Last week, Liberty University celebrated its annual Spiritual Emphasis Week. We Liberty students got to hear from Clayton King, who has spoken at every Liberty SEW for the past 12 years.

Hey @LibertyU - I can't wait to preach for you for #SpiritualEmphasisWeek beginning tomorrow. Let's pray for a real move of the Spirit...
— Clayton King (@Clayton_king) September 6, 2016

We saw him preach not one, not two, but three times within the span of 36 hours! In total, he preached for about 2 hours and 45 minutes.

The first time he spoke to us, which was last Wednesday morning (September 9th), he spoke about how we, as both sinners and Christians, try to hold on to our sin until it kills us.

"Everyone has sin in their life that we hang on to white knuckle, and the whole time God is telling you, 'To be free, just let go.'"-CK
— Liberty OSD (@LUSpiritualDev) September 7, 2016

He told a story of how, one time, he went on a trip with a friend of his when he was in his early teens. His friend's father was a fireman, and the firehouse owned a house next to a lake. He went mainly for the cute girls that he knew were going to be there. A group of them were going to go water skiing, and he was asked if he knew how to do it. He said yes, and the man who asked him told him he would go first. He didn't know how to water ski, but he wanted to impress some girls. Eventually, he was able to get the skis on with some help, and he was out in the water waiting for them to start the boat. The guy steering the boat punched it, and Clayton immediately went underwater. The force of the water forced his athletic shorts down (He didn't have swimming gear on at the time.), thankfully leaving his underwear intact before he then popped out and began skipping across the water. The one thing he remembered hearing from the boat was "LET GO!!!" He survived.

The moral of the story, other than "Don't try to impress girls with things you know nothing about," was this. He later realized that the force of the water could've killed him, had he been under any longer. In the same way, our sin will kill us if we hang onto it. "The whole time the Spirit is telling you, 'Let go'" but we refuse to, whether it be pornography, lying, gluttony, or even just laziness. It doesn't even have to be a sin. It can be a bad relationship, comparing yourself to your friends on social media, past pain (like being sexually abused), or something else.

As Clayton said,

"Everything in us craves sin and the lie that we believe is, 'If I just give in, it will satisfy me.'" -@Clayton_king #LUConvo
— Liberty OSD (@LUSpiritualDev) September 7, 2016

He quoted an unnamed pastor he once heard in his youth who said, "Sin is not fun!" His young self's response? "Sin isn't fun? Then you're not doing it right!" Sin may satisfy for a season, but it quickly turns into a season of consequences. Pornography leads to broken marriages and broken people. Laziness leads to being fired. Lying leads to hurt people and broken relationships.

But there's more. There's a way out. "What you hold with your hands that you think will satisfy you, that is the very thing you must let go of in order to receive the thing that God wants to give you. In other words, ... if you want to receive His gift, you have to release your grip."

As C. S. Lewis said, "We are like little children who live in the slums who are content to make mud pies when God offers us a holiday at the beach."

At the end of his first sermon, he called those who had yet to give their lives to Christ to pray to receive him, to raise their hand, to stand up, and then to go to the front so the LU Shepherds (including our Student Shepherds) could pray with them and celebrate. Several responded to the call God commanded him to give. I was in the perfect position to take a picture, so I did with my phone.

Several people came to Christ after that Convocation. Little did I know, it was only the beginning of God's work during this time.

This article is part one in a three part series. Part two will be available next week.