When the King returns and separates the nations, He does not ask what they believed. He asks what they did. He names six ordinary acts: feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting the prisoner. Why these six?

This week, we will discover what the life the Lord promises to reward actually looks like.

Some of the most respectable-sounding reasons for not doing what we know we should do turn out to be the most dangerous ones. We repeat them for years without ever testing them. Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 25 in which a returning master takes his servant's well-rehearsed reason apart from the inside.

This week, we will discover what Jesus exposes about Christian faithfulness and why it matters for every believer.

Some things cannot be pulled together at the last minute. A person can mean well, care deeply, and still be caught with nothing left when the moment finally arrives. Jesus once told a story about ten young women waiting for the same event: half were ready, and half were not, and the difference didn't show until it was too late to fix. What made the difference, and could the same gap be hiding in a life that looks fine on the surface?

This week, we will discover what Jesus says it takes to be ready for the most important arrival of all.

Almost everyone has been left in charge of something while the person who trusted them was away. Some rise to it, and some let things slide the moment the door closes behind them. Jesus ends his longest teaching about the future not with a chart of dates, but with a picture of ordinary life.

This week, we will discover what Jesus wants filling our days in the long stretch before he comes back.

Almost nobody you passed on the road this week gave Jesus of Nazareth a second thought. He was not on their minds, not in their plans, and not a factor in a single decision they made. Two thousand years ago a room full of powerful men looked at Him and reached the same conclusion, and as far as the world can tell, their ruling has held ever since. So what do you do with a Savior most of the world has quietly moved past?

This week, we will discover what Jesus said about the day that question finally gets answered.

When the disciples ask Jesus what signs will signal His coming and the end of the age, He describes a time of confusion, tribulation and persecution. In addition to providing some preliminary signs of the sorrows that will characterize the end of the age, He provides exhortations for facing each challenging situation.

Our study this week will focus on the attitudes necessary for us to successfully endure the sorrows of a world bent on self-destruction and headed for final judgment.

Some troubles arrive from the outside. Others we build with our own hands, and then we have to live in the ruins. Judah sat in a burned city, watching smoke rise off everything they had ever called theirs, knowing they had earned every bit of it, with no one able to tell them when it would end. What does a person hold onto when the loss is deserved, and the rescue has no date attached to it?

This week, we will discover what a grieving prophet reached for after everything else had been taken.

How can I be an effective witness in a hostile environment?

To be an effective witness for Christ in a hostile environment, we must be ready to share the gospel at all times, we must be respectful to those with whom we share it, and we must live a life that backs up our message.