If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13

1. Love is patient 2. Love is kind 3. Love does not envy 4. Love does not boast
5. Love is not arrogant 6. Love is not rude 7. Love does not insist on its own way
8. Love is not irritable

TONIGHT

9. Love is not resentful

A. Signs of an Unforgiving Heart: Ephesians 4:31-32

1. Harboring sinful attitudes toward others

a. Bitterness: Rom. 3:14, James 3:14

b. Wrath: Col. 3:5-10

c. Anger: James 1:19-20

2. Participation in sinful speech about others

a. Clamor – Acts 23:9

b. Slander – 1 Peter 2:1-2

B. Consequences of an Unforgiving Heart

1. Loss of fellowship with the Lord: Matthew 6:9-15

2. No clear conscience before the Lord and man: Acts 24:14-16, 1 Tim. 1:5

3. A cause of disunity and conflict among God’s people: Gal. 5:13-15, Prov. 6:6-19

C. Cultivating a Forgiving Heart

1. Develop the Fruit of the Spirit life: Gal. 5:22-23, Rom. 13:14

2. Deal with people as God does with us: Eph. 4:31-32

a. With kindness: Psalm 145:13, Titus 3:4

b. With gentleness: Matthew 11:28-30

c. With forgiveness: Acts 2:38, Acts 5:27-33, Acts 10:42-43, Acts 13:38, Acts 26:18