note to our ministry, Adams Road Piano, which kind of a little branch to Adams Road was something that I started doing in addition to what we do as a ministry. Now as a, as a ministry, we, we have toured for the last, um, 13 years, about four months out of the year, and we'll go all over the US and share testimony of Jesus and do programs and do outreaches and stuff in partnership with the churches and different areas all over the country. And then about five years ago during our off season, um, God opened the door for me to also do some piano ministry concerts. And so I started sharing God's word in that way as well. And so it's kind of a little different because I'm not a singer like Lyla and Joe.

They're, they're really gifted in that way. And so you don't want to go to an event to hear me sing. So I speak God's word. And so I do music in the spoken word.

And so for example, I offer like four programs that are all over an hour long each. One's like journey through the gospel, it's from Genesis to Revelation, and it's taking highlights of and telling the story of salvation in Christ, his death burial and resurrection, this good news. I have one that goes through the gospel of John, I have one that goes through like the teachings of Jesus, like the Sermon on the Mount, and a lot of his parables and things like that.

I have one that focuses more on just like personal arrangements of different hymns that I really love Christian hymns that mean a lot to me. And so at any rate, yeah, for the last five or so years, I've been doing that. So maybe a couple times a month, I'll go out on a weekend to a certain area, I'll fly there and do two or three or four events in an area and then fly home to do with my family.

So my wife doesn't kill me. But so it's an interesting thing in ministry, especially when you travel or like a traveling evangelist, right? If you've got a family at home, it's finding out how can you balance that?

When can you take the family along? And when you're not able to like, just like, you're still a husband, you still have a calling as a father, and then finding that balance, which is, it's been an interesting growing process over the years, but something that's exciting and just fun and always thinking of what Jesus says, what it means to be a disciple. You know, sometimes you have to, you know, leave your wife for a little bit or whatever, and just trust that God's going to work all the things out.

If he's called you to do something, you just do it. But nice. So you said you started this like five years ago? Huh? Okay, cool. Yeah.

So it's kind of a branch for the ministry. And it's interesting. So so like, people ask, like, what inspired you to create this? Or where did you hope to go with this? Like, with Adam's room? Yeah.

Nothing. So when I first got saved, I actually had lively was a vision from the Lord regarding, like what I'm doing now with the Adams Road piano ministry, that it was one of those things like, well, where am I ever going to get to that, like, I don't get it. And, and it was just one of these things where I've modeled much of what I do with Adams Road piano from that quote unquote vision, and also testing that and making sure what what that entails as far as what I do with Adams Road piano aligns with Scripture.

And I'll give you kind of a little bit of a rundown of kind of what what the heart is for Adams Road piano. So it's like another means for testifying to the gospel of the grace of God. Jesus says, as I mentioned already, in John 663, says the words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life, right? The Apostle Paul wrote that one of the things we're supposed to do as believers is devote ourselves to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching, from First Timothy 413. And we can also read, for example, in Psalm 33, two to three, give thanks to the Lord with a lyre, make melody to him with a harp of 10 strings, sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.

So that's kind of what I do. I play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts, sharing God's Word to serve, refresh, edify the church and proclaim the good news of Jesus to the lost. And I hope and plan to do this as long as I believe that's what the Lord's calling me to do. But you know, as believers, we have to be open to the fact that we have to be flexible to know that things can change at any time.

So as long as he continues to open doors for me to minister in this way, I'm happy and thrilled to do so. Awesome. I believe there was something I don't know if it was what it was.

I was researching a little bit about this. And I just really liked how I don't know if it was the title of something, but like hands of war, like the idea, like the scripture behind that, like, that was really cool. Yeah. And the idea is this, the spiritual warfare, like we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places and how, like the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. Right.

But then it also has this double meaning because I'm also playing the piano and that's from a Psalm. And so you train my hands for war and just kind of a fun little play on that idea. Yeah. And that's awesome. Brandon, do you have any other questions off the top of your head that you'd like to ask?

I guess, I don't know, maybe you could say this after for after the recording. But like, when are you guys going to come out or perform or like, where are you? We are in San Marcos, close to New Braunfels. Oh, really? In Texas, right?

Uh huh. We are actually scheduled to be in, um, what's the name of the church? New Braunfels Bible Church. There's a church. Do you know which church I'm talking about? Yeah, we actually attend there.

That's where you attend. Okay. What's the pastor's name? Remind me. Pastor Phil. Phil.

Yeah, that's right. Were you a part of the church years ago when we went there, when we visited? I was not here. When you haven't seen us. I haven't been able to attend.

No, but I think it's in early October when we're driving back from from the West, kind of on our way back home to Florida. We're stopping by on like a Wednesday night. Okay. On our website and check our calendar. All that information's there.

Okay, thank you. I really want to see you guys. We plan to go see you guys this year. So yeah, I would love to meet you in person for sure.

That'll be awesome. All right, now my question that has been burning on top of my head is when are you going to collaborate with Kanye West? I don't know if I'm cool enough to do that. He's a pretty famous guy and we're not. So, but hey, if you ever wanted to collaborate with us, you can be the connecting point for us, Matthew.

Yes. All right. We'll work on it. It'll be Adams road, cross Kanye. It'd be like, you know, in backstreet boys and then singer was a backstreet boys and new kids on the block. They teamed up, you know, it'll be, it makes me think when we first started doing ministry, like there were four of us guys.

Now there's three of us, but we would do a lot of harmonies and we'd wear these old, like retro shirts with ties. And people would tell us we were the, we were like the Beatles meet Jesus. That's great. I don't know if people would still say that about us, but years ago, that's what they would say.

Although back then parents thought it was like, Beatles were like, you know, they were like anti-Christ. Right. That's great. Thank you, Matt, for, for attending.

I really appreciate it. Thank you for your insights and I love your testimony, your witness for Christ. And, uh, yeah, just, just thinking about your life, how the Lord's worked in your life. I love hearing all the different stories that everybody coming out of the LDS church has and just embracing the gospel and realizing that it's not us, it's about him and just coming to that knowledge and embracing it.

It's just, it's just a wonderful feeling. And that's why, that's why we do this program. We hope that the latter day saints that are listening will know that we have a place of love for them and that, uh, we're doing this out of love and we help this experience in this interview with Matt has, is, is a blessing to them. And so we, so this time, you know, at the end, we'd like to ask you, do you have anything, any upcoming projects you're working on, any upcoming tours or anything else you'd like to talk about, websites, anything you'd like to share with our listeners? Sure.

Yeah. So our website is at adamsroadinministry.com and on there, you can find all the information you want about us. All of our testimonies are up there. Any information about our tours, both for, for our full team. When we go out in the summer and the fall or any of the piano ministry stuff I do in like the winter and the spring, you can find all that under the calendar section. Um, if you go to our music tab, all of our albums, they're there like as a, as a full team, we have like 10 lyrical albums. And then in addition to that, with the piano ministry aspect of that, there's seven additional albums of like spoken word and instrumental music. We'd encourage you to just get on there and check that out. It's all free and you can download it and let that be a blessing to you. There's a lot of resources for reaching out to Mormons on there as well.

I'm just desperate for the gospel of Jesus Christ in general. Um, yeah, let's see if there's anything else. Oh, also, I personally have a YouTube channel called Adams Road Piano and I release weekly content every Monday morning at 7am. So if you guys like the YouTube thing, I'd encourage you to check it out. And also we have videos. So if you go to our video section on our website, both for the ministry and for Adams Road Piano, there's there's lots of videos on there.

You can check out both testimonies and music performances and stuff. That's great. I'm gonna have to subscribe and go check out your channel. Sounds awesome. Yeah, gonna be doing the same thing here.

So I'm excited to see that. And I encourage everyone here who's listening to check them out. They're awesome.

Their music is amazing and their ministry. Um, so I guess this is a wrap up for our Oh, who's that? This desk.

He's a troublemaker. Hi. All right. We're finishing up an interview.

Love you, kiddo. All right. We don't want to take any more of your time. So thank you for joining with us. And we really appreciate you and your time. And, um, Likewise.

I look forward to meeting you, Brianna and Matthew. Where are you? Where are you living, Matt? I'm a perpetual student.

That's not even a joke. I feel like I've been in school for my entire life. Uh, yeah, I'm a, I'm a student up in upstate New York in the capital district. So, Oh, okay. I imagine you're probably not coming up to this neck of the woods anytime soon. We weren't, but they did.

They did. I guess you guys recently relieved that the travel ban got released so we could actually, we actually have a couple of events in New York. So like there aren't restrictions at that time. Uh, we plan to be in your state. We'd love to see you at that point.

Awesome. But mostly people don't want to visit Albany. They don't want to visit Buffalo out west or they want to visit Rochester or New York city. You know, it's like people forget the Albany's a thing. So it's a good metaphor for, for your life in general. I'm sure. Yeah. My life, especially. Yeah.

I'll have to look at those dates and see if there's anything close to where I'm living. That'd be awesome. Yeah.

I would love that. All right. Well, uh, we'll just wrap this up. Um, and tune in next week for our next episode, which will be an interview with Fred and his, uh, coming out of a cult. I don't know what the name was, so please forgive me on that.

Um, but yeah. Uh, thank you. And see you next week. We thank you for tuning into this episode of the outer brightness podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Please visit the outer brightness podcast page on Facebook. Feel free to send us a message there with comments or questions by clicking send a message at the top of the page. And we would appreciate it if you give the page a like, we also have an outer brightness group on Facebook, where you can join and interact with us and others as we've discussed the podcast, past episodes and suggestions for future episodes, et cetera. You can also send us an email at outer brightness at gmail.com.

We hope to hear from you soon. You can subscribe to the outer brightness podcast on Apple podcasts, cast box, Google podcasts, pocket casts, pod beam, Spotify, and stitcher. Also, you can check out our new YouTube channel. And if you like it, be sure to lay hands on that subscribe button and confirm it. If you like what you hear, please give us a rating and review wherever you listen and help spread the word. You can also connect with Michael, the X Mormon apologist at from water to wine.org where he blogs and sometimes Paul and Matthew do as well.

Music for the outer brightness podcast is graciously provided by the talented Brianna Flournoy and by Adams road. Learn more about Adams road by visiting their ministry page at adamsroadministry.com. Stay bright, flyer flies. That you are the holy one of God. The word made fresh, the risen son. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. All of this world is in decay, but the word of our God through ages remains. Lord, you promised that we as your church would remain upon this rock and the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

Cause you have power to keep your word unspoiled in purity. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. All of this world is in decay, but the word of our God through ages remains. As the rain falls down from heaven and waters the earth bringing it life.

So the word that goes out from your mouth will not return empty, but does what you desire. Lord, we hear your word and believe in you. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. All of this world is in decay, but the word of our God through ages remains. The word of God remains. This is the Truth Network.