A Living Dog Is Better Than a Dead Lion

Everything in the world belongs to Jesus Christ, and people are no more than stewards entrusted with it for a time. There was a steward who did not know his master’s will, so he clung to his wealth and turned away from the poor; and there was another who began to give only once he had grasped his master’s heart.

Solomon, too, understood only late that the royal power and glory he had enjoyed had been entrusted to him by God for a season. He came to see on the brink of death that the years he had lived without sharing, treating it all as his own, had been sin. In the darkness of the cave, people think themselves special according to how much or how little they possess; but when they come out into the light of Christ, they find that all such boasting was cause for shame.

The years spent commanding with a king’s authority were as meaningless as a dead lion, while God’s persecuted people lived lives as precious as a living dog, still able to turn back day after day. To meet him, a person must die daily to their own righteousness and lean on the righteousness of God. The sermon calls its hearers to live as good stewards who understand their master’s will and obey it.