Who Wins?

     We enter a town where there is a great deal of excitement among the crowd. The crowd is cheering, yelling, jeering, taunting and in the center of the crowd there's a platform where all of the attention is focused.
     Standing on the platform is an auctioneer, he is calling attention to the different attributes of a half naked being that is dirty, grimy and humiliated. The being is cowering and trying to hide themselves, but there is nowhere to hide, the being looks up for compassion from the crowd but that only makes them yell louder and laugh harder.
     As we look closer we see that the being is none other than you! You have a heavy leather collar around your neck and a yoke across your shoulders. The yoke is held in place by heavy chains and leather straps. The beings around you that are laughing at you are the very ones that you had thought to be your friends! they are the ones that showed you the allure of the things that have led you to accept the yoke across your shoulders! They explained the yoke was no problem, that you would be able to carry it and not even notice it was there! They coaxed you to take further steps down the path with them that led to the chains and leather straps to hold the yoke in place more securely. The crowd around you are the very demons that have led you to this slavery. They are the same ones that strapped the collar around your neck and led you to the platform. (The demons around the platform will be different ones for each person, addictions, perversions, violence, they are usually customized to draw you, not your friend, not your neighbor, but you! Look at the demons around the platform and see which ones you recognize.)
     The big, drooling auctioneer shouts that the auction is about to begin. The demons jump with joy, who  will buy your allegiance this time? The demon of drugs is pretty confident that he could use you in his work, the demon of deceit a few steps away from him gives him a "thumbs up", they usually work together and know they can both use you! But another spirit gives a knowing leer because he knows he already ahead of them in this auction. He knows that you've been in church since you were a child, so he will be able to use you in his work! He has many of his slaves working in the churches and he sees another prime candidate in you. He can easily whisper in your ear all of the things that you have heard growing up about how church should be and then he can hold another church back from fulfilling it's purpose of being Christ on Earth. He will be able to have you bring some discontent with any change that might move the believers forward, and he can have you sneer at anyone that might want to do anything too radical in God's body. After all, you already know the talk so he won't have to start at the very beginning with you.  Another interested bidder eyes you closely and thinks you'd be a waste of his investment, he likes to buy the ones that are really doing something and then give them a few aches and pains and slow them down from doing anything worthwhile in God's kingdom or maybe get them interested in their own lives, their own comforts, hobbies or appetites, but he decides you're not doing anything anyways so why bother? 
     From the outside fringe of the crowd is One that has entered quietly and now opens the bidding at such an astronomical level that everyone's jaws drop and a hush spreads, they all know that they have been beaten before it even started! The new bidder offered His very life to purchase this one pathetic slave! How crazy is that?! The auctioneer drops the hammer and the sale is over!
     The Buyer walks proudly up to the platform, breaks the chains, cuts the leather straps, removes the yoke and leads His prize down the steps. The demons separate, no longer laughing and jeering, but now grumbling and growling, they have lost another one! they were confident they had this one! They had worked so hard together to get this one to the platform, and now all of their work down the drain!