Rev. Jake Medcalf preached this Sunday and used the metaphor of a block of marble being sculpted to illustrate the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in a person's life.

Pastor Jake tells the story of how Michelangelo sculpted his famous statue of David from a discarded and imperfect block of marble that two previous artists had abandoned as unusable. Michelangelo saw the potential for the masterpiece of David already present within that flawed marble block, saying "I saw David, and my work was just to get David out of the marble."

The marble metaphor also applied to human beings, asserting that each person is like an imperfect block of marble - flawed, cracked, with holes and striations from past mistakes and regrets. However, just as Michelangelo could envision and sculpt David from that imperfect marble, the Holy Spirit can transform and sculpt people into the masterpieces God intended, chipping away at the flaws to reveal the beauty within.

This sermon is a reminder and call to surrender to the transformative process, praying "Holy Spirit, make me the man, the woman, the child of God that you dreamed about from the very beginning." The process of being spiritually sculpted by the Holy Spirit requires repentance, receiving God's grace as a gift, and relinquishing control over one's own life. The small gift box is a reminder of the Holy Spirit's transformative power available to shape their imperfect lives into spiritual masterpieces.