What does Tribe teach about god's love?
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 God's love is rooted in the picture drawn in Isaiah 61:10, where God clothes His people in garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness. Brian Simmons spent real time with the Hebrew behind that image, explaining that the word translated 'dressed me' carries the sense of being completely surrounded, ensconced, so that what is on the outside is all anyone sees. The point he pressed home is that God's love is not a response to performance. When someone comes to God dragging their failures behind them, what God sees is the outer garment, the righteousness He has already given, not the record underneath it.
The practical struggle Brian named is that people reach past the garment God has provided and put on something older and shabbier instead. He put it plainly: 'How many times do we look in our metaphysical closet and we're like, that's too nice to wear today.' God's love has already dressed His people in something they did not earn, and the invitation is simply to wear it. He also connected this to the rest God invites people into during Sukkot, naming one of the things God asks His people to stop striving for as the attempt to earn His love in the first place.
The congregation's own stories shaped the teaching as well. People shared dreams and visions around the image of being clothed when they returned to God, and one person described a stranger providing exactly what he needed on a morning he had no resources, reading it as God's provision and care showing up in a concrete way. Brian drew these together under the same thread: God's love is not theoretical. As he said, 'Jesus is alive, and he is experiential. And when you encounter him, our lives are changed.'
Taught from Isaiah 61:9-11 · Isaiah 42:3 · James 4:6 · Leviticus 23 · Hebrews 4
“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.
- October 13, 2024 Sukkot 2024: Resting and Celebrating Brian Hunter walks through Leviticus 23 to explore Sukkot, the biblical feast of shelters, and what it means to rest from striving and receive God's love.