Often, the Apostle Paul, in his letters to the churches would include the words “grace and peace” to the saints at that church. I thought it would be a good title for our sermon today…for you are called to be holy, yes saints! We might be like the Apostle Peter when he had his vision about eating meat that was not “Kosher”; and God clearly said: “Do not call anything unclean that I have called clean” (v.9).

Pastor Bill has been laying a solid foundation as we move forward, teaching about the nature of the church, more recently about priorities and soon will preach on the Beatitudes that we should be manifesting as Christians: yes, saints! Maybe for some of us, to be called saints in the midst of Mardi Gras, makes us nervous! Like Peter and those Christian Jews to hear that nothing was unclean, we need to hear our Lord say to us: yes, you are holy and rightly called saints! He says the same to us, His sons and daughters, adopted into His family–”don’t call someone unclean that I have called clean”. Put His words by your name, “forgiven, cleansed, saved”. I really like how the Message paraphrase puts it: “If God says it’s okay, it’s okay”.

Since we know our hearts, our past and our lives, we want to throw up our hands and say ;”no way”! Yet, Jesus says I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

I. Sainthood, purity and holiness are synonyms for Kingdom living! Accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior is the very beginning of this journey of sainthood! That’s one reason I love Communion is that it gives us an opportunity to start again or pick up where we left off! Our
commitment, conversion, gives us the privilege of the family name and we’re given the Holy

Spirit to help us learn how to live out this new life, as Nicodemus learned from Jesus, life from above! This process of making us holy is part of God’s grace to us–and in Philippians 1:6 God promises that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus!”!

Now, hear these insightful words from in II Corinthians 3:17-18; “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces behold the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image, from one degree of glory to The next, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

II. This process of transformation–from sinner to saint–with the goal of being like Christ Himself. And because the Father loves us so, He will use whatever comes to us as a means of making us Christlike. Through His eyes, He sees you and me “perfect, forgiven, cleansed, justified” clothed with righteousness (Romans 4:5) which allows the Holy Spirit to begin His transformational work in our daily lives.

My illustration of his process might be similar to this process. Take fresh cucumbers and put them in a vinegar mixture and seal the jars. I don’t know when the cucumbers become pickles and the vinegar pickle juice; but one day the jar is opened and a delicious pickle is pulled out. We know we’re eating a pickle and not a cucumber– Right! So, the Apostle Peter writes in II Peter 1:3 that God has given you “all things that pertain to life and godliness” and in verse 4 writes “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these might be partakers of the divine nature.”

Maybe we can be called the “Pickle Church”! It’s hard to know when you become a pickle or know the exact timeline of this transformational journey towards perfection. Real change is not about the outside–still looks like a cucumber, but the change is undeniable! The real change is on the inside. Under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, the old life falls away and the new man begins to emerge. And others begin to notice the change and life becomes exciting, contagious and fun.

Got it? Can you see God’s plan for our life? Ye, sinner to saint, cucumber to pickle–sweet pickle, that is!

III. Somewhat mysterious-Yes1 But it’s God working in our lives. To Paul Grace was simply the presence of God at working redemptively in a person’s life. It is the Spirit weaning us off the things of the world and replacing it with the miraculous –breaking chains of habits, bringing prodigals home, turning sunsets into sunrises and making the impossible possible! We begin to be more sensitive to God’s presence around us and what He wants us to do.

This involves both those means of Grace (Prayer, Communion, fellowship, Bible study. etc) plus the Acts of Mercy–even giving a cup of water in His name.

Listen to the words from Psalm 105:1-4 “O give thanks unto the lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, and his strength; seek his face evermore (continually).”

The poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning reminded us that the whole earth is full of His glory when she wrote: “Earth’s crammed with Heaven
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes,
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.”

I close with this benediction from Jude, the brother of our Lord. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and ever. Amen (Jude 2:25).