Hope When Feeling Abandoned

God can feel silent at the exact moment you need Him most. We start with that hard, familiar question, “Where’d you go, God?” and we don’t rush past it. Instead, we follow it straight into Scripture and into Jesus’ own words from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If you’ve ever felt lonely, overlooked, or spiritually numb while still trying to do the right thing, you’ll recognize yourself here.

Pastor Carl walks through Isaiah 49 and shows how God speaks courage into suffering long before the breakthrough arrives. We talk about Jesus as the Servant of the Lord who stayed, suffered, and served when He had every right to walk away. That’s not only the foundation of our salvation, it’s also a model for Christian endurance through doubt, pressure, and pain. Along the way we explore God’s promises of restoration, the theme of captives being brought out of darkness, and why hope grows when we lift our eyes beyond what’s right in front of us.

Then the comfort turns personal: God answers the fear of being forgotten with a stronger-than-instinct picture of a mother and child and a line that cuts through despair, “I’ve inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” We connect that to the nail scars of the cross, because the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a vague encouragement, it’s proof paid for in full. If the news cycle has you convinced chaos wins, Isaiah points us toward God’s coming kingdom, a new heaven and a new earth, and the steady mercy of a Redeemer who never let go.

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s struggling, and leave a review so more people can find the show. And if you’re near Waynesville, North Carolina, come worship with us at The Mountain Cross.

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. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 1:05

Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

There are also times, again, when when we're doing everything right, when we're trusting God, when we're following God, but things come against us, and it seems like the Lord has left us. Even our God, our Lord Jesus on the cross felt this, didn't He? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He knew that wasn't true, but it sure felt like it. And sometimes we feel like that too, don't we? Where'd you go, God?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Something I never anticipated in my childhood was that growing up can mean feeling pretty lonely at times. We all get so busy trying to keep up with bills, doing the right thing at work, wrangling children, and keeping up with our health that we become too inward-focused. It can feel like the whole world has abandoned us. It can feel like God has abandoned us. In today's message, Pastor Carl teaches that Jesus knows what it's like to be abandoned by God, yet God promises he will never leave you. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Just think if Jesus gave in to his flesh, which he never did, we would have no hope because he would have said, Ah, I'm out of here. I don't deserve this. And he didn't. He would have been right. Right? But he stayed, he suffered, he served. He's the servant of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One. God the Father, who is the Redeemer of Israel, the Holy One, is saying to him, Jesus, whom man despises, to him whom the nations abhor. If you look at what's going on in our nation today, in the world today, a lot of the world is abhors the things of the Lord, don't they? And it's been ever since. When Jesus was here in person, the nations were coming against him. The rulers, even of his religious leaders, were coming against him. He's got to see the big picture. And here God the Father is reminding him the kings shall see and arise, and princes shall worship, because the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, he has chosen you. I don't understand it. But God became a man and he lived his life as a man, the perfect man. But he could only see as much as we could see. But he had the Holy Spirit, we have the Holy Spirit. We have the Father on our side. Not only Jesus became our as a sacrificial lamb, he became our example. This is what I intend my people to do and live. This is how life should be. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, led by the will of the Father. And by doing that, the Father encourages the Son that kings will come and bow and worship him. And someday that will happen. It has happened. There have been rulers and kings throughout the ages that have come to faith in Jesus Christ and have kneeled to him and said, you know, my allegiance to Jesus is more important than anything else. But we're talking about a worldwide event where the whole world comes to Jerusalem to worship the king who's ruling in person. That's the millennium reign. And I believe it's sooner than we think. Verse 8 Thus says the Lord, in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. I will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages, so that you may say to the prisoners, Go forth to those who are in darkness, show yourselves. You think about this. Jesus, the Word of God, becomes a man, and he studies the scrolls of Isaiah. And in these scrolls of Isaiah, the Father is speaking to him hundreds of years before to encourage him, keep going, keep going. Because at the right time this will happen. I'm going to restore Israel through you and the earth. And the things that were destroyed, I'm going to make beautiful. And there's just so much here. I'll just touch on a couple of things. You will say to the prisoners, go forth. And Peter talks about, I believe it's in Peter, that the Lord descended into hell, into Hades, into that domain. Actually, it's there were there are two places, Abraham's bosom and Hades. Abraham's bosom was the place where people that were looking forward, that had faith in the coming Messiah would go after they would die. Now, this is not purgatory. This is just until the price was paid on the cross, they waited there. Okay. Hades was the place where those who rejected anything of God were kept until the day of judgment. And when Jesus died and was in the tomb for three days and three nights in the midst of the earth, he was buried. He also went down into Abraham's bosom. And he declared to the captives there, You are free. You've been looking forward to me and the finished price on the cross. It has been paid, it is finished. Come with me to your eternal reward. And he set them free, took them out of darkness, brought them into light. That's just one aspect of what Isaiah is talking about here. They shall feed on the roads, and their pasture shall be on all desolate heights. Now we're starting to look into what it'll be like in the millennial reign when Israel is restored and it's so easy to grow fields, to have harvest. You don't have to have harvest on flat ground. You can make your cherry trees and all the other vines and everything on these hills that are hard to get to. The places where nobody would go, you could go there and you could plant, and it'll be great. There's going to be food all around. They shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike them. It won't be too hot, it won't be too cold. They won't be hungry, they won't be thirsty. For he who has mercy on them will lead them. The good shepherd leading his people, who are willingly following him in the millennial reign. Even by the springs of water he will guide them. I will make each of my mountains a road, and my highway shall be elevated. What an interesting picture. There won't be anything that keeps you from getting to where you need to go. The obstacles will be removed, and things will be made to work. But that doesn't mean things will be lazy. I mean, we'll be working unto the Lord with the Lord and enjoying it the way he intended it to be. Surely these things shall come, surely these shall come from afar. Look from the north, from the west, and from the land of Sinim, and tried to find out what the land of Sinim was, and commentators say all sorts of things. It could be from Ethiopia, could be from China, but the idea is from the ends of the earth. Who is them? These, the restored ones, Israel. You know, Israel was basically judged a few times. The northern kingdom of Israel was taken captive by Assyria, the southern kingdom was taken captive by Babylon. They were brought back and restored to the city of Jerusalem until 70 AD, when they were destroyed by Rome and scattered to the ends of the earth. And they've been scattered, and they should have disappeared because they're such a small group. But what happened in 1948? Even before then, Jews started coming back to the Holy Land. And in 1948, they were given that land as their possession, which God had already given them, by the way, but now the world acknowledges it. And ever since then, people have been coming. So Israel coming back to the land, and even more so in the millennium reign, they're coming back. They're coming back, and people with them. But because of this, Isaiah breaks out in praise. He says, Sing, O heavens, be be joyful, O earth, and break out in singing, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have mercy on his afflicted. Yes, the people of God had been afflicted, and many times they were afflicted because of their own doing. How many times do we, as Christians, get afflicted because of our own doing? You know, it's not always suffering for the Lord. We we're not always suffering persecution. A lot of times we suffer what we suffer because of the choices we make and the directions we take and we go our own way, right? But this will be a time where the Lord has removed all the obstacles, and we're just gonna praise God. The mountains are gonna praise God. It's gonna be a glorious time. We need to remember that when we're in the time of tribulation and trial and just plain discouraged. Look forward. This is what we're headed to. This fulfillment, sin removed, the enemy locked up. I'm looking forward to that, and I need to look at that to make it through the day sometimes. Amen. Verse 14. But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Jesus is just saying, God is using me to restore Israel, and it's going to be glorious, and and my eye is on you, Israel. And and what does Israel say? Well, God's just forsaken me. Now there's a lot of reasons for that. Again, because they have done things to remove God's safety, God's hand of safety from them. They rebel from God, and God, you know, allows things to happen. But there are also times, again, when when we're doing everything right, when we're trusting God, when we're following God, but things come against us, and it seems like the Lord has left us. Even our God, our Lord Jesus on the cross felt this, didn't he? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And he knew that wasn't true, but it sure felt like it. And sometimes we feel like that too, don't we? Where'd you go, God? The problem is a lot of times our eyes are focused on the tribulation, on the problem right before us. And we can't see what God is doing. Especially during these times, we need to be praying, Lord, give me eyes to see what you're up to. Lord, give me a glimpse that you're still at work, that you haven't left me. Because I believe that to be true, but my but I'm having a hard time believing it. You know what I mean? I believe you, Lord, but help my unbelief. And so the Lord comes back and he addresses Israel. Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, but I will not forget you. There's a strong bond between a mother and the baby. And babies sure feel like their mothers have abandoned them as soon as they're done drinking and they've sat laid down for a nap for five minutes and then they wake up again. Mom's gone! Mom's gone! Has mom abandoned the baby? No. But even as strong as that relationship is, that bond between a mother and the child, the bond between the father and Israel, God's chosen people, is even greater. And with those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ and have become part of the family, adopted into the family of faith, that bond that the Lord has for us, that love and compassion that He has for us is greater than the mother for the baby. Verse 16, see, I've inscribed you on the palms of my hands. A little glimpse to the cross. You don't think I love you? You don't think I have compassion on you? Look at my hands. These nail scars are for you. Your name is on that. You know what that means? It means it was your sin that put him on the cross. And my sin, all of our sins. The sin of the world put him on the cross, but it means my sin. He came to relate to us and he put himself on the cross to take the punishment for our sin. So that we could relate with him and find that forgiveness, find the righteousness of God as a gift to us. Don't think that I've abandoned you. Just look at the cross. Your walls are continually before me. The things that are protecting you, the things that are coming against you. I see them. And he could say that because he was here in person. He knows what we're up against. Your sons shall make haste, your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you. Lift up your eyes and look around to see all these that gather together and come to you. Israel, he's talking to Israel. Listen, Israel, I love you. I died for you. Of course, I will have died for you, but he's speaking in past tense, hundreds of years before it happened. That's how prophecy works, right? And yes, enemies have come against Israel. Enemies have come against the church. Enemies have come against you and I. But Jesus says they will be destroyed. Look, they're all coming, they're coming from all around. I look forward to this time when we all gather and worship our Lord in Jerusalem in person. They're all coming from everywhere. As I live, says the Lord, you shall surely clothe yourselves with them as an ornament and bind them on you as a bride does. You know, the quiver that's full. These are the children of Israel. They're all coming back and they adorn Israel. They're beautiful. It's like jewelry. For your waste and desolate places, and the land of your destruction, even now, will be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. Those that made you desolate, Israel, those that took you away into captivity, they're far away. They're gone. Now they're all coming back, and all the desolate places are gonna be filled. There's gonna be so many here. It's gonna be glorious. Verse 20: the children you will have after you have lost the others will say again in your eyes, the place is too small for me. Give me a place where I may dwell. There are gonna be so many coming. You're gonna have to find room for them. And again, it doesn't matter if the room is up on that mountaintop or so. It's gonna be easy to get there and grow and thrive wherever they are put. It's not gonna be like a desert, it's gonna be glorious, it's gonna be um flourishing. Then you will say in your heart, Who has begotten these for me? Since I have lost my children and I am desolate, a captive and wandering to and fro. You know, Israel was scattered to the ends of the earth. Destroyed, died, killed, gone through the Holocaust. Where did all these people come from? And who was brought these up? There I was left alone. But these, where are they? The land of Israel was there the whole time with nobody there, and then sojourners in and out, and eventually the people of God started coming back and back. And it's an amazing thing, and it's hard to understand. And Israel itself is saying, Where do these people come from? Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift my hand in an oath to the nations and set my standard for the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders, kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens shall be nursing mothers, they shall bow down to you with their face to the earth and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for me. Trust me, wait. It's going to happen. And this is again, this will be fully fulfilled in the millennial reign, but even now, nations around the world have come alongside and made it possible for Jewish people all over the world to come back to Israel. A lot of Christians help fund plane lifts of Jewish coming back home. Somehow they find themselves on a plane and they're heading back to Israel. Somebody paid their way. Who paid their way? The Gentiles. Gentiles who believe in Jesus, Gentiles who believe in the promises to Israel, who want to be part of this restoration. And even more so in the end, all the nations will come to the Lord and come to Israel. And Israel will be exalted above all the nations. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the captives of the righteous be delivered? Israel is saying, There's no way. When a lion has a prey, it's not going to let go of that prey. But God says, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible will be delivered, for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children. This is the same God that for chapters previous has been saying over and over again, You better repent, you better repent, or you better repent, or judgment is coming. The same God who said that is the same God who says, But I love you and I'm fighting for you, and I'm gonna bring you back. I'm gonna bring you back. And they will be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. Those that have come against my children will get what they ask for, they'll get what's coming to them. They're gonna get their own reward. That I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer. All flesh will know this, that I'm the mighty one of Jacob. Every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, either willingly or forced, but they will declare it. And that's still to come. It's going to be a glorious time to see the Lord at work. Real quick, into verse uh chapter 50, verse 1 thus says the Lord Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, whom I have put away?

unknown 22:59

Or

SPEAKER_02 23:00

For which of the creditors is it to whom I have sold you? I didn't leave you. I didn't forsake you. I didn't divorce you. I didn't sell you off to a creditor. For your iniquities you have sold yourself. And for your transgressions, your mother has been put away. You didn't listen. You didn't turn to me. You rebelled against me and you raped your own reward. Don't blame me for this. Why, when I came, was there no man? Why were you not married to me? Why were you not listening and submitting? And another aspect of this, why were you so wimpy? It's wimpy to follow after our flesh to fight against God. It takes a strong man to say, I was wrong, Lord. Forgive me. Help me, restore me. That's boldness. Because you're coming before the Lord, recognizing your status before him is nothing. There's no reason why God should accept you. Because everything you've done is full of sin. And yet, because of what God has done, because he loves us unconditionally, he loves us not because of what we've done, but because of who we are. Because of that, we can approach him. Approach the throne of grace with boldness. And say, Lord, come and help me because of who you are, not because of who I am. Why, when I called, was there none to answer? I'm calling out. Is anybody listening? Nobody's answering. Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Just because you haven't answered me does not mean I've given up on you and that I don't have the power to bring you back.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Thanks for listening to today's lesson from the book of Isaiah here on Come On Up. You're hearing from Pastor Carl at the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina. Now, the book of Isaiah ends with a section that prophesies a new heaven and a new earth, which will come to replace the world that we currently know as it passes away. All of the promises and prophecies that God has made through the prophet Isaiah will come to their ultimate conclusion in this new kingdom. Death and evil will be no more, and goodness and justice will flow like a river. When we look at the world around us right now, it seems like chaos has already won. We can see live images of war, inequality, and sadness in just a few clicks, and it can seem like things will never get better. But Isaiah reminds us to look past the chaos that is right in front of us and fix our eyes on God's promises. That's how we can stay afloat when everything around us feels like it's collapsing. Well, if you want to join a group of believers who are looking together towards the new kingdom, we'd love to invite you to join us here at the Mountain Cross. We meet on Sundays at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. For more information, you can visit us online at themountaincross.com. There you will also find our How to Know God page, where you will learn more about how you can belong to the kingdom of God. Thanks for joining us today. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come on Up is sponsored by The Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.