What Is the One Eureka Moment in Life That Changes Everything?

Eureka!  Ever heard that word before?  Even if you haven’t, you’ve definitely had a Eureka moment, probably lots of them.    What’s a Eureka moment?   

To understand that, you’ve gotta go back over 2000 years to this guy, Hiero, who was the king of Sicily.   Hiero ordered this new solid gold crown.  He even gave the gold to the goldsmith to make it.  But when he got the crown, he got suspicious.   He thought. This gold smith has put some silver in the thing.   So, he asked his child scientist, Archimedes, to test the crown and find out the truth.

But Archimedes had no idea how to do that.   But then he went and took a bath.   He sat down in the water and he noticed.  As his body went in, the water rose.   Instantly he realized.  If his body did that to the water, the crown would do that too.   And since gold is denser than silver, if the crown did have silver in it, then it would displace a little more water than pure gold would.   And when he got that insight, he immediately screamed, “I found it.”   Except he said the Greek word for that, which is Eureka!   He got so excited, he jumped out of the bath, and ran naked down the street to tell the king. 

Now hopefully, when you’ve had your Eureka moments, it didn’t involve running naked in the street, but you’ve definitely had some.   It’s those moments when you suddenly figure something out.  You’re trying to fix something in your house, and suddenly you get how to do it.  You’re having a problem at work, then, boom, you see the solution.   When I first had a kid, I had a sort of eureka moment.  I was crawling exhausted into bed late one night, and suddenly I got it.  I realized why when I was single, all my friends with kids used to roll their eyes, when I complained to them that I had no time.   I thought.  Oh, now I get it.       

Most of the time, those moments don’t mean too much.   But sometimes those moments change your life. 

In 1977, this guy, Peter Lynch, took over this small mutual fund called Magellan.  It had 18 million dollars back then.  13 years later, in 1990, it had 14 billion.  Lynch had, over those years given his investors over a 2500% return. He had made Magellan, the biggest mutual fund in the world.   And get this, Lynch was only 46 years old.    But do you know what he did next?  He quit.  Yes, he had become a Wall Street legend.  But he was working six, sometime seven days a week.   His three daughters were growing up without him.   And Lynch had his Eureka moment.  He realized.  “I don’t know anyone who said on their deathbed, “Gee, I wished I’d spent more time in the office.”    So, Lynch walked away from it all.  

In your life, you may have had those sort of eureka moments, ones that shifted your whole life.    In the words we’re about to read, you’ll hear the greatest Eureka moment in human history, the one that changed everything.   And if you let it, this insight will change everything for you too.  What is it?   In these words, God shows you.  Let’s hear what God has to say. 

I John 3:1-3

What is the greatest Eureka moment in human history?   What is the insight that changes everything?   It’s this.   You’re not good enough, not nearly.  But you don’t need to be.

Now you may be thinking.   That’s it?   That’s the greatest insight in human history? Really? 

Let me explain.  I recently heard another preacher, Nadia Bolz Weber, admit this.   Sometimes, she gets on a flight, and someone asks.  “What do you do?”    And she doesn’t lie, but she doesn’t tell the whole truth either.   She says, “I work for a non-profit.”    Now, she isn’t embarrassed about what she does, not at all.  She’s just tired of hearing this same sort of conversation over and over again.

Well, you know, pastor, I believe that if we’re just good enough, then God will be ok with that. And she listens, politely even.   But inside she is thinking.   Does this person realize?   That’s not even really a thing, this whole good enough deal. 

Now, in case you object, let’s unpack this whole good enough thing a little bit.  Who actually defines good enough?   Do the Muslims define it?   Well, if you’re not praying 5 times a day, then you’re screwed.   Do the Hindus define it?  Well, if you’re eating meat, you’re screwed there too.   Every religion has a different definition of what good is.  Heck, everyone in the world does.   In fact, everyone has one definition of good enough for themselves and another definition for everyone else. 

That’s why when you’re texting on your phone on the freeway, it’s good, because you’ve really got to send this text.   But when that bozo in the other lane is doing it, it’s not good at all.

Yet still I hear people talk as if there is some undefinable good out there that you’re supposed to shoot for.  But you if don’t know what it is, how can you shoot for it?  More importantly, how do you know if you’ve even done it, made the grade so to speak?  It doesn’t make any sense.

But I don’t have to tell you this.  If you’re honest, you know.  More than that, you kind of suspect that even if this good enough existed, you probably wouldn’t make the mark anyway.   How do I know that?  Well, if I could put on this screen, every thought that you had, everything you’ve done, every word you said, just this week, would you want that?   Would you be like, “Yeah, that is me.  I am so good!”   I don’t think so.  

But still you probably try to be good enough.   Maybe you think, if I do enough good deeds, that will do it.   If others like me, that’ll do it.  If I’m really an awesome mom (whatever that is), that’ll do it.  If I have some success at work or in my relationships or finances, that’ll do it.   If I…. well, you fill in the blank.   Where do you get your good enough?  What do you really believe makes you worthy?  

By the way, if you come to worship each Sunday or get super-involved involved in serving here, I’d love that.    But that won’t make you good enough, won’t make you worthy, not even close.  

Here’s the truth.  You are not good enough.  No one is.  But that’s not the Eureka moment.  This is.  You don’t need to be good enough.   That’s the Eureka moment that the Apostle John is having again in the words we just read. 

It happens right at the beginning but you can miss it.   The King James translation makes it clearer.   There that first sentence reads, “Behold, the manner of love that the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God.”           

John is saying.  Do you see the manner of love that God has bestowed on you?   God calls you his children.  

When it comes to your kids, do you have a good enough standard?   Yes, you want them to be successful, do well.   I’m not talking about that.   Do you ever sit down, and think, “Well, junior hasn’t been performing up to expectations this quarter, I think it’s time to let him go.”   Of course not.    But that doesn’t mean that they’re doing awesome either.   At times, they drive you nuts, even deeply disappoint you.  But you take the cost of that, because that’s what parents do.   And since no parent is perfect, our kids take the burden of our mistakes too.       

When it comes to God, God has to take on everyone’s screw ups, on how those mistakes, those failings screw up others, screw up this entire world.   Now God doesn’t let all that pass.  God can’t.  That would hardly be right, good even   Ultimately, somebody has to bear that cost.  So, God said.  I will.    And in Jesus, God came and did just that.  God got arrested and executed by the forces of religion and politics.  And, in that execution, God took on the infinite and awful agony of everything that had ever gone wrong in this world.   And why did God do that?  God did that because God loved you.  God loved you more than anything, even God’s very life.    God took everything on for you.    

So yes, you are not good enough.   But you don’t ever need to be.  Out of God’s love, God’s infinite sacrifice, God has made you good enough forever.   That’s what that last verse means.  “And all who have this hope in God purify themselves, just as God is pure.”    And how does this purity come?   It comes when you believe it has, when you believe what John is saying here is real and is true, when you believe it is in fact the realest and truest thing in the entire universe.    And when you do, it frees you.  It frees you from the bondage of trying to be good enough, as if that’s even a thing.   It frees you to be loved without condition, without limit.  It frees you to become a child, free and unashamed.    So, believe it.   Come to this God who loves you just as you are. Behold the manner of love that the Father has bestowed upon you, that you should be called the children of God.