In a nation of freedom-loving people, we emphasize liberation. But according to author Pete Davis, liberation is not enough. He writes:

Freedom isn’t sufficient for a fulfilling life. The car lets us go anywhere and the internet lets us see anything—but happiness has not come automatically. Despite our ability to think freely, to find all the cracks in the stories we have been told—the world we want to live in has not automatically emerged from the ashes of the old one. The liberated spirit has helped avoid some tragedies, but it hasn’t built global peace. It has helped diagnose the maladies of our time, but it hasn’t figured out a cure.

A free world requires creativity, belief, unity, and inspiration, too. That’s because liberation is only half of the story of who we are. The other half is dedication. People want to be free, but we want to be free to then do something. ... We leave, but we don’t cleave. We desecrate, but we don’t consecrate. We melt down, but we don’t solidify into something else.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Christ has come to make us free, but that does not mean a life without rules. Unbound freedom is not a blessing. It's chaos. The solution is a voluntary wholehearted dedication to something greater than ourselves. The solution is to “lose our lives” for Christ’s sake (Matt. 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24).