What does Tribe teach about surrendering to jesus?
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 to Jesus is framed around a vivid metaphor Brian Hunter returns to throughout the series called 'Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves.' The Thunderdome represents the will, and every time a person steps into that arena with Jesus, one of them walks out. Either the person wins and Jesus loses influence in their life, or they die to themselves and Jesus leads. Surrendering, in this teaching, is not a one-time event but an ongoing contest inside a person's will.
The Christmas message from Isaiah 9 pressed this same call in a different direction. Brian was direct about what is at stake for anyone who has not yet made that surrender. He said, "For anyone that has not surrendered their life to Jesus, the most compassionate thing I can tell you is that you are blind, and you don't even know it." He used Paul's encounter on the road to Damascus as the clearest picture of what that blindness looks like, and what Jesus does about it. The smartest religious mind of the era, Paul, was confronted with how blind he actually was. The point, Brian made clear, was not condemnation but remedy. Jesus names the blindness so he can offer to cure it.
The blood sacrifice teaching from Leviticus 3 deepens what surrender actually costs and what it provides. Brian argued that the laying on of hands in the sacrifice was not primarily about transferring sin but about appointing a representative, binding the worshiper's life to an animal that could stand in God's presence. That picture reframes surrender away from appeasing an angry God and toward intimacy with one who has already made provision for the gap. The image of God the Father that comes through is not one holding back wrath, but one who, as Brian put it, says that right in the midst of your greatest, deepest darkness, "that is right where I want to put my light."
Taught from Isaiah 9:1-7 · Leviticus 3:1-17 · Leviticus 17:11 · Psalm 15 · John 7:52
The passage taught · 1 John 4:9-10
9 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- March 2, 2025 The Blood Bridges the Gap Brian Hunter walks through Leviticus 3 to show that God designed blood sacrifice not to manage his anger, but to draw people into genuine closeness with him.
- December 23, 2024 A Government That Will Never End Brian Hunter walks through Isaiah 9 verse by verse, asking whether each prophecy is past, present, or still coming, and why it matters this Christmas.