Welcome to the Bethel Church Sermon of the Week.

We hope you enjoy this message by Pastor Bill Johnson.

For more information about this podcast and other resources, visit bethel.com.

A couple weeks ago, the last time I spoke, I mentioned to you what my intentions were,

I think it'll be for this entire summer, that I feel like it's supposed to be a summer of review,

a summer of review, and that we're supposed to take some of the things that have been very important to us in study,

in learning over the past 25 years.

And I'm going to bring them up again and review them, which I did a couple weeks ago.

Today, I want you to go, if you would, to Mark Chapter 8. And I want to talk to you out of this chapter.

This is one of the most important chapters, honestly, in my life.

That's in no way in exaggeration.

I had an unusual experience, probably going back 20 years.

It seemed that every time I opened my Bible, it just opened to Mark 8.

I could be wanting to go to the Psalms, and it would open to Mark 8.

I'd want to go to, you know, the book of Jude, and it would open to Mark chapter 8. And it doesn't do that anymore. So it's not a crease in the Bible. It's not a broken spine. It just would open to Mark 8 over and over and

over again. And after probably a half a dozen times, I thought, this is weird. Maybe I should read it.

And so I did. I tend to be real systematic in my reading. I'll read like the Old Testament or New Testament or Gospels or Book of Law. And I take

sections, maybe the epistles, the minor prophets, and I just read over them. Sometimes I'll read

them over and over again. I did the Gospels once

constantly for 10 years, just continually reading and rereading. And I discovered it's actually all

about Jesus. That was probably pretty good that I read, that I read the Gospels. But what I do for

my recreational reading, which is like going to a cabin on the weekend,

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