Making America Great Again

What does it truly take to make America great again? In this powerful episode, we revisit a timely message preached by Dr. David Gibbs Jr. in 2017 that still speaks directly to the needs of our nation today. Through biblical truth and practical challenge, this message reminds believers that real change does not begin in politics—it begins with God’s people.

Dr. Gibbs challenges the righteous to:

1. Clean Up – Pursue personal holiness and repentance before expecting change around us.
2. Pray Up – Seek God fervently for revival, wisdom, and healing for our nation.
3. Stand Up – Courageously stand for biblical truth in a culture of compromise.
4. Speak Up – Boldly proclaim the Gospel and be a voice for righteousness.

This stirring message is a call for Christians to live boldly, pray earnestly, and impact America for the glory of God. Whether you heard this message years ago or for the very first time, its truths are as relevant now as ever.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

A preacher called me one day and he said, I'm in real trouble. They have passed a law to stop me from handing out gospel tracts. I said, Preacher, I don't think so. I said, I understand. There's all kinds of laws. We go up against them all the time. Don't take it personal. It's not against you. He said, nope, this is against me. I said, what makes you say that? He said, when they passed this law, they pointed at me and said, this is to stop him. He said, now when they point at you and say that, it's hard not to take it personal.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Welcome to the Everyday Faith Podcast from Eastside. This is where faith meets real life, right where you live. Here we dive into honest conversations about where God is moving in our everyday moments, in our homes, our neighborhoods, and our community. Whether you're listening on your morning commute, walking the dog, or winding down at home, we're glad you're here. Let's explore what everyday faith looks like. Hey there, welcome back. I'm Isaac Johnson. Hope you're having a great Thursday today, or you will have a great Thursday. And uh I wanted to do a little something different today. Last week we aired a uh message uh from Pastor Gutshaw on uh Judah out of Genesis chapter number 38. And uh we just uh with all we have going on hadn't had a chance really to uh sit down and have an episode ready, but we thought it would be uh good to uh share a message preached from Dr. David Gibbs Jr., which he is the founder uh and uh the the president, I guess, of the Christian Law Association. And uh he has a message that he preached several years back uh that I came across uh that I thought would be good uh for us to listen to, and uh it is on uh What Makes America Great. And of course we realize what makes America great, but I want you to listen to uh this message by Dr. Gibbs. I think it will be uh a blessing to you. For without without further ado, here's Dr. Gibbs.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

It all started with a document that was 1,337 words in length. It's a document that we used to require every public school student to memorize. Now we don't even require anybody to read it. My dad in the Cleveland public school system said before you could go from the eighth to the ninth grade, you had to stand and recite this document, all 1,337 words, word perfect with no prompts. But now you can get a PhD or a law degree and never read it. It's called the Declaration of Independence. And it is the document that gave you the America you're living in tonight. It was signed by 56 men. Over half of the men who signed it were lawyers. I've heard people say, well, I don't care lawyers do anything good. We'd have never had an America without these guys. And when they signed it, if you read their journals, they said this is gonna cost us our lives. We're dead men. We like to focus in the Declaration on the words life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but those are not the words they focused on. They focused on the words we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Every one of the men who signed that document fully expected to perish for what they'd done. If the document was here tonight, and I said, I want you to sign it, but it's gonna cost you your life, and probably everything you own. Does America mean that much to you? Would you say, yeah, I'll sign it? One of the men who signed it was a preacher. And shortly after signing it, his family was arrested and put on a prison ship. And the British made him an offer. They said, Listen, if you'll take your name off that document, we'll release your family unharmed. But if you don't, we're gonna hang them as traitors. What would you do? What would I do? Well, we know what this preacher did. He refused to take his name off the document, and his family perished. I'm afraid tonight in America we have forgotten that an enormous price has been paid for this land. And we just take it for granted. And I want you to listen carefully because tonight, as never before in my lifetime, our land is in serious peril. If you would listen to our phones at the Christian Law Association, where we get over a hundred thousand calls a year, if you would listen to the calls, you'd understand that what you're doing in this auditorium tonight and what you've done this week and what you're gonna do tomorrow morning, there are people suing to stop every bit of it. And tonight I ask you this question. What's it gonna take to make America great again? We just went through a presidential election, and as you know, our president picked up Make America Great Again. But I want to ask you this question. What would make America great again? You see, it all has to do with what you define as great. A man by the name Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman, came over and he wanted to study America. And he wrote a book called Democracy in America, and he said, What is it that makes America great? And he went into all of our industries and he said, Nah, this isn't it. By the way, we're not great because we're rich. Other very, very wicked countries are rich. Way richer than us. And he said it wasn't in their military, might. And he said it wasn't in their politics. But he said, then I went into their churches, and he said, I found the key to their greatness. They believe they have a book authored by God, and this book makes them great. This is the hour where we need to make America great again. Not as defined by man or politics, but as defined by the word of God. Proverbs chapter 14, verse thirty-four. The Bible says righteousness exalteth a nation. But sin is a reproach to any people. You want to know what makes a nation great? Righteousness. It's not a matter of, boy, we got all our jobs back. We've captured the Congresses. Nowhere in the Bible does it say conservatism makes a nation great. It says righteousness makes a nation great. If you could go with me to Washington and meet a lot of the conservatives, they're not righteous. You'd be heartsick and disappointed to hear them cuss and tell off-colored jokes and mock God. But they're conservative. Conservatism's not the answer. The Bible says the people rejoice. Proverbs 29, 2, the people rejoice when the righteous bear rule. What's it gonna take to bring righteousness back? Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. If the Lord tarries, and your children and your grandchildren 20, 30 years from now come to you, and they say, Let me get this right. The America that got handed to you, you lost. How did you let that happen? And what did you do to not let it happen? What's your answer gonna be? How one day, when we stand before God and we say, Boy, you blessed us by letting us be born and raised in this magnificent nation. But what did we do to make it righteous? Righteousness is what makes a nation great. I want you to write four things down tonight. I'm not gonna preach at length, but I pray you will never forget these four things, never. Because I'm fearful for what I see right now. Here's the first one. If we want to see righteousness exalted in America, the first thing we've got to do as God's people is get righteous ourselves. We have to clean up our act. The fate of a nation never rests with the infidel, the fate of a nation rests with the righteous. And the question is, are we clean? Well, we gotta drain the swamp. We gotta fix Washington. No, we gotta fix ourselves. Can I ask you this question? How righteous are you? How clean are you? Now, righteousness is not a desirable extra in the life of a Christian. We're commanded to be righteous. I want you to read something with me. Chapter fifteen, Proverbs, verse twenty six. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. Drop down to verse twenty-nine. The Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the what's the next word? Righteous. How clean are you? Well, Brother Gibbs, I'm not as clean as I ought to be, but I'm sure a lot cleaner than a lot of No, you can always find somebody in worse shape than you. When is the last time before God you got clean? Do you understand? Four times from the lips of Jesus, be ye holy. I wonder if he can say, by God's grace, I lived holy today. I lived righteous. Go to first Peter. I want you to look at what it says in First Peter. First Peter chapter three. All of these verses are addressed to the Christians. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 12, for the eyes of the Lord are over the what's the next word? Righteous. And his ears are open unto their prayers. But then comes the little conjunctive word called but. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Do we understand? We got a permanent tourniquet on our prayer line if we're not righteous. God says, My ear is open to the righteous. But I'm against them that do evil. When's the last time you got clean? Ain't it amazing? I don't care what news you're watching, Fox News, any of them, they never talk about righteousness. Because they don't think it matters. Now we know 1 John 1 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You are just as clean as you want to be. How righteous do you want to be? Well, yeah, but Brother Gibbs, if I got clean, if I got righteous, I mean, I I got some sins I'm kind of comfortable with. Some imaginations, some fantasies, some thoughts. I mean, it's just me and the Lord even know about them. We're going nowhere till God's people get clean. And tonight my prayer is that you'll get clean. The great American evangelist D.L. Moody used to close almost every service by saying, do not walk out those doors if you're not clean. Because if you're not clean, you're going nowhere with God and you're the devil's best friend. What's it gonna take for me to get clean? For you to get clean. For us to get righteous. I was doing a trial for Lester Roloff. How many remember the name Lester Roloff? And it was going horrible, just horrible. And Brother Roloff called me one morning early. He had a just a nasty habit. He'd call 3:30 quarter to four in the morning. How many of you, you're a morning person? Hold your hand up, would you? Ought to be legal to shoot you, okay? He'd call Brother Tony and he'd say, I didn't wake you up, didn't I? I'd always lie. I'd say, no, just sitting here praying for you. What's up? He said, get down to my room. He said, we got to do some serious prayer. I'm down in his room at 4 o'clock in the morning, and he said, You know, and I know we're getting killed. I said, Yeah. He said, the judge hates me. I said, man, he said it in open court. That judge said he hates the preacher and this church. I got one lawyer, you, they got a dozen. We got no money, they got unlimited money. Every time we look at the jury, they're shaking their heads back and forth at us. But he said, we're gonna pray and we're gonna fix it. I said, good, let's pray. He said, no, no, no, no, no, not so fast. He said, it's not gonna do any good to pray if we're not clean. Do you ever wonder why your prayers go nowhere? He said, we gotta get clean. No, he said, here's what I want you to do. Little tiny motel room. He said, you get in this corner over here and don't come out till you're clean. And I'll get in this corner over here and I won't come out till I'm clean. I said, what now? He said, you go get in this corner and don't come out till you're clean. And I'll go over here and I won't come out till I'm clean. Now I had tried lawsuits all over America. Never in my life had anybody ever challenged me to get clean. Never happened. He said, Go on, get on your knees, get over there. So I went and got on my knees, and the first thing I told the Lord is, I don't know how to do this. And I said, Well, Lord, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm not coming out of my corner till he comes out of his corner. Because if I come out first, it won't look good. Now that's pride. So while I'm getting clean, I'm sinning. All of a sudden he starts praying and confessing sin. Man, I'm listening to him. I mean, he's confessing sin, sin. I'm like, sweet Alabama, listen to that. Boy, he better hope I got a short memory. Listen to that. After about ten minutes, he yells at me, I don't hear you confessing nothing. I said, Lord, you gotta help me. And God started bringing stuff up. When's the last time you did what the psalmist did? Search me, O God. See if there be some wicked way in me. When's the last time you told God, turn on heaven's flashlight? God, I do not want to leave here unclean. Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

God started bringing stuff up. Got to be about 7:30. He yelled over at me. He said, You clean? I said, To the best of my ability, he said, Okay, let's pray. We stood up, he prayed a short prayer, one long. He said, God, number one, this judge hates me. So what I want you to do is get this judge real sick, where he's got to go to the doctor today and he can't be the judge. And when he said that, my eyes flew open. I said, You're not asking God to kill the judge, are you? He said, No, no, no. He said, This judge is unsaved. If God killed him, he'd go straight to hell. I just want him real sick. I said, okay, let's be real clear. We don't want him killed, okay? He said, All right. And then he said, I want you to take these lawyers and turn them against each other. Just like in the Old Testament, where the enemy's confounded because you confused them, do it again in that courtroom. He said, You want to add anything? I said, No, just let's confirm again. We don't want God to kill the judge. 8:30, we're in the courtroom. Judge walked in, he said, You ready to proceed, Mr. Gibbs? I said, Yes. He turned to the other lawyer, he said, You ready to go? He said, Judge, we got a problem. Judge said, What's the problem? He said, Last night we're in complete agreement, and this morning we can't agree on anything. And while he's talking, one of the lawyers with him jumped up and said, This lawsuit should never have Been brought. It was just done to be mean. This should be dismissed. This lawyer should never have sued this pastor or this church. And when he said all that, the judge's eyes got big. And he said, The jury's listening. They argued and argued and turned on each other. And finally that lead lawyer said, I don't know, something happened this morning. And Brother Roloff grabbed my sleeve. He said, You want me to tell him what happened this morning? I said, No, because then you're going to tell the judge you better get going to the hospital. When I walked out of that courtroom, all kinds of people, Brother Tony, hugged my neck and said, Oh, Brother Gibbs, you were brilliant. I said, You don't know what you're talking about. I didn't do that. God did that. I say this with respect. Our president didn't win this election. God did that. But now it's time to make America great. It's time to see righteousness exalted. But it's got to start with you. It's got to start with me being righteous and getting clean. Go back to Proverbs again. Chapter 15. Verse 8, the prayer of the upright is his delight. Verse 9, the way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loveth him that follow after what's the next word? Righteousness. Brother Tony, if we want to see God do something, we got to get clean. We got to get righteous. Well, you say, Brother Gibbs, move on quickly. I'm so clean, I don't even have anything to repent of tonight. Well, if that's true, remember me. Because you know what I've discovered? Sin has a way of creeping in. And all of a sudden you're comfortable watching stuff you shouldn't be watching. You're comfortable listening to stuff you shouldn't be listening to. You're comfortable thinking imaginations and fantasies you should never be thinking. And God hears and knows every bit of it. We're not going to fix our nation till we fix ourselves. The first key is we got to clean ourselves. Write the second key down. Number one, we got to clean up. Number two, we got to pray up. We got to pray. Ask, and ye shall receive. Dr. John R. Rice, the founder of the Sword of the Lord, wrote a great book on prayer. It's called Asking and Receiving. And in that book, he says something that's frightening. He says, Every failure in a Christian's life is a prayer failure. God says there's nothing impossible. It's only impossible with man, but he said, you have to ask. And you gotta ask with specificity. That word ask was not the word for asking in general, it was the word for asking specifically. When's the last time you prayed an hour for this nation? When's the last time you prayed ten minutes for this nation? Oh, watch Fox News, CNN, CNBC, headline news, we do all of that. It's not gonna change a thing. I wonder if you can say last week I spent more time praying than I spent on my cell phone reading the screen. That addictive little screen. God says, ask and you shall receive. Now he gives this warning then, you have not, because you ask not. I know when I get to heaven, Tony, the Lord is going to reprimand me seriously. The Lord's gonna say, David, you asked for so pitiful little. Why? Did you not understand there's no limit? The only limit is you asking. That's the limit. Why didn't you ask, David? Good question. Why didn't you ask? We gotta get clean. And then we gotta pray. And we gotta ask. I share with everybody, I have a list for my wife. I pray every day for my wife, Glorianne, 62 things. It's on a list. I've shared the list hundreds and hundreds of times. And there's not a day. I don't miss a day. And if you read my list, you'd go down it and you'd say, I want that for my mate, I want that, I want that, I want that. You'd say, I want that 62 times. There's only one problem you're not asking. And you have not because you ask not. What's on your list for the kids? Do they know you believe in prayer enough to have a list for them?

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

What's on your list for this church? For your pastor? What's on your list for this nation? Oh, Brother Gibbs, I love America. I believe you. I do too. But do we love it enough to get clean and to pray? I promise you, the forces of unrighteousness are circling the wagons. They're getting ready to come at it. And our president, absent God, he's not the answer. Righteousness is the answer. Righteousness. Write the third thing down. Number one, you got to clean up. Number two, you got to pray up. Number three, you got to stand up. First Corinthians 16, verse 13. The Bible says, stand, quit yourselves as men. I don't know how to explain this. Every perverse element in the world has come out of the closet in America, and God's people have gone into the closet. We've stopped standing. I'm thankful for all the missionaries we send around the world. We should absolutely do that. But we're not standing up here. I was in Australia and they were ordaining missionaries to go to the foreign field, Tony. And three of them are coming to America. And when I heard, man, you got missionaries coming to America, something in me said, You don't need to do that. We'll handle America. Then I listened to their testimonies. Do you know right now, for every one person we're winning to Christ in America, the Muslims are winning 13. At the rate we're winning people to Christ, if we go long enough, we'll self-extinguish. We're not winning enough to replace our own ranks. How can that be? In our churches, in fundamental Bible-believing Baptist churches, only six percent of the people ever witness any way, shape, or form. We've never had better tracks, we've we've never had nicer tools, we we have and we've never done it less. And of that six percent, only four percent ever do it faithfully. I'm listening to these missionaries, and I'm like, what? Now listen to this statistic. Under 2% of our people ever try to personally win somebody. That means 98% of the people have never said, can I talk to you for a minute about eternity one-on-one? What's it gonna take for us to stand up? Oh, I promise you, we gotta clean up. We gotta pray up. And it's time for us to stand up. Your life's not your own. You belong to Christ. And it is time for us to stand up for the gospel. A preacher called me one day and he said, I'm in real trouble. They have passed a law to stop me from handing out gospel tracts. I said, Preacher, I don't think so. I said, I understand. There's all kinds of laws. We go up against them all the time. Don't take it personal, it's not against you. He said, No, this is against me. I said, What makes you say that? He said, when they passed this law, they pointed at me and said, This is to stop him. He said, Now, when they point at you and say that, it's hard not to take it personal. I said, Wow. I said, Let me check. I called the attorney general of that state. I said, This preacher thinks you passed this law to stop him. The guy said, We did. I said, You can't do that. He said, I know. You're gonna come up here and get it overturned. He said, Mr. Gibbs, we're just trying to slow him down. Would anybody have to do anything to slow you down? Or will you just slow down on your own? He said, Have you met the man? I said, No. He said, I don't know how to tell you this, but the guy has turned our state upside down. He said it so far. He said, Before this guy came, we were happy. But he came to start a church in our capital, and he started walking around asking everybody whether they're going to heaven or hell, and it upset everybody. And then he won the Catholic priest of the largest church in the state to Christ. And that really shook everybody up. I said, wow. He said, Do you know how many gospel tracts he hands out every day? I said, No. He said, every day, four hundred. I said, four hundred. Now, this is what the attorney general said. He said, the guy is like Superman on steroids. He said, now I know you're gonna get it turned over, but you just can't believe this guy. I called that preacher. I said, I'll be there to help you. Boy, the day of his hearing I showed up. He met me at the airport. When I met him, I almost fell over. The pastor is the most hobbled up, bent over, crippled man I've ever met who could still walk. I mean, he's hobbled over like this, his arms are all gnarled, his fingers won't work, and he drags his right leg. He's like this. And I didn't say it out loud, but I said it in my heart, you're Superman. How in the world do you hand out four hundred gospel tracts a day? I said, preacher, with your hands, can you dress yourself? He said no. I said, can you feed yourself? He said no. I said, how do you hand out four hundred tracks a day? He said, Brother Gibbs, I was born this way. And my whole life nobody wanted me. But when I got saved for the first time, God wanted me and put me on his team. So I have him dress me and I have him put stick'em all over my hands. And he said, I just touch the track and hold it up. And he said, then God takes over. I watched him do it. I said, God. You should have given my hands. You should have given my body. What are you doing with yours? You gotta clean up, you gotta pray up, and you gotta stand up. Write the final thing down and we're done. You gotta speak up. You gotta speak up. Not for conservatism, but righteousness. Righteousness. Let me just warn you up front. Most of the conservatives in America think righteousness is strange because they don't like it. God loves it. And we're not here to fight for conservative values, we're here to fight for righteousness. That's what America's about. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Tonight I ask you this simple question. Do you really love this land? Enough to want to see God really do something? Then we've got to exalt righteousness. Starting with ourselves. Cleaning me, you cleaning you. Then we got to pray. We got to ask. If you're spending whatever you value is what gets your time. And I just want to tell you right now, if you value the news outlets more than talking to God, we're going nowhere. God says, My door's never closed. Ask and you'll receive. We got to clean up, we got to pray up, we gotta stand up and we gotta speak up. I'm more excited for America than I've ever been in my life. Because I believe this is the most exciting hour to be a Christian that has ever existed in the history of our land. But now it's our turn. It's your turn for us to be the righteous.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Thanks for joining us for the Everyday Faith Podcast from Eastside. Remember, faith grows not just on Sundays, but in the everyday moments of your life. If today's conversation has encouraged you, share it with someone who might need it. And don't forget to follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode. We'll see you next time, right here on the Everyday Faith Podcast from Eastside.