The Advent of God: Peace

Sermon Reflection from Pastor Adam Breckenridge 12/14/2025

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Advent has a way of slowing us down just enough to notice what’s really going on beneath the surface.

For many of us, this season is full of good things: family gatherings, traditions we love, moments of joy. And yet, it can also be full. Full calendars. Full inboxes. Full expectations. Sometimes it feels like we’re carrying a quiet weight as we move from one thing to the next.

It shows up when you’re staring at your calendar wondering how you’re going to fit it all in. When you’re lying awake at night replaying conversations or thinking about what still feels unresolved. When life feels fragile and you’re doing everything you can to keep it from falling apart.

In this week’s message from The Advent of God series, Pastor Adam Breckenridge reminded us that Jesus didn’t come to place more responsibility on our shoulders. He came to bring peace… a peace that meets us right in the middle of real life, not once everything is finally under control.

When Anxiety Pulls Us Apart

The New Testament word for anxiety, merimna, means “to be pulled apart.” And if we’re honest, that’s exactly what anxiety feels like.

It’s lying awake replaying conversations. It’s feeling responsible for outcomes you can’t control. It’s the constant sense that if you loosen your grip, everything might unravel.

Anxiety is the anguish of living in a broken world while believing it’s all on you to hold it together.

Into that reality, the angels announce Jesus’ birth with these words:

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14)

Peace wasn’t an afterthought of Christmas—it was the announcement. Jesus came because our world, and our hearts, desperately needed it.

Big Idea

The pathway to peace is not holding it all together—it’s letting go of control and receiving and trusting in the One who is holding all things together.

Jesus gives us peace because He gives us:

1. A Firm Foundation

2. A Father

3. Forgiveness

1. Peace Through a Firm Foundation

Most of us don’t realize what our lives are built on until the storm hits.

A health scare. A financial strain. A fractured relationship. A season where answers don’t come quickly.

Jesus tells a story in Matthew 7 about two builders. One builds on the rock, the other on sand. Both experience the same storm: the rain falls, the floods rise, the winds blow. The difference is the foundation.

A life built on Jesus doesn’t avoid hardship, but it doesn’t collapse under it either.

Paul reminds us why this foundation is trustworthy:

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17)

Peace begins to grow when we stop trying to be the glue that holds our lives together and instead rest on the One who already is.

2. Peace Through a Father Who Cares

In Matthew 6, Jesus repeats the same invitation three times:

“Do not be anxious.” (vv. 25, 31, 34)

This isn’t a scolding, it’s tender reassurance.

Jesus points to birds in the sky and flowers in the field, not because our worries don’t matter, but because we matter so much:

“Look at the birds of the air…your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26)

And then He says something deeply personal:

“Your heavenly Father knows what you need.” (Matthew 6:32)

Anxiety often whispers a story that says you’re on your own. That no one is really looking out for you. That help isn’t coming.

As counselor Ed Welch writes:

“There is an entire worldview implicit in anxiety…You are an orphan in a chaotic universe that operates according to chance.”

But Jesus offers a different story. You are not an orphan. You are a beloved child with a Father who sees you, knows you, and cares for you, right down to the details that keep you up at night.

3. Peace Through Forgiveness

Even when circumstances are calm, our souls can still feel restless.

That’s because our deepest need for peace isn’t just around us, it’s within us. Sin creates distance between us and God, and that distance shows up as shame, fear, and striving.

The good news of Christmas is that Jesus came to close that gap.

“Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

We were once separated from God, but through Jesus’ death we’ve been reconciled (Romans 5:10).

Isaiah foretold this kind of peace:

“The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

There are cracks in all of us- places marked by regret, failure, or brokenness. As Leonard Cohen wrote, “There’s a crack in everything, but that’s how the light gets in.”

Jesus doesn’t avoid those places. He enters them with forgiveness and healing.

Reflection & Response

As Advent invites us to slow down, it also invites us to be honest. Many of us are carrying more than we realize, trying to manage outcomes, hold relationships together, and keep life from unraveling. But the good news of Christmas is that peace doesn’t come from having everything figured out. It comes from trusting the One who is already holding it all together.

So take a moment to ask yourself: where do I most need to receive peace from Jesus right now?

• The peace of Jesus as a firm foundation when life feels shaky

• The peace of a Father who cares when you feel alone or overwhelmed

• The peace of forgiveness when guilt, shame, or regret weigh heavy

  
  

You don’t have to fix everything or carry it all on your own. This season, peace is not something you achieve, it’s something you receive.

Take a Moment to Reflect

1. Where do you notice anxiety pulling you apart in this season of life?

2. What situations are tempting you to believe it’s all on you to hold things together?

3. In what ways do you struggle to trust God as a caring Father?

4. Is there any area of guilt, shame, or sin where you need to receive Jesus’ forgiveness again?

5. What would it look like this week to loosen your grip and trust Jesus more fully?

Peace has come—and His name is Jesus.