The Thursday Update

SEPTEMBER 25, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

Jesus made a simple and yet profound statement in John 12:24 where He said:

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

A kernel of wheat planted in the ground dies. But it dies with an intentional purpose: so that it can produce much more of itself. It dies so that much more of itself can live. The result is both incredible and miraculous, but it only happens when it first dies.

Jesus is teaching an important lesson to us on how we should see our lives. The goal of life is to increasingly find ways to lose our life in surrender to God and, in turn, find so much more of the true meaning of life available in Jesus. When we die to ourselves like the kernel of wheat, we die to what we want and what we think we should have for our own benefit. And as a result, God takes that and deepens and multiplies our life in ways that He wants.

That’s why in the next verse Jesus says, “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” No one likes to die, but when dying to our own will leads us to living for God’s will, it offers us a compelling reward.

But it’s so hard to die to ourselves, isn’t it? We love to defend ourselves and all we do. We love to be right. We love convenience. We enjoy easy. We seek comfort. We love what we want too much and too often. We don’t like to think about, or actually engage in, dying.

Last Sunday afternoon, Charlie Kirk’s memorial service was held in Phoenix, Arizona. The stadium was packed as some 90,000 people were in attendance with even more than that just outside the stadium. At least 100,000 million people have watched it and estimates are that as many as a billion people around the world have seen it. While I have yet to see it in its entirety—because we held Discover Membership after services—I plan on watching it. Worship music by Chris Tomlin, many people (even many politicians) speaking about the gospel of Jesus Christ in clear terms, and Erika Kirk speaking such powerful words, including forgiving the murderer, made this a service about how God used Charlie’s death to advance the gospel.

Make no mistake about it. While Charlie’s life was involved in conservative, traditional family value politics, that was not his end game. He was ultimately about helping more people hear and respond to the gospel. The memorial service proved it beyond any shadow of doubt, even if some brought up politics during it. That was truly ancillary to the main thrust, which was about how Charlie’s life and death should be a catapult to help more find faith in Jesus Christ. And that we should be the ones God uses to do this.

Charlie Kirk was the kernel of wheat that feel to the ground and his death is being used by God to produce many more seeds.

I think the takeaway for me and anyone else that is a Christian is that this is a time to be bold. Bold about Jesus, bold about the gospel, bold about showing the gospel to others by how we live. And bold about dying to self!

As we continue our Sunday series, From Believing to Becoming, I hope you’ll ask yourself how you can grow in your faith and be more bold in how you live it out every day. You will have to die to yourself, just like Jesus called us to. But in return, you will live with greater meaning and fulfillment in life.

Even if it costs you your life.

Warmly,

Vince
Senior Pastor