If you want life to be different, you have to do something different.

It’s not rocket science. It’s not something that only I could come up with. My
guess is that your normal fourth grader could come to the same conclusion.
If that is true, then why do we keep doing the same things over and over
expecting a different result? You know, of course, that the preceding
sentence is one popular and famous definition of insanity.

With the beginning of the New Year, we need to do things differently in
order to get a different result.

I think about families. What will you do differently as a family to make
life better? Most counselors will tell you that every family has a “system.”
In order to get different results, you have to change the family system.
Would you moms and dads, husbands and wives, look deeply at your own
behaviors, attitudes and language? Would you be willing to change to
make life better?

What about you as an individual? What do you need to change to get a
different result? Should it be your diet, your behavior, your attitude?
For the month of January, we are going to ask you do something different.
We want you to spend 21 days in intense spiritual growth and reflection
asking God to bring change to your life and asking God to bring awaken-
ing to our state. This will be something different. You may want to bring
fasting in as well. Let’s make this a serious time to plead with God for our
state. We are asking you to take January 11-31 to spend in prayer and fast-
ing for our state. You may pick up a devotional guide in the foyer to help
jumpstart your prayer time.

My sermon series in January-February will be “Living in Turbulent Times,”
a look at how God worked during the time of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
This will be something different. I have never preached a series from Kings
or a series emphasizing the prophets Elijah and Elisha.

Let’s get serious about the kind of change that we as individuals need and
the kind that our nation needs. Let us ask God to bring a different result in our church,
our state, our nation, and in our lives.