What does Tribe teach about memorizing scripture?
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 memorizing scripture starts with a simple conviction: burying God's word in the heart is not an optional discipline for serious Christians, it is one of three foundational practices that Brian Hunter has placed alongside worship and tithing as the basic architecture of a life following Jesus. The driving bottom line from that stretch of teaching was that treasuring God's word deeply helps us follow God's heart faithfully, and Brian used Psalm 19:7-11 to show what actually happens inside a person when scripture gets planted that deeply.
Brian worked through five things the passage says God's word produces when it is genuinely buried in a person: it revives the soul in its fullest sense, reaching the mind, emotions, will, and body; it brings joy to the heart, a joy he was careful to distinguish from happiness that moves with circumstances; it gives insight for living, which he said might look less like strategic advantage and more like humility toward a difficult coworker; it warns of danger, often from threats that are camouflaged rather than obvious; and it is itself a great reward, one that holds even when a person has nothing materially. Brian also offered three categories for choosing what to memorize: verses that touch a pain point, verses that thrill your heart, and verses that help renew your mind.
The congregation pushed back on the idea that planting a verse is a set-it-and-forget-it transaction, and Brian welcomed that. Someone pointed out that a seed has to die in the ground before anything visible happens, and that seasons of apparent deadness are part of the process, not evidence that nothing is working. That exchange shaped the final bottom line Brian landed on: where God's word is planted, a great reward grows. Brian also addressed the question of what it actually feels like when the word produces joy, noting that joy is a choice, and as he put it, "there is absolutely nothing that God asks of us that he doesn't also supply us with the gumption to do it."
Taught from Psalms 19:7-14 · Proverbs 4:20-22 · Romans 12:2 · Psalms 119:18 · Psalms 51:16
“Joy is a choice, and we don't manufacture that from our flesh because it then comes forward as wax fruit like you're wearing a mask.”
From Sweeter Than Honey
The passage taught · Proverbs 4:20-22
20 My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 2, 2025 Sweeter Than Honey Brian Hunter walks Tribe through Psalm 19, exploring how burying Scripture in your heart revives the soul, brings joy, gives wisdom, warns of danger, and yields lasting reward.
- June 1, 2025 The Great Reward A Jackson Hole pastor leads his congregation through Psalm 19, exploring what happens when God's word is buried deep in the heart rather than just read from a page.
Mentioned along the way
- 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.
- April 28, 2025 The Feast of Unleavened Bread Brian Hunter teaches Tribe through the Jewish Feast of Unleavened Bread and what it means to be truly free from sin, not just intellectually, but in daily life.
- April 27, 2025 No Longer Slaves Brian Hunter walks through the Feast of Unleavened Bread to show why Jesus, not willpower, breaks the chains of sin and why the enemy has no real authority over you.