Forever Beginning: Putting Out Into Deep Water

Devotional

Day 1: Put Out Into the Deep: Begin Again with Jesus

At the start of a new year, you are invited to a fresh beginning that doesn’t wait for perfect conditions. Like tired fishers rinsing empty nets, you may feel spent or skeptical—yet Jesus still asks you to push out a little farther. Beginning again often means letting your carefully arranged plans be interrupted by trust. The deep water is not comfortable, but it is where wonder lives and where growth happens. Say a small, honest yes—and let God meet you beyond the shoreline of certainty. [50:08]

Luke 5:1-4: Standing by the lake, Jesus steps into Simon’s boat, teaches from the water, and then urges him to move into deeper water and lower the nets for a catch.

Reflection: Where do you sense Jesus nudging you “a little farther” this week, and what one practical choice would move you from the shoreline into deeper trust?

Day 2: When Plans Detour, Listen for Invitation

Unwanted change can feel like a closed sky and a turned-back helicopter; the road you hoped for suddenly disappears. Yet detours can uncover a truer path than the destination you planned. God often speaks in the pause after disappointment, inviting you to release control and receive direction. Your setback is not the end; it may be the doorway where courage is born and calling becomes clear. Listen closely—grace tends to whisper at the edges of our frustration. [47:35]

Isaiah 43:18-19: Don’t live in yesterday’s failures; watch, because God is opening a new way right in the desert, causing life to spring up where you thought nothing could grow.

Reflection: What recent disruption still frustrates you, and how might you create space—an hour, a walk, a simple prayer—to listen for God’s quiet guidance within it?

Day 3: From Empty Nets to Overflowing Grace

There are nights when your best efforts bring nothing back, and your hands ache from hauling emptiness. Jesus meets you there—not with criticism, but with an invitation to try again in his direction. Obedience after failure becomes the hinge where scarcity turns to abundance. Even then, the blessing is bigger than you; you’ll need partners to help carry it. God’s generosity often arrives as a shared miracle that strengthens community. [39:01]

Luke 5:5-7: Though exhausted, Simon agrees to lower the nets at Jesus’ word; the catch is so large the nets strain and partners rush over, filling both boats to the brim.

Reflection: Where have you quietly decided “there’s nothing out there,” and what small step of obedience—made today—could reopen that space to God’s abundance?

Day 4: Leaving the Shore: A Courageous, Holy Yes

Grace doesn’t promise a comfortable life; it invites a larger one. When Jesus calls, the first step is not mastery but surrender—releasing the safety of the shore for the mystery of following. The call to “catch people” is an invitation to join God’s work of healing, justice, and welcome. Saying yes may mean loosening your grip on habits, schedules, or identities that feel secure but keep you small. Trust that the One who calls also goes with you. [55:02]

Luke 5:8-11: Stunned by the catch, Simon falls at Jesus’ knees, aware of his unworthiness; Jesus calms his fear and calls him into a new vocation, and they leave everything to follow.

Reflection: What good-but-comfortable attachment might you need to loosen in order to say a clearer yes to Jesus’ invitation this season?

Day 5: The Table Where Beginners Belong

Here is good news: you don’t begin again by proving yourself; you begin by receiving. At the table of grace, there are no prerequisites—only hunger, hope, and a seat with your name on it. Christ feeds weary people and then sends them out as a renewed community of love. Come with your questions and your longings; leave with strength for the next faithful step. This is how a year becomes a house of blessing—one meal of grace, one holy yes at a time. [01:10:16]

Luke 22:19-20: Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and shares it, saying it is given for you; he takes the cup and speaks of a new covenant sealed in his life poured out—remember him whenever you share this meal.

Reflection: As you come to Christ’s table (or remember it today), what specific hope or weariness will you place in his hands, and how will you carry that grace into one relationship this week?

Sermon Summary

At the threshold of a new year, the call is to become “forever beginning”—people who keep stepping into God’s future with courage. Luke’s story of weary fishermen frames this invitation: after a night of failure, nets washed and spirits low, Jesus borrows a boat, teaches, and then asks for the unthinkable—“put out into deep water.” Against fatigue and seasoned instinct, Simon consents. The result is abundance bordering on absurd: nets straining, boats sinking, a confession of unworthiness, and then a summons to a new vocation—“from now on you will be catching people.” They leave everything. The pattern is clear: obedient risk in the deep becomes the doorway to a life one cannot engineer from the shore.

This movement from comfort to calling is rarely tidy. It often comes disguised as disruption, detour, or disappointment. A photographer’s “missed shot” in Waco becomes vocational clarity. Empty nets become overflowing boats. The surface looks rough; below, a world of surprising beauty opens. The invitation is not to a safe life but to an abundant one—one that trusts God enough to let carefully laid plans be interrupted by grace.

Here, “aspirations” matter more than resolutions. Aspirations align with the person God is forming; they train the heart to recognize and answer holy invitations when they come. The question hangs over the water: if asked to leave everything—habits, scripts, even successes—could that yes be spoken? High risk is not bravado; it is reverent responsiveness to the One who knows where the fish actually are.

This way of beginning again is profoundly communal. A daring yes is sustained by a praying, welcoming people, by a table set for the hungry and the hopeful, and by practices that tune the ear to Jesus’ voice. Against Thoreau’s warning about “quiet desperation,” the summons is to sing the song entrusted by God—out loud, together. The year ahead is a house with doors flung wide: rooms made holy by courage, hallways lit by ordinary grace, and windows bright enough to guide a stranger home. The deep awaits—and so does the catch.

Key Takeaways

1. Deep water is where abundance waits The places that feel riskiest often hold the provision we cannot produce on our own. Jesus directs exhausted professionals to water that contradicts their experience, and abundance meets their trust. Sometimes God’s generosity is discovered only after the uncomfortable step has been taken. Faith moves first; the catch comes after. [38:23]
2. Obedience amid fatigue becomes defining moments God often speaks when we’re least inclined to listen—after long nights and empty nets. Choosing to act on Christ’s word in that condition reshapes identity and future, turning failure into formation. These thresholds do not erase weariness; they transfigure it into wisdom and witness. Defining moments are born in ordinary surrender. [43:35]
3. Calling disrupts comfort, reveals true vocation Holy invitations reconfigure plans that once made perfect sense. Detours—missed opportunities, closed doors, inconvenient timings—can disclose the deeper work God intends. Vocation is less about managing outcomes and more about consenting to be led. The fishermen’s yes, like a photographer’s, uncovers a truer path than success alone could offer. [49:02]
4. Say a daring, communal holy yes A life that resists “quiet desperation” requires a shared courage, nourished by prayer, worship, and the open table of grace. Communities that practice welcome help individuals risk obedience beyond familiar borders. The decisive word is simple yet costly: yes—to God’s lead, to neighbors in need, to a future not fully mapped. [55:16]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[16:29] - New Year welcome and hospitality
[17:53] - Faith formation and community updates
[19:58] - Series launch: Forever Beginning
[30:35] - Pastoral prayer for courageous beginnings
[37:53] - Scripture reading: Luke 5
[41:43] - Night of failure; Jesus borrows the boat
[42:48] - Into the deep: risky obedience
[48:19] - Defining moments: detours and calling
[49:26] - Could you leave everything?
[50:31] - Beneath the surface: fear and wonder
[52:42] - Beyond comfort: deeper faith and justice
[54:30] - A communal, daring yes
[59:02] - The Table: grace to begin again
[71:51] - Benediction: The Year as a House

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading

- Luke 5:1-11

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

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

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”

So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Observation questions

In Luke 5:1-11, what were the fishermen doing when Jesus approached them, and what does that reveal about how the night had gone?
What exact instruction did Jesus give Simon, and how did Simon respond before acting?
What concrete outcomes followed their obedience? Name at least three from the passage.
After returning to shore, what did the fishermen do, and how drastic was that action?

Interpretation questions

The invitation to “put out into deep water” is practical for fishing, but what might it symbolize for a disciple today? [50:08]
Luke places Jesus’ command right after a long, fruitless night. Why might God often speak into moments of fatigue and disappointment rather than success?
A “missed shot” or a closed door can become a defining moment. How might detours reveal a truer vocation rather than derail it? [47:35]
“They left everything and followed him.” What does this reveal about the worth of Jesus’ call compared to what they left behind?

Application questions

Where is Jesus inviting you to “put out into deep water” right now—an area that feels risky or beyond your comfort? What is one obedient step you can take this week before you see results? [50:08]
Name one place in your life that feels like “we worked all night and caught nothing.” What would it look like to trust Jesus there—one small, specific act of obedience while still tired? [38:48]
Think of a recent detour—a plan shut down, timing closed, opportunity missed. If this could be an invitation rather than a dead end, what new path might you need to explore? Who could help you discern it? [47:16]
If Jesus asked you to leave one “everything” this month—an unhelpful habit, script, success you’re clinging to—what would it be? What support would you need to say yes? [49:26]
Instead of a resolution, name one aspiration that aligns with who God is forming you to be. How will that aspiration train your heart to say a holy yes when the invitation comes? [53:32]
Courage is sustained in community. What practices (prayer, worship, shared meals) and which people will help you keep saying a daring yes? Who will you invite to the table with you this month? [55:16]
“Most live lives of quiet desperation.” What “song” has God put in you for this year? What is one concrete way you will sing it out loud with others this week? [54:30]

Sermon Clips

So as I've already mentioned, we're beginning this new sermon series called forever beginning stories of fresh starts, and so we're gonna be looking over these next seven weeks, stories of individuals, even groups of people who were invited into something new like the disciples we just read about or or some moment that seemed quite ordinary, what was a turning point in their lives. These fresh starts are all throughout scripture, so we'll be exploring just seven of those stories. [00:40:03] (34 seconds) #FreshStartStories

And today, we get to meet Simon Peter and his buddies, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. These are fishermen in the Sea Of Galilee, and when we find them, they are washing their nets. Now, do you wash your nets before you go fishing or after you've been fishing? After you've been fish I don't know, I've never caught a fish in my life, but I would imagine that you would wash your nets after you've been fishing to protect the gear. So as we find them, they are washing their nets. They have been out fishing all night long, and the scripture told us what? That they caught so many fish? No. They had gotten nothing. [00:40:36] (41 seconds) #EmptyNetsHope

And what did it say at the very end of our reading? They left everything. It almost gives us the image that that they left those both of those boats there with mounds of fish kind of flopping around, that they just walked away from that. It's what it makes it sound like in our scriptures. They left everything to follow Jesus. So my question for you this morning is this, if you were called to leave everything like those first disciples, could you do it? [00:48:54] (43 seconds) #LeaveItAllFollow

But isn't it these moments like this that make our lives interesting and make our lives exciting when when we let our carefully constructed plans be disrupted, when we say yes to some invitation even if it disrupts our plans, when we find ourselves beyond what we know or think or imagine beyond our comfort zones. Jesus' invitation to the fishermen was, hey, don't don't wash your nets just just yet, put out into deep water. It was kind of a risky move, But what do they say about high risk adventures? High risk, high reward. [00:49:41] (48 seconds) #DeepWaterRiskReward

When my husband and I were first married, we were into scuba diving. This was before we had children, which prevent all hobbies, and we were into scuba diving for a little bit. He kind of drug me into this hobby that he had already been practicing throughout his life, and so as he was convincing me this was a hobby we needed to get into, he was explaining how the waters on the surface can be really rough sometimes, but but once you get down under the surface, it's so serene, and a whole world that you've never seen opens up before you. [00:50:29] (38 seconds) #BeneathTheSurface

And it was a little scary at first, but I saw how they were just kind of swimming around, just doing their thing, living their best life there at 90 feet below the surface, and had I been afraid to go scuba diving 90 feet under the water, I would have missed out on one of the most memorable experiences of my life, [00:52:02] (23 seconds) #SayYesToDepth

What I want to suggest today is this, that God calls each of us beyond our comfort zones. And it looks different for each of us, but God calls each of us beyond what's comfortable toward deeper faith, toward deeper relationships, toward a deeper commitment to justice or love or compassion. God calls us beyond what is comfortable. [00:52:42] (31 seconds) #CalledBeyondComfort

Last week, suggested that we consider New Year's aspirations, which is a living into, the the person that God is calling us to be as opposed to resolutions which kind of make us wanna be somebody else or do something different than who we are. But I hope that collectively, our New Year's aspiration will be following God into what is beyond our comfort zone. That 2026 will be marked by following God brazenly, radically into what is God calling us into. [00:53:32] (40 seconds) #FollowGod2026

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Forever Beginning: Putting Out Into Deep Water

Devotional

Day 1: Put Out Into the Deep: Begin Again with Jesus

Day 2: When Plans Detour, Listen for Invitation

Day 3: From Empty Nets to Overflowing Grace

Day 4: Leaving the Shore: A Courageous, Holy Yes

Day 5: The Table Where Beginners Belong

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Chatbot

Forever Beginning: Putting Out Into Deep Water

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