“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:12–17 (NLT)
How can we be a church that loves everyone?
Be _________________ when others quit.
Love is patient and kind…Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Corinthians 13:4a,7 (NLT)
Be ________________ when others want their own way.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable…
1 Corinthians 13:4b-5b (NLT)
Be __________________ when others want revenge.
…and it keeps no record of being wronged.
1 Corinthians 13:5c (NLT)
Be ___________________ when others sell out.
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
1 Corinthians 13:6 (NLT)
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
For centuries during the Christian season known as Pentecost, followers of Jesus have focused on the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Father sent the Son and the Father and the Son sent the Spirit. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit sends the Church, the Body and Bride of Christ to re-present Jesus in the world. During this nine-week series, we will consider how the Holy Spirit energizes the people of God to be the exciting church.
Jorge Acevedo loves Jesus Christ and his Church. Touched by the grace of God at seventeen, he was never the same. Rescued from a life of addictions, his greatest delight is connecting people to Jesus and the Church.
Jorge is the Lead Pastor at Grace Church, a multi-site, United Methodist congregation in Southwest Florida with three campuses (Cape Coral, Fort Myers Shores, Fort Myers Central). Grace Church is recognized as having one of the largest and most effective recovery ministries in America. From 1992 to 1996, he served as Executive Pastor at Christ Church United Methodist in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; from 1988 to 1992, as the Associate Pastor at First United Methodist Church in Kissimmee, Florida; from 1984 to 1988 as Minister of Youth and Children at Trinity Hill United Methodist Church in Lexington, Kentucky.
Jorge is a 1984 graduate of Asbury College where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Bible. He is also a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity Degree. Jorge was ordained as a Deacon in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church in May 1986, and an Elder in May 1990.
Jorge was the 2001 recipient of the Denman Evangelism Award from the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church given to a pastor for excellence in evangelism. In 2007, He was named the Distinguished Alumni of the Year at Asbury Theological Seminary. In 2009, the Foundation for Evangelism named Jorge the 2009 Distinguished Evangelist of the United Methodist Church. He was a 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 delegate to the Jurisdictional Conference and a 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 delegate to the General Conference. Jorge serves on the Southeastern Jurisdiction and Florida Conference Episcopal Committees.
Jorge co-authored Sent: Giving the Gift of Hope at Christmas (Abingdon Press, 2015). He also authored Vital: Churches Changing Communities and the World (Abingdon Press, 2013) and co-authored The Heart of Youth Ministry (Bristol House, 1989). He has also written for the United Methodist Publishing House, Circuit Rider magazine, Good News magazine and Our Faith Today.
Born in Puerto Rico, Jorge at the age of four months, moved with his family to the United States where he was raised. Jorge is married to Cheryl Montgomery. Their oldest son, Daniel is married to Courtney who gave them four beautiful grandchildren, Mia, Levi, Seth and Zoe. They also have a younger son, Nathan.
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The Exciting Church - Part 2 - CC | Sermons | Grace Church
“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:12–17 (NLT)
How can we be a church that loves everyone?
Be _________________ when others quit.
Love is patient and kind…Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Corinthians 13:4a,7 (NLT)
Be ________________ when others want their own way.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable…
1 Corinthians 13:4b-5b (NLT)
Be __________________ when others want revenge.
…and it keeps no record of being wronged.
1 Corinthians 13:5c (NLT)
Be ___________________ when others sell out.
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
1 Corinthians 13:6 (NLT)
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
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