Sermon Tone Analysis
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Kyle was one of my youth group students back in Kalamazoo.
Kyle was one of those kids who paid attention to detail; he didn’t take shortcuts that skipped over whatever he thought was important to experience and do right.
I remember the year Kyle went along on my annual youth group backpacking trip in the Colorado mountains.
It is a trip in which I plan and pack dehydrated food for everyone in the group to carry in our packs.
Kyle was a sportsman and wanted more.
He did the work to get himself a Colorado fishing license through the mail before the trip.
He collected all the fishing gear he would need that was specially designed to be carried in a backpack.
And three days into the mountain we came to a camping spot beside a mountain lake just below 11,000 ft.
That’s pretty high up towards the source of the snowmelt feeding the stream.
I wasn’t sure if a lake that high up would have trout; that didn’t stop Kyle.
He spent hours that afternoon fishing in that lake and coming up empty.
But he was patient; he kept at it; he paid attention to all the right detail needed to fish in a high-altitude lake.
It paid off—sort of.
Kyle caught two small rainbow trout that afternoon.
That’s what he had to show for his hours of fishing.
But after three days of hiking with nothing but freeze-dried meal packets, a small bite of fish tasted so very good with that evening’s supper.
Kyle checked that one off his list.
It was a long road to get there, but he did it.
Three days hiking up a mountain; hours of standing by a lake fishing; he was patient and he got what he came for.
That’s the kind of person Kyle is.
After high school Kyle came up to Grand Rapids and attended Calvin University.
He stayed here in Grand Rapids after college and started his own business in the beverage industry.
He still kept the same patience in his business of doing things the right way and paying attention to all the details that matter even if it meant having to take the long road to get there.
In fact, that’s the name Kyle gave to his business, Long Road Distillery.
And it is the reason why he gave it that particular name.
It’s right here in Grand Rapids on the north end of town.
Sometimes doing things the best way takes patience.
That’s what we are talking about today.
I don’t preach from Proverbs all that often.
Maybe it would be good to remind ourselves of a few features we see in the Proverbs that will help us to understand a little better what these words mean.
The book of Proverbs is several thousand years old.
Here are a few features to be looking for.
Many proverbs work with a ‘better than’ formula comparing two things.
A common example is, better to be wise than to be foolish; or better to be poor and content than to be rich and unsatisfied.
The function of a proverb is to point out the futility of certain activities and certain ways of living, and to provide a better alternative.
See if you can spot some of these ‘better than’ formulas in these verses from Proverbs 19.
the spiritual fruit of patience is not about what patience does for you; it is about what patience does through you
Today we are digging into the spiritual fruit of patience.
I think we might all agree that patience is a virtue we admire when we see it well in other people.
I think we might all agree that patience is a virtue that we all wish we could be better at every now and again at moments in our lives.
But today I want us to dig just a little bit deeper through the words of this biblical proverb and go one step further.
I don’t want this to be some kind of self-help seminar on how to be a more patient person.
What we are talking about is spiritual fruit.
Patience as we see it in the Bible is not about personal self-improvement; it is about bearing spiritual fruit which produces and advances the love and grace and shalom flourishing of God in this world.
Patience does not end at you becoming a better person; it reaches beyond you into this world becoming a better place—or, if I can put some biblical language to it—this world becoming more redeemed.
The spiritual fruit of patience is not about what patience does for you; it is about what patience does through you.
Let’s start by tracing the way patience is woven into the lines of this proverb.
At first glance it might appear that this was just 12 verses of one-off sayings that might be able to stand alone as something you might find on a slip of paper inside a fortune cookie.
No, there is a connection happening in the lines of this proverb.
Maybe if we see the progression, it will be easier to understand the theme woven throughout.
verses 1 and 3 are parentheses around verse 2
The first three verses form something of an introduction.
In that, verses 1 and 3 are sort of parentheses around verse 2. It is verse 2 which really introduces the topic at hand in this passage.
Hebrew nephesh = desire, zeal, soul, life, throat, neck
This is an important verse in the passage; let’s pick it apart.
Desire is an English translation of the Hebrew word nephesh.
If you are looking at an older NIV English Bible it is translated as ‘zeal.’
Nephesh is a very common word in the Hebrew Old Testament; it is most often translated as ‘soul’ or ‘life.’
The Hebrew word nephesh literally means ‘throat’ or ‘neck.’
In this instance, context gives it the nuance of emotion, desire, appetite, zeal.
Think of it this way; maybe you are familiar with the English language idiom, lump in your throat.
It is a phrase we use to describe the feeling when a sudden overwhelming burst of some kind of emotion sweeps over a person.
It is such a sudden sweeping moment of emotion that the person almost literally feels it physically in their body.
Thus phrases like ‘lump in my throat’ or ‘makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.’
It is a passionate emotion that hits so hard, it almost completely takes over your body.
That kind of nephesh (desire) without knowledge is not good.
passion without the ability to understand or perceive those desires is not good
Knowledge in this verse is a Hebrew word that means ‘ability to understand.’
It is not knowledge in the sense of learned facts or collected data or memorized trivia.
It is the ability to understand, the ability to discern, the ability to realize.
Look at how these two words come together in verse 2. It is not that all passion or desire or zeal is in itself a bad thing.
But passion without the ability to understand or perceive those desires is not good.
NET Bible — “the one who acts hastily makes poor choices.”
a lack of patience produces a bad outcome
The second line of verse 2 puts this statement into motion: “how much more will hasty feet miss the way!”
The New English Translation of the Bible puts it this way, “the one who acts hastily makes poor choices.”
In other words, a lack of patience produces a bad outcome.
There is the theme of this passage in one line.
But it needs some further explanation.
four-verse vignette from verses 4-7 which talks about shallow and hollow friendships
Verse 8 is a pivot verse which comes back to the theme
four-verse vignette from verses 9-12 which talks about control and authority and rulers
The rest of this section of Proverbs 19 we looked at breaks up this way.
There is a four-verse vignette from verses 4-7 which talks about shallow and hollow friendships.
Verse 8 is a pivot verse which comes back to the theme.
And then there is another four-verse vignette from verses 9-12 which talks about control and authority and rulers.
So, let me spend just a moment on the other key verse in this passage; verse 8, which pivots the theme between those two four-verse vignettes.
The one who holds onto wisdom will find goodness
verse 2 tells us what a lack of patience looks like, restatement of the theme in verse 8 tells us what patience does look like
The one who acquires wisdom loves nephesh (life).
Back in verse 2 nephesh (desire) is considered bad when it comes without the ability of understanding.
And now here in verse 8 nephesh (this time, life) is considered a good thing when it comes with wisdom.
The one who holds onto (NIV cherishes) understanding will soon prosper.
This is not prosperity in the sense of business or financial success.
It is two Hebrew words together, matzah meaning ‘find’ or ‘discover’ and tov meaning ‘good’ or ‘goodness.’
The one who holds onto wisdom will find goodness.
If the theme which is expressed in verse 2 tells us what a lack of patience looks like, this restatement of the theme in verse 8 tells us what patience does look like—or better, where patience comes from.
This description of patience is poetically fleshed out a bit more in that final vignette.
Look again at verses 11-12.
overlook offence — no uncontrolled rush for revenge
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