Send us a note!

Shame has a way of convincing us to disappear, but God keeps saying something simpler and braver: come. We open Isaiah 57 with Pastor Carl and follow a thread that runs straight through modern life, the search for relief that turns into restlessness, the “freedom” that becomes slavery, and the quiet fear that it might be too late to turn back. 

We talk about spiritual adultery and idolatry in plain terms: mocking the things of God, chasing what we want at any cost, and trusting substitutes that promise comfort but cannot deliver. The passage exposes the lie that all roads lead to heaven and challenges the idea that we can offer our lives to false gods and still expect the true God’s peace. Pastor Carl connects Isaiah’s imagery to today’s realities, including addiction cycles, sexual sin, and the way a culture can redefine evil as good, then wonder why it cannot rest. 

The turning point is God’s character. The high and lofty One chooses to dwell with the contrite and humble, reviving hearts that finally stop excusing sin and start telling the truth. We explore repentance as more than behavior change: it is turning to Jesus Christ for Sabbath rest, trusting the finished work of the cross, and letting the Holy Spirit convict and heal. 

If you’re hungry for real peace and a clear path back to God, press play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find hope.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

What would happen if the faithful suddenly vanished and the world didn’t grieve, didn’t reflect, and didn’t repent, but celebrated? That’s the unsettling question we sit with as Pastor Carl teaches through Isaiah 56 and 57, where God promises rest and peace for the righteous while exposing a culture that keeps charging ahead as if nothing matters.

We start with hope: God welcomes outsiders, gathers the outcasts, and calls His house “a house of prayer for all nations.” Then we connect Isaiah to Jesus cleansing the temple, confronting a religious system that turned worship into a marketplace. From there, the warning sharpens as Isaiah describes blind watchmen and greedy shepherds, and we lay out what faithful spiritual leadership looks like right now: watch the times, warn with clarity, witness to the true answer, and finish well with a life that points back to Jesus Christ.

Finally, Isaiah 57 pushes the tension to the surface, raising the possibility that the world may shrug when the righteous are taken away. We talk about mocking God, spiritual adultery, modern idols, the false comfort of “all roads lead to heaven,” and the way sin and addiction promise relief but deliver deeper slavery. If you’ve felt the pressure to compromise, this teaching calls you back to repentance, Sabbath rest in Christ, and steady courage. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the biggest question the message stirred up for you.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

Trying to please God by working harder can feel noble, but it can also hide a deeper problem: we’re still trusting ourselves. We wrestle with that tension through Isaiah 56, where God calls his people to keep justice and do righteousness while also warning them not to do it in their own strength. The thread running through the whole message is humility, the kind that admits, “Lord, I can’t,” and then reaches for grace through faith. 

From there, we dig into one of the most misunderstood themes in the Bible: the Sabbath. We connect Genesis, Jesus’ words in Mark 2, and the promise of Hebrews 3 and 4 to show why the Sabbath is more than a day on the calendar. Jesus is our Sabbath rest. He gives rest from striving, rest from trying to cover our sin, and rest from chasing God’s favor like it’s a reward we can earn. That kind of spiritual rest doesn’t make us passive, it makes our obedience possible. 

Isaiah’s vision also expands who belongs. Foreigners and eunuchs, people who carry stigma, loss, or a painful past, are specifically invited into God’s house with joy and an everlasting name. And we don’t skip the hard warnings: blind watchmen, false shepherds, and leaders who refuse to watch, warn, and witness. If you’ve ever felt worn out, shut out, or let down by shallow religion, this conversation points you back to the steadiness of Christ. 

Subscribe for more Bible teaching from Come On Up, share this with a friend who needs real rest, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s one area where you need to stop striving and start trusting?

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

If you’ve ever looked at your past and thought, “I’ve gone too far to be restored,” Isaiah 54 offers a direct challenge to that hopeless math. We lean into a message from Pastor Carl that starts with a shocking comfort: Jesus was counted among sinners, even though He was sinless, so He could stand in our place and intercede for us. When your Judge becomes your Savior, the accusations don’t get the final word.

We walk through the backdrop of Israel’s exile and humiliation and then hear God speak hope into what feels irreversible. Isaiah’s call to sing, expand, and “enlarge the place of your tent” isn’t about pretending life is fine; it’s about trusting God’s finished work and preparing for renewal. Along the way, Pastor Carl connects the bondwoman versus the child of promise to the difference between trying to earn righteousness under the law and receiving it through the blood of Jesus in the New Covenant. It’s grace with substance, not slogans.

The conversation turns practical as the chapter moves from shame to security: God calls Himself Redeemer, vows an everlasting kindness, and compares His promise to the waters of Noah. We also talk about fear for our kids, the promise that “all your children shall be taught by the Lord,” and why “No weapon formed against you shall prosper” often plays out as spiritual warfare in the mind through words, lies, and accusation. The takeaway is steadying: God disciplines to restore, protects to strengthen, and keeps a covenant of peace He will not break.

Subscribe for more Bible teaching through Isaiah, share this with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review to help others find the show.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

A gift card feels free until you remember someone else paid for it. We use that everyday moment to get at a bigger truth from Isaiah 53: God’s grace doesn’t cost us, but it costs Jesus everything. Pastor Carl walks through the Suffering Servant prophecy and shows why the cross looks shocking to human eyes and yet is the clearest picture of God’s love, God’s justice, and the righteousness of God offered to sinners at Christ’s expense. 

We slow down on “by His stripes we are healed” and unpack healed as mended, cured, repaired, made whole. That includes the deepest problem beneath every symptom, sin and death, and it also speaks to the real fractures we carry in body, mind, and spirit. We also face Isaiah’s blunt diagnosis: we are sheep who go astray, and “iniquity” is more than mistakes, it is a twisted drift that resists God’s design. Against that backdrop, Jesus stands silent before His accusers and goes willingly to the cross to make the great exchange possible. 

Then Isaiah 54 turns the corner toward restoration: sing again, enlarge your tent, and trust the mercy of God even after shame and loss. The message lands with a clear invitation to stop chasing self-made righteousness and receive the new covenant through faith in Jesus Christ, then live outward with expanded influence for the good of others. Subscribe for more teaching through Isaiah, share this with someone who needs hope, and leave a review. What line from Isaiah 53 or 54 do you keep thinking about after listening?

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

The world trains us to trust what looks impressive, but Isaiah 53 asks a sharper question: will you believe a Savior who does not match your idea of strength? We wrestle with how easy it is to polish Christianity into something “marketable,” and why that move quietly replaces the true gospel with a version that flatters our flesh but cannot save. 

Pastor Carl walks line by line through Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant, showing how God’s Messiah grows up humbly “as a tender plant,” without the outward beauty people expect. Instead of winning through image and dominance, Jesus is despised, rejected, and acquainted with grief, entering the real human experience of sorrow, anxiety, and loss. We also talk honestly about how we often judge by appearance while God judges by the intents of the heart, and why that changes how we see both Christ and ourselves. 

The heart of the message centers on substitutionary atonement in Isaiah 53: Jesus is wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities so that we can have peace with God. You’ll hear careful definitions of key words like transgression, iniquity, chastisement, peace, and “by His stripes we are healed,” with healing described as mended, cured, repaired, and made whole. The teaching closes with the Servant’s silence before judgment and the surprising fulfillment of His burial, pointing to a gospel that is not shiny, but is eternally strong. 

Subscribe for more Bible teaching through Isaiah, share this with a friend who needs real hope, and leave a review to help others find the podcast. What part of Isaiah 53 challenges your assumptions the most?

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

A fire alarm is not the moment to “see how things go.” That’s the gut-level picture we start with as Pastor Carl walks through Isaiah 51 and 52, where God calls His people to wake up, recognize what sin has done, and stop looking to a broken world for answers that cannot save. If you’ve felt spiritually sleepy, stuck in compromise, or worn down by the chaos around you, this message is a jolt in the best way.

We talk about the “cup” of God’s wrath and what it means to experience the consequences of walking by sight instead of by faith. The passage does not dodge responsibility, but it also refuses to leave us in shame. God’s grace is greater than our drifting: He takes the cup away, restores what’s been crushed, and tells His people to stand up in strength. That leads to a blunt, necessary question for the modern church: do we look more like Babylon than we do Jesus? The call is clear and practical, depart, touch no unclean thing, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

From there, Isaiah turns our eyes to hope and mission. “How beautiful upon the mountains” are the feet that bring good news, a line echoed in Romans 10. We are reminded that the gospel is not a hobby, it’s our message. And we end with the Servant of the Lord, the Messiah whose suffering points straight to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who was marred for our salvation and whose blood covers sin for all who believe.

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a wake-up call, and leave a review so more people can find this Bible teaching through Isaiah. What is one “Babylon” habit you know you need to walk away from?

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

You can feel it when you’ve drifted: the quieter prayers, the louder opinions of other people, the constant urge to manage your image, and the sinking sense that you’re stuck in a hole you helped dig. We walk through Isaiah 51–52 with Pastor Carl and name the trap for what it is, fear of man and friendship with the world that slowly dulls our awe of God. Then we follow Isaiah’s repeated command, “Awake, awake,” not as a slogan, but as a moment of spiritual clarity that calls us back to the Lord.

We also get practical about prayer and faith. If you’ve ever wondered why your prayers feel scattered or weak, the answer may be simple: effectual prayer is shaped by God’s will, and God’s will is revealed in the Word of God. Isaiah points us to God’s past deliverance, his victory over pride and the serpent, and his power to make a way where there is no way. That memory is meant to rebuild trust, restore joy, and steady us in the middle of real storms.

The conversation does not dodge consequences, but it refuses hopelessness. God disciplines, yet he also comforts. He takes away the cup of trembling and offers redemption “without money” to us, even though it costs Jesus everything. If you feel like a spiritual exile living far from the life you were made for, this is a strong reminder that God can bring you back, free you, and teach you how to stand firm. Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with someone who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the show.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

“Law and order” is usually framed as harsh control or cold power, but Isaiah 51 paints something completely different and Pastor Carl leans into it: when Jesus reigns as King, His justice lands like light, and His rule feels like joy. We start with God’s repeated invitation to listen, to look back, and to remember, because faith doesn’t grow from panic. It grows when we trace the rock we were cut from and the pit we were pulled out of.

We follow Isaiah’s call to stop chasing the world’s fixes and start trusting the Lord’s strength. Pastor Carl connects Israel’s temptation to form alliances with the way we negotiate, strategize, and self-protect when fear spikes. He also speaks candidly about discouragement, how it can become a foothold, and why praise and thanksgiving aren’t denial, they’re spiritual resistance that re-aims our attention toward what God has done and what He has promised to do.

The message turns into a practical guide for prayer: “awake, awake” isn’t only about asking God to move, it’s also about asking God to awaken our faith. Along the way we touch on pride, the serpent, and the shocking picture of judgment through the cross, where the perfect Judge serves in love. If you’re tired of fragile hope, this Bible teaching from Isaiah 51 offers a sturdier foundation: God comforts, His salvation lasts forever, and His righteousness will not be abolished.

If this encouraged you, subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next, share it with a friend who needs steady hope, and leave a review to help more people find the podcast.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

When you’re tired, confused, or flat-out hurting, you don’t need a louder pep talk. You need a better finish line. We open with a simple picture of endurance and then let Isaiah 49–50 do what it does best: pull your eyes off the moment and lock them onto Jesus Christ, the One who makes suffering meaningful and hope unshakeable.

We talk through God’s promises to Israel about gathering, restoration, and a future so full it feels impossible, then connect that prophetic certainty to the most personal proof God can give: the cross. The message is direct. God has not abandoned you. He sees what is coming against you, and He has not run out of power to redeem, deliver, or rebuild what looks desolate. That same storyline also confronts us with a hard truth about sin and self-reliance, calling us to bold repentance and real trust instead of excuses.

Isaiah’s portrait of the suffering servant brings the center into focus. Jesus listens, obeys, endures shame, and sets His face like flint because of the joy set before Him. We also wrestle with what it means to face enemies, not with fleshly bravado, but with confidence in God’s help and with the surprising command to bless and do good, so even an adversary might become family.

If you’re searching for a Bible teaching podcast on Isaiah, Christian endurance, prophecy, and trusting God in darkness, this one is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs steady hope, and leave a review so more people can find the message.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com.