Live for Liberty – A Message from the Chancellor

A Commencement Charge for All

I had the honor of delivering a charge to the Class of 2026 at Regent’s 46th Commencement. My message to them was simple: Live for liberty. If each of us lives with the freedom to worship God as our conscience dictates, then we will be free indeed (John 8:36).

If we fall under the tyranny of a strange ideology — something imposed upon us that silences what we truly believe — then we have lost our liberty. This is a liberty worth praying for, believing for, and struggling for — beyond our own strength.

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

John 8:36 (NKJV)

America’s early settlers did not build this great nation by their own strength. In 1607, the sailors who established the first permanent English colony in the New World didn’t plant a flag when they came ashore. Neither did they dedicate this land to the king of England.

Instead, they brought with them a wooden cross, planted it at Cape Henry (in what is now Virginia Beach), and dedicated this land to Jesus Christ. Those men also prayed for the gospel to go forth from these shores into the entire world.

The first English settlers resolved to bow their knees and pray. In 1776, minutemen and patriots resolved to do the same thing. Now, 250 years later, we need to bow our knee. We need to pray. We need to seek Almighty God.

If we do that, then He truly can heal our land (2 Chronicles 7:14). The Lord can restore our liberty. He can bless us and, more importantly, fulfill His purposes for our land.

I challenged our graduates to take this message far beyond America’s borders — to fulfill that prayer so, from these shores, they will carry the gospel into all the world.