While people stood and cheered his win for Best Contemporary Country Album, the disarming singer took the stage and transformed the moment from an acceptance speech into one of the most powerful Gospel messages ever shared on live television.

"I know they're going to try to kick me off here," he started, "so just let me try to get this out. First of all, Jesus, I hear You, and I'm listening. Lord. I am listening," he repeated. "...Second of all, I want to thank my beautiful wife. I would have never changed my life without you. I'd have ended up dead or in jail. I'd have killed myself if it wasn't for you and Jesus." Then, the man with a cross inked under his right eye opened up about the hard journey he'd been on. "...There was a time in my life, y'all, that I was, I was broken. That's why I wrote this album—I didn't think I had a chance, y'all."

Reaching into his pocket for a small Bible, his voice full of feeling, he admitted, "There [were] days that I thought the darkest things. I was a horrible human. There was a moment in my life that all I had was a Bible this big and a radio the same size in a six-by-eight-foot cell. And I believe that those two things could change my life," he wanted the audience to know. "I believe that music had the power to change my life, and God had the power to change my life. And I want to tell y'all right now, Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is not owned by no music label. Jesus is Jesus, and anybody can have a relationship with him. I love You, Lord."

The message was so authentic, so personal and powerful that people stood transfixed, clapping almost as an afterthought. Maybe they were craving an encounter with truth, or maybe it was just a refreshing break from the toxic politics, but the audience seemed to know that they'd witnessed something—if not extraordinary and stirring, then at least heartfelt.

This is a man who was selling drugs at 15, behind bars at 16, never feeling like he belonged. "At times, Christians have not been the most welcoming, inviting of my kind," Jelly explains wistfully. Then he had a baby—and that daughter, Bailee Ann, changed everything. "I wanted to be someone she could be proud of," he reflects. 

"I took the scenic route here," he admitted to Jennifer Hudson last year. "I had a completely wrong approach to life. One time, while I was incarcerated, my last time, my daughter was born, they knocked on my door and told me that I'd had a little girl. I instantly compared [it] to the Damascus Road experience, where there was no more salt, only Paul. At that moment, I just wanted to be a father," Jelly remembers. "And I immediately started coming home and selling mixtapes out of the trunk of my car and just trying to figure it out, and God just kept blessing me."

And honestly, he said, being bold about it is his way of showing God gratitude. "I'm called to be shameless about it, you know what I mean? He's done so much for me—even when I didn't deserve it. I've actually done the opposite of being deserving of His grace. I've done everything I could to spit in His face and not get His grace. And He continued to just pour it on me and love on me in times where I felt unlovable, and He taught me to love myself. My faith is nothing short of everything in my life now."

No matter where he is or who's listening, Jelly can't help but tell people, the Lord redeemed me, and He can redeem you too.

"Imagine what God can do with me in five years," he told Christian music legend Brandon Lake, "and look at what God's already doing with me." Jelly Roll, who collaborated with Lake on the smash CCM hit, "Hard Fought Hallelujah" (another Grammy winner as of last weekend) admits that he took a risk with that song. "It's not exactly the most popular topic right now to be talking about. You know what I mean? ... [But] I'm unashamed. I'm all about being honest where I'm at today, whether you like it or don't, that's fine, but you can always expect me to be honest [about] the human I am right now."

At the end of the day, he said, "I think it's our jobs [as Christians to share the Good News]. We're in faith to push that envelope anyway. Like, those conversations needed to be created. But I can tell you what's also happening is millions of people like me are finding a safe place right now in God."

He talked about the flood of messages he's been getting, "‘Like, Yo, I'm a fence-riding Christian too. Like, I kind of believe I grew up with some core values, but kind of got away from it. And you make me feel safe being, like, talking about God again.' And to me," Jelly insisted, "if nothing else came of this song, if it didn't end up being the hit that it is becoming ... if it would have just brought a few more people to it and [who are now] singing this song with conviction, [that's] the exact thing I prayed for when I got on the song."

This is the time for every Believer to shed their fear and act. "[Y]ou can't go on a corner and not hear about Jesus," he told the audience at the Dove Awards. "And while we are hearing about Jesus, I encourage you to put faith on your feet ... and walk out of this building and go do for the least [of these]. They've heard of Jesus, now go show ‘em Jesus."

As for the country star-turned-awards-show-preacher, Jelly can't even wrap his head around all that's changed in his life. "If your 10-year-old self could see you winning a Grammy tonight," one reporter asked, "what do you think would go through his mind?"

Tears in his eyes, the musician paused and said, "If 16-year-old me could see this ... I would tell him, man, everything that's happened in God, believe it or not, as horrible as some of the things that are going to happen, it's going to be God [who's] going to use that in a way that you could never dream of on the world's biggest stage. You're going to scream His name."

And a lost world that needs Him will be listening. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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