From Cancel Culture to Kingdom Culture

Getting started

• Have you ever made something that looked like a disaster halfway through, like Sunday's mug cake, and found it turned out well in the end?
• What 'fridge magnet' sayings do people offer in hard times? Which ones help, and which don't?

Read 2 Samuel 13:1–21 and 2 Corinthians 5:17–21

Roy read selected verses from 2 Samuel 13 on Sunday. Read them together, slowly. Then, before any of the questions below: what do you notice about Tamar? About David? And in 2 Corinthians 5, what is God doing?

1 The God who sees Tamar

• Lisa said, "The only person who is behaving well in this passage is Tamar." She encouraged us to read the whole passage, so look at verses 12–19. How does Tamar try to call her brother to account, make it right and stand up for God's laws?
• Lisa said that in a society where Tamar's feelings would have been ignored, "the narrator and by extension God himself sees Tamar and is mindful of her suffering." Now read verse 20. Why is it so damaging when someone who has been harmed is told to keep quiet? What would it look like for Vale to be a place where people are heard?
• Read Genesis 16:7–13. Lisa pointed out that God was first given a name by "an unseen suffering woman": 'the God who sees me'. What does that name mean to you?
• Read John 11:32–36. Lisa called 'Jesus wept' "one of the most important verses in the Bible." Why does it matter that Jesus wept, even knowing he was about to raise Lazarus?
• Just you and God"Grieving can feel lonely and we can feel as though God doesn't notice." Yet Psalm 56:8 says he keeps track of our sorrows. Is there a sorrow you've been carrying alone? Tell him about it now. He sees, and he weeps with you.

2 Forgiven, but living with the consequences

• Read verse 21. David was furious, but Lisa said he "doesn't seem to do very much about it." Remembering the example he had set his family, why do you think he didn't act?
• "God forgives us and he is with us in the midst of our mistakes. But sometimes we are still left with the consequences of that failure." Where have you seen both of those things to be true?
• Lisa said David's family "start to become disintegrated", and within three generations the kingdom is split. Where have you seen choices ripple out into a family or a community?
• Lisa said, "this is where I find the Bible so realistic." Why does it help that scripture doesn't tidy David's story up?
• Just you and GodIs there something you've been forgiven for whose consequences you're still living with? Bring it to God. He hasn't left you, and your story isn't finished: God has more work to do.

3 The story isn't over

• Alan asked, "Why are we ending at this point?" David lives for another 13 chapters. Why do you think our series ends on such a bleak story?
• Asked whether he felt he had failed, Neil said, "Well, my life isn't over." What would it mean to say that about your own life, or the life of someone you love?
• Alan warned against 'fridge magnet theology', yet said there's "more than a grain of truth" in it. Why are easy answers so tempting in hard times, and why do they fall short?
• Read Acts 3:21, Matthew 19:28 and Revelation 21:5. Alan called these signposts, not a blueprint. What do they tell you about where God's story is heading?
• Read 2 Corinthians 5:17–20 again. Alan said the language is all about renewed relationships, "not just new cupcakes": with God and with each other, even our enemies. Which relationship do you most long to see restored?

Never too late

• "However old or jaded you may feel, whatever injustice or tragedy has befallen your life, it is not too late." Who needs to hear that from you this week?
• 'The old has gone, the new is here!' What would 'new creation' look like in one corner of your life this week?
• Try it together: as we did at the end of Sunday's service, speak out names of God that give you hope today: Gentle Saviour, Heavenly Father, our Refuge, the God who sees us. Then close with Alan's prayer, that each of us would know the reality of this hope in our hearts and lives this week.

Praying together

• Pray for anyone who has been harmed or feels unseen, that they would know the God who sees them, and that Vale would be a safe place to be heard.
• Pray for those who are grieving, that they would know Jesus weeps with them, and for relationships that long to be restored.
• Close together with Alan's words: "It is not too late. It is never too late."