Becoming “Perfect”

Hook: Green Apple and Red Apple

2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

[Holding and pointing at green apple] Green apple: represents a new believer. The salvation is genuine. They are a new creation.

EXAMPLE: I think of the guy who I walked with early in his faith. He had just given his life to Jesus-radically. His language started changing, his priorities started shifting, and he was hungry for Scripture, but he still had edges. Struggles. Didn’t always respond. Some might look and say, I thought he got saved. And I would say he did. He’s just green.

[Holding and Looking at green apple] This new creation has the potential to become a mature, delicious red apple. Currently, it has all the components of an apple, so you can declare it an apple. This is an apple. It has apple skin. It has apple shape. It has apple taste.

[Holding and Pointing at the red apple] Red apple, let’s say, represents a fully maturing believer. They have remained faithful. They are a new creation that has been becoming a Christlike disciple. Taking next steps. Surrendering. Setting aside their self interest.

[Holding and Looking at the RED APPLE] This red apple used to be a green apple. This red apple is what a green apple can become as the green apple fully ripened. The core has sweetened. The shape has enlarged. The skin has turned red. Indicating maturation.

EXAMPLE: I think of the lady in our church who has walked with Jesus for decades. You can feel it when you talk to her. There’s patience in her voice. There’s wisdom in her words. There’s steadiness in her spirit. She’s been through hardship—but instead of becoming bitter, she became better. That’s the red apple.

BOTH are APPLES, but one is mature.

They look different, they taste different.

————

This is a picture of the Christian life.

In the same way, spiritual maturity.

The green apple also illustrates an authentic Christian, but they have not fully matured.

The red apple symbolizes spiritual maturity. Reaching God’s intended goal of Christlike maturity.

———— Open up your bibles, bible apps, journals, notes.

At the end of the sermon on the mount…what is sermon on mount?…Jesus says this…

Matthew 5:48 ESV

48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

That word “perfect” can trip us up. It can trip us up when it comes to our understanding of God, and also the call Jesus is putting before us this morning.

We hear flawless. We hear never mess up. We hear unrealistic.

But the word Jesus uses is telios.

It means:

Complete

Mature

Fully developed

Brought to its intended end

Not flawless—but fully formed.

EXPLAIN: 1) When a garden is planted, nobody expects ripened fruit overnight. There is a process: planting, watering, pruning, waiting. Others: Made Bed | Set Table

In the ancient mindset, “perfect” wasn’t static—it was a process of becoming perfect.

So Jesus isn’t saying: “Be flawless like God.”

He’s saying: “Grow up into the fullness of what God created you to be.”

Recap: Becoming Better | Becoming Less | Becoming Free | Becoming “Perfect”

[Transition: Like the red apple, we are called to ripen…becoming perfect.]

—————

Becoming perfect requires God’s grace.

I thought about saying Becoming Perfect Requires Grace. But it doesn’t require just any kind of grace. It requires God’s grace.

When I look at those I coach, mentor, pray with, and pray for, I see the Christlike changes that the Holy Spirit is making in the lives of people. But God, Oh God, sees ALL of them. He sees how you are changing as you spend time with Him. He knows your innermost thoughts being transformed.

The call of God is for all of us to be perfecting or to completing our spiritual maturity.

This isn’t through pressure, performance. It is through and because of God’s grace.

PERSONAL EXAMPLE: There are times where I drift back into the “try harder” mentality. Read more. Pray more. Perform better. Fix this and that. Outwardly, it may produce some good looking results, but inwardly, I was a mess.

When you try to work your way into salvation without God’s grace, you start comparing yourselves to others, you start competing with others, you start worrying about where you are on a scale, what you were/were not recognized for, how people treat you, how people see you. When this happens you aren’t being perfected by God’s grace. The flesh is taking root in your life.

You start being bothered by human things. And what humans think about you. And THAT is when you realize you are on a troubled path. Until you remember, becoming the perfect God desires requires a dependence on His grace in your life.

Challenge: What are you dwelling on right now. What God thinks and desires of you? Or what others think or desire of you? Or what you think or desire of you?

Becoming perfect requires us to cooperate with God.

You and I are free moral agents. Spending time with God and being filled with His Spirit changes us. But we have a part to play, which is to accept that change, accept that help, accept His grace.

He woos us. He loves us. He reaches out to us. But he does not force us into submission. The Spirit of God persuades us to say yes to His good, perfect, and pleasing WILL.

You don’t become perfect by trying harder—-you mature by receiving and cooperating with God and God’s grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9 illustrates this saving work from God for us to cooperate with. God gives salvation, and we must receive it. Accept it. Pick it up.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Salvation is not from your own doing. Salvation is by the grace of God. God’s saving grace requires our cooperation…you must accept it, believe it, and place your faith in Him. Salvation is a huge part of this journey with have with God. It is the moment where are sins are paid for. It is the moment where our trajectory moved from eternal death to eternal life. It is the moment where our future was ultimately changed. It is the moment where you start being a child of the King.

In similar ways, sanctifying grace or “perfecting” grace requires us to cooperate with God. We must voluntarily consecrate, dedicate, give away our life, fully surrender to God.

[Point / Step towards the apples]

Salvation is Jesus is my savior. Sanctification is Jesus is my Lord and Savior.

Salvation is the beginning. Perfecting or Sanctifying grace not only saves you, but when you continue with God His spirit shapes you.

This is where so many believers are stuck. They are saved, heaven bound, covered by the blood, but Jesus is not their Lord.

They are loving the Lord God with SOME of their heart, mind, soul, and strength. They are loving themselves, but not their neighbor as the themselves.

CHALLENGE: This is why words like Lord and Savior are so incredibly important. Jesus doesn’t only want to be our savior. He wants to be our Lord. And a maturing, perfecting Christian, makes Jesus their Lord!

[Transition: Paul says it like this is Romans 12:1.]

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

The believer who desires complete maturity in Christ must begin to willingly present themselves or consecrate themselves as a living sacrifice.

Consecration is a word we do not use much any more. But what it means is a voluntary bringing the control of our lives to the lordship of Jesus. You present your entire life to Jesus for HIS purposes on this earth, and that the outcome of your life is for HIS GLORY ALONE. [Not your kids, not your grand kids, not yourself] For HIS glory.

Consecration is modeled for us in Jesus. Every word, every action, every prayer. Paul models consecration when he surrenders all his freedom, his freedoms, his rights, what is owed him, his place of honor, to make Jesus his LORD.

[Paul describes Jesus consecration like this in Philippians 2:5-11.]

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This example is what we mean by becoming perfect. A lifelong consecration. LIFE LONG POSTURE OF ENTIRE DEVOTION TO JESUS AS LORD.

Becoming perfect requires consecration of your will.

The holy spirit will sanctify what you fully surrender.

“Look at your hands for a moment.

Clench your fists tight.

This is how many of us live:

My plans

My future

My comfort

My control

Now try to receive something with your fists closed.

You can’t.

Now open your hands.

This is consecration.

‘God, whatever You want… it’s Yours.’

Here’s the truth: God cannot fill what you refuse to release.”

👉 Pause here. Let it sit.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 ESV

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Conclusion:

Where are you on this journey.

Some of you are green?

Some us red?

Somewhere in between?

Or...going back and forth?

But God’s intention and desire for us is not that we stay green.

“Yes, Lord.” Again. And again. And again.

Anger, Lust, Envy, Money, Status, Respect…

Is the Spirit of God calling you to a new level of surrender of your will?