So remember that you will die.
Let's look at Ecclesiastes.
I'm just going to give you some of the highlights of the Book of Ecclesiastes on this particular
subject.
Starting in chapter one, just to get the introduction of the book, it says in verse two, "Vanity
of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
Now do you get the idea?
A little repetitive there, isn't it?
Vain means empty, meaningless, it doesn't matter.
That's what he's saying here.
He says in verse 3, "What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the
sun?
One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever."
And I do believe that the earth will abide forever, but not in its current form.
It's going to be destroyed and it's going to be renewed and there's going to be a new
heaven and a new earth.
The earth will stay forever, but it's going to be changed, it's going to be different
than it is now, okay, even though it will still be the same planet.
The sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The wind goes toward the south and turneth about unto the north, it whirleth about continually,
and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full.
Unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
All things are full of labor, man cannot utter it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done, is that
which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there anything whereof it may be said, "See, this is new!"
It hath been already of old time which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of
things that are to come with those that shall come after.
This is talking about from an earthly, worldly perspective.
You know, he's going to give a spiritual perspective later in the book, but he starts out the book
and just saying, humanly speaking, our lives don't matter.
Humanly speaking, hundreds of years from now, no one's going to know who we are, no one's
going to care.
And think about this, this is written by King Solomon.
King Solomon was a great, powerful man.
He reigned over a great kingdom.
I mean, he was so powerful and so wealthy, he's got, what, 700 wives, 300 concubines,
he's got all this gold and silver and apes and peacocks and he had tons of intelligence.
I mean, this guy had a lot, but here's the thing, I submit to you that if it were not
for the Bible, we would have never heard of him in our lives, we would have never heard
of him.
If he did not write books of the Bible, and if the Bible did not talk about him in books
like 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, if he were not recorded in scripture, we wouldn't know
who he is.
How do I know that?
Because there were all kinds of great kings in the Middle East that also had tons of wives
and concubines.
They also had tons of money and wealth and power.
Okay, list, and Varen, you're excluded from this, list me some kings of ancient India.
Somebody want to, you know, list for me some of the wealthy, powerful kings of ancient
India from, oh, I don't know, 3,000 years ago?
Anyone?
But you know what?
I'm pretty sure they existed.
I guarantee you there were some maharajas back then, and they had all kinds of wealth
and power, and I guarantee you that there were people's names 3,000 years ago that would
make everybody tremble if they heard that name.
Everybody knows who so-and-so is.
He's the most powerful man in India, or the most powerful man in China, or the most powerful
man in Japan, or whatever.
Okay, who are they now?
No one knows, and no one cares.
Folks, South America had these empires of the Mayans and the Incas, and they built these
giant structures.
Who were they?
What were their names?
No one cares.
It doesn't matter.
They're nobody.
They're nothing.
They're dust.
They don't even exist.
Nobody cares.
They might as well have never existed.
They're gone.
And I guarantee you that Solomon would be in the same boat.
Okay, here's the proof.
Show me other historical records of King Solomon outside the Bible.
Show me all of the historical documents telling us about King Solomon.
Just the Bible.
That's it.
Because guess what?
There were all kinds of other great kings in the Middle East, in the Far East, right?
Central Asia, Southern Asia, Ethiopia.
Look all over the world there have been kingdoms and wealthy, powerful people and they don't
matter anymore.
They're all gone.
That's what Ecclesiastes 1 is teaching us.
You will die and no one will remember that you ever even existed.
No one will even care.
And you know what?
There have been great scientists who made great discoveries.
Nobody knows who they are.
Nobody cares.
You know, let's talk about astronomers from 2,000 years ago.
You know, you might be able to name one or two, but there were a whole bunch that did
a lot of great things and unless somebody's an expert in that field, they're probably
not interested, don't care, never even heard of these guys.
And today we've got a bunch of scientists who really want to leave this legacy, you
know, because they're going to discover the next big thing.
But even if they succeed, which most won't, many will enter, few will win, even if they
do discover the next big thing, you know, even if they're remembered for a hundred years,
maybe they'll be remembered for a few hundred, but eventually they will be completely forgotten,
totally obsolete, they'll be at some museum somewhere, nobody cares.
Does everybody understand what Ecclesiastes 1 is teaching us?
You can be one of the most powerful people in the world, and people have, okay, look,
there have been so many powerful world leaders that none of us have ever even heard of, that
no one will ever hear of because their names and their memory are complete dust.
Today, I mean, we have our celebrities today, the household names, you know, every once
in a while, you know, some pop celebrity will come up, I'm like, "Who's so-and-so?"
They're like, "You don't know who that is, whoa, where have you been?"
But here's the thing, 200 years from now, nobody will know who that is.
Of course, John Lennon from the Beatles famously said, "We're more popular than Jesus Christ
right now."
That's what the singer of the Beatles said.
"We're more popular than Jesus Christ right now," and he said, I forget how many years,
he said 50 years from now or 100 years from now, you know, people won't be following Christ,
but they'll still be listening to the Beatles.
I think he said something like that.
Forgive me if I got the quote a little bit wrong, but there's something to that effect.
Like people are still going to be listening to the Beatles after Christianity is dead
and gone.
My friend, Christianity will never be gone.
Christianity is the truth.
It's God's word, and it can never, and many people have predicted its downfall in doom.
I can't even count how many emails I've gotten that say, oh, you know, you're going to go
extinct and you're a dying breed, and, you know, thank God that religion's dying and
Christianity's dying.
That's a joke.
It's not even close.
We're going up.
We're getting bigger, okay?
We're winning more people to Christ.
We are moving forward, and Christianity will never be destroyed.
The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.
And so, but I will say this, eventually the Beatles will be forgotten.
I promise you that.
And even if Christ doesn't return in our lifetime,
even if Christ returns hundreds of years from now,
people will eventually get sick of and move on from the Beatles.
I want to hold your hand, it's only going to last so long, my friend.
People in the year 2275 are probably not going to be listening to it,
except some geeky professor somewhere or something that's like
an expert in 20th century culture or something.
I'm telling you something, everything on this earth is going to be gone someday.
And not only is it going to be gone, it's going to be forgotten.