Not Ashamed of Faith - The Up or Down Climb

Jun 08, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When Towers Crumble, Promises Stand

The human impulse to build towers of achievement – careers, reputations, religious performance – often masks our fear of being unworthy. Like Babel’s builders, we stack accomplishments hoping to reach heaven’s approval, only to watch our efforts scatter like fallen bricks. God’s covenant with Abraham reveals a better way: not self-made glory, but a name given as gift. Our strivings collapse under life’s storms and death’s inevitability, yet Christ’s finished work remains unshaken. The gospel invites us to trade crumbling monuments for eternal inheritance. [02:59]

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
(Genesis 11:4, CSB)

Reflection: What “tower” have you been maintaining this week – a role, image, or habit – that subtly claims “I must make myself worthy”? How might releasing this project free you to receive Christ’s declaration over you?

Day 2: Receiving the Name You Couldn’t Earn

Babel’s builders shouted “Let us make a name!” while God whispered to Abraham “I will make your name great.” Our resumes and reputations strain to prove our value, yet God gifts identity to those who stop climbing. Like Abraham staring at barrenness, we’re called to trust the One who creates futures from dead ends. Every accolade eventually fades, but being named “child” at baptism endures. Righteousness isn’t a trophy to grasp, but a promise to inhabit. [05:09]

“I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
(Genesis 12:2-3, CSB)

Reflection: Where have you been auditing your worth through achievements rather than resting in God’s “I will”? How might living as a blessed child change your interactions today?

Day 3: The Hammer That Shatters Self-Sufficiency

The law acts like a wrecking ball, demolishing our towers of moral performance. It exposes how even our best deeds carry self-interest, how our sacrifices secretly bargain for approval. Like Abraham’s lifeless body and Sarah’s barren womb, the law leaves us empty-handed before God. Yet this holy demolition prepares us to receive what we couldn’t build – a righteousness that springs from Christ’s resurrection, not our religious effort. [08:34]

“The law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.”
(Romans 4:15, CSB)

Reflection: What spiritual “metric” (prayer frequency, service hours, doctrinal knowledge) have you unconsciously treated as a ladder to God’s favor? How does the gospel reframe these as responses rather than requirements?

Day 4: Life Sprouts Where Death Ruled

God specializes in creating from voids – speaking worlds into nothingness, making nations from barren wombs, resurrecting crucified Messiahs. Our towers of control (career plans, parenting strategies, retirement accounts) often mask our terror of life’s unpredictability. Yet the same power that raised Jesus from decay now works in our dead ends. The gospel transforms our rubble into fertile ground for God’s impossible growth. [10:43]

“God…gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.”
(Romans 4:17, CSB)

Reflection: What “dead place” in your life (a broken relationship, stagnant faith, chronic struggle) do you need to stop trying to revive through effort? How might trusting God’s life-giving power change your approach?

Day 5: Bethlehem’s Gift Over Babel’s Ladder

Babel’s staircase of human effort always ends in confusion; Bethlehem’s manger offers God’s descent into our helplessness. The infant Christ embodies the gospel’s scandal – salvation arrives not through our ascent, but God’s condescension. At communion, we don’t climb to retrieve bread from heaven; Christ’s body descends to nourish empty hands. Every sacrament whispers: “I came down. The work is done.” [12:14]

“He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
(Romans 4:25, CSB)

Reflection: Where are you still trying to “climb” toward God through spiritual disciplines or moral effort? How might receiving Christ’s finished descent bring rest to that striving today?

Sermon Summary

A ladder in the room names the ache in the human heart to climb. Genesis 11 lets that ache speak: “Come, let us build… let us make a name for ourselves.” Babel builds a tower for its glory and trusts its own hands. Paul in Romans 4 answers that impulse by setting Abraham in front of it. Abraham is not a climber but a receiver. God says, “I will bless you. I will make your name great.” The contrast stands sharp. Babel is achievement. Abraham is promise. Babel is climbing. Abraham is receiving. Everything turns on that difference, because the promise does not arrive through the law but through “the righteousness that comes by faith.”

The law steps in like a hammer. The law guides, teaches, reveals God’s good design, and then it exposes sin. It smashes self-confidence, strips the resume, and leaves empty hands. Empty hands are not a failure in God’s sight; empty hands are ready to receive gifts. Abraham’s story shows it. He stares at his own body as good as dead and at Sarah’s barrenness, and hope against hope holds to what God has spoken. God’s specialty is life from death. He calls into existence what does not exist. He does not ask for a tower. He gives a Son.

Bethlehem answers Babel. Babel reaches up; Bethlehem comes down. Christ takes on flesh, keeps the law, carries sin, dies the death, rises for justification. Paul says it plain: “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” That descent turns “do” into “done,” and trades climbing for trusting. Baptism teaches the same rhythm. No one brings anything but need. God speaks, washes, claims, forgives, gives life. So does the gathering at the table, where empty hands are filled again with Christ’s own body and blood.

Romans names the truth without flattery. Human towers fail. Health fails. Jobs go away. Markets crash. Death comes. But the Gospel does not blush because it carries a stronger word: Christ came down, Christ rose, Christ justifies the ungodly, Christ keeps every promise. So the call lands simple and freeing. Stop climbing. Stop trying to prove what can only be received. Come to the table. Hope is not built on performance but on promise, and unlike every tower humanity has ever built, his promise never fails.

Key Takeaways

1. Babel builds names; Abraham receives. [05:09] God exposes a deeper contest between achievement and promise. Babel tries to secure identity by stacking bricks, but Abraham receives a name from God’s voice. Identity that is bestowed frees the heart from grasping and makes room for gratitude. Rest begins where self-glory ends. [05:09]
2. The law hammers false towers. [08:34] God’s law is good, and it is ruthless with illusions. It measures a life honestly and leaves nothing to boast about. That verdict is mercy in disguise, because empty hands can finally be filled. Repentance is not the end of joy but the door into it. [08:34]
3. Faith trusts life from death. [10:26] Abraham’s hope does not deny dead ends; it stares at them and still leans on God’s promise. Faith counts God more reliable than visible odds. Wherever something looks barren or final, the Risen One reserves the right to speak “life.” This trust grows not by effort but by hearing him again. [10:26]
4. The Gospel descends, not ascends. [12:14] Babel imagines ladder rungs; Bethlehem shows footsteps coming down. Christ fulfills the law for the lawless and lifts the unworthy by his worth. Assurance does not ride on the moods of spiritual performance but on a finished cross and an empty tomb. Confidence rests where Jesus rests seated, not where ambition reaches. [12:14]
5. Baptism trains empty-handed receiving. [13:40] Baptism is God’s sermon in water that salvation is gift, not wage. Nothing is contributed except need, and God supplies the rest. That pattern carries into the Lord’s Supper and the Word, where Christ keeps giving himself. Receiving like this slowly reshapes ambition into service and turns offerings into thanks, not bribes. [13:40]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:36] - Childhood urge to climb
[01:28] - Climbing to prove worth
[02:59] - Babel: make a name
[05:09] - God’s promise to Abraham
[06:12] - Religion says climb; Gospel receive
[07:37] - When performance empties grace
[08:56] - Empty hands ready to receive
[09:16] - Hoping against hope
[10:26] - God brings life from death
[12:14] - Not Babel but Bethlehem
[12:46] - Delivered and raised for us
[13:40] - Baptism and pure receiving
[14:40] - Not ashamed of the Gospel
[15:49] - Stop climbing, come to the table

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Genesis 11:1-9 (CSB)
The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. When they traveled eastward, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

Romans 4:13-25 (CSB)
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified. The law produces wrath. Therefore the promise is based on faith, so that it may be according to grace... He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body (as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do.

Observation Questions

In Genesis 11:4, the people of Babel say, “Let us make a name for ourselves.” What does this reveal about their motivation compared to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2 (“I will make your name great”)? [03:17]
Romans 4:13 states the promise came “through the righteousness that comes by faith,” not the law. What specific contrast does Paul highlight between faith and law-based righteousness? [05:54]
How does Paul describe Abraham’s physical circumstances (Romans 4:19) and how did that shape his response to God’s promise? [10:10]

Interpretation Questions

The sermon contrasts Babel’s “climbing” with Abraham’s “receiving.” Why do human efforts to build “towers” (success, morality, etc.) ultimately fail, even when they seem noble? [11:42]
Romans 4:15 says the law “produces wrath.” How does the law’s role in exposing sin actually become an act of mercy? [08:34]
Abraham’s faith required him to confront the “deadness” of his and Sarah’s bodies (Romans 4:19). Why is hopelessness (from a human perspective) often the starting point for trusting God’s promises? [10:26]

Application Questions

Where are you most tempted to “build a tower” to prove your worth—career, relationships, religious habits, or something else? What would it look like to release that effort and receive God’s promise instead? [02:15]
The law “smashes self-confidence” to prepare empty hands for grace. What area of your life do you still cling to as a “resume item” to feel secure? How could repentance here lead to deeper joy? [07:52]
Abraham hoped “against hope” when all visible evidence seemed against God’s promise. What barren or “dead” situation in your life needs you to trust God’s ability to “call things into existence that do not exist”? [10:43]
Baptism and communion emphasize receiving rather than achieving. How can regularly participating in these practices reshape your daily mindset from climbing to gratitude? [13:40]
The sermon says, “Your hope is built on what Christ has done.” When do you most struggle to believe this? What tangible reminder (scripture, prayer, community) could help you rest in this truth? [16:09]

Sermon Clips

31s

#ComeToTheTable

“So today, stop climbing. Stop trying to prove yourself. Stop trying to earn what can only be received. Stop building towers and come to his table. He's ready to feed you once again. His body, his blood given and shed for you. A savior who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification because your hope is not built on what you've done nor what you can do.”

41s

#FaithNotPerformance

“But every tower eventually crumbles. Every achievement fades. Every resume gets buried in the ground. Every accomplishment eventually runs into death because the Tower Of Babel is really the story of humanity trying to save itself. And Paul in Romans four tells us why that never works. He writes, for the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, not through performance or climbing, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.”

29s

#GodCameDown

“Bethlehem where God in his glory chooses to come and to dwell with us, chooses to take on our humanity in the person and work of Christ Jesus. Babel was us trying to reach up to God, but Bethlehem is God coming down to us in humility to give us what we could not deserve. One who would fulfill the law on our behalf, who would carry our sin, who would die our death and rise again.”

22s

#GodGivesLife

“Friends, that's the whole bible. That's what we're gonna be talking about in our bible study. That that god speaks and creation exists. God opens barren wounds. God parts seas. God raises dry bones. God raises Jesus from the dead. God gives sinners life. He doesn't need our tower, our resume, our accomplishments. He brings life where there is none.”

33s

#PromiseThroughFaith

“Babel was about achievement. Abraham was about a promise. Babel was about about climbing. Abraham was about receiving. Babel was about the human effort. Abraham was about the divine grace of God. And everything hinges on that difference because the promise did not come through the law or performance or obedience. The promise comes through faith. Salvation is not something we accomplish. It is something we receive.”

31s

#TowersWillFall

“Somehow we convince ourselves that if I can just get high enough, if I can just have a little bit more, then I'll be secure. But every tower, every tower that you and I build fails. Our health fails. Jobs disappear. Relationships break. Markets crash. Dreams collapse. Death comes. And the tower falls.”

29s

#ReceiveNotClimb

“Where man made religion says climb, the Gospel says the opposite, receive. Not do, but done. Not perform, but trust God's promise to you. Paul continues in in Romans four verse 14. He says, if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise is nullified.”

24s

#WeNeedBethlehem

“This is why what Paul's writing here in Romans is such good news because that tower that fell isn't something that god asked you to build. See see, the gospel is not about us climbing up to God as if that was somehow possible. We cannot, by our own reason or strength, climb up to God. What we needed is not babble. What we need is Bethlehem.”

32s

#LifeFromDeath

“Abraham and Sarah had to realize they bring nothing to the table. No strength, no ability, no solution, no tower, just trust in a promise. And that's exactly how God works because God's speciality is bringing life from death. In verse 17, Paul describes it this way, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.”

31s

#GodsPromiseNotSelf

“The promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 where he says, I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great. You will be a blessing. The contrast is really striking. And in Babel, people said, we will make a name for ourselves. We're gonna do it. We have the strength, the power, the might, the wherewithal to pull ourselves up by the boot straps and make a name for ourselves.”

24s

#NotAshamedOfGospel

“We're not ashamed of the gospel because it tells the truth. It tells the truth about our sin here in Romans four. It tells the truth about our inability and our failed towers, but it also tells us the truth about Jesus. The one who came down, who died, who rose, who justifies sinners, and who keeps every promise.”

27s

#GraceNotPerformance

“In other words, if you're going to depend on your performance, if you're going to depend on how good you're climbing, how good you think you are, well, if salvation depends on you, then grace disappears. If salvation depends on your performance, the promise is gone. If righteousness depends on your obedience, then nobody, nobody, myself included, I know it, can stand before God.”

34s

#HumanAchievementFails

“And maybe we don't remember them for the tower but for its collapse because their confidence was in themselves. Their hope was in what they could build. Their faith was in human achievement, and and that's still our temptation. To build to build something impressive enough with our lives that that god himself will notice, to construct a life good enough that god himself will improve, to climb high enough that even we dare to think heaven becomes attainable because we're just so good.”

36s

#ProveYourWorth

“And something inside of us, there's this drive to climb. And to climb not just things like mountains or towers as kids, but to climb to prove ourselves, to prove our our our worth. That unwritten rule that says if if we work hard enough, if we try hard enough, if we improve enough, if we sacrifice enough, then somehow somehow we're gonna make it to the top and be worthy. You feel it in school, in a career. Turn on social media, it won't take you very long.”

29s

#AmIGoodEnough

“People constantly asking, am I good enough? Have I done enough? And how do I measure up? What do I what must I do to get closer to God? We spend our our lives building towers, not of brick and stone, but of achievement, of success, even even morality and religious performance, all designed to somehow get in our minds that we can somehow make ourselves acceptable, pleasing, even desirable to God.”

25s

#BaptizedReceive

“Whether you were baptized as a one day old infant or whether you were 97 years old, you brought nothing. You simply received. You came with empty hands, and God acted. God spoke. God watched. God claimed. God forgave and gave life. And that same thing happens every time we gather for worship together. We we come with with empty hands.”

23s

#ChristFillsEmptyHands

“We we come with with empty hands. We might stop by the offering basket in the back and drop something off, but that's not a bribe to pay God off. That's a response of the joy of what God has first given to us. We come with nothing. Empty hands and Christ fills them. He spoke his word of absolution over you this day as we confess our sins.”

22s

#GodDoesntNeedHelp

“In fact, for a time, Abraham and Sarah thought that they needed to help God out with his mission, and so Sarah gives to Abraham, her handmaiden Hagar, whom she has a child with, thinking that somehow this way they can fulfill God's promise, but but God didn't need help. He doesn't need help fulfilling his promises. He had a path.”

23s

#BewareWrongTowers

“Do we still try? Oh, yeah. We do. And sometimes we find ourselves building the wrong kind of towers, not towers to serve our neighbor with the works God has given us to do, but but towers of our own success, of our own morality, of our own religious activity, towers built by our wealth and our reputation, by our by our family, our politics, our knowledge.”

25s

#CommunionAndGrace

“He comes to us with his very body and blood through bread and wine as his words and promises declare to give us the gift of his very himself for us. Everything comes from him. And in the coming weeks, this summer, we're gonna spend some time taking a deep dive into this book of Romans. And we're calling this series that we're gonna do is we're calling it not ashamed.”

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St. Paul Lutheran Church Harlingen, Texas This sermon · AI assistant

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