Rick Green

Welcome to the WallBuilders Show. Today we are finishing off a presentation that I gave at the Patriot Academy campus just last week on Independence Day, and it'll be the conclusion of our Independence Day celebrations. For the last two weeks we've brought you presentations by David Barton, by Tim Barton, We've brought you our conversations at the Patriot Academy campus over lunch several times and we've been bringing you the presentation that I gave on the evening of Independence Day there at the Patriot Academy campus, and today we'll get the conclusion. So I'm going to take a quick break pretty early here in the program. When we come back we'll pick up right where we left off yesterday, talking about Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence.

Break

Rick Green

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Let's jump into that presentation. On Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence, we got a call from a guy that is in a small state and he only had one person sign up for his class and he's like man, I don't know if I should do the class. What a waste. It's only one person. We said that you just doubled yourself. That's 100% increase. What are you talking about? Small beginnings, have the class. So if you only get one person, that's great. Well, guess what happened? The one person that comes to his class. Our constitution folks got elected to the state board of education in that state and about four weeks ago, a fourth member of the state board of education was elected out of our programs and so we now will. Starting in January, we'll have a majority of the state board of education in that state. One person started with one person. So get signed up as a coach and make a dedication that you're going to start spending at least one night a week investing in freedom, hosting a class in your living room, maybe hosting it at your church, maybe coming down here and helping out with the campus, finding some way to invest in freedom. Commit to that one night a week. I'm not even asking you to completely sign up and give everything you got for the next two years, but if you'll do one night a week for the next two years, we're going to get where we need to get. We need to literally have a 400% increase this year from where we've gotten to, and we've had a couple of 400% years in the last four years, so that's why we've grown so fast. I really believe we can get there. So 24 months, that means you cannot put this off.

This is not something you say well, you know it's hot this summer or you know school starts again in September. So I'll do it. You know I'll do it in time for Christmas, oh and then. But then that Christmas is right around the corner. I don't want to do it and I'll do it right after the first of the year and then right out the first year. You're like, oh, you know everybody's just now getting started with the new year and spring semester starting and things are busy and the church is having that new program and and so I'll wait, I'll do it in spring, when everybody you know spring flowers and all that kind of stuff everybody be excited right around march. I'll get you. Then you get to march. You're like, nah, the boys are playing baseball and I gotta go coach and we're doing this. I get I'll do it right. When the season's over, come June, we will do that class. And then you get to June and you say, boy, it sure is hot, I'll do it in September, I'll give it.

You cannot, you cannot let yourself fall. This is no longer a time to just enjoy the blessings of liberty. It's time for you to bear the burden. It's time for you to do your part, and so I'm going to ask you for some specifics. Sign up as a coach. Start giving one night a week that you are hosting a Constitution class.

Read through the entire Founders Bible with us between now and July 4th next year. Of all the things that I can tell you about philosophy and John Locke and Montesquieu and Blackstone and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, most important thing I can tell you is that the Founding Fathers of America were quoting the Bible 34% of the time when they spoke about all these things. Get saturated in God's word. If you want to be ready with the answer when it happens, you need to be saturated in the Bible. All the answers are there and we, as believers, ignore it. 9% of Christians read the Bible on a regular basis. It means 91% are not of Christians read the bible on a regular basis. It means 91 or not. That's pretty bad. Right, so we don't know truth. Right, we say I'm a believer, but we don't know truth, so we don't know how to be biblical. We need to be biblical, all right. If we do that, we can basically restore and replicate what the founding fathers did, because that's what they were doing. They were being biblical.

Even the guys that weren't Christians, even guys like ben franklin. It's like well, you know, I don't believe in the deity of Christ, but boy, you Christians sure make good neighbors. And you Christians really are, you know, good citizens. And I don't know about you. But I'd kind of like to have a society where you know we live in, a place where people treat their neighbors the way they want to be treated. I'd kind of like to have a next door neighbor that thinks stealing is wrong. Wouldn't you like to have neighbors that think murder is wrong? What if you could live in a community where everybody's raising their kids to honor their father and mother? All right, those are biblical principles that just simply make good citizens so we can restore this thing.

But it's going to take a lot of work and you need to be saturated in God's word to make that happen and I really got it out of order. You need to be saturated in God's word first and then build community by having these constitution classes and then just tend the garden. When you take one of our classes, you're going to find dozens of ways that you can take little actions in your neighborhood or in your community. You'll probably you may end up running for office or you're going to support somebody else's running for office. We've got people now elected out of our programs in Congress and state legislatures across the country. You name it man, water, district and city council. I mean all kinds of things. So no telling what will happen once you do that class, but those aren't big things that I'm asking you to do.

Last thing I'm going to ask you to do Well, no, there's two more. Second to the last thing, because those are all lives. That's your time. I'm asking you to give of your life and all those things I am asking you to give of your fortune. I'm asking you to start sacrificially giving.

This is one of the. Just like the founding fathers man. They watched their ships be swept to sea. They had their homes burned. They gave financially to the point that they were hurt. They knew that you got to have fuel in the tank to win and you need to do that. I'm not just asking for Patriot Academy, I'm talking about your church. Your church needs to have the fuel in the tank to be able to meet the needs of the poor in the community and all the rest, so the government can shrink and the church can grow, because we actually solve problems when we do it through the church, not so much when you do it through government.

But I am asking you to give to Patriot Academy. I can unequivocally tell you this will be one of the best investments you've ever made, maybe the best investment you've ever made into freedom. It's better than donating to a single candidate because you're going to help raise up tens of thousands of candidates. It's better than, frankly, most organizations that do anything even close. Nobody does quite what we do, but anything close to what we do we're doing no kidding about 10 times as much as them with about one-tenth the money. We are very frugal around here. Ask everybody that works here, because nobody gets paid much. We are very, very frugal around here and we've fortunately got a massive volunteer army. We have 28,000 Constitution coaches in America right now. Patriot Academy has 28,000 coaches. So those are all volunteers doing what I'm asking you to do having that class. But I'm asking you to do having that class, but I'm asking you to start sacrificially giving to Patriot Academy so we can finish this campus, so we can have Independence Hall built two years from tonight.

A couple things you can do. I mentioned it a lot $17.76 a month Everybody in this room can do that, even the kids in this room can do that. And go mow a few lawns and make $17.76 a month for us 1776, become a 76er. Perfect night to think about that, right, become a 76er, okay. Secondly, think about sponsoring a pavestone so that when we get this walkway and everything finished up here, coming into the chamber, your family motto Bible verse whatever it might be, it's not just a little brick, it's a big pavestone, it's nice. Or if you want to do it up at Independence Hall when we build that, that's fine. That's a great way to help us get the campus built. In fact, that's where we've raised most of the money for the campus. Those are $2,400. You can do that one time, or you can pay $100 a month over the next 24 months and then consider sponsoring one of those desks out on the floor If you're from another state than Texas.

We need a lot of other states to step up and sponsor their desks. So, believe it or not, this is really weird to say California already has sponsored two desks. So go figure, like how weird is that? So California is already done. Man, we're not letting them have another desk, but anyway. So wherever you're from, though, and you don't have to do your state I think one of the ones Doug and his friends are going to do is not even going to be state. It might be their county seal that goes on the desk, but it'll be out there on the house floor, and then when somebody from your county or your state comes to do the program, they get to sit in that desk that was sponsored by you.

So that was a little bit more. That's $7,500 to sponsor a desk. If that's in your budget or you'd consider doing that, please go on the website and there's a giving catalog, or you can just going around that big room right there, and so most of the states. Some have been sponsored but most of them have not. That's $2,500 sponsorship to do that. So those are specific financial requests that will help us get the campus built. Actually, even when we get finished this summer, we can train 120 people a week right here on this campus, coming from all over the nation. Once we build out the entire campus, we're going to be able to have 300 students 18 to 25 here for a full year. Every year, 300 more kids that are the Navy SEALs of civics that we're training to then go out there and lead in every area of the culture. We'll be able to do these leadership congresses not only all over the country, but do them right here every week of the year for people to come through and do the Patriot experience.

So when I said today this is ground zero, this is the place Liberty is going to be reborn, I mean that, and people that come here and they see what we're doing, they are blown away. Nobody's doing what we're doing. This is the catalyst right here, and so you can help light brush fires of Liberty in your community and other communities across the country by helping us with your life, your fortune and, lastly, your sacred honor. That's the maybe the hardest part for some of us. You have to be willing to put your reputation on the line. You have to be willing to stand up and speak truth in a culture right now where they want to chop your head off for doing it. They want to fire you, cancel you, do everything that they can Imagine.

These guys I mean when Richard Henry Lee stood up on June 7th and said that these United Colonies are in of right, ought to be free and independent states. That was treason. John Adams seconds the motion. The guy taking the journal initially wrote their names down and then he scratches them out because he knew King George would get a copy of this and end up lopping off their two heads first for committing treason. That was June 7th. It took a whole month to finally get agreement and finally get to the point where they had enough delegations that they were finally able to get the Declaration of Independence done. So they put everything on the line, took on the greatest military power on the planet, knowing they would lose their lives, fortunes and sacred honor.

I'm asking you just to live the freedom they were willing to die for. I'm asking you to give that time the freedom they were willing to die for. I'm asking you to give that time, give of your fortune. And, by the way, if you're playing golf, donate that instead and go do constitution classes instead of playing golf. If you got a really nice boat, sell it and donate it to help us build the building. If you got an extra rent house, sell it and donate it to help us build the building.

Start sacrificially I'm not kidding when I say sacrificially Make it hurt so that we are investing in the next generation of freedom. This is not going to happen easy. So lives, fortune, sacred honor. And then don't forget what my friend Mark Meckler taught me.

All these years I've been telling the story of the Declaration and the signers and I didn't even catch it. He said, rick, when they pledged their lives, fortune, sacred honor, what were they pledging to? When they came forward and they put their name beneath that amazing final sentence that says in support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, fortunes and sacred honor. So they weren't pledging to the country. They weren't even pledging to the principles that I just got through talking about. They were pledging to each other. I pledge my life to you. I pledge my fortune to you. I pledge my fortune to you, I pledge my sacred honor to you.

We're gonna have to have that kind of community of patriots that's saying I'm willing to go all in, I'm willing to lay it all on the line to make sure that my children and grandchildren have the best chance possible. I can't guarantee you we're gonna save this thing. I told you I'm a student of history. I mean, odds are we're supposed to fall apart in two years. Odds are we're not going to come together as a nation. But the odds have always been against America. We've always overcome the odds. We've always done what Ronald Reagan said when that space shuttle exploded the future belongs not to the fainthearted but to the brave. We've always been land of the free because we were the home of the brave. So because we're willing to be dangerous I'm not going to tell that whole story but because we're willing to be dangerous, because we're willing to be the terror to the terrorists, the defender of the defenseless, that's why we've had the good times that we've had. We just got to stop being soft about it. We got to stop just enjoying the blessings and not bearing the burden. Right, I'll leave you with one story and then we'll go hang out until it's time for fireworks.

Because some of you came in here thinking, as I said earlier, that it's all already over, that we've already lost this thing. It couldn't get any worse, that these are the darkest days of our nation, and I just have to tell you that's not true. We've had much darker days in this nation. I mean, if you could go back even to 1863, and you're literally shooting against your brothers, you're literally killing your fellow Americans in tens and thousands of numbers at a time. I'd say that's a little darker than what we're dealing with right now. Now we may end up there, don't get me wrong. God forbid, I hope we don't. It's not near as dark as it was in 1776.

These guys signed this document, not on July 4th, by the way. We're actually here on the wrong night. So I want everybody back here on August 2nd because that's when they actually signed the Declaration of Independence. Hey, no kidding. I do want you back here on August 2nd because we're having a big dinner, graduation dinner. After we train 100 young people and 100 military veterans and coaches in here, we're going to go to this really nice restaurant in San Antonio on Friday night, august 2nd, and we're going to have the ceremonial passing of the torch and the veterans are going to say to the young people that just got trained I was willing to die for your freedom. Now it's time for you to go live it. And they're going to pass the torch to those kids. Those kids are each going to come forward and I'm going to tell the story of the signing of the Declaration, which I didn't do. But they're each going to come forward, called one by one, just like in the actual signing, and they're going to put their name on the Declaration of Independence and they're going to pledge their lives for a sacred honor. So that'll be August 2nd. I mean, we're literally having our graduation dinner on the anniversary of the signing of the declaration. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. But my point was they did the declaration, they voted for independence, they sent it out to the world, they came back on August 2nd to sign the declaration. So now their name's on the document. King George is going to get a copy of this and just a month later they get their tails beat in New York.

I mean, George Washington is losing battle after battle after battle. In fact, that's when Nathan Hale lays down his life and when he's hung there in New York he's given that chance for a speech. And he gives that famous speech where he's quoting from Joseph Addison's Cato and he's talking about why America must win this war. And these British troops are heckling him and saying what a waste you're throwing your life away. And that 21 year old 21 years old says I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country. I do this over and over again.

Now there's actually four accounts. Three say I only regret that I have one life to lose. One says I only regret that I have one life to live give and I like that one best. I have to say that because somebody's going to send me a letter and say you're not historically accurate. There's four different accounts. Okay, anyway, the point is he was willing to die over and over and over again, if necessary, for his country. That's the kind of mindset we've got to have. All right, folks, one more break today. Stay with us. You're listening to the WallBuilder Show.

Break

Rick Green

Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Let's jump back in for the conclusion of that presentation I gave a week ago at the Patriot Academy campus on the Declaration of Independence, December of 1776, probably the darkest days. We were at a point where there's no way any country is going to help us. Every country has said no, most Americans have given up and even Washington's own troops have gone from 25,000 down to 2,500. So 90% gone. He's looking at a very bleak outcome.

At this point he decides well, actually he doesn't make the decision immediately. He reads something that really has an impact on him and if we were to get in a time machine and go back to that day, we'd actually go back a little further, to one week before Christmas 1776. And one week before Christmas 1776, in this environment of absolute devastation and depression and there's no way we can win and everybody's pretty much done with the whole cause. In that environment we get out of our time machine, we start walking among the troops there around the fires and and there's actually this one guy riding by the light of the fire. We go, look over his shoulder to see what he's riding and here's what we see at the top of the page. These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from service to his country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, but we have this consolation that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. He said something really interesting that I think fits our soft times that we're facing right now. He said what we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly, he said heaven knows how to put a proper price on her goods. How strange indeed it would be if so celestial an item as freedom was not highly rated. Thomas pain would publish those words just a few days later, an American crisis, and George Washington would be so moved by the words that he would have it read to the troops.

And then he would make that crazy, impossible decision to cross an icy Delaware river in a snowstorm on Christmas night to go attack the very hessian soldiers that had just kicked his tail all over New York. He crosses the river. They march nine miles to where the Hessians are Now. They're marching in the snow. A third of them do not even have boots. They wrap their feet in burlap. You could follow them, they said, by the blood in the snow. They march the nine miles. They the snow. They marched the nine miles. They get there. They route the Hessians. They captured 900 of them and, as a result, Washington’s troops swelled back up to 15,000 within just a few weeks. It's the greatest military comeback in history. The rest, of course, is history.

The password that night Victory or death, victory or death. Same way, William Barry Travis signed that letter from the Alamo when he asked for help Victory or death. They were committed to the cause. We obtained this freedom pretty cheaply. Our generations, we've esteemed it too lightly until now. Now we hopefully realize what it's worth and now, hopefully, we're willing to do what it takes to preserve it for future generations. And I know we're not going to win this with summer soldiers and sunshine patriots. So I'm asking you, even in this heat on July 4th, to be a winter soldier. Join me in giving of your life, your fortune and your sacred honor, and let's make sure that our children and grandchildren get to enjoy this torch of freedom the way that we have.

I've got to read something to you real quick, because this is too good of an occasion to not do this. I so wish that my sound system was here so you could actually hear this song instead of read. There was a great poem written many years ago by a 33-year-old which is ironically the age that Jefferson was when he wrote that document. Right there, and Katharine Lee Bates was struggling with her own faith, kind of struggling even with her love of country. And she writes this poem and it kind of got changed a little bit over the years, but it would become the most famous song in America and it's now sort of a prayer for us at Patriot Academy. So I just want you to listen to the words. We're not going to sing it. Actually, let's do close with God bless America. But I'm going to read the words to this one. So this is by Catherine Lee Bates and you'll of course, know you'll recognize the words. But now I want you to really listen to the words, listen carefully to what she says.

America, America, god shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. William Wilberforce actually, when he was doing ending slavery in England, he said God gave me two great works. One to end slavery took his whole life. You talk about lives forged in sacred honor. Took his whole life to get it done. But he said the second great thing God called me to do is a restoration of manners, a restoration of morals in the country. He said we have to make being good fashionable again. In other words, make being good cool, so crowned by good with brotherhood. From sea to shining sea, oh beautiful, for pilgrim feet whose stern and passion stress a thoroughfare of freedom. Beat across the wilderness. America, America, God, mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law the reason I get so emotional about Rebecca and all these defendants and just the abuse of justice, what they've done to Trump in the courts, the reason I get emotional about it. I know you cannot have liberty that's not in law. In other words, zig Ziglar is one of my mentors and wrote the foreword to my book. He always said God's best blessings are within God's boundaries. You only have liberty in law. So if they destroy the legal system, you destroy the liberty, which is why we need lawyers at the beginning, judges at the first. Oh beautiful, for heroes proved in liberating strife. It's not going to be easy. Who, more than self, their country loved and mercy more than life. America, America, may God thy gold refine till all success be nobleness and every gain divine. I mean right there, even as David Barron was talking about it today, the free enterprise system. And if you don't have a biblical free enterprise system now it all falls apart and and if you don't have a biblical free enterprise system, how it all falls apart so that even our success, our gold refined, so that all our success would be nobleness and every gain divine. Oh, beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years. That's to me what makes a patriot, that a patriot sees beyond the years. We're not just looking at the election of 2024. Patriots seize beyond the years. We're not just looking at the election of 2024. We're not just looking at our own selfish protection or wealth or any of those things. We're seeing beyond the years. We're saying you know what, when I'm dead and gone, I want to know that I left behind the seeds that were planted in water so that fruit would grow for my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Patriots seize beyond the years by an alabaster city's gleam undimmed, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, patriots seas beyond the years by an alabaster city's gleam undimmed by human tears. America, America, God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. We're blessed. Let's start living like it. God bless you guys. Let's go see some cool fireworks. Appreciate you being here.

All right, folks, that was at the Patriot Academy campus, what you just listened to. You can get the entire program at our website, wallbuilders.show. Great opportunity for you to learn about the principles of the Declaration and what we can do over the next two years before the 250th birthday. So much work to do, folks. I hope that you've signed up as a Constitution coach. If not, go to patriotacademy.com. Get signed up today, start hosting those classes.

Do your part to make sure we're celebrating independence once again next year and the year after, instead of losing the country.

We're teetering folks and now is the time for you to lean in and help us save the nation. And if you've been curious listening to these programs over the last week or so from the Patriot Academy campus, check out patriotacademy.com and come join us for one of these constitutional defense courses where you will learn to defend yourself and your family. And, believe me, 55% of our students are women. The other 45% drug there by their wives because they think they don't need it. You know what I'm talking about, guys, but everybody needs it and we have people that have never touched a gun before that come through our class. All the time We've had SWAT officers tell us it's the best training they've ever had. So, no matter what your background or where you came from, you will love this training and you'll get the intellectual training as well on how to defend the Constitution. So check it out today at patriotacademy.com to have a great weekend, and thanks for listening to the WallBuilders Show