There is a Christian movie called The Broken
Road where a family's faith is tested when
her soldier husband is killed in Afghanistan.
The wife used to love to sing in
church, but now she works in a diner
on Sundays instead.
God has been placed in the background of
her life as she eventually ends up losing
it all.
Her spouse, her home, and even her little
daughter runs away.
Finally, she comes to the end of herself
and she comes back to God.
In the last scene in the movie, she
is back in church singing the song Broken
Road by Rascal Flatts, but she rewrites it
as a song of praise to God and
how she returned to him.
That all her broken roads have led her
back to the Lord.
It's a good movie with a good message.
We need more Christian movies and instead of
the other garbage that's out there.
But it's heartbreaking to watch her go through
all her adversity and trials.
Only someone who's been there can relate to
it.
Sometimes God has to use a broken road
in our life to get us on the
right one.
Sometimes God has to disrupt our plans to
get us on his plan for a life.
Sometimes God has to give us enough rope
to hang ourselves, so to speak, as we
strive against God and our rebellion.
Sometimes God has to bring us to the
end of ourselves by crushing our dreams and
smashing our pride and breaking our will.
Sometimes we need to go through hell to
get to heaven.
And that's the title of my message today,
friends.
Sometimes you have to go through hell to
get to heaven.
And I bet there are some of my
listeners out there who can relate to my
message today.
Life is hard.
Life can be full of disappointments.
Friends can fail us.
Unforeseen circumstances can surprise us.
Life at times can bring us down, bring
us low.
A family tragedy can smash us.
A bad medical report can unnerve us.
At times it may seem that God has
completely forgotten all about us.
The devil will tell you that God has
forsaken you.
But don't believe him, friend.
He is a liar, and he has been
a liar from the beginning.
God's hidden hand lies behind all of our
circumstances.
His providence is overseeing and permitting all that
happens to us.
He has our best interests at heart, like
a loving father has his child's best interests
at heart.
But sometimes, because of our rebellion, we have
to go through hell to get to heaven.
But were you perhaps a rebellious teenager?
Did you reject all authority?
Maybe you grew up in church, and you
grew up in a strict Christian home.
And as soon as you were old enough
to move out, you rebelled against all that.
God let you go out on the run
from him.
He let you make your mistakes.
He protected you from greater evil.
But he let you have your way, and
he watched you crash.
The shortest definition of sin is found in
Isaiah 53 6.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way.
And that's what sin is, friends.
It's going our way when we know it
isn't God's way.
Maybe your life hasn't worked out like you
planned.
Maybe you're a pastor who envisioned having a
big successful church, but it didn't turn out
that way.
Maybe the person you thought you were going
to marry ended up marrying somebody else.
Maybe your spouse cheated on you and broke
your heart and home.
Perhaps bad health has taken a toll on
you, and you are sick and tired of
always being sick.
Maybe your Christianity is miserable because sin still
dominates your life.
Maybe your life feels like Joseph in prison,
and you're still stuck there, and you don't
know why.
But behind it all is the hidden hand
of a loving father who has continually been
drawing you back to him.
The word for God's love in the Greek
is agape.
It means a benevolent love, but it's the
kind of love, friends, the kind of benevolence
that is not shown by doing what the
person loved desires, but what the one who
loves deems is needed by the one loved.
God loves you enough to keep you from
what would ultimately destroy you.
But in his providence, at times, he will
allow you to almost destroy yourself through the
choices you make, but he won't ever let
you go.
Because sometimes you have to go through hell
to get to heaven.