Our church fellowship joins with your families today to celebrate your achievements in reaching this new milestone in your lives. The Psalmist said, “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken” (Psalm 35:23-25).
 
This one step in graduation begins a lifelong journey requiring thousands of carefully taken and joyously placed steps. Taking a step forward is an adventure in faith.
 
Someone has said, “A journey of 1,000 miles requires a first step.” You have taken that first step forward which will lead you to all the next steps you will take.
 
The Bible is telling you in this passage in Psalms that you are not alone. Faith is simply taking steps together with God who is holding your hand along the way. As an old man, the Psalmist assures you that he has never seen God let go. When you walk with God, he is faithful to walk along beside you and never let you go. You can step into the future knowing that God is with you all the way.
 
When I’m walking beside my grandkids, all I have to do is hold out my hand and open it up. They automatically know what that means. I don’t have to say a word. They just reach out and take hold of my hand. God is holding out his hand all the time. Faith is when you reach up and talk hold of His hand. Don’t grow tired of holding hands with God.

Have you had to REBOOT your computer lately?
 
Sometimes when the system gets locked up, the only way to restore your work or move forward with a project is to REBOOT the system. That’s what we are doing at Grace these days. We’ve been locked up and locked out of meeting together and moving forward in ministry for 4 months due to the COVID pandemic. Now we are REBOOTING our church by beginning in-person worship again, restarting Sunday School classes, reinvesting and renewing our work on the property and buildings, beginning Student Ministry again and Wednesday Night Prayer Services. We are proceeding smartly as we continue to practice the guidelines of social distancing and wearing our face coverings, but it is great to be coming back together in worship and service to the Lord.
 
Do you know that God is a Master Rebooter?
 
God rebooted things and people way before computers or the internet were ever invented. Here’s a few examples:

• God Rebooted the whole world through Noah – “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth” (Genesis 9:11-13). Rainbows remind us that God restarted creation through Noah after the flood.

 

• God Rebooted Jacob and Esau after years of separation – “Then Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept” (Genesis 33:4). Jacob and Esau had been separated for more than 20 years. God, in His own time, restored these two brothers together.

 

• God Rebooted Israel from captivity in Babylon – “Now these are the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city” (Ezra 2:1). After 70 years in captivity, Israel returned home to reboot their lives.

 

• The Greatest Reboot of all happened 3 days after Jesus was crucified – “He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered His words and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest” (Matthew 24:6-9). God rebooted death into life. Then He rebooted fearful disciples into apostles who would preach the gospel to the ends of the earth. There is no limit to what God can do with people who are ready to start up and start over. That’s what revival is all about.

 
Here’s our promise for today: “Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). The future will be better than the past. God is not blocked by any circumstance or barrier. His plan will prevail. He is ready to start up and start over with a new work that is more amazing than anything we can imagine. Thank Him today that we serve a God who REBOOTS.