The chapter of the gospel according to St. Matthew.

Matthew is particularly meticulous about certain details because he is an accountant.

He works for the IRS of his day, the Internal Revenue Service.

And so he is one who is quite calculating and particularly

paying attention to details. And now he shares with us an experience about Jesus and his

disciples here in Matthew chapter 14, beginning with verse 22 through 27. Notice, immediately after

this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back

into the boat and crossed to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home after sending

them home he went up into the hills by himself to pray night fell while he was there alone

and meanwhile the disciples were in trouble far away from the

land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o'clock at the

morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water, and when the disciples saw him walking on the

water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out. It's a ghost.

But Jesus spoke to them at once. Don't be afraid, he said. Take courage. I am here.

We're speaking today simply from the subject, discernment amid storms.

Disernment amid storms.

The great question in life is not if you're ever going to have a storm, but it's having discernment amid storms.

You either just came out of a storm, or you're a storm or you're headed into one. I want you to

understand very carefully, storms are normal to life. So when stuff starts happening, don't think

it's strange. As though some strange thing has happened to you, problems are

normal to life. Storms come and storms go. Rainstorms, hails storms. Storms are simply,

most of the time, wind out of order or water out of order a hurricane a

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