Are you plugged in to the study and obeying of God's Word? I want to share with you tonight from the book of Ezra, the importance of being plugged in to the best that God has for you this year. Tonight, I want to talk to you about the importance of being plugged into a Sunday morning Bible study group. Sunday morning Bible study. Remember, S-M-B-S. Say it for me. Sunday morning Bible study. Now everybody, Sunday morning Bible study. One more time. Sunday morning Bible study. Many of you grew up, I know you did because I did too, thinking that Sunday school was only for kids. And you know that thought is still permeating through our culture that Sunday school is just for kids. So what happens? Teens don't come to Sunday school. College and career kids quit coming. And adults don't come. Because, preacher, it's just for kids, right? No. Not right. It's for teenagers, too. Everybody say it loud enough or something. Sunday school is for teenagers, too. Sunday school's for adults, too. Amen. You see, what's permeated our society is that Sunday school, that early morning stuff is just for kids. That's not so. It is for children of all ages, but it's also for teenagers and for adults. Now, I'm going to officially rename Sunday School. We're not going to call it Sunday School around here anymore. We're going to call it Sunday Morning Bible Study. Everybody help me out. We're going to call it Sunday Morning Bible Study. Very good, class. One more time. We're not going to call it Sunday School. We're going to call it Sunday morning Bible study. This has a little ring to it, doesn't it? Sunday morning Bible study. The book of Ezra is a story of the Jews when they returned to Jerusalem after almost a century of being in exile in Babylon, which is the modern-day Iraq. And when they returned, all they found were ruins. There was no temple, and so the people felt strangely unplugged. It's a story of how they got plugged back in. And we just read Ezra chapter 3, verses 1 through 3. As we think about being plugged in to God's best, I want to share with you tonight four important benefits of Sunday morning Bible study. What is it that we have here every Sunday morning at 9 o'clock? We have Sunday morning Bible study. Number one, Sunday morning Bible study is the best place to plug in for study. If you will, one more time, look at Ezra chapter 3. And when the seventh month was come and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. There stood up Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and his brethren, and the priest, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shittael, and his brethren, and built the altar of the God of Israel. to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And they set the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries. And they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom as the duty of every day required. The Scripture says the people made a commitment to live according to God's Word. Ezra had often been called by many independent fundamental Baptist preachers anyway, the first Sunday school teacher, because of chapter 7, verse 10. So go over to chapter 7. And look at verse 10, how they come up with the idea that he is the first Sunday school teacher. And Ezra the priest stood up and said unto them, ye have transgressed and have taken strange wives to increase the treasures of Israel. Ezra, oops, I'm sorry, I read the wrong verse. 710, I'm sorry, I read 10. I thought that sounded kind of funny. Well, it's good to be human, isn't it? For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. And what did he do with that? And to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. That's how they got. that he was the first Sunday school teacher. For us, SMBS is a place where we can learn to live according to God's word. The first thing the Jews did was to lay the foundation of the altar. By the way, every good builder will tell you, if a building has a weak foundation, what will happen to that building? It will settle and the walls will crack, and it could fall. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said your life must be built upon the foundation of hearing and obeying the Word of God. He said if a person doesn't live a life according to God's Word, he's like a man who builds his house upon the sand. And when the storms of life come, What happens? The life will crumble and crack. And the only way to survive life's hurricanes and life's storms is to build your life upon something that is solid, a solid foundation. And the only solid foundation I know of to build your life today is the living Word of God. I've got to build my life as an individual member of the Harvest Baptist Temple, not on shout, not on songs, not on music, not on instruments, but on the very Word of God. Even among Christians, there's an alarming level of biblical ignorance. What percentage do you suppose, I did a little study today, a little search, I don't want to do anything like that here tonight, but what do you suppose the percentage is of people who are Christians who know all Ten Commandments? Now, what if we started from that side of the auditorium and came all the way across and found out how many of us here could stand up and give all Ten Commandments? Something very simple. But you know what the stats say? The stats say that less than 5% of Christians can tell you all the Ten Commandments. That's an alarming thing, I think. Now, our church might be a little better because there's little songs we can sing in children's church on the bus route, and we can learn these things. And it might be a little different here. It just might be, I don't know. But when asked the question, I'm gonna ask this question. When asked the question, I asked my wife this and she got it exactly right the night before service. She really did. When asked the question, who came first, Moses or Abraham? The most common answer given by adults was, what do you suppose? I don't know. That's what they said, I don't know. So let's take a little poll tonight. Who came first, Moses or Abraham? Who believes it was Moses? Raise your hand, please. You're all scared, aren't you? Who believes it was Abraham? Raise your hand. The correct answer is Abraham. But you see, when we get together, and we're Christians, we know God's Word, or we say we do, it's an alarming thing that there's so much ignorance concerning spiritual matters. in the space of the word of God. I heard about two lawyers who met at church. They were both surprised to meet each other at church. They didn't know they was going to be there. And they started talking about the Bible. And one of them said, you know, if you're so religious, let me hear you recite the Lord's Prayer. I'll bet you $50 you can't recite the Lord's Prayer. One lawyer said to the other lawyer at church. Can you believe that? The other guy said, are you kidding? That's easy. I can recite the Lord's Prayer. That's easy. The other guy said, fine, recite it. He said, all right. Now I'll lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep." When he got finished, the first one reached for his wallet and he said, I can't believe it. You knew the whole thing. There's a real problem in our churches. We just don't know the Bible like we say we do. You may be thinking, I agree, Pastor. When I come to worship, I'm getting Bible teaching from you. I get it Sunday morning, I get it Sunday night, I even come Wednesday, I get it Wednesday night too. Boy, I'm getting all kinds of stuff. Well, not really because of the variety of ages and backgrounds of worship that you all have come from. I gotta find a level to teach from. And it's not always gonna be at the high level, it's gonna be somewhere in the middle. Because I have to reach the 10 year old, The 15-year-old, the 25-year-old, the 45-year-old, and the 62-year-old, and the 80-year-old. And I've got to have them all understand what I'm preaching. Do you realize the task that this man of God has on his shoulders that I've got to do every single time I get up to preach? And I've got to actually get down somehow into everybody's level, no matter what age they are, and I've got to be able to speak to them. And so it can't always be, it can't always be the meat, sometimes it's the milk. But in Sunday morning Bible study, you can savor the delicious meat of the Word of God because your teacher in a smaller setting, in a smaller class can take the Word of God and meet with you with that Word and you can eat that great meat from the Word of God as you study in detail for your age bracket that wonderful Word. What a joy! We have gifted teachers. I have five adult classes, a teenage class, and then every age group is broken down. We can study historical backgrounds diligently. We can look at practical truth in the word of God and have a complete, really strong discussion. If you have a question about something, you can't stop me while I'm preaching. Although maybe some have tried. But you're not supposed to do that while I'm preaching. I'm preaching, and you might say, hey, I have a question about that. And then you'll leave, and you'll say, oh, I always had to ask preacher about that one statement he made. I forgot. And then you'll always forget, and you'll never remember until something else happens. You say, oh, I want to ask you that, and you'll keep forgetting. But in Sunday school class, you can raise your hand and say, hold it. Hold it. Brother Halstead, what did you just teach? What did you just say? Can you clarify that for me? And he can clarify that for you. You understand what I'm saying? Sunday morning Bible study is so very important. Another advantage of that particular class is that we are divided up into groups according to age bracket or interest. As you stand at the beginning of this new year, it's a great time to say, I'm going to commit myself. And here's what you really should be saying, church member. I am going to commit myself this year to learn more about the Bible than I've ever learned in my life. Come on, amen? I mean, there's a lot of feel-good churches out here in our society. If you want to feel good, there's a bunch of churches you can go to just to feel good. And they'll get you all cranked up. They'll have platform singers to help you. And they have all kinds of stuff and all kinds of do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do, and lights. And you go away from there, wow, that was amazing. Now, you may not learn anything, but it was amazing. But why don't you commit yourself, why don't you commit yourself, not to all that party and lifestyle stuff, and get to church and say, hey, this year I'm gonna learn more Bible than I've ever learned in my life. I'm gonna get involved, get in that church, get in that Sunday school class in the morning, and I'm gonna learn the Bible, and I'm gonna be a fit parent, I'm gonna be a fit teenager, I'm gonna be a fit middle-ager, I'm gonna be a fit older folk, I'm gonna do something for God this year. That's what I think we ought to do. I honestly do. I think more than anything else, that's what we need to do. I'm going to commit myself to learn. Now, you don't have to have any previous Bible knowledge to be a part of a Sunday morning Bible study. You're not going to be asked to name the 12 apostles. You're not going to be asked that in Sunday school class, I don't think. You're not even going to be asked, probably, to find the book of Nahum, because most people don't even teach out of that book. So nobody's going to ask you to do that. In fact, when you check it out, You don't have to say anything. Did you know you go to Sunday school class, Sunday morning Bible study? Some of you are so slow. And never have to say a word if that's how you feel. Personally, I like folks talking. I like to ask questions. I say, hey, what do you think? I say, hey, what do you think? I love to get that stuff going. And every once in a while, I like to have people kind of get their little feathers sticking up a little bit. What did he just say? And then try to calm it back down by explaining exactly where it's supposed to be. Isn't that good? Sunday morning Bible study. Wow, what a place to be. I guarantee you there will be more stability and strength in your life if you could build on the foundation of living according to what God's Word said in His Word. But Sunday morning Bible study is about more than just studying the Bible. It's also about the best place to get plugged in for outreach. Look at Ezra chapter 7, and look, if you will, in verse number 28. Chapter 7, verse 28. and hath extended mercy unto me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me." Sunday morning Bible study is not just for teaching, it's for reaching out to others as well. That's what Ezra 7.28 talks about. It's a place where you can bring others to find new relationships. the main reason new people come to your church. Why is it that new people come to church? Oh, preachers, they come because of the music. Not so. As much as I'd like to have you say they come for the preaching, not so. People don't come to church for music. They don't come for preaching. They don't come for the building. Oh, I'm gonna go to that church because it's such a beautiful building. Do you know why most people come to church? The number one reason why they attend church is because they have been personally invited by a friend or a relative. That's why they come. Somebody invited them to come. Now studies have shown that people who don't regularly attend church are reluctant to come to worship service alone. But the same studies reveal that over 90% of Americans say they want to learn more about the Bible. That's an amazing figure to me. The best way to reach people for Christ is through relationships. And the best place for relationships to happen and develop is in Sunday morning Bible study. That's the best place. So if you have a friend or a classmate or a work associate who doesn't attend church, you can say something like this, hey listen, you ought to attend church with me sometime. I'll say good for you for saying that, that's good, that's not far enough. I mean, that was good, and I'm glad you're inviting somebody. But why don't you try something like this? By the way, when you invite people like that, the stats say that 10% of those people will show up on their own at an unfamiliar church. Only 10%. But now listen to this, if you went up to somebody and said this approach now, get this approach, hey I go to Harvest Baptist Temple and we have a little study group on Sunday morning. It's just a little group of guys and gals our age and we meet together and boy we have a great time. The atmosphere is wonderful. We discuss the Bible. We are scholars. We are all students. It's a real friendly group. If you're interested, listen, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll stop by Sunday morning and pick you up and take you to our Sunday morning Bible study. How about that? If you invite them, the stats say at least three times like that, there's a 50-50 chance that they'll say, okay, you have just improved your chance of getting somebody to church. and you got them coming to Sunday morning Bible study. Do you realize that everybody in this room, if we're the kind of Christians we really ought to be and should be eagerly seeking God, everybody, this whole crowd ought to be here at nine o'clock every Sunday morning. In your own Sunday school class, getting something from the meat of God's word, oh how we need to start this year out right and build this church on the basis of, I'm going to learn more about the Bible. It would be a wonderful thing for us all to be a part of. One of the best Sunday school verses you'll ever find is found in the book of Deuteronomy. Would you go to Deuteronomy, please? Chapter 31, verse number 12. This is a Sunday school verse from now on it's going to be called Sunday morning Bible study verse. It's found in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 31. Verse number 12, gather the people together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, do you see this? And fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, and that their children, which have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God. Wow! As long as you live in the land where you go over Jordan to possess it. Listen, do you see that? That's a tremendous verse. The Sunday morning Bible study is not just for teaching, it's for reaching new people as well. Number three going to four, Sunday morning Bible study is the best place to plug in for community. In chapter 10 of the book of Ezra, Verse number one, when you go to Ezra chapter 10 and verse one, we're talking about community. That's the best place to plug in for community. Now, when Ezra had prayed and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men, women, and children, for the people wept. very sore. When Ezra realized that sin was responsible for the mess they were in, it broke his heart. And what did he do? He began to cry. He began to weep. But the Bible said he didn't weep alone. By the way, nobody likes to weep alone. And he didn't have to. Because here in the Bible it says that the people wept with him. Sunday morning Bible study is a place where you can share your burdens and pray one for another. In Acts 2, verse 44, we learn the earliest disciples shared everything in common. And that word in the Greek, that word for common, means to share in common, or have in communion, or in community, or fellowship. Now when we talk about fellowship in most Baptist ranks, we don't think about going out and getting people, we think about food. Do we have fellowship? Oh, great. What are we having to eat? That's about what we think about most of the time. And this place around here is the eatest place I've ever seen in my life. I don't know why we're not all overweight. It's unbelievable. You know, some folks think cookies and Kool-Aid. Community is created in the smaller Bible studies, though. That's why I did what we did about splitting these classes. How many of you grew up in a church that had dinner on the ground? They called it that, dinner on the grounds. How many grew up in churches like that, had dinner on the ground? How many of you grew up in churches that had potluck dinners? Every hand ought to be raised. We do that all the time around here. We had dinner on the ground and potluck dinners all the time, right? We have for years. I love it. So do you. Aren't you glad they develop better plates. You know, those three-pocketed plates rather than those flimsy old paper plates. I remember, this is so funny, I remember when I first came to this church, we ran about 30 in attendance in those days, and we used to have a potluck dinner. And all those little old ladies would watch what Pastor Lewis was going to pick up. Now you know good and well if you're the pastor of this church and you just became the pastor and you had your first potluck dinner, and they see the pastor going up to the table, he has his plate, and what do all those people expect of you? Try what I fixed. Pastor, I fixed that one in the yellow bowl right there. You'll like it. So every potluck, I had to get a little dab of that, little dab of that, little dab of that, little dab of that, And when I got done, my plate was full. I needed running boards, because it was so full. But I tried to please everybody, right? You don't want to hurt anybody. You don't want some little lady sitting over there saying, he didn't try my broccoli casserole. He tried everybody else, but he didn't try mine. I am so offended. Look, I just had to quit this church. You know what I'm saying? And then you had a couple of my deacons. I only had two or three in those days. You know those guys who always had the short tie and a big belly? Hey, preacher! Hey, preacher, keep eating like that, you're going to look like this someday! That's how it all started. You know exactly what I'm talking about, right? I love those guys. Don't you just love those guys? Where was I? But the Bible says in the book of Acts, look at Acts chapter 2 verse 46. The Bible says about the early church, they met by the thousands in the temple courts. And then if you look at Acts chapter 2 verse 46, they also met in houses. And they went from house to house. And what'd they do? To eat. With glad and sincere hearts. They fellowshiped. Had the large group that met at church to worship. And then they met house to house. Because you can't get a lot of fellowship in a big worship like this. But in a small Sunday school class or Sunday morning Bible study class, you get a lot more fellowship. And then those classes will develop times of fellowship. One of those teachers will say, listen, tonight I want you to come to my house, all of you, because there might only be 15 or 20, there's not 400. It's hard to get 400 people in your house. Say, okay, tonight, guys, I want everybody coming to my house right after service. You kidding me? I haven't got that much room. But if I am dealing with a class of 20 or 25 or 15, hey, you guys can all come over. We have a wonderful fellowship, Sunday morning, Bible study. It means more than share a meal. It means to share each other's burdens. Galatians chapter 6. What does it say in Galatians chapter 6 and verse number 2? Galatians chapter 6 verse 2 says this, bear you one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. You realize some folks in our church have burdens and they want to share it with somebody, but there's nobody to share it with because nobody takes any time to deal with them. But in a Sunday morning Bible study, they could share their burden with those 15 or 20 or 25. It'd be sweet to pray for them. Two weeks ago, there was a husband and wife that was leaving the auditorium on a Sunday morning, and I was shaking their hand. And she had had cancer. It had gone away, and now it had come back. and she's taking chemo and radiation. I stopped and I said, listen, ma'am, how you doing? She said, well, it's been tough, Pastor, but we believe in God. We believe in God. I said, great. She said, I have a test. I just want you to pray for me. I have a test. I didn't say anything to anybody. Didn't know how to make the announcement at your church, but I want you to just pray for me. Because it's really a serious test, and it's going to be coming up in a week or so. And I said, do you mind if we could pray right here? Oh, no, I don't mind at all. You would do that? I said, oh, I'll pray right here, right now. Folks were passing by me. I held her hand, held his hand. We prayed together. And that man just, I mean, just broke down crying. He's weeping. She began to weep, tears flowed. Listen, you may not be able to do that all the time in a big setting. but you can do that in a Sunday morning Bible study. Come on, amen? Those groups can pray for each other, have prayer lists, share burdens, praying for each other. The church has a prayer chain, but maybe you don't get on that prayer chain sometimes. But if you're coming every Sunday morning at 9 o'clock to a Sunday morning Bible study, you can mention it every week and have a word of prayer. People are lonely today. They're looking for a place where they can be loved. I heard a funny story about a lonely frog who really believed he was a handsome prince. He was waiting to be discovered by a beautiful girl. The frog was so lonely, he called the psychic hotline. To ask about his future life, his personal psychic advisor told him, you're going to meet a beautiful girl very soon, and she's going to want to know everything about you, inside and out. The frog was thrilled. He asked, where in the world will I meet her, at some party? The advisor said, no, in a biology lab. I knew I shouldn't have told that. Some of you act so stoic, like, hey, aren't we just people? It's where you can meet friends. Somebody said to me the other day, he said, Pastor, where would you go if you were young and single and looking for a date? I said church. I'd go to church. I certainly wouldn't go to a bar. I wouldn't go to the movie house. I'd go to church. That's where I'd go. That's where I think young couples ought to go. That's where I think young single folks ought to go. And you'd be surprised what God would do for you. Serious. Time to build relationships. It's where widows should be able to come and meet other widows, understand their plight together. It's where young couples can meet. It's where empty nesters can meet. Number four, Sunday morning Bible study is the best place to plug in for ministry. In Ezra, go back to Ezra chapter 10, please. I'm just about finished. Ezra 10, verse number 16. Follow me, please. And the children of captivity did so, and Ezra the priest was certain chief of the fathers after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names were separated and sat down in the first day of the 10th month to examine the matter. Once the rebuilding was underway, the biggest problem Ezra faced after that was dealing with a multitude of problems that the people had. So he wisely organized them into smaller groups. That's what Ezra 10, 16 talks about. And by the way, that's exactly what Sunday morning Bible study does. It organizes the church into smaller groups so you can work together. Large groups operate effectively only when organized into smaller units. There's a biblical principle there. Go with me to Exodus chapter 18, please. Look, if you will, at verse number 23. Exodus 18, 23. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure. And all this people shall also go to their place in peace. Now, what is that talking about? Moses was having kind of like a burnout. He was the only one trying to minister to the multitude of people. He says people crowded around him from sunrise to sunset. His father-in-law Jethro came and said, hey, listen, what in the world you doing? You got to have some help. Most of the people keep coming. They have all these needs. I have to help them. And Jethro said, it's not good. He suggested Moses divide the mob, or the group, the crowd into groups of hundreds and fifties and tens and appoint good men to work over them. That's what we're doing. We say, hey, the church can't exist on a Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. We've got to have more than that. So we've got to organize the church to where we have little Bible study groups, where we can really get down to the meat of the Word of God. Where they can ask their teacher, hey, what does that mean? Help me out here!" And the teacher can give the gospel to these folks. And by the way, no one is too old to come to Sunday morning Bible study. And no one is too young, you should stay away. It's a great program. And that's the beauty of our church. We've actually settled down to really deciding we're going to teach the Bible this year. I think it's going to be a blessing to everybody. But folks, all the way from that corner all the way over to this corner, we have to all get involved. Last year it was three to thrive. This year it's in God we still trust, but we've got to know the Bible. Let's get together in Sunday school class, Sunday morning Bible studies, and learn the Word of God. I'm just about finished. Musicians can come if you will. But I do want to say this. There are a number of lonely people out there. Now you would not know they're lonely because they don't act it because they're trying to hide it. But there's a bunch of lonely people everywhere. We need to reach out to them and lovingly invite them to join us on Sunday mornings as we study the Bible. We need to befriend them so we can help them bear the burdens of life. Life is tough to face alone. We need each other. And I got to thinking last Sunday when that lady was in the visitor's fellowship, and I was back there talking with her, and she said, wow, I can't believe all the people that bring their Bibles to your church. I have never been in a church like this. I said, really? She said, no, the church I go to, nobody brings their Bible. I said, really? She said, well, they don't need to. We don't ever talk about it. That's what she said. I didn't say that. She said, we don't need to because we never talk about it. I didn't ask any more questions. I said, oh, you'd love to come here. And I'll tell you, we have another program. Maybe you'd like to be involved in that program. What is that, she said. I said, we have Bible study at 9 o'clock. Oh, oh, honey, give me a pen, she said to her husband. I want to write that down. You have Bible study at 9? Could I come? Should I be asking that question? Should I say, would you come? She said, could I come? You see, there's a lot of people out there who would like to come, but they don't know. And then we have our Christians who do know and don't want to come for whatever reason. Isn't that sad? Ladies and gentlemen, there's loneliness out there. People are hurting. Life is tough. We need to reach out to everybody, but we need to reach out to our own crowd. and get them in what's called Sunday morning Bible study. Everybody here tonight really ought to work at this. I'm going to learn more Bible, preacher. And I'm coming to my Sunday morning Bible class this week. I'm going to get plugged in to studying God's Word and to obey God's Word. Let's stand together, shall we?