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In the 23 years as Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, I have conducted 149 funerals and have been in 35 different cemeteries. Before you can proceed with the funeral, the coroner must sign the death certificate. In essence, no one is going in the ground until they know for sure the person is dead. Yet it seems that sometimes we have a hard time knowing when things are dead. And we have even harder time knowing when to bury things once we know they are dead. If you continue to work with the dry bones of dead issues, you too, will begin to decay. No amount of work will resuscitate a corpse. You can stay in a dead church all you want and listen to a dead preacher flatter you and you can allow his flattering mouth to work ruin; or, you can sign the death certificate on him and move on to a Pastor with the power of God upon his life with whose ministry you and your children will not continue to decay. Some issues must be reckoned dead, and we need to bury a lot of things that are in the past. We need to sign the death certificate on listening to any kind of criticism, slander, or hate on a godly Pastor doing his best to serve Jesus. Lies and slander would be put to death if they didn’t have a listening ear.

While we are signing death certificates, we need to sign a death certificate on loose living. We need bury the old attitude that the church down the street is better than our church. Perhaps if that attitude was dead and buried, others could learn to be loyal to the church and to its leadership. After signing the death certificate with the Lord‘s guidance, bury the past with its hurts and failings, and go on to victory. Bro. Mays states often, “A church that is alive is worth the drive.” Friend, there is no doubt there are things that are rotten and stinking in your life and the lives of your loved ones that just need to be buried. Sign a death certificate today and let’s bury some dead things.

Dr. Dennis Carter