What does Tribe teach about rest from striving?
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 rest from striving grows out of the annual celebration of Sukkot, the feast of tabernacles. Brian Simmons has framed the feast as God's standing invitation to step off the treadmill and stop trying to run life at the world's pace. In the messages from October 2024, Brian named three specific things God invites people to rest from: their own plan, striving for their own salvation, and trying to earn God's love. That third one carries the most weight in the teaching. He was direct that God's love is not a reward for good behavior or a penalty for failure. As he put it, "He loves you not because of what you do or what you don't do. He loves you because of who he is."
The teaching also pressed on what happens when people keep reaching past the righteousness God has already given them and drag their own record back into the conversation. Brian worked through the Hebrew behind Isaiah 61:10 and described the garments of salvation as something that completely surrounds a person, so that what is on the outside is all anyone can see. The problem, he said, is that people treat that gift the way someone treats a piece of clothing too nice to wear on an ordinary day, reaching past it to rummage through old failures instead. The posture the teaching calls for is to stop managing and hand it over, because as Brian said, "When we quit trying to do this on our own, he's like, okay, you've given me something to work with."
Both weeks connected this rest to something larger than personal peace. Brian located Sukkot inside the whole arc of God's feasts, pointing out that it still awaits its prophetic fulfillment at the return of Jesus. Resting and celebrating during the feast is, in that sense, a rehearsal, the way a wedding party rehearses the night before so they recognize the real thing when it comes. The rest God offers is not passive or empty. It is what makes genuine celebration possible.
Taught from Isaiah 61:9-11 · Leviticus 23 · Hebrews 4 · Jeremiah 17:7-8 · Zechariah 14:16-19
“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 14, 2024 Sukkot 2024: Resting and Celebrating Brian Hunter walks through Leviticus 23 and the feast of Sukkot, inviting his congregation to rest from striving and simply receive God's love for one week.
- 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.