What does Tribe teach about fear?
Drawn from the messages 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 fear begins not with a self-help strategy but with an honest look at what worship actually is and what it does. Brian Hunter points out that the biblical pattern is striking: every time a person genuinely encounters the presence of God, what shows up first is not celebration but a kind of fear and falling down, whether that is Moses at the burning bush or Saul on the road to Damascus. That response is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is the normal, human reaction to standing before something real and holy.
From there, Brian turns to worship as something that works directly against fear in the middle of real life. He draws on 1 Samuel 16, where David played the harp and a tormenting spirit left Saul, to make the case that pressing into worship functions like a weapon in spiritual combat. A woman in the congregation put flesh on this when she described being in Israel on October 7 and singing a worship song about being surrounded, and how peace came even as frightening reports were coming in around her. The teaching is that worship is not an escape from hard circumstances but a force that changes the atmosphere inside them.
Underneath all of this is a conviction Brian names plainly: God built into every human being a mechanism that will devote allegiance and affection to something bigger than themselves. Before knowing Jesus, people channel that toward things that cannot hold the weight, including themselves. But Brian says, "In His presence is fullness of joy. There can be no darkness in His presence." The implication for anyone carrying fear is straightforward. The presence of God is where fear loses its grip.
Taught from 1 Samuel 16:14-23 · 1 Samuel 30:1-8 · Psalm 91 · Psalm 150 · 2 Samuel 6:14
“Everybody does it. Few people know that they do it.”
From Three Uses of Worship
The passage taught · 1 Samuel 16:14-23
14 Now Yahweh’s Spirit departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh troubled him.
15 Saul’s servants said to him, “See now, an evil spirit from God troubles you.
16 Let our lord now command your servants who are in front of you to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. Then when the evil spirit from God is on you, he will play with his hand, and you will be well.”
17 Saul said to his servants, “Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.”
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- June 9, 2025 Three Uses of Worship Brian Hunter walks through Psalm 150 and three reasons to worship God through song: as a weapon in combat, a tool for recalibration, and a response to celebration.
- June 8, 2025 Worship in the Key of C A Wyoming pastor explores worship as more than singing, walking through Scripture to show how praise can be used for combat, calibration, and celebration.