Have you ever met a con man?  Well, I have.  These unique individuals have the ability to make you buy something you don’t want or need.  Sometimes you don’t even get it after you pay for it.

 

When Loretta and I were first married, we didn’t have much money.  We were in college and we had a good, late model car we had bought from Loretta’s father.  We didn’t drive it though.  It sat in our driveway with two flat tires.  We couldn’t afford used tires for the car.  It’s a little embarrassing to admit this, but once we looked through the couch and found 9 cents.  We walked two blocks to the grocery store and bought some instant biscuits.  We ate biscuits that day.  We already had some butter in the refrigerator, but that was all!

 

Now, I’ve told you this to illustrate how poor Loretta and I were during our early years of marriage.  But as destitute as we were, the vacuum cleaner salesman still sold us a brand new vacuum cleaner along with all the attachments -- even though we didn’t even have carpet at the time. 

 

When I was first approached about the vacuum cleaner, my first reaction was, “We don’t need one.”  But after much persistence, I gave in to “just listen” to the pitch.  After listening for a while and not being prepared for all the logic of the salesperson, I gave in and agreed to the purchase, partially because I just wanted to get rid of the salesperson and get it over with.

 

It may have been a good vacuum, but we didn’t need it and couldn’t afford it.  The result was we even had less money and one more obligation we couldn’t meet.

 

Satan is the salesman of destruction in your life.  He peddles his lies and tries to get us to buy them.  We know we don’t need his lies.  We know we can’t afford his lies, but he is a persistent salesman.  He has done this before.  He knows that if he can just get us to listen, he has a chance.  Listening is the first step in being sold.  If we as Christians wouldn’t listen to the lies of Satan, then we would not buy his lies.  We need to guard our ears.

 

Satan is deceptive and he wants to destroy Christians.  He wants us to be ineffective, powerless and defeated.  He knows that one Spirit-filled Christian, walking in faith, has the power to move mountains and deal a severe blow to his kingdom.  He knows that faith is the key.  He knows his only hope is to destroy faith.  And here’s how he does it.