What does Tribe teach about celebration?
Drawn from the message where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on celebration grows out of the feasts of the Lord, particularly Sukkot, the feast of tabernacles. Brian Walker has taught that these feasts exist to help God's people remember what He has done, rehearse what is still to come, and recalibrate when life has pulled them off course. Sukkot, he explained, has not yet been fulfilled the way Passover was fulfilled in Jesus, which means celebrating it now is a way of rehearsing the return of Christ. That forward-looking quality gives the church's understanding of celebration a weight beyond festivity: it is participation in something God is still doing.
The anchor for the teaching is Isaiah 61:10, where the speaker describes being clothed by God with garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness, and reaches for the image of a bridegroom and a bejeweled bride to name what that feels like. Brian pointed to the Hebrew behind the word translated 'dressed me,' which carries the sense of being completely surrounded or ensconced, so that what is on the outside is all anyone sees. That is what God sees when people come to Him dragging their past failures: not the failures, but the righteousness He has already given. The problem, Brian noted, is that people reach past the garment that has been freely given and refuse to put it on, treating it as too good for ordinary days. As he put it, 'How many times do we look in our metaphysical closet and we're like, that's too nice to wear today.'
The teaching also connects celebration to surrender. Genuine celebration of what God has done becomes possible when people stop trying to manage their standing before Him on their own. Brian says, 'When we quit trying to do this on our own, he's like, okay, you've given me something to work with.' Real celebration, in this framing, is not something worked up. It flows from resting in what God has already provided and allowing that reality to be the thing others see.
Taught from Isaiah 61:9-11 · Isaiah 42:3 · Leviticus 23 · James 4:6 · Revelation 3:20
“When we quit trying to do this on our own, he's like, okay, you've given me something to work with.”
From Rest and Celebrate
The passage taught · Isaiah 42:3
3 He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- October 21, 2024 Rest and Celebrate Brian Hunter explores the Feast of Sukkot, showing how God clothes us in salvation and calls us to rest from striving and celebrate his goodness with joy.