The World

John 17:11-19:

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth.  Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

Blog:

When we’re driving a point with another person or group, we often need to repeat the message that we’re trying to convey in order to not just make our point, but also so that message is remembered.  In advertising, there is a term for this process called “effective frequency”; which describes the number of times a consumer must be exposed to an advertising message before the marketer gets the desired response.  This applies whether someone is buying a product or simply remembering a message.  In Thomas Smith’s book, “Successful Advertising”, we find examples of “effective frequency” in action…  “The 1st time people look at an ad, they don’t see it.  The 2nd time, they don’t notice it.  The 3rd time, they are aware that it is there.  The 4th time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it before.  The 5th time, they actually read the ad.  The 6th time, they thumb their nose at it.  The 7th time, they get a little irritated with it.  The 8th time, they think, ‘Here’s that confounded ad again.’  The 9th time, they wonder if they’re missing out on something.  The 10th time, they ask their friends or neighbors if they’ve tried it.  The 11th time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.  The 12th time, they start to think that it must be a good product.  The 13th time, they start to feel the product has value.  The 14th time, they start to feel like they’ve wanted a product like this for a long time.  The 15th time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it.  The 16th time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.  The 17th time, they make a commitment to buy the product.  The 18th time, they curse their poverty because they can’t buy this terrific product.  The 19th time, they count their money very carefully.  The 20th time prospects see the ad, they buy what it is offering.”  Jesus is the Ultimate Marketer.  He was 100% clear in the Gospels that we, “do not belong to the world any more than [He] belongs to the world.”  He stresses this point in John 17 by repeating it exactly (word-for-word), but, if we look across Scripture, there are at least 20 examples of God stressing this point and reminding us that Jesus is not of this world (nor are we), that satan is the ruler of this world, and that we are to act like we’re not from this world just as Jesus Christ did (see John 17:14-16, John 15:19, John 8:22-24, 1 John 4:5, 1 John 5:19, John 16:11, John 12:31, 1 John 4:4, Romans 12:1-2, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-17, John 18:36, Philippians 3:20, Matthew 16:26, Matthew 16:24, Ephesians 6:12, 2 Corinthians 6:14, 1 Peter 2:11-12 Matthew 5:13-16, Ephesians 5:1).  In fact, Jesus took His Job so seriously as the Ultimate Marketer that He actually continued to share His Message with all of us through His crucifixion and death on the Cross.  He literally went to the grave for It.  Nobody dies for a lie…and, most of Jesus’ initial Marketing Team (the Apostles and early Disciples and Followers of Jesus Christ) surrendered to the world and died for this Message, too.  They all did this for all of us; so, that we could know and share the Truth found only in this Message.  But the Truth doesn’t end there, because Jesus came back to deliver another Message when He overcame the grave and opened Eternity to all of us.  So, let us all be strong in Christ and marinate in His Eternal Messages through knowing His Holy Word for ourselves.  And, let’s be sure to share this Message with as many people as possible repeating ourselves at least 20 times with each prospective consumer.  His Product (Heaven) is SO GOOD that all we have to do is die to this world to have It!