Our Core Values Part 5: Our Value of Speaking the Truth in Love

"Our Core Values"

Part 5: Our Value of Speaking the Truth in Love
Ephesians 4:11-16
Pastor Ray-ann Dela Fuente
October 11, 2026

Theme Verse:
“Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses.”
Proverbs 10:12 NLT

Introduction:
Welcome to another exciting Sunday here at the River of Faith! Today we are in week five of our series I entitled "Our Core Values." In this series we are going to re-discuss the values that made us who we are as a church! As we have just finished our 21st year anniversary we will continue to revisit these principles that guided us and teach the importance of embodying them in our fellowship and our meetings.

Vision Statement:
A Spirit-empowered church committed to give the people of San Diego the best opportunity to come to Christ and be transformed by His amazing Love.

Mission Statement:
We are committed to invite people to COME to Christ.
We are committed to LIVE according to the Word of God.
We are committed to SHARE the Gospel to the whole world.

Purpose:
Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Ministry

Core Values:
Acceptance, Devotion, Accountability, Discipline, and Speaking the truth in Love.

What is the hardest thing you ever had to say? To many of us it is called the truth. Sometimes the hardest thing to say is the truth because it hurts. Truth is not something that we can ever compromise this is why I believe the Bible commanded us to speak it in love. The last part of our core value as a church is truth in love. This is the ability to speak the truth driven by genuine love for one another. Not because of condemnation or hate. We know that we have reached maturity when we can embody speaking the truth in love with each other.

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:11-13 NLT

Main Pointers:

1. Everyone has a role but the purpose is to build each other up.

A. The goal is to bring the body of Christ to maturity through preaching and teaching the Word of God. This is why God gave the church different gifts so that the Body will be ready and equipped.
B. “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.”
Ephesians 4:2-6 NLT

2. The goal is to know the truth, abide in the truth, and have the right discernment of the truth.

“Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.”
Ephesians 4:14 NLT

A. It is true that some lies may sound so clever that they start to sound like the truth. This is a very urgent warning for all of us who have been set free by the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only immature Christians get caught up by the wind of new teachings and influenced by tricks and lies.
B. “Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.”
1 Timothy 4:1 NLT

3. Jesus is the truth and His example of love is what make us grow in maturity.

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
Ephesians 4:15-16 NLT

A. Jesus makes the body fit perfectly. No doubt because He is the head of the body. When we are connected together as one body each part grows and the whole body becomes healthy, growing and full of love.
B. “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but If I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-7 NLT

Conclusion:
The greatest sign of our maturity as a body of Christ iso ur love for one another. You cannot love without the truth of the Scriptures and the truth of the Scriptures is motivated by God's love for us. When we abide in the truth in love the body becomes healthy, growing and full of love.