And for those of us who are saved,
those aren't really the stats that are
going to matter either for us.
It's going to be spiritual things about our lives
that mattered.
And so we need to keep that in mind, because as Christians,
it's easy for us to get caught up in the world system
and start wanting to live the way they live,
where it's all about money, it's all about the trophy wife,
it's all about the fancy house, it's
all about athletic achievements, it's
all about fame and fortune and popularity and all
these things.
But you know what?
If you live your life that way as a Christian,
then your earthly life ceases to have very much meaning.
The more you do for the Lord, the more meaning your life has.
Because it's only what comes after our death that matters.
That's why he says, look, this isn't just my philosophy.
This is what the Bible is teaching
in Ecclesiastes chapter 6.
I mean, he's putting it out there in black and white.
He's saying, look, you can live for 2,000 years,
or you can live for 20 minutes, and it doesn't matter.
You could have 100 children.
Your life is still meaningless.
Is that not what he said?
It's vanity.
It means nothing.
You could be this great king.
And you know what?
If it were not for the Bible, no one
would know who King Solomon is.
No one would care.
You realize that?
Solomon was a pretty powerful king.
He had a lot of power.
But you know what?
If it weren't for the Bible, no one would know who he is.
You know how I know that?
Because how many sources, how many historical sources
are there for King Solomon outside of the Bible?
Can somebody tell me that?
How many literary sources are there from 1,000 BC that
tell us about King Solomon?
Can we read about it?
Can the Egyptians tell us about it?
Oh, there's this guy Solomon up in Israel, and man, he's cool.
I mean, are the Babylonians telling us about him,
or the Assyrians telling us about him?
Are the ancient Greeks writing about him
and the Iliad and the Odyssey?
No, there's zero, because you know what?
If it weren't for the Bible, no one would know who he is,
even though he had 700 wives and 300 concubines and tons
of money and peacocks and apes and the guy partied.
And he had all this wealth, all this power, all this fame.
And the fame of his wisdom went abroad into all the world.
But yet, no literary sources outside the Bible.
You know why?
Because there are just very few literary sources
from that time period, period.
And so I guarantee you that there
were all kinds of maharajas over in India that
had all kinds of power and wealth.
And in their day, they were the coolest dude.
And I guarantee you that in Ethiopia, you
had all kinds of great rulers and wealthy people down there.
I mean, think about it, the Ethiopians showed up at Judah
with a, you want to talk about a million man march?
The Ethiopians marched 1.1 million.
They said, I see your million man march,
and I'll raise you 100,000.
Because 1.1 million Ethiopians marched on the people of God.
That's a powerful nation.
That's a powerful empire, right?
How much do we know about it?
Very little.
Can we name the kings and the rulers and the leaders
and the movers and the shakers?
No.
And we could go on and on, we could
talk about all different other civilizations
where even the greatest people are totally forgotten
and don't matter.
So here's the thing, let me ask you this.
What's the difference between the top dog in Ethiopia
and the lowest slave in Ethiopia?
I'm talking about back in the heyday when they're sending 1.1
million troops into Judah.
Let me ask you this.
What's the difference now in 2021 in famousness?
Because they're both zero.
Everybody understand?
Enough time goes by and everybody's fame
approaches zero.
Someday no one will know who Donald Trump is.
Someday no one will know who Joe Biden is.
He already isn't sure who he is.
But someday the people around him won't even know.
You know, these people will all be forgotten.
They're not going to matter.
Only that which comes after death matters.
And that's not the way we think, is it?
That's not how we think.
And you remember Absalom, he's going
to put up a pillar so people remember me after I'm gone.
Where's that pillar today?
The only reason anybody remembers
you is because you're in the Bible as a bad guy,
as a villain.
But otherwise, no one would remember you, Absalom.
No one would care.
And I wonder how many other people
erected great pillars and monuments and pyramids
and statues.
And somebody just finds some gnarly statue
with its nose broken off.
And they're just like, this is a guy.
Yes, I made it into 2021.
No, you didn't.
Your life is meaningless.
But thank God our life's not meaningless.
My life has meaning every single day.
And you know what?
We don't believe in some impersonal god who's distant.
He's not a god that's a far off.
He's a god that's nigh at hand.
And he knows every thought that I think.
And he cares about my life.
He cares about my problems.
He cares about my thoughts.
Every hair in my head is numbered.
He says in Ecclesiastes 6, verse 7, all the labor of man
is for his mouth, and yet the appetite's not filled.
Again, this is the same thing we've been talking
about for the last five chapters.
For what hath the wise man more than the fool?
What hath the poor that knoweth to walk before the living?
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering
of the desire.
This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
It's like, man, but you know, the sight of the eyes
is better than the wandering of the desire.
But guess what?
They're both meaningless.
Because everything's meaningless.
That which hath been is named already.
And it is known that it is man.
Neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
Seeing there be many things that increase vanity,
what is man the better?
For who knoweth what is good for man in this life?
All the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow,
for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
Let me boil this down for you very carefully
what he says in these last couple of verses.
Don't miss what he's saying.
He's saying, I want to figure out how to live my life
in such a way that my life is gonna matter after I'm gone.
And he's saying, I don't know how to do that
because I don't know what the future is gonna be like.
I don't know what they're gonna care about.
How can I make sure that my life matters after I die?
That's what he's saying.
But I don't know the future, so I don't know.
Now, thankfully, he played his cards right.
And he mattered because we're here talking about it then.
But that's only because he was with the Lord.
He followed the Lord.
He's in the Bible.
But that's what he's saying here in this verse.
Read it carefully, pay attention.
Who knoweth what is good for a man in this life?
All the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow,
for who can tell a man what shall be after him
under the sun?
What did he start out talking about in the chapter?
After you die, nobody buries you.
Ah, man, what a shame, right?
And then it's like, okay, well,
maybe if I just have a lot of children.
I mean, if I just have 100 children,
somebody's gonna keep my name alive.
Nope.
Because plenty of people throughout history
have had 100 children and nobody knows who they were
or why they mattered.
And so he's saying, what can I do
to make sure that my life matters after I'm dead?
And there's only one right answer to this.
You have to serve the Lord with your life,
win someone to Christ,
and no one can ever take that away from you.
And your fame will last eternally.
If you, the Bible says, and we'll close on this.
Go to Daniel chapter 12.
Let's close on something positive
since this is kind of a downer of a chapter.
Let's go to Daniel chapter 12.
Solomon's really worried about his legacy.
I've lived this life, I've accomplished great things,
but I want it to matter after I'm gone.
But I don't know how to do that.
I mean, think about this.
Think about how little literature survived
from the ancient world.
I'll bet there were all kinds of great other poems
and stories and books that were written,
but only a couple survived, right?
It's like, man, how do you make the cut?
You're in 800 BC, ancient Greece.
It's pretty much the Iliad and the Odyssey survived.
And it's like, how do you make that cut?
There were lots of other poems, lots of other stories.
You know what?
A lot of it's just chance.
Now, a lot of it's because the best stuff
ends up getting preserved.
But you think about a book like Beowulf.
Beowulf is written approximately 1,000 AD.
And you know, there's only one manuscript of it.
And it was almost burned up in a fire in the 1800s.
So one manuscript.
I mean, wouldn't it have been pretty easy
for that one manuscript to just been destroyed?
But yet today that's like the big example
of old English literature.
Anybody who studies old English,
that's what they are studying.
That's what they're thinking about.
That's the big one, Beowulf.
But it's like an accident that it even survived.
And there were probably hundreds of other stories
and poems that might've even been much better
that just didn't make it just because they didn't make it.
So Solomon's saying like, how,
I don't know what's gonna come after me.
So it's like, how do I live my life?
What do I do so that my life matters?
We know the answer to that as Christians, don't we?
And he gets to the answer by the end of things.
We're only in chapter six.
Look at Daniel chapter 12.
It says in verse two,
and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And they that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament
and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever.
So if we win souls unto Christ,
if we turn many unto righteousness,
because the Bible says he that win in souls is wise.
And the Bible says the wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament
and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever.
If you win people to Christ,
if you are a preacher of righteousness like Noah,
if you stand up for what's right and live right
and follow Christ, you will shine like the stars
forever and ever.
Unlike the so-called Hollywood stars,
they're not gonna shine forever.
You know what they are?
They're just like a little like a shooting star, right?
It's like, boom, and it's over.
I mean, think about it,
a shooting star, you blink and you miss it.
That's the way these Hollywood stars are.
I mean, I'd like to ask our teenagers,
teenagers, will you name for me
some of the big actresses from the 20s?
How about you young guys, or in the 30s?
Who were those really hot actresses from the 30s guys, huh?
The stars, the big names.
How about the dudes?
Who were they?
Who was the top?
Who were some of the top?
You got something?
Frank Sinatra?
Nope.
Frank Sinatra was still coming out with music
when I was a teenager, buddy, all right?
So that hurts.
But yeah, I mean, I don't know,
maybe he does go back that far.
Does anybody know?
The 40s?
You were close, all right, you did good.
All right, but I didn't say 40s, did I?
I guess I did.
But you know what, the point remains.
You know, we got a big Sinatra fan over here.
No, I'm just kidding.
Just kidding.
But you know what?
The point remains that the only way
to truly have glory that lasts
and a legacy that matters is to serve the Lord.
And that's what I take from this chapter
more than anything else.
That's how it starts, that's how it ends.
Ecclesiastes 6 is telling me
that only what comes after death matters.
So what kind of treasures am I laying up in heaven?
What kind of eternal glory am I investing in now?
That's all that matters.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for giving us
something to do with our lives that matters, Lord.
Otherwise, man, this would be a depressing book.
Reading Ecclesiastes about how meaningless everything is
and how nothing satisfies, it'd be super depressing.
But Lord, thank you so much that you sent Jesus Christ
to die on the cross for our sins and suffer
just an incredible, unspeakable amount of suffering,
Lord, for us so that we could actually have meaning
and purpose in our lives
and so that we could have eternal life
and not only eternal life, but eternal glory, Lord.
Help us to work hard on things that actually matter
in our brief little sojourn on this earth, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray.