What does Tribe teach about spiritual laziness?
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 spiritual laziness starts with an honest name for something most people recognize. Brian Hunter calls it the doldrums, a sailing term for when a ship sits dead in the water with no wind and no direction. He is careful to say that rest is not the problem. The problem is when a person coasts past rest into a place where the sail is down and the Lord's voice has gone unheard. He asks the room honestly whether they can tell the difference between the two, and whether they have quietly drifted further than they meant to.
Brian roots this in how a person is actually built. Before someone is born again, the soul and body run the show. After, the spirit is meant to be in charge, taking direction from God and activating everything else in response. Spiritual laziness, on his account, is what happens when the flesh quietly retakes that ground, when even a born-again believer slips back into going through the motions without really being present. He uses the image of a beginner skier who has the form technically right but is rigid and not actually skiing. You can do all the right things and still not be there.
The remedy he points to is not a program but a relationship. God is still speaking. Brian says, "He longs to talk with you. His word says, my heart has heard you say, come and talk with me." Psalm 27:8 is where he anchors this: God's spirit speaking to the human spirit, and the spirit needing to bring the soul and body along into a response. He also reaches back to Jeremiah 12:5, asking the harder question: "If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses?" The point is that drifting has a cost, and the invitation to come back is open right now.
Taught from Psalm 27:8 · Psalm 27 · Jeremiah 12:5
“If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses?”
From Come and Talk with Me
The passage taught · Jeremiah 12:5
5 “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? Though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- December 30, 2024 Come and Talk with Me Pastor Brian Hunter walks Tribe through Psalm 27, calling the congregation out of holiday spiritual drift and into quiet, attentive time with God before the new year.
- December 22, 2024 Come and Talk with Me A sermon on Psalm 27 about staying spiritually alert during the lull between Christmas and New Year's, with four simple practices to quiet yourself and hear God speak.