Sermon Title: Great Expectations or Delusional Optimism?
Sermon Text: Ephesians 3:14-21
Preparation Question: If God answered every single prayer you prayed this past week exactly the way you wanted Him to... would it have changed anybody else’s life, or would it have just made yours more comfortable?

Paul gives us 4 statements that shift our gaze from what we think we can control to what God has already promised:
1. The Premise: Purpose Precedes Expectation (vs. 14-15)

2. The Power: Know Who Is in Control (vs. 16-17a)

3. The Provision: Rooted in Love, Guided by Faith (vs. 17b-19)

4. The Payoff: The Immeasurable Scale of Holy Expectation (vs. 20-21)

Response Questions
1. In what ways do we as Christians sometimes mistake God's blessings as a green light to pursue our own selfish scripts, rather than His mission?
2. The Apostle Paul wrote this incredibly expectant prayer while kneeling in a Roman prison cell. Why is absolute surrender (symbolized by kneeling) required before we can experience the true supernatural power of God?
3. When circumstances get tough, how can we tell if we are drawing our stability from a sunny, optimistic disposition versus being deeply rooted in the love of Jesus?
4. How does knowing that your future is a blood-bought, iron-clad inheritance change the way you view your current, temporary struggles?
5. Paul had great expectations while sitting in a prison cell. What 'prison cell' of circumstances are you in right now where you have been operating in delusional optimism—hoping things just change—instead of kneeling before the Father and saying, 'Not my will, but Your mission be done'?"