I believe one of the greatest promises in the Bible is the promise of our Lord’s continual presence with us in Hebrews 13:5 where the writer quotes Jesus' promise, “. . . for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” In the midst of trials, trouble, and tribulation, HE IS THERE! Even when we stray from His side, He never leaves us. Even when we cannot see Him because of the cloud of darkness we are in due to our sin, HE IS THERE - waiting and wanting His child to come back to Him. Remember the Old Testament account of the 3 Hebrew children who were thrown into the burning, firey furnace (Daniel 3:12-27)? They would not fall into line with the king’s false worship and spent the night on a bed of coals. In the morning when the king looked in (I don’t know what he was expecting to see) he saw them still there, unharmed, unbound, and with a fourth man. That fourth man was the Lord Jesus who didn’t leave them or forsake them so that they survived the might without even the smell of the fire on them. A spiritual “high” will quite often be followed by a spiritual “low.” Satan will see to that. Just a few chapters later on, in Matthew 17, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up into the mountain and was transfigured before them. But, when they came down, they were confronted by a man whose son was demon possessed. In the preceding verses in our text Jesus had just fed 5,000 men, plus the women and children by a wonderful miracle. Now the disciples find themselves on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the storm, and it appears that Jesus sent them into it. Vs. 22: “And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side . . . ” (CONSTRAIN = to necessitate. It is translated in other places by the word “compel.” (II Corinthians 5:14 says the love of Christ “constraineth us” [to live for Him].) One preacher said of these verses in Matthew 14 that there is a sense in which we need to learn to “walk on the water.” We all need to trust the Lord Jesus as Peter did in these verses because trials and difficulties are coming to us if we will live for Him - especially in these last days. Paul said in II Timothy 3:12, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Jesus led His disciples into a storm in order to teach them a lesson, and we are going to consider that lesson this morning. First of all let’s look at . . .

I. THE PROBLEM OF THE STORM -- VV. 24-25.

II. THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SAVIOR -- VV. 25-27.

III. THE PROGRAM FOR THE SAINT -- VS. 26.