The True Life story of the late Evangelist Billy Kelly

since the time of the great backwoods revivals of the late 18-hundreds that swept through the eastern and southern states there have been brush harbors and camp meetings mainly throughout the south some of the camp meetings are several weeks long or they're servile weeks scheduled during the year where preachers and laymen alike may come for spiritual physical and mental renewal one of the unique characters of our generation is a Baptist preacher who was born in the mountains of East Tennessee brother Billy Kelly there have been only a few like him before his day and he certainly is the last of those lam preachers who can Abele blend higher education with a plain simple and sometimes antiquated ways of life [Music] my past is longer than animal I mean buddy I could sit here and talk I guess from now till doomsday and never tell all the things that's happened in my life I was born in Oliver Springs Tennessee April the 17th 19 and 32 and some of the happiest days I guess I ever spent on the face of this earth was in Oliver Springs Tennessee my grandfather had land of inheritance about 165 acres only inside of the farmers old Poplar Creek the other side was Indian Creek I feast I hunted I am Jordan life as a young man and I thought that's a grandest place in all the world well my mother and daddy couldn't live together my daddy was passed to the First Baptist Church and Oliver Springs Tennessee at one time and my daddy back still on the Lord and moved to Corbin Kentucky in 1938 and bought an old beer joint and I'm at an old hotel now I never seen my daddy drink never never known drag he won the Custer but he just he just went to the bottom and there's a fussing going on we came back to Knoxville and I finished the first grade Knoxville then went back to Oliver Springs and went to Scarborough School out there which is in a portion of Oak Ridge Tennessee and by the way my forefathers owned all that whole country my great-great grandfather's on 9,000 acres in there and it's all around Oliver Springs and Scotland and Wales in all in that portion of the country but I had to walk two miles that schoolhouse I mean to catch the bus Gould schoolhouse and the coal trucks would weigh their coal like the scales my cousin ran the scales and we just hope and pray that he be opened now that village stove gold with about freeze to death have to leave the house before daylight in the wintertime and get back after dark at night and we meet that school bus and ride that thing for about 25 miles to Scarborough school and my little sister boy she cried I won't slap her jaws and reason I did I was about to cry myself we're just about to freeze and then we moved back to Knoxville Tennessee and stayed there for several years and then I went off to military school they put me to military school my mother had remarried and went off to military school stayed there for years and it was during those days that I really learned something about life and I was tell a little bit of yesterday you heard me talk about it but the old man that run that school was mr. Morgan Kenneth Morgan and he drove some things in my heart that I never got over be a man face the music and we went swimming on Sunday but Joe slipped off fifty others went swimming on set as its rules and all he had to do on Monday morning in Chapel say you that went swimming yesterday meet me in my office we didn't lie about it 50 of us lined up Oh mr. Morgan took a board a paddle about that long had some holes board in it he's about to eat stick but he put it on his three legs apiece he tells stories that make me want to do right he told about a barber that came to town and he be cutting peoples hair and every time a strange card come in he'd have to look and see who that was and one day there's a car came in and out the back door he went he is in trouble always run it and that man told in that story you live right you do right you don't have to run there won't be somebody down you won't be looking by through the bars of the penitentiary and that got to me I snorted back in the mountains of East Tennessee and we as poor folks now you talk about being poor buddy we're support we spent for three old they'd win at Kentucky Fried Chicken in our day we'd had licked somebody else's fingers mom oldest to carpet the bathroom so we kept for that money saved up enough to carpet the thing and she liked it so good we just put it up a path on the end of the half we had a rough brother we had it rough I want you to know they make a big old cat head biscuits I mean the kind that you can pack a lunch on just about half move to the next body totally clear and I've always said I hope that I can follow the bowl of chicken gravy with two of them biscuits is drying off buddy now they back up my lunch and we'd go to school with dick the lawn and and good old biscuits with a great jelly blackberry jelly there and fried up behind you like that yeah you're saying I'm a bucket whoo second grade I can't a full pound Lord and in the third grade I can't eight-pound Lord the time I got to high school I was kind of a large in there but we had some happy times blueish times and I mean God started my life out in that part of the world now I didn't realize long life's journey what gotta do for me let me meet some of the strength that made the woman had a boy late lively one what is gonna name him and he couldn't find it figure out what kind of name him so they just trying to call him odd and they said that old war despise that name he hated that name and when he died he told the said look don't put that name on no two stones and just don't put anything on it they put a rock up to forget it and so they did some years later people's going through that graveyard and it looks and then just that stone standing there and a fella said isn't that the first ball he threw dangers Dan laid it over centerfield fence and they beat us four to two after losing that ballgame I so upset and what bought me a fifth of liquor I was a joke with Donald's pool hall where on gage Street Knoxville and there's an extra long flight of steps went up I went up went back to the restroom I don't how much ever the drug well a drunk enough herbs knocked me out and I that was about two o'clock afternoon now I lay down that red school floor dog drunk vomited all over the floor Waller did it close tore hole my trousers man I was an office fix you ever seen in your life and about six o'clock that evening some little boys was leaving the pool hall and they went down and when they got on the street while this some fellows handing out tracts and they to keep them give them off their back they said they said won't you go find a pool of little red Kelley's in a fat dog drunk give him some em tracks well they came up family in that drunken stupor they took them outside in the pool hall and it was look like a church pew well it was a church for you it was a padded church pew they sent me down that thing they got some towels put the cold water fountain put them on the face trying to sober me up downstairs with a crystal hamburger plays he got tomato juice gave me the way the Jews trying to best to sober me up then they put me in the car stuck my head out to win and all around the block trying to get fresh air to me and trying to eat my sobered up and finally the estimates that go revival with them and I said I came I gave ever excuse I can think of and then the big and hit me I said I got a date tonight and my girlfriend won't let me go because I need she's bad shaped I was they said let's go call her well I said okay so I knew she was gonna let me go we went back that pool all got on an extension line and they said he's okay fred goes revival she said Lord our mercy if he's gone taking my home well I try to get out of that deal i crawfished every way are good I didn't get out of it finally I told us into looking more goal but I'm gonna sit on the back seat and when the invitation starts I will get up well New York's what we are a cigarettes what I'm gonna do so I've got in I thought there's going a little church out somewhere they hold me to the University of Tennessee audit all 5,000 people had already jammed in there for revival service and then when I got out of sloop liquor the good walk one going one side one another those she said you'd have to take him point at me upstairs Irene afford to keep the drunk so up step through when got up that is hot if you've ever been a drunk you know what I'm talking about I went to sleep I don't know what they're talking about I don't what they preached about but when he comes down for the invitation that 504 Squire stood up and they began to sing if you won't joy real joy wonderful joy let Jesus come into your heart well I thought I've had a lot of good times I'm going to chicken fights the dog bites and I played a little fiddle and honky tonks and I've gone here and there the dances and I've drunk liquor and I've had some good times and then we're saying if you want real joy and then they got the singing are there any rivers that seem to be uncoupled are there any mountains you can opt all through high God specializes in things that seem to be impossible and he can work on miracle for you boy about that time on old boy stepped up and he was the vice president I've seen your class I was a president had a hundred eighty students graduated that year old Jim rough the stepped up put his arm around me said red where you go fused to die tonight I said go to hell same place you're going I do he is a hypocrite and we go to church on Sunday live like a devil rest of the time I said go to hell same place you're going he looked at me in tears running down he said Ridge you bout to go to hell but you won't go where I'm a coin he said I got saved not before last more about that time he said to us it read says stick your foot out and go to meet you halfway now listen I've been preaching 45 years almost 46 I guess 46 now and I've never told anybody they were stick their foot high well God made him I never have but I stood there and I didn't know this then I found this out later somebody stepped up to the business book and her Fanny and said to him if you get that redheaded boy be on the balcony saved said they know tell what happened this meeting and he had everybody in the house to bow their heads to go to praying for me and I didn't know that and I looked around that oh boy said read the old Stig foot out gotta meet John Wayne and I looked around they might had your head bowed everybody was a praying I didn't know this praying for me and he just kept saying stick your foot out gonna be J boy well to eat him off my back I thought aloud to stick my foot out and that'll be hid and then I'm standing right next to the aisle I stuck my foot help and when I did mother there's a fallen it but ya better I come I'm gonna tell you listen Wes gonna go downstairs walking one fast enough next thing that's in a truck that was fast enough next thing I'm in a dead run boy I slid in that order like a ballplayer sliding in the hole hallelujah to God people forget to try to talk to him and I wouldn't talk to them one interest in them my trouble was between me and God and I felt like Jesus was sitting on a throne like that thing in Washington of Abraham Lincoln sitting in that big chair I felt like Jesus sitting about 1215 feet above my head in a big old chair like that look me and I slow down I could look up but since a dirty black that's a lawful good look up and boy did you I prayed about our life some things I confess to half a dozen times making sure got of me in and after a while I said here goes I'm I'm gonna turn this I ride back now I looked up toward him and I said God if you can save me save me and if you can use me use me more about that down these are dose of salvation came out of a land it's better than hey I'll tell you I got born again I mean saved redeemed heaven bound save forever and forever and I didn't I didn't know all about it I didn't know if I'd known then what I know now I'm still better running against old ugly people look good hey man I got I come out of that building that night and it seemed like the stars came out old dress parade and beer don't we get me to say work that you saved it seemed like the trees is clapping her hands and sin we're glad you born again it seemed like the God the Father the Son the Holy Ghost all that crowd is in heaven I was leaning over the battlements that glow we're saying we're glad we're glad that you say you born again the strings are the old-time southern gospel music the unholy shouting of the praise to God 11:11 preaching may be heard at the grill pastors camp meeting in Greer South Carolina their brother Billy Kelly presides as the patriarch of this summer phenomenon he is truly a mountain man and a man of God loved and admired by the humble and the aid of the spiritual world his faithful and consistent testimony has been heard by Fowles reason the camp meetings he is conducted as well as in local churches all across America Billy attended carson-newman College where he played football and met dot his lifelong companion when I went off to college why I met her and I was talking to an old boy over the name of chesty and said the ministration Building and I saw her come walking across the campus there and I said the old Chester I said y'all come for my wife y'all is my wife and I said do you know where he said yeah I said introduce me to her and we'll her name was dark Frost and I said the hill I said I believe I need frostbitten and so he told her over there the apartment and introduce B Jordan born I saw that girl I'll tell you what's truth goose-pimples jumped out on me chill bumps I got an office fix you ever see in your life but anyhow I thought that was a sweetest prettiest brown-eyed gal I'd ever seen in my life and I just I don't know what it's loved her from the moment that I saw her and I wanted her to be my wife but anyhow I thought that was a sweetest prettiest brown-eyed gal I'd ever seen in my life and I just I don't know what it's loved her from the moment that I saw her and I wanted her to be my wife well we got the court and next thing you know I got drafted United States Army and it didn't have I wasn't ordained or anything like that so I had to go to the service and went to Fort Jackson and then I went down to cap Polk Louisiana I called it lousy Etta that allows this place I've ever been in my life and I was the lowest thing on the totem pole eyes up EVT every day and I'd go to mail call I'd wait to hear my name called out I hear an old sergeant now private Kelley stop Sarge and it had that letter back to me and well got came back to Fort Bragg North Carolina got my first leave to go home and when I got home why I went to that brick rock house on gate of Main Street in Sevierville Tennessee and when I got there I lost weight now it's time to get kind of dressed up a little left at the car or would look so bad about that time the door that house will open the screen went back and a young girl 20 years old come a flying out that door jumped four steps hit that sidewalk I do it 90 and I men are doing a hundred and ten buddy I mean I was in love well and we went on and Horton with one sunny afternoon why we went to a cemetery as a church out in the country there and I gave her a ring and asked her to be my wife and we got engaged and we as married September the 619 and 53 in Sevierville Tennessee at the First Baptist Church brother said howdy keeps you in that field old Chevy well I've never had any affiliations Bob Jones University I don't know why but he now they came said a fella out to see me about you that stagecoach I had a horses new muse and the team of oxen then and I have to be out the barn mole overhauls that's all I ever were and I'm speeding the homes and here comes in Sullivan Bob Jones University they had a tire code on yes he did he came up and he saw me and he's gonna ask me about use that stagecoach the muse nauseous and when he looked me over he liked me better you did their mother Jagger in his early days before he was an experienced preacher or well-known he began holding meetings wherever there was a warm heart or a listening ear let's let Billy tell you about two of those early meetings I started preaching and the McColl Avenue Baptist Church said we'll set up a tent out here in this section we'd like to organize church out there if we could said we can't reach those people they won't come to our churches a big Southern Baptist Church and back in those days there wasn't any Independent Baptist churches are there so they said we'll put a tent up let's go out there and preach so I went out there and I preached and this woman had 15 kids and her husband was in the penitentiary and that whole family made a profession of faith well it impressed the community and others got saved and then as a result while we organized the Timothy Street Baptist Church in Knoxville Tennessee I felt that a God to go to all of her Springs weren't born and there see if I can hold revival meeting well garland walls was a celebrated hero from World War two he's one of the lone survivors off the Bunker Hill itself when he came back to Oliver Springs for war he built a big old tabernacle and he let people go down hold meetings and all that loud I told him I said government I'm gonna let me use that Tabernacle yeah how much just pay the light bill didn't have it well I stayed there for that so I went on boats brochures I had a big banner pretty to go across the street and announced the meeting all I've been on the radio long then you radio announcers not call them ask them to down sir meeting here everybody was announced in the meeting and everybody knew the week was going on I knew the well I just didn't figure that bill is a little older and it's seat 2,000 and I just didn't feel like it we'd have enough room the first night we had 35 in a building that seats through 2005 didn't he look like enough to sing a song boy was I let down I took over next day and I got in touch those regular announcers I said look down sit they said we're telling there were 30 minutes and there's telling it but but in the crowd was nothing well to make a long story short I preached that week I couldn't get enough money to pay the light bill I begged and I begged I was broke as a convict I wanted to give him a song leader love offered I had no money I'm in a bad fix well down towards the weekend a little boy got saved and his daddy was a mailman and he came to him he said preachers and I quit done quit taking up money for the lights said God told me to pay the light bill said I don't care how long you stay here I'll pay the light bill so he had that relea mailman well over the weekend Milford II he pastored Pisgah Church Mount Pisgah Baptist Church they came in and I guess a biggest crowd was about 150 that's all they don't know too tall that seats mm well I preached the second week and I said this is it I won't quit I'm tell you right now I'm gonna quit I said these people on their snore revival III's gonna get up telling us what's gonna tell them I said I'm gonna say listen listen do you hear him I said just please a 40-foot for mail I said hear the screams IL and I said I'm a getting out of here I said you know this is a revival meeting I'm gonna quit well that's what's gonna tell them just that about the time I got up at night laughs gonna tell him that I don't walk up late that'll get door and Sun and he said preach I hope you don't think I'm taking over but said governments would sing a song and he starts singing when I said go ahead I don't preach no hell so he starts saying a little song that you've heard it many of a time and most quartets and solos did singing sing about three verses of it and that's it I saw a one traveler in tattered garments clad coming up the mountain it seemed that he was said his back was heavy laden his strength was almost gone yet he shouted dados allah' delivers will come and then he solo and and if you know the original song it's got 24 verses if I remember correctly and he didn't leave a one about not a one of well I have to get up I said folks y'all come on back tomorrow night we'll try to get in tomorrow night now as hotels don't quit but that song got me going on the other side so the next night I'm down again I'm gonna tell them they're not for a fact it's over with this is it and just about that time out of war going up again said preacher I hope you don't think I'm taking over but God wants to say again and he son the same thing well I started preaching and I heard the doors rattling double doors wait at the end of the odor tour and was using side door we turned all the lights out except down close to the flood silent save on the light bill I hired those double doors rattling I couldn't see it's dark back through then finally I made out of this bold white-haired pop oh and someone with great aunts and uncles how about 10 or 12 herb I said pop all y'all come on down here now closer than the seats down here get you see I don't want to preach tone don't want said but I know when that invitation started that night the first step that I was my old football and he got that came down gotten older and I heard him crowd Oh God I'm a sinner save me for Jesus sake and that night boy I did this and I I was gonna quit that meeting but as a young preacher just starting out God showed me something that night well it looks like it's all over uh-huh when the devil said throw the towel in and quit when there's no more tomorrow's it's all over you are stuff nothing to it praise God he's just fixin to do something he's just and God showed me that as a young man and I don't lose I believe I told brother Pete yesterday that word discouragement vete that that's their been my mindset said I've been run off I've been to churches that actually voted me out as the Evangelist run me off voted me out while I there and I've had him to say Oh some things about me and call me everything you can lay that they lay their tongue to but there's a few things that I throw it out of Maya thinking cain't Oh listen buddy I told starting out and you cater or don't just a and yet I'll tell you what that word discouragement left me hey men to God they could trust me they told me a thing he won't do you want to do I make shut down shop here but I'm particular death is another place to get to and I got time study about that outfit many evangelists visit brother Kelly's home for advice counsel and to draw upon his vast years of experience one of his recent visitors was evangelist Randy brown who gleaned from his write fields of spiritual insight brother Kelly sometimes is philosophical and his convictions of firm he has very definite views on current issues and especially the Word of God I'm 63 years old Mac remembers a boy getting out one day in the yard on Sunday with a hole cutting some weeds down and my grandma hollered me put that hole up boy this is the Lord's Day hmm they didn't play ball on Sunday I'm talking about people believed anything we didn't go swimming on the Lord's Day and people we went to school is that a revival meeting they turn school I go down that church for revival services and people and fear God now you take in Romans chapter 3 and verse 18 he says this there is no fear of God there's got to be a fear of God L fear God this day and time that's really shack up why used to be for manners are done that the commune I went with some crooked woman and forsaken his family well times have changed now the end people get on worldwide television and they brag about being less they boast and the fact that they've taken Bible read now the schoolhouse I remember when Eisenhower March troops in the Clinton Tennessee but now then look what it what it is there everybody breaks this am afraid of the day down your clumsy South Carolina and the television was then also to television just zoomed in all the feller and you know what he said and now you know in other words he's coming out of the closet everybody'd know and some people that I've known that I never dreamed of it was that way they've stepped down who an anemic God ever dreamed that we lived a day when men and have long hair and that age came in men letting her hair grew out like women I tell her L Tallulah her on her chest be a man instead of their head and this crowd wiring bracelets like the women lace on their drawers like the women and all the rest of it they would say he that's the time we're living in did when they take God out well but it I mean our trouble started short up and it's don't look get any better he says gonna get worse and worse the young preachers starting out I thought the other thing was gonna get better let's get worse worse and I used to think it you know it's going to get better right here some of these liberal preachers talking about more Bible more religious institutions more money more preachers everything's getting better there may be more money more institutions more preachers but you getting worse all the time now how many young fellas you know to the church they got the church fight and that ended their ministry right there is over with they couldn't take it they couldn't pay the deal but I tell him to hang in there be faithful to God first of all to find out that he's a shepherd and not a sheepdog God's man commands every situation I said every situation Bar None and I believe that with all of my heart and any man is a leader he's got command every situation and when I when I go in the church I take over why do I take over well what they've had and been working so let's try this way yep see and you go somewhere in the pastor wants to tell you how to run the revival meetin well just lady and run it he don't need you so I learned I learned that hey God's man commands every situation and that he ought to wait on God and let the Lord be the leader he's the other shepherd but takes commands from the Lord and does what God would have to do and I'd tell every young preacher in this country to take that old King James Version of the Bible I read out set that up for the last days one college fella told me said well I can't understand that Oh Bible thees and thous misled when I said to you a college man how is it your grandpa they never saw the third grade could understand it and you a college man and you can't understand it I said your Grandpa's knew what it meant and I'll tell you a man that reads that book as it said in Revelation you may not be able to understand revelation 20 incensed and said read it Billy is is God's man he's the unusual manner I sometimes say that Billy Kelly is an institution that's more than just a personality he's an institution he his culture is different from the average man he appreciates humble things in common things and ordinary things more than an older man would he's bit that we had made that well he sees things along the side of the highway that most of us would pass up and pass by but he sees them and our does he see them but it sees a lesson the god integer we get from these things that he sees in life still gorgeous appreciate me like brother Harold cycler a very learned man well the wisest men I know and I see him brother Harold Sadler that of all the preachers that I know across this country I be bees one of the most the most conscientious preacher I never met my life I've never seen him in a sports shirt like this he always has all the coat at a time I saw him in his own yard born grace with a pseudo inner Lord he stayed ready as a signal to me that he's ready to go but God any minute to witness to the hospital and Here I am in my sixties laying in the hospital up there and I heard Somerset flee and here he was 80 years old shuffling feet just barely moving coming down through the halls of the hospital to visit me I mean I mean listen buddy 6:30 in the morning I've been on trips with him and he said to me it party talk Mississippi said can I ride home with you I said yeah we rode home and got home for him to catch a plane out to go somewhere else to preach most conscientious preacher I related Billy has not only touched the lives of thousands through his preaching but mountain music and gospel music given a vital part of his private and public life [Music] [Music] morning [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] now choir I've always campaigned in the southeastern part of the United States I want you to pull that stopper down there no Bobby we pull up start you want to say it you have Peppa slit I just think a few months ago I got a little boy 16 years old 16 years ago went home to be in the Lord you know one of these mornings I was talking to brother older brother matter son to come with God I listen if you'd give me a million worlds like this one I wouldn't bring him back by these morning's the old shippers are come sailing in you know what the verse here says I will meet you in the morning at the end of the way on the streets of the city of gold where we all can be together and be happy for a while the years and the agents your old it'll be a morning thank God when that old ship aside come sailing in I believe a young man will walk out on the sunny banks of sweet deleverage thank God take me by the hand and we'll shout all over him while these bad days maybe you got a mother dad brother sister maybe some of you precious mothers walk down through the jaws of death to bring a little child its world maybe you've got a child over that we get out that course you feel free we've got no clips all cheer goes nothing tired of stairs gonna say it join in with us would you I will meet you in the morning at the end of on the streets of that city of gold where we all can be together and be happy for a while the u-turn me a jade shower [Music] and the party [Music] there [Music] we the body ha [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm on my way to that land called heaven or beyond the story star there's no heartaches in nor sorrow where we live and never nah I'm on my way right now [Applause] [Music] reading my solo I place my trust with pride I spy a graceful I'm on fire [Applause] [Music] I want to see my friends and loved ones who walk by me the blood-stained best Oh I say all that grand and glorious day I'm [Applause] everything my solo I play spyro in price my slaves the war I'm on my way Spray [Applause] once I was gray in sin not bad Oh hope within [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes ow ow [Music] cybus [Music] [Music] [Applause] there's chilly war I'll soon be grossly his hands will be slave and sing [Music] [Applause] yes mine Oh [Music] side [Music] [Applause] my blood for me [Music]

Channel: APSGospel

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Rating: 4.8400002 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor, Church, Roman Catholic, Christianity, Gospel, Testimony, Gospel Music, Sermon Audio, APS, APSGospel, Life story's, BBC News, Itv This Morning, UTV, Pubs, Alcohol, Cocktails, Southern Gospel, Official Steven Furtick, Elevation Church, Bethel Music, Hillsong Worship, Hillsong, Hillsong Acoustic, Jimmy Swaggart, American Gospel, Benny Hinn Ministries, Joyce Meyer - Enjoying Everyday Life, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Billy Graham, Our Only Hope, T.D. Jakes, Dhar Mann

Id: 5-CHHh9GqNM

Length: 48min 52sec (2932 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020