Faith Walk / William Carroll
We will be talking about the word of God and how he moved in my life as I stood on his word. His signs and wonders that I have seen during the last forty years praying for my needs and the needs of others. I hope to encourage a new generation of believers to pray the word of God and to believe that He will move on their behalf. God answers prayers!
Faith Walk / William Carroll
Ep 63 Red Sky Warnings: When Religious Folks Miss God
Jesus had a way of cutting through religious pretense to reveal what truly matters. When confronted by the Pharisees and Sadducees demanding heavenly signs, he responded with a devastating observation: they could read weather patterns but couldn't recognize God's work happening before their eyes.
This powerful episode explores Matthew 16, where Jesus confronts religious leaders who demanded spectacular signs despite witnessing countless healings and miracles. We examine how the very people who should have recognized the Messiah—those who studied prophecies and led temple worship—were simultaneously praying for his arrival while plotting his destruction. Their religious training became a barrier rather than a pathway to recognizing divine presence.
The story resonates deeply with contemporary faith struggles. How often do we, like those ancient religious leaders, miss God's movement because it doesn't match our expectations? Jesus referenced "the sign of Jonah"—foreshadowing his death and resurrection—as the only sign they would receive. Just as Jonah spent three days in the fish before being vomited onto shore, Jesus would experience death before rising triumphant.
This exploration challenges us to develop genuine spiritual discernment. Are we becoming modern Pharisees, substituting tradition for relationship? Do we recognize God working in unexpected ways? The episode concludes with an invitation to authentic connection with God—not based on signs and wonders, but on heartfelt devotion to loving God completely and neighbors genuinely. Listen now for a fresh perspective on discerning God's presence in your everyday life.
Well, welcome to Faith Walk Podcast. This morning we're going to continue in the book of Matthew. We're going to jump right on into it and I'm going to encourage you. You know how is your faith walk? You know, are you walking for the Lord? Are you in a relationship with Him? Trust Him, walk with Him, let Him lead and guide you. Whether it's on the fishing boat, whether it's hunting in the deer, stand, wherever it is, the Lord wants to be present with you, you know. So. Anyway, this morning we're going to talk in Matthew Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16.
Speaker 1:It says the Pharisees, also with the Sadducees, came tempting, desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. And he answered and said when the evening it's evening, you say it will be fair weather today, for the sky is red, and in the morning you will say it's foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. You, hypocrites. You can discern the face of the sky, but you can't discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto them, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them and he departed. Now, listen, they wanted a sign. They said they had seen the miracles. They had heard him preaching the word. You know, they had heard him talking about God, the things of heaven. He's been lining it up with the Old Testament. He'd been, he's been fulfilling the Word of God. He's been laying hands on the sick and they're healing the lame, deaf ears, blind eyes, open mute people, devils cast out of people who had been possessed by them, and every kind of manner of sickness, even leprosy, you know, was healed. And then they still come to him. Now, listen, listen.
Speaker 1:These were the religious people back then, in those days. They were the religious people that had been raised up. That God raised up, you know this, their religion. He raised it up in the Old Testament. Now he's going to make a change in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament, you know, there was sacrifices and everything, and the Pharisees and the Sadducees were the lawyers and they were the teachers and they were the high priests, and so they were the religious people. Well, they should have been looking for Jesus. You know, the whole thing was. All of their feasts, all of their religious ceremonies pointed to a Messiah coming, and for the day that the Messiah would come Now, they should have been looking for that. You know, I say sometimes, I say the day of Palm Sunday, when Jesus came into Jerusalem and they laid palm leaves on the ground and he rode on a donkey while he walked by the temple, and all the people worshiping him, praying him and saying Hosanna, hosanna, blessed is the Lord in the highest, you know, son of David, and they were worshiping Christ, receiving him as a Messiah. The Pharisees and Sadducees were in the temple praying for the Messiah, and yet they are the ones that were determined to crucify him because they thought that he wasn't of God.
Speaker 1:So, you know, sometimes, I'm just going to tell you, sometimes these theologians and these religious authorities, so-called they miss God. They miss God because they're not able to discern the times. You know, they'll say well, I never saw God move that way, I've never seen him do this, I've never seen him do that, and if he don't do it in my life, then it isn't God. Well, that's not true. God will use those who believe in him, who walk with him. God will use those who want to see him move, who want the world to know that he is God. He is God still today, today, yesterday and forever.
Speaker 1:Hebrews 13 and 8. But anyway. So listen, this is where this, you've heard it before. Red sky at night, sailors of delight, red sky in morning. Sailor, take warning. Now I'm not talking about a red sky in the morning. Well, there's not a red sky in the morning if there's no clouds, but if the clouds are lowering and you can see a storm bank and the sun is out and it's red, take heed. And this is how they told the weather.
Speaker 1:And he told them. He said you, bunch of religious fools. He said I'm going to tell you something, he said. He said you can discern the sky, but you can't discern the times. And the times was that Jesus Christ was the son of David, he was the son of God, he was the Messiah, he was the one that was sent to redeem Israel.
Speaker 1:And yet he's being rejected by the religious leaders and they're always questioning him. They're always wanting a sign, and he's. You know. All they have to do is look at the signs that he was doing. You know some of them even tried to call him. You know he did the signs by Beelzebub.
Speaker 1:You know which was the devil? Well, no, you know he didn't heal by the devil. He healed because that is part of our salvation plan. Our salvation plan is healing. Our salvation plan is healing. Our salvation plan is salvation, you know. That's why he asked him at one time which is easier to say Rise up and take your bed and walk. In other words, be healed or thy sins are forgiven, you're saved. Which is easier to say. Well, one is easier to say because you can't see anything. You have to wait for an outward change in a person if they've been saved in the side.
Speaker 1:But if they're laying there lame, and you say, rise up and take your bed and walk I mean, that's in your face, stuff right there. You know, and that's how Jesus worked. And they would get mad, you know. You know why? Because they'd say, well, I can't pray for the sick and they'd be healed. No, you can't because you're not God.
Speaker 1:But if you trusted in the Holy One, if you trusted in the Son of God, jesus Christ, the holy child of Nazareth, you know Peter and John, going to the temple, to the gate, beautiful told the lion man you know, silver and gold, have we none? Rise up, take thy bed and walk, you know. And he said, in faith, in the name and in the name of the holy child, jesus Christ of Nazareth, this man been healed. Well, anyway, so he told them. He said the only sign you're going to get because you're wicked and adulterous, they were serving their self, not serving God. They were wicked and they were looking after a sign. He said the sign you're going to get is the prophet Jonah.
Speaker 1:Well, what happened to Jonah? God said Jonah, and he said yes, lord. He said go down to Nineveh and preach my word and tell them to repent or I'm going to destroy the city. And he said yes, lord, I'm on the way. He went down and got on a boat that was going the opposite direction. See, that's passive, aggressive. He says everything God wants to hear, but then he does what he wants to anyway. And so he went down, got on that boat and he took off in that boat.
Speaker 1:A storm came up. It was a worse storm that you know. They all the goods overboard and they took lots to see why the storm was so bad. Because it was so bad that these were experienced sailors, you know again. And then so they took and they said it fell to Jonah. And Jonah said Yep, yeah, I serve the Lord, god of Israel, and he is my God. And he told me to go to Nineveh and I went the wrong way. Throw me overboard and the storm will stop. Well, they all prayed to their gods and they prayed, and they told him to pray and finally he said throw me overboard. So they threw him overboard and you know the story A fish took him three days and nights in the belly of a fish.
Speaker 1:He repented, he called out to God and he said, lord, I'll do what you want, and the whale vomited him up on the shore. Well, listen, this morning, you know, I want to encourage you. I hope you're not one of these religious Pharisees, sadducees, because sometimes in our Christian walk we can turn out to be pharisaical and sadduceical. You know, we can. We can say, uh, we can put the traditions of men for the laws of God, you know. And God says love your neighbor like you love yourself. That's what he says Love your neighbor like you love yourself.
Speaker 1:Love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul. Do you love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul? Do you love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul today? If not, I'm going to give you the opportunity. Just say Lord Jesus, I love you. You died for my sins. I thank you that I'm washed in your blood, I'm cleansed, I'm not a sinner, I am the righteousness with God in Christ now, and I thank you, lord, that you come, make your abode in my heart, make your home in my heart, lord, and let me be Father, your servant, let me be your child and begin walking with him and begin loving on him. I mean, you pray that prayer and I'm going to tell you, you know, god will change your life, god will change your heart and he'll work on the things that you need in your life, the struggles you're going through. He'll show you a way out of them, Until next time on Faith Walk. This is William Carroll. God bless you.
