01 – Prologue
Epic Live
Session 1: Prologue – Christianity, in its true form, tells us that there is an Author and that he is good, the essence of all that is good and beautiful and true, for he is the source of all these things. It tells us that he has set our hearts’ longings within us, for he has made us to live in an Epic. It warns that the truth is always in danger of being twisted and corrupted and stolen from us because there is a Villain in the Story who hates our hearts and wants to destroy us. It calls us up into a Story that is truer and deeper than any other, and assures us that there we will find the meaning of our lives. We won’t begin to understand our lives, or what this so-called gospel is that Christianity speaks of, until we understand the Story in which we have found ourselves. For when you were born, you were born into an Epic that has already been underway for quite some time. It is a Story of beauty and intimacy and adventure, a Story of danger and loss and heroism and betrayal.
02 – Act One: Eternal Love
Epic Live
Session 2: Act One – God is Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus, God is relational. Every person longs to belong. We crave relationship, and we yearn to be invited into relationship – whether that’s in a family, a group, a marriage, a church. That core human longing for relationship is evidence of what we are created for as image bearers of the God who is Trinity. And God the Trinity longs to invite us into relationship with him. Either we believe God is worthy to be the center of the Story and in him we’ll find the life we’re looking for, or we’ll look for life somewhere else.
03 – Act Two: The Entrance of Evil
Epic Live
Session 3: Act Two – Most people do not live as though our Story has a Villain, and that makes life very confusing. How have we missed this? All the stories we’ve been telling about the presence of an evil power in the world, all the dark characters that have sent chills down our spines and given us restless nights – they are spoken to us as warnings. To live the life God has for us demands that we deal with our enemy.
04 – Act Three: The Battle for the Heart
Epic Live
Session 4: Act Three – Creation is a glorious event we all too often rush through, as if it were a brief parenthesis to get to Genesis three and the Fall, where we mistakenly think our story really begins. But we must linger on the wonder and beauty of the world and life God intended for us to enjoy, to see the good intentions of his heart for us before we hastily jump to the Fall. Created as Image-bearers, we are designed for a heroic intimacy with God, endowed with a dignity, a freedom, and a glory that made a passionate loving relationship with him possible.
05 – Act Four: The Kingdom Restored
Epic Live
Session 5: Act Four – This Act may be the one we know the least about – heaven. Most of us do not live with a deep-rooted excitement about the life to come. It’s absolutely amazing how little is taught or preached about heaven. It begins with a party, a feast – more specifically, a wedding reception party beyond what many of us would be comfortable partaking of in this life. Heaven is the restoration of all that was lost, stolen, or missed in this life. If we’re unaware of the life God intended us to live, we live with a minimum of disappointment and unfortunately, hope. We were meant to live a life we haven’t fully lived ... but we will one day.
06 – Epilogue: The Road Before Us
Epic Live
Session 6: Epilogue – We live in a Larger Story. That should be clear by now. Things are not what they seem. The snake in the Garden was more than a snake! The carpenter from Nazareth was more than a woodworker! (See 2 Corinthians 4:18.) We are at war. Yes, it’s a love story ... set in a life or death battle. Satan is seeking to steal, kill, destroy. Jesus is bringing us life. (See John 10:10). You have a crucial role to play. (See John 15:15–17, 17:18, Ephesians 2:10).
Facilitator's Guide
Epic Live
A guide that will help you lead a group through the Epic Live series.
Discussion Questions
Epic Live
Discussion questions for a group study of Epic Live