Stop Hustling Like Moab And Start Listening In Isaiah 18

What Happens When God Shakes Your Harvest

Send us a note! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2558759/fan_mail/new] We all know the feeling of pushing hard for a life that finally feels secure, only to realize the finish line keeps moving. That tension sits at the heart of Pastor Carl’s teaching through the Book of Isaiah as we trace God’s warnings to Moab and then to Damascus, Syria, and the northern kingdom of Israel, where pride and self-reliance end in sudden collapse. The imagery is vivid: vineyards go silent, harvests turn to ruin, and strong cities become desolate, not because God is petty, but because He refuses to let false gods keep winning our hearts.  We talk about how alliances and “smart” plans can become spiritual shortcuts when trust in the Lord gets replaced by trust in what we can control. Isaiah even puts a timeline on mercy, pressing the urgency of repentance, while the rise of Assyria shows how fast a carefully built kingdom can disappear. Then the message turns personal: as Christians, we belong to God, so the better question is “Lord, what do You want to accomplish?” We connect Isaiah’s warning to Haggai’s gut-punch about wages going into “a bag with holes” and what it looks like to come back from drifting.  The final movement looks at Ethiopia and the temptation to form coalitions out of fear, contrasted with God’s calm promise that He is already at work. It’s a timely reminder for anyone searching for God’s will, trying to rebuild faith, or wrestling with anxiety about the future.  Listen, share it with a friend who’s tired of striving, and then subscribe and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com [https://themountaincross.com].

Stop Hustling Like Moab And Start Listening In Isaiah 18

Send us a note! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2558759/fan_mail/new] If you’ve ever looked at your life and thought, “I’m working so hard, why does it feel like I have nothing to show for it?” this teaching lands right on the nerve. We walk through Isaiah’s prophecies against Moab and Damascus and realize the Bible isn’t just forecasting geopolitics, it’s diagnosing the human heart: pride, self-reliance, and the quiet habit of building a kingdom that makes us comfortable while leaving God at the margins.  Pastor Carl traces how Moab’s harvest and joy collapse after repeated warnings, and how Damascus and the northern kingdom of Israel fall after trusting alliances instead of trusting the Lord. The images are unforgettable: vineyards silenced, cities reduced to ruins, and a “remnant” left behind like gleanings after a harvest. We also slow down on a tough but hopeful idea: judgment can be a mercy when it wakes us up to the God we’ve forgotten, the Rock of our salvation.  Then Isaiah 18 turns the spotlight to Ethiopia and Judah, where God challenges the instinct to scramble for security. While nations rush like roaring waters, the Lord says He is at rest, fully in control, calling His people to watch His salvation unfold. We connect that thread to the gospel: God purifies and welcomes sinners through Jesus’ sacrifice, so we don’t fear His presence, we follow Him, and we learn to ask, “Lord, what do You want to accomplish?”  Subscribe for more Bible teaching through Isaiah, share this with a friend who feels stuck, and leave a review to help others find the show. What’s one area where you’re ready to trade your agenda for God’s will? Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com [https://themountaincross.com].

You Cannot Serve Nobody, So Choose Well

Send us a note! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2558759/fan_mail/new] Walls don’t fail first, watchmen do. We start with that uncomfortable image and follow it straight into Isaiah’s prophecy, where Babylon looks untouchable until one unguarded opening brings the whole system down. Pastor Carl connects the fall of empires with a more personal warning: the enemy may not be able to destroy our souls, but he can wreck our effectiveness, cloud our judgment, and quietly reshape our loves if we keep giving him a foothold. From there, we walk through big, vivid Bible moments with real-world weight: Satan’s strategy of deception, the sobering question of who we’re actually serving, and Daniel 5’s “writing on the wall” that exposes pride before judgment arrives. Isaiah’s prophecies are not random history lessons, they’re a map of God’s sovereignty over nations, over spiritual powers, and over the timing of justice. When God purposes something, it stands, and that truth becomes an anchor when the world feels chaotic. The conversation then turns toward Philistia, Hezekiah, and the ongoing significance of Jerusalem. We touch on historical context that overlaps with the Gaza Strip today while urging careful study and prayer, not hot takes. The closing application is direct: if the world system suddenly unplugged, what would be left of our faith, and would we realize too late that we were serving ourselves instead of Jesus? If you care about Bible teaching, the book of Isaiah, spiritual warfare, and living with clear-eyed hope, press play. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review telling us what “open gate” you’re guarding this week. Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com [https://themountaincross.com].

The Fall Of Babylon’s False Power

Send us a note! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2558759/fan_mail/new] Empires love to sound eternal until God decides it’s time to end the oppression. We walk through Isaiah 14 and watch the message sharpen from comfort for exiles to a taunt over Babylon’s collapse, where sorrow lifts, fear breaks, and even the earth feels “at rest” when tyranny is finally cut down. Along the way, Pastor Carl follows the text into one of the Bible’s most arresting turns: the fall of Lucifer. The language aimed at the king of Babylon suddenly exposes the spiritual arrogance beneath the politics, reminding us how quickly confidence becomes rebellion when we try to build our own tower and live as if we don’t need God. We talk spiritual warfare in plain terms, including how temptation and addiction hook the heart by offering what feels good while quietly moving everything toward destruction. To ground prophecy in history, we connect Isaiah’s warnings to Daniel 5 and the writing on the wall, where a proud ruler mocks God and loses a “secure” kingdom overnight. The takeaway is steady and practical: you can’t trust Babylon, you can’t trust the devil, but you can trust the Lord because His purposes stand and His mercy brings exiles home through Jesus. Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more listeners can find Come On Up. What part of the message hit you hardest: pride, deception, or the promise of restoration? Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com [https://themountaincross.com].

When The World Goes Dark

Send us a note! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2558759/fan_mail/new] When life feels stable, it’s easy to confuse comfort with security. But what happens when the lights go out, the plans collapse, or the “kingdom” we built for ourselves starts to shake? We lean into Isaiah 13 and the fall of Babylon to ask a modern question with ancient weight: what are we really depending on? Pastor Carl walks through God’s judgment on pride and evil and connects it to the bigger biblical storyline of the day of the Lord, human rebellion, and God’s unshakable sovereignty. Along the way, we sit with difficult passages about brutality and justice, and we talk candidly about why the reality of sin and the fall of man cannot be ignored. This is not doom for doom’s sake; it is a call to honesty, repentance, and humility before God. We also turn to Psalm 137, “by the rivers of Babylon,” where exile exposes the tug of prosperity, distraction, and forgetting what matters most. The thread running through it all is the gospel: God’s wrath against sin is real, and for those who trust Jesus Christ, that wrath has already been poured out at the cross. Because of Jesus, we can trade our sin for the righteousness of God and live as salt and light in a world that still needs hope. If this helped you think clearly about Isaiah, Babylon, end times prophecy, grace, and daily Christian living, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com [https://themountaincross.com].