Only God Can Give It

Pastor Shaun, Bubba, and John sit down at Huckleberry Hill in West Tennessee with Mr. Phil Williams — 80 years old, longest-serving mayor in Tennessee history, and a man whose 200 acres of family land became holy ground for GX3's 2025 Deer Camp retreat. Phil shares 70 years of God's faithfulness: salvation at ten, a furniture store empire, losing his first wife, a late-in-life love story straight from God, and a poem his late father wrote about that same valley. A tender, funny, faith-soaked episode about legacy, land, and grace only God can give.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:43

John Pastor Sean.

SPEAKER_05 0:46

All right. We're so glad that you're with us. And uh this week um we've got the uh title of the show is only God Can Give It. And we're gonna have the testimony of uh Mr. Phil up there in West Tennessee, and what a blessing uh it was to get to know him and to hear his story and all that God provided. And uh it was a blessing, tremendous blessing to us. I know it'll be a tremendous blessing to everyone that hears it. Uh he goes over the land, the heritage, and all those things, and and man, it's a God story.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

Yep. Yep, we just listened over a story and while we was listening to it. I was looking at the banner behind us, and you know, we just had our uh the last episode that we recorded. He was talking about getting up to Tennessee and what all took place there, and I was thinking about in the fall what it took place there, the changes in the people's lives, and then just hearing him talk about getting the land and talking about how he uses it to honor God and he has retreats, and he has his he does his church stuff down there, but like I just wonder if he'd ever imagined that there would have been a man's retreat held out there in his cabin. Yeah, and then like the little mini revival that took place in all of our hearts. You know what I'm saying? Like, oh yeah, I was just I was just rolling through that in my mind while he was talking about it, just uh thinking about the big picture thing sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

Oh yeah, and what God did on those grounds, that's holy ground as far as I'm concerned. Because God did a mighty, mighty work, which you are gonna hear about in the in the weeks to come, uh as we talk about the uh Deer Camp Mint's uh retreat 25, uh, which really solidified even more in our hearts. And uh John, what a piece of property, man, and what a story. Yeah, and uh I can't wait for y'all to hear it. It's gonna be a blessing to you, so we'll catch you on the other side. Well, we are here with uh Mr. Phil Williams, and uh, sir, what a blessing it is to know you and to spend time with you. I hope you know that. And uh you sure feel like family.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

I do, and you all do too, and it's welcome to Huckleberry Hill. Yes, sir. We love you very much. Well, we let it go, didn't we?

SPEAKER_04 3:02

It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

We love you all so much, and you have some great guys with you, and they're true Christian people, and for all the church members that do get to look at this, if y'all don't cut it all out, are so fortunate to have men like you guiding them. As a little church pastor, I can understand the things that you all have to do, and not only you, but your lay people as well. They're so important to you, and they're so helpful to you, and they do the job. And now I'm gonna try to do what you asked me to do. Is that okay? Yes, I'm gonna do that. Y'all they didn't pay me to do this, yeah. But we've got uh we've got some little insects out here that you all may have down there close to where you live, and it's called a chigger. And a chigger and sin have a lot in common. If you got chiggers on you, you're gonna scratch yourself to death. If you it if you've sinned, you're not gonna sleep very well at night. You're not gonna sleep very well at night if you have a pretty good little dose of chiggers either. But Dad wrote this poem. He was Point Laureate of Carroll County and the associate Poet Laureate of the state of Tennessee, Billy Williams. And I'm gonna try to do it, and if I mess up, then they're gonna have to erase it, so I'm gonna try to do it all right the first time. They say the Lord made all good things and set out in the shade, but now they some things crawling around. They ain't so sure God made. There's a little biddy booger, the smallest of his kind. Too bad he only lives below the Mason Dixon line. If you've ever picked blackberries in the summer when it's hot, you've met that little guy before, you'll soon know what you got. He'll get around your waistline, down between your thighs, and keeping you awake all night is where he'll specialize. About the stroke of midnight, when you're mad enough to stomp, that's when that war really starts. You'll scratch and he'll chomp. The only way to stop him is with grease of pork or mutton. You rub it on your sit-own place and around your belly button. The Lord laid down to take a nap, at least that's what I figure. He stepped in, take uh he stepped into his shop and made that little bug, at least that's what I figure. God bless you and stay away from tall grass if you're in shorts. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 5:24

That's right, that's right. Well, brother, if you would, would you uh mind sharing your testimony a little bit with us?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Not at all. If you have a place like this, you got a lot to be thankful for.

SPEAKER_05 5:34

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

And if you don't have a place like this, you still have a lot to be thankful for wherever you are. God gives us every day. And he brought all of us together, and glory, hallelujah, it was a good, good thing. And I start every little talk with glory, hallelujah. And I mean it.

SPEAKER_05 5:51

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

I really do. God is so good. But my dad started out with this little piece of property, and he finally got it up to 60 acres over about 50 years. Whenever he passed away, he left my four sisters, myself and my stepmother, 10 acres each. I bought their 10 acres each, that was back in '85 from them, and started to add as God would allow, and I've ended up with 200 acres, and it's just been a blessing for me just to get to come out here. To begin with, I owned a furn a furniture store, one of the largest in in this part of the country, did lots of business, had it for 50 years, and I decided one day, God said, if you don't quit pretty quick, you ain't gonna get any time off. You know how it goes. You're a preacher, same way. You could preach forever. You could preach forever if you had the opportunity. You know, if people just keep and you don't lose your mind. And we try not to do that. But it's just been a blessing to to be able to come when you're a mayor of a town, and that will make you really go to God a lot. I mean a lot. But I've been mayor for almost 50 years, continually serving. And by the way, you can check me out on what is that, Wikipedia? I'm on that. I'm on that for being the longest serving mayor in the state of Tennessee. Wow. Which is just fun to be able to do that still, but this is gonna be my last round. But the Lord came to me at an early age, I was about ten years old. And one we were having a little revival, you know, and one night I just felt his presence just grab hold of me and just say, now look, you gotta do something, you've got a decision to make. You can't sit on no fence and and do what you're doing, you got to be, you've got to be all mine. So I heard that for about two nights of that revival. And then that third night, there's a whole bunch of us heard it, I reckon. Because I started up there and I looked back and it looked like a Christmas parade. We had several people going up there to give their life and then their part and soul to the Lord. And we did that. But you know, I I hate to hate to brag about it. I mean, I've never been in in any trouble of any kind, and I've always worked hard to stay straight, and I've worked every day of my life, and I'm almost eighty until about three months ago. And then then that's when God said, You gotta go home. You got something in my excuse me. But uh I I did. I went home and I went back every day for two months, and now as you know, I just go back when needed. And that's pretty good. And that's the way most Christians are. You know, they we go back when we needed, but we don't volunteer as much as we used to. But now the volunteering is a big deal, especially in the big church. But thank y'all, by the way, for taking my grandson Max and bringing him up. He's gonna be great. He's a good guy, he really is. He is he's a sight. And that new baby, I'm going to see it in about two weeks. I already told Miss Carolyn. I was headed to Palatka. But I'm gonna go down there and see him and visit with them because the Lord has really blessed us with that little child. That makes about nine we have grandchildren on both sides. See, my wife passed away when she was fifty one years old. She had pancreatic cancer. Well, the lady that I'm married to now lived four houses down and sh her husband had pancreatic cancer. Well, a year later we were married. God put us together. And the way he did it, I sat down in a recliner one night at the house. Of course, you're by yourself and you're alone, I'm sure. But I went to sleep and I was really sound asleep, and something hit me on the shoulder really hard and said, Call Carolyn. And I got up and looked around to make sure it wasn't my son messing with me, because he'd do that if he catch me asleep. So I sat back down and I went just immediately back to sleep again. He hit me a little harder on the other side. Call Carolyn, and I did. And she said, Phil, is this you? I said, Yes, ma'am, it is. Said something told me about 30 minutes ago you were gonna call. I said, You're kidding. She said, No, I'm not kidding. I mean it. I said, Well, are you all right? She said, Well, yeah. Are you? I said, Well, yeah. I said, Well, if you're all right and I'm all right, would you just like to go eat Saturday night? Oh Lord, no. Man, people are talking around here. What is wrong with you? The mayor, preacher, what are you talking about? I said, Well, I didn't think it was too good an idea either. She said, Well, wait a minute. I said, uh, if you'd like, I'll I'll I pick you up and we'll go out to eat. She said, Where are we gonna go? I said, Wherever you want to go. I said, I don't really care. She said, Well, you pray about it and I'll pray about it and we'll go. I said, Okay. So I did. And I knew what he was gonna tell me. He was gonna tell me to go to Mallard's up there in Huntington because it wasn't too far and I wouldn't burn much gas, you know what I mean. So I I I picked her up and we went to eat. And a year later we married. And we have had the most blessed time. And by talking about punching buttons, I can punch some of them buttons sometime, and she'll get mad. She's not out here. She'll get hot, but it happens about every three months. And then she if I let her alone for twelve hours, she resets and she's okay. I don't know if y'all have that at home or not, but that's the way it happens at my house. But in 1977, 78, I opened a furniture store in McKenzie, Tennessee. And it was a it was a godsend, really. I opened a little store at Macklin Boresville. I had one in McKenzie and I had one in Camden for a while, but all three were small. And there were streets that were just about to kill me. They really were. So I decided that I'd narrow them down to one. Keep all the inventory right there where I could say, take this out, take this out and go. You know, and and we did that. It made it a lot easier than having stuff so scattered. But I ran that store up until last year. And like I said, about three months ago I I went from July the first to June the first June the thirtieth. And then I was still tr getting rid of things that I had and we did such an enormous amount of business. I had some stuff that were left and I just had a this is it sale right at the end of it, to try to throw as much other stuff in there as I could and give some bargains that are unreal. But I didn't care. I was so tired I was ready to go home too. And I don't mean just home, man. I felt like I was gonna die to be so tired. But anyway, we we did that and it was very successful and and the Lord provided, and it was just a good time, and we had no accidents or anything, and I just was amazed at that. But in church, I've been a Methodist for my entire life. There have been some things to happen that made me wonder because we did not have anything to do with some of the decisions that were made, really. I mean it we just really didn't. But we were able to do away with a lot of things that they had printed that they thought would be something they needed to do. There's always somebody got a better idea, you know. But if you love the Lord, he's gonna tell you what to do. No matter what it is, and no matter who you are, no matter where you are. He's gonna tell you and show you what to do or lead you in a different direction. Well, he kind of told me to stick it out and see what I could do with them. You know, do with the uh do with the ministry where I was. This is really kind of funny. If you got just a minute, I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_04 14:09

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

They called me, I had two little churches out in the country and they were really good little churches. They were on the grove, we were coming up with them and doing well. And it was about a 40-mile trip every Sunday. I didn't care, that was great. I could practice all the way to church and practice all the way back. By the time you did two, you had it down patch, you were doing pretty good. And but we just had a had a good time and we had good people in both of those churches. They were some of them were hunters and some fishermen and different things. So we'd come out here and have a fish out sometime. Oh, yeah. And they'd love it. They'd love it. But it's just it's this place has been a a blessing for me, period. But back to that story, I had a a little boy out here and he was fishing in a little cove right there. He had a little plastic rod that you pull the trigger and it throws the bait and everything out in the pine.

SPEAKER_04 15:07

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Well, his daddy came down here and he helped him set it out, you know, and he started back up the hill, and that little young got to screaming and he caught a five-pound bass. Wow. On that little plastic rod that tickled us to death. But there have been so many events out here for the church. Every year we'd have a and we still do too. We have a hay ride in the fall. We make a big round and we end up out here eating supper. Which is, you know, Methodists always like to eat supper. Baptists do too. I mean, if you're invited, go. That's right. If you're if you're invited, go.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

But there are so many things that God has blessed us with. He blessed us with good Christian parents. He blessed us with the want to go to church. Wanna be at church. I know back in the early days, y'all are saying, yeah, that old man sitting up there talking about wanting to go to church. Yeah, only reason he went to church, boy, it was because this is some of them old people down at your church, too. Only reason you went to church because they told you to. No, we wanted to go. Yes, sir. We wanted to go. And we wanted to go learn about the Lord Jesus Christ, and we did. We wanted to look at God's creation and He let me have this. He I wanted to make a pretty good living, and He helped me with the furniture store. Now, what have I got not to be thankful for? I got a wonderful wife who is a mess, by the way. She's a mess too. But we have just a great life. It's uh hey, this is gonna this is kind of funny. How many people in Paletka?

SPEAKER_05 16:42

Oh goodness. Uh was it like 20 something thousand people?

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Oh, man, kind. You know how many people we got in the this whole county?

SPEAKER_05 16:50

How many?

SPEAKER_01 16:51

29,000.

SPEAKER_05 16:52

29,000.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

You have got more people going down the main drag in Paletka than we got in this whole county. But we've got about 900 miles of road. I mean, we can ride. Might not see many folks, but you can ride. But God is just so good and he's so whenever you and and this happens to you too, whenever you f say, well, you know what, I just really, Lord, don't know I just don't know what I need to talk about Sunday. Lord have mercy. I looked at the lection area and that's just that's that's not what I feel. Lord. And before Sunday, maybe Thursday night, maybe Wednesday night, you'll say go sit down at that computer, maybe two o'clock in the morning. I might not get up to five, but I'm gonna have her in outline like I want it or like he wants it. He does, he does. And you talk about fun. If you hadn't got God or you hadn't got Jesus in your life, I don't think you can have fun. Yes, sir. You think you are but remember back to the chigger.

SPEAKER_05 18:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Sometimes you you're sinning when you're having fun. And that don't make God happy.

SPEAKER_05 18:07

No, our joy is in Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

That's exactly right. J I J.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

But i you know, if uh my dad owned this property or ten acres or sixty acres of it before I got a host of it. And I was so thankful for that. But I'm going to close and thank you all for listening, by the way. God is great all the time.

SPEAKER_05 18:30

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

But he wrote this poem and I'd like to do it for you. And Max is for you. It's okay, say that. Absolutely. If it's not, don't let him rub that out now. Max is my buddy, he's my grandson. But daddy came out here and probably sat somewhere along in here, or maybe over on the deep valley over there. And he wrote this poem and he wrote it on a sack, I think, to start with, and carried it home, and then Mama Dolly typed it out for him. But it's the valley. I looked down in the valley, and this is what I saw. The work of some great master, no artist ere can draw. There were a lot of trees and flowers and many other things. The morning dewdrops sparkled like a million diamond rings. The sun had said good morning as it raised into the sky, the mountain breezes whispered a gentle lullaby. I saw the great stone boulders, monuments to yesteryear. I saw the fleeting shadow of a graceful white-tailed ear. I saw a golden eagle swoop down from its lofty perch as it soared out o'er the valley to begin its daily search. I refreshed myself with water from a pretty flowing spring, and from the mountain choir loft I heard the songbird sing. I sat in quiet solitude amidst this wondrous view, and wondered how my God could do this thing for me and you. And for a fleeting moment I forgot I was a man, and with a childlike impulse reached out to hold God's hand. I look back in that valley, and the picture that I saw was the work of some great master that only God could draw. I welcome you again to Tennessee. It's West Tennessee, and it's a beautiful part of the country. We thank you all for coming. God bless.

SPEAKER_05 20:30

Guys, what a tremendous testimony uh Mr. Phil has, and what a blessing that he would allow us to go up and sit down with him and share, and what a great time together, and uh what a blessing his land and he was to us. And um obviously, as you found out uh in the last episode, we got the turkey, and that was a blessing God did that. He provided on that on those very grounds, and uh when it seems like there's no way God makes a way. But in uh but in his story, you know, it's a tremendous story um of land, of heritage, of what God did. You know, I was just thinking of that meeting he went to and gave his life to cries, and how others that night gave their life to cries, and the impact it had on him as a young man for the rest of his days that he could sit at 80 years old, he could sit down and tell his testimony of what he notices and recognizes and testifies to of what God is still doing in his life and what an absolute blessing. One of the scriptures I want to share uh it comes out of 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 16 through 18, and I hope it would be an encouragement to you as you listen. Uh the Bible says this for which cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal. Weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And in his testimony, you know, that's what I hear from him, you know, is the God story. You know, he recognizes what God has done and provided in his life, not just in salvation, but in his family and uh in that land, and now that land being a blessing, you know, and you know, like like you were saying, you know, about the picture behind us, you know.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Yeah, yeah. I mean, think about all the people that he's aside from us, how he's used that land to be a blessing to the people around him. I mean, it'd be easy just to have land and just hunt it yourself and kill a deer and not ever go outside of that, you know, and probably be completely justifiable. But um how he's allowed God to use that land to be a blessing to other people, especially I know what it's done for us.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

So that's right.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

No telling what else.

SPEAKER_05 23:01

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

For the people around him in that community and this church.

SPEAKER_05 23:03

That's exactly right. And with that verse, you know, to see his heart, you know, he's focused and and even right now today talking about the eternal things and the eternal value of it, you know, because you know, he said whether you have this, you know, kind of thing or not, you're still blessed. You know, you've still got yeah, you got a lot to be blessed. Uh you're so blessed. And we are, guys, we're so blessed. It, you know, we could we could praise him for days on end, you know, and yes, these bodies are gonna fail, they're gonna age. Um, we've even wondered why us and all of this. Um, but God has a glorious plan for every single person, no matter where they are in life, and he is blessing and he is moving uh in a mighty way.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Yeah. Yeah, what a story. I mean, for someone to give their life to Christ that young and live through all the blessings throughout the years, and you know, to be 80 years old, I mean, I just thank God for men like that, men of God that you know stands firm and all that. I mean, I just can't imagine, you know, the joy it's brought him by, you know, being obedient to God like that. You know, it definitely gives us something other to look up to for sure.

SPEAKER_05 24:18

Yeah, that faithfulness, you know, and and how God honored that and and now look uh what God did for us, you know, through that, for somebody to share that, you know, share that blessing. And you know, I'd encourage, you know, everybody, no matter what you have, you know, give it to God and watch what he'll do with it. Um He'll multiply it for one thing and He'll let you see that His hand and we don't do things that God may multiply it, but He just does because He He honors it and He blesses it in a mighty way and it's just wonderful. If we'll just have our minds on those eternal things, man, and not miss it. You know, I don't want my kids to miss it. I you know I want my family to miss it. I want them to know that what what we have is because of God. You know, how He's blessed and and provided for us, you know, and then to to be share it, you know, with everybody else. You know, I shouldn't have shouldn't have a house to over house to live in and cars to drive and uh you know all that God provides, you know, and it's amazing to watch Him do it. So no matter what little you think you may have, it's it's big. Yeah, it's big and it can be used for God to bring Him honor and glory uh and to be a blessing to you. Yeah. Well we hope this uh episode has been a blessing to you as much as it's been to us. Uh we want you to check out uh everything going on with GX3. Stay up with us on the page and uh through all the platforms and come along and join the journey because it's exciting days to not only uh be alive, but to be going after God and his men going together, you know. Uh trips uh being announced soon on places we're going, on things we're doing. Uh we do want to remind you we're gonna be at the Georgia Outdoor Blast July the 24th, 25th. Come see us if you're up there north of Atlanta. Be a blessing to have you stop by. We're gonna be sharing the gospel and just loving on people. And uh guys.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

I'm good. Sounds good. Still don't know what booth we're gonna have, but uh we're gonna be there. We'll have a booth.

SPEAKER_05 26:36

We're gonna be together, man. Go find us. We're gonna be together for the glory of God, but we will be there. John, you signing us out?

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure what our closing is. All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 26:54

Thank y'all for joining us this week for the uh GX3 Hightime Podcast.