The Signs are There Are You Paying Attention

Speaker A: Good morning and welcome to this brand new day. What if God has given us signs, but we're not paying attention to what his word says? The wise men saw a sign in the sky and they knew that it meant something important. They followed that sign until it led them to Jesus. But here's something worth thinking about. If they could recognize the sign that pointed them to Christ, are we paying attention to what Jesus told us to watch for before he returns? Yesterday, we talked about the rapture of the church. Today, let us look at the signs. Not what someone on the Internet says, not what someone's prediction about a date, but what the Bible actually tells us. Because the question isn't whether we could figure out the exact day that Jesus will return. The question is whether we are paying attention to His Word. Today is Friday, October 9, 2026. And this is Scripture Link's daily dose of inspiration. And today is moldy cheese day. Now, we're told not to eat mold when it's on vegetables or on bread. But it's okay to eat it on cheese, I guess. I don't know. I, I'm, I'm a little baffled by that one today. Looking ahead to the weekend, Saturday, National Chess Day. I like a good game of chess and I'll probably have to get the chessboard out and play dad this weekend. And Sunday is National Sausage Pizza Day. Again, I like a good sausage pizza. So those are some things to celebrate this weekend. If you're reading along in the Bible with us, we're studying the, the history of ancient Israel today. Second Kings chapters 10 through 13, Saturday chapters 14 through 16, and Sunday chapters 17 through 20. Certainly hope you'll take the time to get in there and read that. That way you know and understand the signs of the times and we could. And let's, let's start today. Matthew chapter number two, Matthew, chapter number two. I'm going to read for you verses two through six. The wise men follow the star. We're coming up on the Christmas season here pretty soon, so we'll be going through all those plays and hearing the Christmas story story, you know, many times during the holiday season. So let's take a look at a few things about the star that led the. Is led the, the wise men to Jesus. Matthew, chapter 2, verses 1 through 6 says, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. When Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled in Jerusalem and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes of the people together, he. He demanded of them where the Christ should be born. And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea. Thus it is written by the prophet, and thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art thou not the least among the princes of Judah? For out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. All right, I am going to stop right there. The wise men followed this star. Let's. And. And we read here in verse number two. When they got to Jerusalem, they came to the king and they said unto him, where is he that is born, the King of the Jews? And. And that left Herod scratching his head saying, what are they talking about? But look at the rest of verse number two. Here he says, for we have seen his star in the east and come to worship him. Now, biblical scholars say that these men probably traveled a great distance because Jesus was born. And we're going to look now, roughly two years later, when the wise men showed up. The wise men weren't at the manger. They weren't part of that manger scene that we read in Luke chapter one and two. Instead, they came a couple of years later. So these wise men were most likely following the star for at least two years that we could account for. But the thing is, they saw the star. They saw that sign and they understood that sign, they recognized that sign, and they came to worship him. Today there's so many signs that is given to us about God and about Jesus. And we're failing to see those signs because we don't recognize them, because we don't see them as signs that God has given us. Let's jump down. Let's look here, verse four. When, when Herod heard that, they heard their question, where is he that is born, the King of the Jews? Verse 4 tells us that he gathered together the chief priests, describes and says, what are they talking about? Where is he supposed to be? He, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. Let's continue the story, jump down to verse number nine. Let's look at verse nine and ten. And when they heard the king, they departed. And lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy the star that they have been following. You know, another thought come to my mind. Through this, this star idea here, this star that the, the wise men were following was that that star was in the sky for all the world to see. And apparently these guys are the only ones that recognized it. What does that tell us about the narrow road that Jesus tells us about later on here in the book of Matthew? There will be that find it few there will be that's going to recognize the signs. These wise men saw the star, the start that they have been following, continued leading them right to the place where the young child was. And when they saw that star moving, taking them to Jesus, they rejoiced with exceeding joy. They were happy. They rejoiced because they were following this God given sign. And verse 11 and 12 tells us that they came and they worshiped him and gave him their gifts and then they departed a different way and they didn't go back to Herod. And we see here in verse 16, then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wrath and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coast thereof from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. So we see there, they followed that star for two years and, and Herod, he was a jealous guy. They said, where is he that is born King of the Jews. And Herod wanted to make sure he wiped it out. So he killed all the kids, 2 years old and under, all because he didn't recognize the sign. He didn't understand the sign. He was worried about his own position. Instead of going and worshiping the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the wise men had followed a star. What about us? I don't know. I come home from work around 11 o' clock every night and, and I live kind of out outside the city. So it's a little, a little darker at my house than it is maybe in the city because there's not in the, in the development I live in, there's not any street lights, just a couple of porch lights that's on when I come home. And so we get to see the night sky. Not as good as if you were in the middle of nowhere, but we can see the night sky. And I've not noticed any kind of, any kind of bright star that would be pointing the way to Jesus. We got something else though. We got the Bible, we got the 66 books of the Bible. The Bible points to Jesus. The Bible points to Jesus. Let's go over to John, chapter five John, chapter five, and I want to read for you verses 39 and 40. These are the words of Jesus. Now as he was in a, in a discussion with the, with the, with the religious leaders, he said here, John, chapter 5, verses 39 and 40. He said, Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me and ye will not come to me that you might have life. Jesus is teaching us here an important lesson. He's teaching us that we can memorize Scripture, which is important. Don't think I'm trying to downplay this, he said, but you can memorize the Scriptures and follow the Scriptures until you can't memorize anymore and you can't follow anymore. But doing just that and ignoring who the Scriptures are pointing to or failing to see who the Scriptures are pointing to, that's just as bad as somebody that's, that's never even looked at the Bible. The Scriptures are pointing to Jesus. Look at what he says. Search the Scriptures. Don't. For in them ye think ye have eternal life. And they are they referring to the Scriptures? The Scriptures are they which testify of me. Everything in the 66 books of the Bible points to Jesus, points to our need for salvation, points to Jesus as the promised Messiah. And the religious leaders, by and large in Jesus time missed it. They missed the boat. Go down to verse number 46 of John, chapter 5. Jesus says, for had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. Then verse 47. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? Remember, if you read through the, the Gospels, if you read through the Gospels, a lot of times the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, they would all point to, to Moses and they would point to Abraham. And Jesus is telling them, if you believe Moses, if you really believed what Moses says, you would have believed in me. Because Moses pointed to me. So he's proven that they really didn't pay attention to Moses's words. And getting back to what he said in verse 39 and 40, if we don't pay attention to the words, if we just look at them as if we're reading a novel, whatever, and we don't pay attention and take heed to the words that's in the Bible, then we're going to miss it. We going to miss the boat. We're not going to be able to stand before God and say, God, I memorized the entire New Testament. God, I memorized the entire Old Testament. God, I Know the, the old, the laws inside and out. And God's going to say, what about Jesus? What about Jesus? It doesn't matter if I could quote the entire Old Testament, the entire New Testament. It don't matter if I could quote to you every single Old Testament law that is written in the Bible. None of that matters if I miss Jesus. The wise men saw the star and they knew that that was going to lead them to the Messiah. And they followed that star day and night for two years till they saw the Messiah and then they worshiped him and they gave them their gifts. We have to look at our, what we have today, our signs of the times today, which is the Bible. And the Bible points to Jesus. And if we spend time in the Bible, we're going to get to know Jesus. I have yet to read about somebody or to hear about somebody that actually read the Scriptures and didn't walk away realizing their need for Jesus. I just saw online the other day. Now, you know, I take a lot of, of what we read online as a grain of salt because most of it is false anyway. But the article was talking about Tim Allen, you know, the Tool Time guy, You know, it said that he had finished reading through the Bible in 13 months and he's getting ready to do it again. What a commitment. But as strong as that commitment is, and as much praise as we give him for doing that, the question has to be asked, did he surrender to Jesus? And if he didn't, then he's missing the point. The Bible not only points to Jesus, but the Bible points to our need for Jesus. Let's go over to second Timothy, chapter number three, second Timothy, chapter three. And we're going to look here at verses 14 and 15, second Timothy, chapter three, verses 14 and 15. Paul says, but continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou has learned them. And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Paul is telling Timothy here to make sure he continues in the Word, make sure he continues in the things that he has learned and has been taught. And he says that, that you've known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith. The Scriptures. If we spend time reading the Bible, studying the Bible like I've just talked about, it's going to reveal our need for a Savior. It's going to make us wise that we need a Savior. The Bible points to Jesus. The Bible points to Our need for Jesus and the basic purpose of the Bible is to point us to Jesus. Let's go back to the Gospel of John. I got to speed it up here today for time. John, chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing ye might have life through his name. Look at what John wrote here as he's. He's finishing up his, his account of, of the life of Jesus. And this is the basic purpose of the Bible is to. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, is the Christ the Son of God, and by believing you might have life through his name. The whole Bible is written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that we will have life, have eternal life, have everlasting life, have life more abundantly through his name. We not only have the Bible to point to Jesus, but we also have a sign of the times. Matthew, chapter 24. Yesterday we talked about the rapture of the church and, and the next thing I thought about was, well, what about the signs? We have signs that point us to Jesus. Do we have signs that, that point us at the end of the world? Because you see reels on Facebook, you hear people talking about the rapture of the church, and you have people going out and saying, this is the day it's going to happen. Friday, November 13th was the last one I had heard. And we'll all probably wake up on November 14th because we don't know the signs. In Matthew, chapter 24, verse number three, Scripture says, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came onto him privately, saying, tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? The disciples came and acted. Ask Jesus about the last days. Say, Jesus, tell us about the last days. What are we to look for? What are going to be some signs? And then in verses 4, all the way down through 14, actually you can say the rest of chapter 24 and chapter 25. All talk about the signs of the end of the age. Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. Take heed to make sure that you're understanding these signs, to make sure that you see these signs. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ and shall deceive Many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. That was verses four through eight. I mean, just that little section right there. How many times a day are we hearing about earthquakes? We're hearing about famines and lands, we're hearing about wars. All these things, my friends, are coming to pass. And you can say, yeah, that's been been going on for since Jesus left. And yeah, you're right, but these are signs and we got to understand the signs. You know, this today is supposed to be a major hurricane coming ashore down on the northern part of the Gulf coast right about the spot. A few years ago, another major hurricane went through and that was called Michael. And this one is called. I can't even pronounce the way they do, but it's pronounced Isaiah and look those up. That's kind of interesting what people are saying about that. But anyway, start again. Verse number nine. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. You know, you're seeing a lot of that coming to pass today. We're not, we're not getting offered up and we're not getting, getting killed because of our faith here in America yet. But you can see that happening all over the world. And you can look on social media and I see post after post after post on, on various social media sites of people saying things like, boy, I wish the Rapture would happen to get the Christians out of the way so real work can be done. They don't understand what they're wishing. And it. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that endure unto the end, the same shall be saved in this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. And then the end shall come. He goes on through the rest of verse 20, chapters 24, talking about the end times and what's going to happen. Friends, look around. The signs are there. I believe the Rapture is imminent. We have to understand the signs. What's our application for today? Let's get it wound up. We have signs to help us navigate to our destination. You know, going down the interstate, you have signs that tell you what's at this exit, what gas stations are at the next exit, what restaurants, what hotels. You have signs that tell you the cities that you can get to at that exit. And you have your GPS that tells you what roads to take to get to your destination. Friends, we have signs today to let us know that we're living in the end days. We have signs today that point to Jesus. Are we heeding those signs? Are we reading those signs? And are we seeing them? Are we understanding them? Are we applying them? The question is, are you paying attention to the Word? Are you paying attention to the Bible? Are you paying attention to the signs? Think about that as you go through this day. And remember, get into God's Word and allow God's Word to get into you. Then share that word with someone today. Have a blessed day.