Pastor Hector Boucet

Will you stay where it’s comfortable, or will you trust HIM in the deep? Eight believers answered that question with their lives on Boquerón Beach.

The Gathering Church left its usual four walls behind and gathered on the sand at Boquerón Beach — coffee in hand, several new families welcomed for the very first time, and the sound of the ocean instead of the sanctuary. Pastor Hector Boucet opened with a simple truth: comfort was never the goal. New families had come, sitting under the sun with no shade, and the church made room for them without hesitation. Pastor Angel Luis Rosa helped lead the morning alongside Pastor Boucet, later guiding those preparing for baptism as they got ready to step into the water. It was a fitting picture for the message ahead.

Pastor Boucet turned the congregation to Luke 5, where JESUS asked a tired, discouraged fisherman named Simon to do the one thing that made no sense after a fruitless night: push back out and let down the nets again in deep water.

“Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Luke 5:5

Pastor Boucet pointed out that many people enjoy watching the ocean but few feel comfortable going into the deep. The shore feels safe, familiar, comfortable — and spiritually, he said, many people live their entire lives standing right there on it, admiring GOD from a distance without ever trusting HIM with everything. He read from Luke 5:1-11, where JESUS met Simon Peter not in a synagogue but in his boat, in the middle of his ordinary workday.

That detail mattered to Pastor Boucet. JESUS meets people wherever they are — at work, at the beach, in the middle of an ordinary Saturday — and no one has to fix their life first. “You don’t have to fix it before coming to CHRIST,” he told the church. The invitation is simply: will you stay comfortable on the shore, or will you trust HIM in the deep?

“When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.”

Luke 5:6

Simon was an expert fisherman who had already worked all night and caught nothing. Every instinct said no. Yet he obeyed anyway — “because you say so” — and the miracle followed the obedience, not the other way around. Pastor Boucet said this is where most believers get stuck: wanting to understand before they obey, when GOD actually calls HIS people to obey before they understand.

“Like a surfer trusts the wave instead of controlling it,” Pastor Boucet said, believers are called to trust GOD instead of trying to control every part of their lives. The obedience does not need to make sense in the moment. It only needs to happen.

“Will you stay where it’s comfortable, or will you trust ME in the deep?”

— Pastor Hector Boucet

Simon thought the miracle was about the fish. It was never about the fish. It was about Simon. Pastor Boucet explained that the catch simply got Peter’s attention — but it was the calling that changed his life: “From now on you will fish for people.” GOD is not just interested in improving circumstances. HE wants to transform the heart and give it an entirely new purpose.

That truth carried straight into the water. Pastor Boucet reminded everyone that Luke 5:8-11 ends with Simon leaving everything to follow JESUS — no fixing his life first, no waiting until he felt ready. “Salvation isn’t something we earn. It’s a gift we receive by faith,” he said, right before eight members of the congregation walked into the ocean to be baptized.

“Salvation isn’t something we earn. It’s a gift we receive by faith.”

Pastor Hector Boucet

Standing in the water, the newly baptized repeated a simple prayer of surrender — receiving JESUS as SAVIOR and LORD, turning from the old life, and choosing to come up out of the water walking in the new one. Pastor Boucet reminded the church that the ocean itself was a picture of GOD’s mercy: “Every wave that we see coming in and out reminds us that GOD’s mercy keeps coming.” The invitation stayed open all morning — for the new families who had come for the very first time, for visitors, for anyone still standing on the shore.

Watch the Full Sermon

Hear Pastor Hector Boucet preach Revival by the Water — Special Baptism Service at Boquerón Beach live at The Gathering Church — August 2, 2026.

Reflect & Respond

Are you still standing on the shore spiritually — admiring JESUS but never fully trusting HIM? What would it look like to launch out into the deep with HIM today?