Good morning, I'd invite you to stand and we'll open by singing together Angels from the Realms of Glory. ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Gloria in excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Shepherds in the field above ♪ He is the life, the power, and the strength, the honor, the truth Would you join me in affirming the creed? I believe in the inspiration of the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments, the creation of man by the direct act of God, the incarnation and virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His identification as the Son of God, His vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind by the shedding of His blood on the cross, the resurrection of his body from the tomb, his power to save men from sin, the new birth of a generation by the Holy Spirit, and the gift of eternal life by the grace of God. You may be seated. After chapel today, you can get your new copy of The Collegian as you exit. There will also be copies across campus throughout the day as well. Tomorrow's leadership chapel, so student leaders, you will meet in Stratton Hall at 11. The rest of the student body will meet here in the FMA. As exams approach next week, faculty are not permitted to dismiss students early from exams. Be sure to complete your final exam or final work obligation before leaving for Christmas break. We wouldn't want you to have to come back during Christmas break. Finish strong, but remember your integrity before the Lord matters most. Plan your time wisely to avoid shortcuts that compromise integrity. If you do have any questions about a final project or exam, please ask your faculty this week, not next week, and we are praying for you as you wrap up the semester that you'll do your very best for God's glory. At this time, Nathan Monnier, a sophomore's biblical studies major, is going to give a brief testimony about Go Greenville, and after that, our registrar, Dr. Dan Smith, will lead us in prayer. Good morning. This Saturday, the CGO will be hosting the last Go Greenville of this semester. If you're interested in attending, there's a QR code that you all can scan to let us know ahead of time that you'll be there. Transportation is provided, so if you don't have a car, that's perfectly fine. We still would love to have you. If you are attending, we will be meeting at 1 p.m. in the Center for Global Opportunities for a short time of training and prayer before going out to downtown Greenville. And we expect to be back on campus by 3.30 p.m. And by way of encouragement, Go Greenville, like many of the other outreach opportunities that we are offered here at Bob Jones, is a means. It's a means for exercising and showing the character of God in our lives to those who do not know him. But it's also a means for growing your compassion for the lost. And if that's something that you think is important for evangelism, go Greenville and a lot of things like it are the right kind of ministry to take part in as we grow in our ability to evangelize with compassion. We hope to see you there. Our Father, we do thank you for the blessing to this semester and the way that you have provided. the way that you have helped each one to be able to accomplish those things that you have put before them. We thank you for this time in which we can come together and we can sing thy praises and that we can hear about thy word and the impact that thy word has. And we pray that our hearts might be in tune today to have thy word work in our hearts so that we can be better servants of thine. We do pray for the Go Greenville this weekend. We thank you for the many opportunities that there have been given for students to be able to minister in our community. And we pray that for this last one for the semester that those that you might encourage students to be able to be a part of this, and that those with whom they meet within our community might have their hearts open and receptive to the word, especially during this season of hope and peace. And Father, we just pray that you might help us to always keep our focus upon thee, for we ask this in Christ's name, amen. The Christmas hymn asks, what child is this? It is Christ the King. Let's stand and we'll sing together. We have an incredible privilege this morning to hear from one of our most entrepreneurial graduates, Mr. Stephen Lee. He is the founder and the director of Sermon Audio. Sermon Audio is the world's most trusted and largest library of audio and video sermons And it is a phenomenal thing that we here at Bob Jones University have the privilege to house Sermon Audio on the second floor of the Mack building in a beautiful area that Sermon Audio has built out for this purpose. Some of our students serve as interns with Sermon Audio. Sermon Audio has millions of sermons in its repository. And this year, and particularly this week, is a very special year and week, as this has been now underway for 25 years. Stephen Lee is a humble man of God. He's not exactly a preacher. but he facilitates preaching like no one else in the entire world. He's a man of prayer, and they have a daily noon prayer meeting with people from around the world praying that God would use the sermons that go out through Sermon Audio. He and his wife, Jamie, live here in Greenville. He's an elder at his local church. They have six children, a grandchild, and we just could not be prouder of any of our graduates than Mr. Stephen Lee. So he's going to come, and there's going to be a video that's going to be shown briefly, and then he's going to share from his heart. And what I'm hoping, beyond all that we're wanting to do in this hour, in this 20 minutes or so actually, to glorify God is to inspire you who with your gifts and talents to consider how through your lifetime God may use you to do something similar as how he has used Mr. Lee in this great effort. So would you please welcome Mr. Stephen Lee to our platform. In the 1980s, there was a young boy who loved listening to sermons. I find that it's very easy to get wrapped up in a world of technicalities and ultimate unrealities, where you are not really seeking God's fears. But growing up, one thing began to bother him more and more. Could more people hear and be blessed by what he was hearing? One day, his love for preaching, his desire for it to reach thousands, and his fascination with technology would soon become the birth of an idea. What if the preached word could travel through the Internet? What will change America? It will be the power of the Word of God. Let loose in the nation. Teach me the fullness of that blessed truth, that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection. Good morning, everyone. My name is Stephen Lee, and I am actually the boy in that trailer. That last preaching clip that you heard was by a man called Dr. Ian Paisley. How many of you heard of that name, Ian Paisley? He actually preached that sermon here in chapel many years ago. But I'm a great lover of preaching. I'm not a preacher myself, so this is a tremendous Opportunity. This is like the highlight of my whole career, to be able to address thousands of young people. And this is a great privilege. But I am the boy in that trailer. Of course, there was no footage of me at that time. So those images were created with AI. Now, that's really fascinating, right? Could you tell? After Chapel, go to sermonaudiostory.com, watch the trailer again, and see if you can figure out what parts were artificial, what parts were real. I think you'll be really, really interested. Here's a hint. Most of this film that we're putting out here in two days is AI, most of it. And I realize that AI is very controversial. I'm not really here to talk about AI, although I do want to mention that this film was done largely with AI, and that we are utilizing it in Sermon Audio as well. And it's very controversial, I get it, but we can't ignore it. We cannot ignore it. You young people, are living in an incredible moment in history. I believe that. This is your moment. And it's pretty incredible. There is a technological revolution taking place right now under your noses that the world has never seen before. Now, I'm a technology person. I was born in the 70s. I'm a child of the 80s. I've seen my share of technology over the years. But what we're seeing today is Totally different. It's different for two reasons. Number one is its scope. What do I mean by that? This new era that we're living in is going to touch every industry, virtually every industry that's out there, whether it's medical or legal or educational, social, entertainment, media, art, Hospitality, robotics, manufacturing, it's going to affect every industry. So the scope is enormous. It's also the pace at which this technology is evolving. AI is advancing at a pace that we've really never seen before in any previous revolution. In just a few years, for example, some of these models that we talk about, these AI models, the size of the models, have increased by 10 million percent in just a few years. And the capacity and the capability of these models are increasing. They're doubling, actually, every six months. There's no other movement that has gone this fast. Not even close. Not electricity, not the personal computer, not even the internet. This is going at a back-breaking speed. What's the problem with all this? It's too fast. That's the problem. We can't keep up. Not just with the pace of change, which is just astronomical, but with the amount of new media that's being created and pushed to us every day, not just by other humans now, but by machines. We are drowning in information. and for a generation already labeled as the distracted generation that does not bode well. Now, at this stage, I want to turn to 1 Kings chapter 18. I'm going to try to tie all this together and make this as helpful as I can. 1 Kings chapter 18. Let's set the stage. You got the prophets of Baal and you have the prophet Elijah. And you have this great contest. And 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 21 says, That's a great question by Elijah. How long are we going to halt between two opinions? And this is true of us all. I would pose that as a question to you as well. How long are we going to try to straddle the fence between wholeheartedly serving the Lord or let's just go off into the world? Look, if Baal is God, go serve him, go for it. But you have a lot of Christians out there that are trying to have the best of both worlds. They're trying to have their Christianity and they're also trying to have as much of the world as they can get. Don't halt between two opinions. Serve one or the other. Jesus says you can't serve two, Master. You just can't do it. But a lot of us do try. Wholeheartedly serving the Lord. Now, Elijah steps forward. You have the prophets of Baal. They're cutting themselves. They're crying out to Baal all morning, all afternoon. To no avail. It's the bail fail, the way I call it. And in verse 33, now you have Elijah. Elijah is repairing the altar and he is about to come forward now. And he put the wood in order, cut the book in pieces, verse 33, and laid him on the wood and said, fill four barrels with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, do it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar and it filled the trench also with water. Tell me, what is the purpose of this? Twelve barrels full of water, pouring that all over the sacrifice. What's going on with that? Why couldn't it just been, here's an altar, here's an altar, and let the fire fall, and the God that answers by fire, let him be God. Why these barrels of water? The fact that Elijah's altar was drenched and overflowing and waterlogged, was underscoring something, was underscoring, in a profound way, the impossibility of the situation. It was waterlogged. Waterlogged. I just have a few minutes, so I'm gonna try to get right to the point. To be honest, when I was presented with this extraordinary opportunity, really, to come speak to the student body here at Bob Jones, I was thinking about you. I was thinking about you as students and this time of your life. The technical revolution that you're living under right now and all that's bombarding you right now. I never grew up with cell phones. Now, I went to Bob Jones. I'm a 95 grad. I sat where you sit. I was there. I was a student, 95, computer science. I didn't grow up with cell phones. I didn't grow up with social media. Sermon Audio, in fact, started in 2000. That's before any social post. Facebook wasn't invented until a few years later. YouTube was not invented. They weren't even streaming anything. Streaming audio, maybe. Video, forget it. Look how much the world has changed. from where I was there to now. I feel for you. I actually do feel for you. I know you don't feel for yourself because this is all you've known. But for people like myself who've known a previous time, I actually feel for you. You are living in a generation that is addicted to the screen. Now, we all are. So it's not just you, but this generation is addicted to the screen. Just go to any restaurant and you'll see this proven out, right? Table after table, they're all sitting there, even families, and they're on the screens. That's a problem. This is the distracted generation. The average young person is unable to stay away from the screen for more than five minutes at a time, according to a study. Another study revealed that the average teen receives over 200 notifications every day. 200. You are inundated. You are being submerged with data. Waterlogged. What's the definition of being waterlogged? This is helpful. When something has absorbed so much water that it becomes saturated, heavy, and unable to function normally, unable to stay buoyant, at risk of sinking, capsizing, being completely overwhelmed, is that you? We are living in this world. We are living in this world. Sermon Audio is in the technology business. We, we, Sermon Audio, we are always at risk. of being overwhelmed and waterlogged. We are living in this crazy, fast-paced world. And it's not possible for a company of our size, we have a team of 10, it's not possible for a company of our size to still be here 25 years later. For the record, let me say this. Humanly speaking, it is impossible for a technology company of our size to still be in operation for 25 years. When I first started Sermon Audio, I thought 10 years and that's it. 10 years would be a great run. Because I just know technology companies, they come and go. Except for the very, very big ones, like the big tech ones. But technology companies come and they go. And so I thought 10 years, that'd be great. 25 years later, It's not possible. And it's not possible for you either. What is the answer to a waterlogged life? We're getting to it now. This is the question. What is the answer to this crazy waterlogged life that we all live in? You ready for the answer? This is very important. What's the answer? Revival. Revival? Revival. What do we mean by revival? God's fire. God's power. God himself. Look at verse 36 to 38. Help me out here. Elijah came near, said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel. I'm thy servant. I've done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou has turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. The altar was waterlogged. It was impossible. It was just drenched. The fire licked up all the water. You are overwhelmed in this world that we live in. And I know that. This is the last week of classes, right? I have two sons here at Bob Jones. They're sitting somewhere here. I know all-nighters. It's hard. It's busy. This is a busy time. And so when you hear messages like, Going on for God and, you know, be on fire for God. And you're thinking, who has time for all this? Who has time to be on fire for God? I can barely have a spark in my soul. Never mind fire. Who has time? And so I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, I just need to get out of school. Bob Jones is the problem. I need to get out of school. Once I get out of school, then I'll be able to really get on fire for God. What happens when you get out of school? You get married, you have children, you have responsibilities, you have work commitments, you have financial obligations, you have burdens. Here's the fun fact. You will always feel overwhelmed. So I ask you again, what is the answer to a waterlogged life? I will say it again. It's revival. The answer is you need, you need God's Fire. You need God's power. You need God himself. Now, AI is an incredible tool. We used it largely to create this film. In two days, you're gonna see it. Go to that website, see it, enjoy it. I hope it's a blessing to you. You know what else will be released in two days? We have something called global sermons. This is something we've been working very hard on, global sermons. Now, we're using AI, but we're using it for good. It's an entirely different purpose, not for entertainment, but for outreach. It's where we can take any sermon preached in any language and have it re-preached in another language, so that you have a church in rural America, and his sermons now can be enjoyed by a man in China. Or you have a preacher under the canopy of a large tree in Africa, right? Preaching in Swahili. And his sermon can be enjoyed by a woman walking her dog in Central Park. That's what we're talking about. But you know what, whether it's AI or with sermon audio, streaming media, or live webcasting, or multicasting, or the vault, the physical infrastructure that we're trying to build. It's impossible to do this with a team of 10. The story of Sermonatio is the story of God. None of this can happen without God. I don't want you to walk away from here thinking about how wonderful we are, or how cool AI is. I don't want you to be thinking about that. I want you to walk out here, literally, thinking, I need God's power. in my life. That's my takeaway for you. Sermon Audio is just one exhibition of that fact. It doesn't make sense, like I said, for a tiny company, a team of 10, to be building a vault, a network of data centers around the world. That doesn't make any sense. You want to see what a miracle looks like? That's a miracle. Go to the Mac building. Take a look at that. That's a miracle. We're nobodies. You know what my number one job is every day? My number one job. I need to make sure that I don't lose out with God in my own soul. That's my number one job. I don't lose out with God. If I lose out with God, everything falls apart. The structure will fall. And you know, I think Dr. McAllister could probably say the same thing. If he loses out with God, if this leadership here loses out with God, it's over. Let that sink in. Literally, it will be over. Now, the machinery may still go on. But like Sardis, we will have a name to live, but are dead. on the inside. So what's the point of that then? What's the point of doing that? And is that the kind of Christian that you are? Are you that kind of Christian? Ask yourself. Do you just project life to everyone? Do you just have the illusion that you have life, but you're dead on the inside? Nobody wants that. You need revival. I need revival, this campus needs revival. So my challenge to you is simply this, when you go out there, when you get into your dorm rooms, when you get together with your peers and your friends, sure, pray for your finances, pray for your relationships, pray for your health, those are all legitimate things, but get into the habit of praying for revival, praying that the fire of God will fall down on your life. Just like Elijah prayed, Lord, hear me. Let the people know about our God, even the heathen. Let them know that thou art our God. Let the fire of God fall down from heaven on my life and your life. This is my takeaway. The story of Sermonadio is not the story about us. It's a story about how God used a boy with a box of cassette tapes to see that the world now, today, 500 million sermons around the world distributed, and we're just at the tip of the iceberg. I mean, we're about to launch this thing, and I can hardly wait. But what is that? Wow, what a great team you guys have. This is just brilliant. No, can't you see? This is the story of what God can do. It's amazing. We need revival. My soul has no desire to stay where doubts surround and fears dismay. Though some may dwell where these abound, my constant aim is higher ground. You've been a great audience. Don't forget to pick up the Story of Sermon audiobook on your way out, please. Please take a copy, and God bless you. This week is the launch of a global project in which Sermon Audio is beginning now to take the sermons in their library and make them available in every language. Are you hearing what I'm saying? AI has potential for good and for bad. The amazing thing now is that the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ will be able to be heard around the world continuously in every language. This is the amazing moment that we're living in. And we're very indebted to Mr. Lee and to his staff, and most importantly, to God himself for allowing us to be in this moment. And then for you, what God may have in store for you, just like with a box of cassette tapes, just a little boy in his bed listening to preaching, wanting to be a preacher, but God didn't call him to be a preacher, but became perhaps the world's largest facilitator. of the Word of God going to the nations of the world. Let's pray for sermon audio. I have read the booklet, the small book that he's offering for free as you go today, and especially toward the end of the book, my heart just ignites with the potential for the spread of the Gospel and the Word of God. They're having a very nice dinner here this week on campus, people coming from around the nation and perhaps the world to celebrate these 25 years of ministry. Let's stand together and pray as we close. Lord, we thank you for the effect of preaching and praying upon all of our lives. And we thank you for this facilitating ministry that you have raised up over these 25 years. And we pray, Lord, for its protection and for its forward progress and the forward progress of the gospel and the word of God in all the nations of the world. We pray for your protection upon this ministry as well. And I thank you for our humble brother who wants all the glory to go to God. And then, Lord, we would, as he has exhorted us this morning, to pray for revival for ourselves, individually, for our groups of friends, and for our networks of churches, and for this ministry here at BJU. We pray that all of this would redound to your honor and glory as you let the fire of God fall upon our lives. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.