What does Tribe teach about surrendering control?
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 surrendering control is built around a single concrete image: a wineskin has to come from something that died. Brian Hunter made this plain when he pointed out that a stone jar or a clay jar costs nothing in terms of life, but a wineskin required an animal to die. The vessel that holds new wine is only ever produced through death, and he was clear that is not accidental. Surrendering control, in this framework, is not an adjustment or a refinement of the old life. It is the price of a new wineskin, and that price is death to whatever the old one was built around.
Brian used two figures from Mark 10 to show what that surrender looks like and what its absence costs. The rich young ruler had kept the commandments since childhood, and Jesus looked at him and loved him, then asked him to sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow. The man walked away sorrowful. His wineskin, however well it had held the law of Moses, could not stretch to hold even one drop of what Jesus was offering, because he would not let go of what he had built. Bartimaeus, sitting right after that story, did the opposite. When Jesus called him, he threw aside his cloak and ran forward without stopping to pick anything up. He asked for mercy rather than a transaction, and he left his comfort behind without hesitation. Brian read these two accounts as a deliberate contrast: one man held on, the other let go, and only one of them received what Jesus was pouring out.
The congregation at Tribe also worked through why surrendering control is so hard in practice. When the room discussed the Pharisees, several people noted that the Pharisees could see everything Jesus was doing but had never tasted any of it, and that their whole constructed life, their reputation and their power, was being directly confronted. The law was the only framework they had, and they were operating out of fear. Brian's point was that holding tightly to an old structure, whether religious, personal, or relational, is not neutral. It is a posture that keeps new wine from having anywhere to go.
Taught from Mark 10:17-28 · Mark 10:46 · Luke 5:33-39 · 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 · Galatians 2:20
The passage taught · 2 Corinthians 2:14-15
14 Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.
15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish;
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- February 2, 2025 Two men enter, one man leaves. A Jackson Hole congregation wrestles with why the Pharisees wanted Jesus dead, what it means to taste vs. only see God's goodness, and how grace fuels daily surrender.
- November 24, 2024 It's Gonna Cost You A sermon on why following Jesus costs more than adding him to your life, told through the story of a rich young ruler and a blind beggar named Bartimaeus.
Mentioned along the way
- November 4, 2024 Look Beneath the Surface Brian Hunter preaches on looking beneath the surface of Jesus's nature, urging believers to build a faith big enough to hold all of who he is, not just the familiar parts.