This sermon was preached on Sunday 7th September 2025.

Bible Reading: Luke 14.25-33

What did you want to be growing up? When I was a child, the first thing that I wanted to be was a chemistry teacher. I had this kitchen chemistry set (cool, right?) and I loved testing the PH of different foods in the house, or making erupting volcanoes, or cleaning pennies with Coca-Cola. At six years old I knew I wanted to be a teacher.

Now, over the years, I went through a variety of other career dreams. I wanted to be a businessman, and I wanted to be a professional snooker player, and I wanted to be a music producer. By about 15, 16, I came back to the idea of wanting to be a teacher. At this time, God was putting on my heart to study theology at university. It brought together well the various humanities that I was doing, and I had a growing sense that God was leading me to study the Bible more and deepen my faith. But if I were studying theology, then that would mean I would be teaching RE, and I was certain that if I were going to teach RE, I only wanted to do it at university level. I thought, I know how kids at secondary school feel about RE. No one takes it seriously and it would be a nightmare. But at least at university, you had students who were passionate about their subject and had chosen to take these classes.

However, I knew that there were more steps to take if I wanted to teach at the university level. For starters, it was going to matter a lot more about how I scored on my undergraduate degree, as I would need a good score to get myself onto a master’s programme, and then a good score from that to get me on to a PhD programme, and I knew I would need a PhD in order to teach RE at the university level. So, there was a lot of work ahead of me.

When I took a step back and looked at what it was going to cost me to be a RE teacher at a university, I could see that the cost was going to be high. First, I started university two years after the tuition fee cap jumped from £3000 per year to £9000 per year. So studying was now more expensive. Then I would need to complete a three-year Bachelor’s degree, followed by a year-long Master’s degree, and finally a doctorate, which would take at least three years. So that is seven years of studying, plus potentially £63,000 of tuition fees, plus the living costs for those years. It was a huge commitment of time and money. Then, on top of that, I still need to factor in doing all the work. Countless essays a year, two 15,000 word dissertations, and finally an 80-100 thousand-word doctoral thesis. At 17, 18 years old, I didn’t fully understand the cost of what it would take for me to be an RE university teacher, but as you can see, the cost was high on so many levels. Good thing I found a different calling, which also had several years of training and required a lot of work, though I still think training to be a vicar is not as much stress as doing a PhD.

There is a cost to doing the things we want to do in life. It may be training for a job like a teacher, a dentist, or an architect. But there are also other goals, like learning an instrument, or training in a sport, or learning a language, or planning a wedding. I have had a go at each of these things and they each required a lot of work to get to the place that I wanted to be with each of them. There is a theory developed by Professor Anders Ericsson, who said that it takes 10,000 hours of good practice to become a true expert at a chosen skill or discipline. The reality is that there is a cost to whatever we want to be or do in life. Some costs are higher than others, but whatever it is, there will always be a cost.

So, with that in mind, I ask you, what does it cost you to be a Christian? Or take it a step further back. Have you ever felt like it costs you to be a Christian? The Christian life is hard and costly. Look at what Jesus said about being his disciple: “Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well. Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples.”

I find this incredibly challenging, and I imagine you do too. Loving Jesus above all others is something I can get on board with. Of course, I will love Jesus above all others; he is God.  However, to love Jesus above all others means that your relationship with him comes above all your other relationships. It means you put Jesus first, loving him and following his ways, above your family or friends. If our family and friends are Christian, this might not be too difficult, but we can all think of times when this has not been easy, when it has cost us something. Was anyone teased at school for being a Christian? Did it ever frustrate family and friends that you were never around on a Sunday because you were going to church? Did choosing to love and forgive those who hurt you cost you deeply?

Following Jesus comes at a cost. Choosing him often means saying no to other things and other people, and you will get pushback for that. There are many places around the world where being a Christian can cost you your life. But Jesus warns us that this is what the cost is to follow him and be his disciple.

See how Jesus says that, ‘Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples.’ Carry your own cross. And remember, the cross Jesus referring to isn’t the cross around your neck or your holding cross in your hand, he is talking about the several metres tall cross which is heavy and the most excruciating form of execution. To clarify, Jesus is not saying that being a Christian means we will die for our faith, but Jesus wants us to know that the cost of being his disciple is to give him our whole lives.

To follow Jesus is to put him first above ourselves. It is to give everything to love him, love his people, and walk in his ways. To truly follow Jesus will cost you because it requires all of you, not just half of you or one day a week. Being a disciple is a daily business, not just a Sunday affair.

I spoke earlier today about how we pursue things in life that are costly. We pursue jobs or achievements that are hard, difficult and very costly. On paper, it looks like too much work, too costly. Surely we should leave these things and choose something easier. I didn’t need to teach RE at university. I could have taught at a secondary school. Or I didn’t need to be a vicar. Maybe I should have got something that required no long-term training. It would have been easier. But the truth is that we don’t let the costs of things stop us. We don’t let the cost of training stop us from pursuing the jobs we want. We don’t let the cost of effort and hard work stop us from getting married or having kids. We don’t let the cost of travel stop us from going to see the world.

So why doesn’t the cost stop us from doing these things when it is so high? Because the cost is worth it. The cost is worth the value we receive. You would never pay a £1000 for Haribo rings, yet if you paid £1000 for wedding rings, you would consider that money well spent. Why, because you know the value of the gold or silver you just paid for. You knew its value and you believe the high cost was worth paying.

How much do you value Jesus? Do you see following him as a cost worth paying? You are here at church to meet with him, so you must already place value on Jesus to give up your time to be here to love God and his people. But do you give Jesus your everything? Are you willing to pay the highest cost of the cross to follow Jesus? Throughout the history of the church, many people have died for following Jesus. To their executioners, they would have looked foolish. Just stop following Jesus, and you will live, says Caesar. But these Christians paid the ultimate cost of their lives because they knew the greater treasure they had in following Jesus. Being a disciple of Jesus, living life with him, is the greatest thing in the world, the thing which God created us to do.

So many Christians today get caught in lukewarm faith that doesn’t feel alive to them. They are excited about God on Sunday but then Monday comes around and they completely forget about him. But I don’t want any of us to be caught in that place. I want us to each count the cost, and to pay it generously, giving our whole lives to follow Jesus because we know he is worth it.            

Jesus said, “None of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have.” Will we give our whole lives for Jesus? Will we carry our cross and embrace the cost of discipleship? It is not easy, but I can surely tell you, it is worth it beyond all measure. Come, pick up your cross, and follow Jesus. There is nothing greater than following him.

Amen.