What does Tribe teach about controlling appetites?
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 controlling appetites starts with a simple observation: the heart follows what it is fed, not the other way around. In a message called Make Room in Your Heart, Pastor Brian worked through Matthew 6 to show that whatever a person consistently feeds is where their heart will settle. That is the logic behind Jesus telling his disciples to store up treasure in heaven rather than on earth. Earthly appetites can be corrupted or taken away, and when they crowd out everything else, there is no room left for what God wants to put in.
Proverbs 27:7 sharpened the point. The verse reads, "A person who is full refuses honey, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry." Brian used it to make the application plain: if there is no hunger, there is no room. Fasting and self-denial are not ends in themselves. They are a way of clearing space, of creating an appetite for what God actually wants to bring. The danger he pointed to in John 8 was subtle: the people Jesus addressed in that passage were not obvious opponents. They were followers, walking with him, agreeing with him. Yet he pressed on a sore spot and exposed that there was no room in their hearts for what he had to say.
The practical call that came out of this teaching was a written, public commitment to fast or deny themselves something specific, beginning September 8. The point was not the denial itself but what the hunger it produces makes possible. When appetites are brought under discipline, the heart becomes capable of receiving what it otherwise would have been too full to hold.
Taught from Proverbs 27:7 · Matthew 6:19-21 · John 8:31-43 · 1 Samuel 16:7-12
“Jesus is always reliable, but he is always unpredictable.”
From Make Room in Your Heart
The passage taught · 1 Samuel 16:7-12
7 But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one, either.”
9 Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one, either.”
10 Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, “Yahweh has not chosen these.”
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- September 4, 2023 Make Room in Your Heart Brian Hunter walks Tribe Church through John 8 and Matthew 6 as he launches a 21-day fast for Israel, asking the congregation to make room in their hearts for what God cares about.