Hey good morning my friends welcome back to the morning mindset it's time for you and for me to get our minds aligned with the truth of God

We have been diving into the book of Romans. This is going to be quite an epic

adventure we're going on because the book of Romans is so full of foundational

truths for our faith. And today we're looking at Romans chapter 1 versus 8 through 12 and the

apostle Paul is explaining his desire to go and be with the people who are receiving

this letter. It's a group in the city of Rome, the capital

city of the empire of Rome, and he has never met them. He has heard of their faith, as we're going to read in the passage today, but he's never actually met him face to face. Let's read the passage and then we'll unpack it a bit. He says, first, I think my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is

proclaimed in all the world. Now think about that. Paul is saying I've heard of your

faith in being in the capital city it makes sense

that he might have heard about their faith because their city was a center for

commerce it was a center for people coming and going.

And so if people visiting there or traveling through there

had seen the effect of the gospel on this group of believers,

the word could have spread very easily. And especially within church

contexts, you could hear messages going from one church to another, hey there's a

group of believers now in Rome, hey this and that, and Paul would have picked up

on that. So continuing in

verse nine for God is my witness so Paul's saying God knows the following about

me is true he says whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I mention you, always

in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

So put yourself in there sandals for a moment.

What do you think it would have felt like to them to know that one of the

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