What does Tribe teach about finding god in hard times?
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 finding God in hard times starts with a simple but uncomfortable observation: the pattern across Scripture is not that God shows up after the difficulty passes, but that He shows up inside it. Brian Hunter spent two sessions in Exodus 24:7-11, the moment Moses, Aaron, and seventy elders climbed Mount Sinai and shared a meal in God's presence, to make that point concrete. The climb was not easy. These men had to prepare food, carry it, and haul themselves up the equivalent of two Snow Kings before any of the encounter happened. The hardship was not incidental to the invitation. It was the path to it.
Brian holds Psalm 23:5 up as the verse that names this dynamic most plainly. The feast, the anointing, and the overflowing cup are all real promises, but the verse does not say they arrive when life is smooth. They arrive "in the presence of my enemies." He traces the same structure through three other stories: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego meeting a fourth man only because they were thrown into the furnace; Peter walking on water only because he stepped out of the boat in the middle of a storm; Paul receiving an angelic visitation while his ship was being torn apart on the Mediterranean. In each case the encounter with God is embedded inside the crisis, not offered as a reward for enduring it afterward.
Brian puts it directly: "Look for the invitation in the midst of disruption." Growing comfortable with discomfort, he says, is not a grim posture or a sign that something has gone wrong. It is a mark of Christian maturity, because the feast on the mountain and the presence of enemies tend to come together. The Sinai meal itself, he points out, has the shape of a wedding banquet, God as bridegroom drawing Israel close through covenant. That framing matters: the difficulty is not punishment. It is the setting in which a God who longs for relationship draws His people near.
Taught from Exodus 24:7-11 · Psalms 23:5 · Daniel 3 · Acts 27 · John 16:33
“The only thing that'll make you draw near to God and keep you away from sin is suffering.”
From The Feast on the Mountain
The passage taught · Acts 27
1 When it was determined that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan band.
2 Embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to places on the coast of Asia, we put to sea; Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.
3 The next day, we touched at Sidon. Julius treated Paul kindly, and gave him permission to go to his friends and refresh himself.
4 Putting to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- November 10, 2025 The Feast on the Mountain Brian Hunter walks through Exodus 24, where 70 elders hiked Mount Sinai to dine with God, and draws out a simple challenge: look for God's invitation inside life's disruptions.
- November 9, 2025 Meal on the Mountain A sermon from Tribe Church in Jackson Hole exploring Exodus 24, where 70 elders dined with God on Sinai, and what it means to find God in life's disruptions.