Let's open scriptures this morning
to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. We go to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. And I'm going to be speaking
both this morning and this evening from the first chapter of Paul's
first epistle to the Thessalonians. And my subject this morning is
Thanksgiving and prayer. Thanksgiving and prayer. And then this evening I'm gonna
be speaking on marks of election. Right from the first chapter
here of First Thessalonians. The marks of election. And I hope that you'll be back
this evening We ask God to give liberty and freedom of thought and the ability
to worship to each of us. The city of Thessalonica was
one of the main cities in Macedonia. Macedonia was a very large country
in Asia Minor. And this actually was the most
populated of the cities of Macedonia. And it was a very important city
in that it's where a main crossroads came in, trade routes went through
Thessalonica, and of course it was also a seaport city. It was a dangerous city. It was a violent city, not unlike
some of our cities today. Immorality was rampant. There had people painted all
kinds of pornographic things on the walls of buildings in
their town, their townhouses. And actually, the criminal element
was so awful in Thessalonica that when people built their
houses, they didn't even put windows in them. because thieves
and criminals and rapists and murderers would break into houses
that did have windows, and so they didn't even, in the newer
houses that were built, they didn't even build windows in
them. Prostitution was organized. Murder was commonplace. The babies
that they didn't want, of course, they knew nothing about that
atrocious practice of our day of abortion. The annoying thing
about abortion back in those days, so the unwanted babies,
they just took out to the trash dumps. Most of them were girl
babies because they didn't want the girl babies to live because
they wouldn't be good workers. It was just an awful ungodly
time. As I say, much like today. But in this ungodly city, God,
he determined there'd be a gospel church. There'd be a place of
worship. where the name of God would be
exalted, and where the Lord Jesus would be preached. In about A.D. 48 or 49, right around that area,
Paul began his second missionary journey, and he had with him
Silas, and he picked up along the way a young preacher named
Timothy. And they were going forth to
preach the gospel wherever God directed them, according to Paul's
understanding of the will of God. And there were other places
that actually this man wanted to go and preach, but the Lord
wouldn't let him. And one day he had a vision. Back in those days, God would
speak to his servants through dreams or visions. They didn't
have all of the word of God. And a vision came to the apostle
Paul, and it was a vision of a man. And it was a man from
Macedonia, this great big ungodly country. And the vision was,
the message of the vision was just this, won't you come over
and help us? We need a help. Well, I wonder
what was the help that this man, the Apostle Paul, could render
to them. He wasn't a rich man, he couldn't
help them out with that. He wasn't a lawman, so he couldn't
help them out with the criminal element that was very widespread
through Thessalonica and throughout the country of Macedonia. This
man said, we want you to come over and help us. Well, the only
help this man could render to them, this preacher of the gospel,
was to come and preach the truth to them. You see, the real help
we need, I know we have physical needs, I know we need physical
help, in various areas. Those who are sick need a healing
if it's the will of God. Those who are having difficulties,
they need help in those areas. But our real needs are spiritual
needs. Our real needs are those that
we had before God. And this was the need that the
man of Macedonia, he felt And he sent word through this vision,
and he spoke to the Apostle Paul, and he said, won't you come over
and help us? We need help. We need help. Literally, bring aid to us. What kind of aid could the Apostle
Paul bring them? Gospel aid. That's what he had. And I'm speaking to people this
morning who need help. Whether you know it or not, you
need help. And the only help that I can
render to you through my voice, God enabling me, is gospel help. For you see, our greatest needs
are spiritual needs. And this is our awful dilemma. We don't even know we need help. We don't know what's good for
us. All of us by nature are devoted to taking care of the body. Well,
that's reasonable. But isn't there something else
besides physical welfare? In fact, are you not a soul? You see, you have a body. But no matter what you do for
this body, it is going to age. It is going to grow old unless
God takes it through disease or some other means before you
reach 70 or whatever. But the body is not going to
last. On the other hand, there's the
soul need. For that goes on, the soul of
man, the soul of women, the souls of boys and girls, it'll last
forever. You're going to live forever.
You're going to exist forever. in one of two locations, either
in heaven or hell. And I don't know whether you
realize it or not, but you need a help. We all need help. And here's the wonderful thing.
Our God is the God of the helpless. He helps the helpless. He even
helps those who don't even know that they need help. And He does
that by making us aware of our helpless condition. That we have
nothing good in ourselves to recommend us unto God. that we have no hope of everlasting
life. We have no possibility of being
accepted with God due to anything that we've ever done. Our only
help is to be found in the rock of that salvation of God, Christ
Jesus. He's the helper of the helpless. And this man of Macedonia, of
which Thessalonica is the major city, this man of Macedonia,
he sends word to the Apostle Paul, won't you come over here
and help us? I was asked within the last couple
of days, why was it that I left a comfortable church in Michigan
And I came down here to pastor this congregation. I said, it's
a fair question. They said, was it the weather?
And I said, well, I didn't go up there for the weather, and
I didn't leave because of the weather. I'll tell you why I
came. Because I had an awareness that
folks down here, just like folks everywhere, need help. You need
help. There's nothing that I can give you that
will help you except the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified. I think about that man who was
at the gate of the temple, a man who'd been laying on both feet
ever since his mother's womb. The story is found in Acts chapter
three. You need not turn to it. But
Peter and John went up to the temple in order to pray. And this man was outside the
temple. He sat there and he had his cup. He was asking for alms, asking
for money. He needed financial help. He
held his little cup up to Peter and John. And the scripture says
they stopped and they looked on him. And Peter said, I don't have
any silver. And I don't have any gold. But
he said, such as I have given to thee. In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. That wasn't the help that
man looked for. He wanted financial help. He
wanted help of a physical nature. In his wildest imagination, he
never thought that this was the day he would meet the living
Savior. This is the day when he would
be made everywhere whole. This was the day he would be
washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't looking
for that kind of help. But the gospel, as it often does, sought him out and found him
and worked a work of grace within his heart. And he got a whole
lot more than just a couple of coins and a tin cup. He received
this everlasting salvation of God. And he received by faith that
very truth that the Lord Jesus by His substitutionary death
had established righteousness even for that man. He received
it by faith. And he was, by the grace of God,
saved. That wasn't what he was looking
for, but that's what he got. And it may very well be that
we have an individual or maybe more than one in here this morning,
and you don't even know what kind of help you need. Maybe
you're worried about your checkbook balance, or you're worried about
this, or you're worried about that, but not so much about your
spiritual needs. It may very well be that the
God of all grace, the God of sovereign mercy, will take the
very word of the Spirit and pierce your heart and make you to realize,
I've got a need much greater than my checkbook balance. I've
got a need much greater than my physical infirmities. I need
God. I need forgiveness. I need righteousness. I need
God's salvation. Yep, the Lord helped him. The
Lord helped him. I think of the woman of Canaan. She came to the Lord Jesus and
she said, have mercy on me. Oh Lord, thou son of David. My
daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. The scripture says, the Lord
answered her, not a word. Not a word. And the disciple
said, why don't you send her away? She cries after us. And the Lord said, I'm not sent,
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And then the scripture says,
then she came and she worshipped Him. And this is what she said,
Lord, help me. Lord, help me. Do you think He helped her? Do
you think He rendered aid to her? And my friend, listen to
me. There's never been a poor lost
sinner who came to the Savior in their mind and in their heart,
truly said, Lord help me. But he wasn't, but what he doesn't
help. I mean real help. Lasting help. Help that endures forever. Anybody
interested in that kind of help, I've got some good news for you.
And it's just like the man of Macedonia. Come over here and
help us! And God sent him a preacher.
God sent him a preacher. See, how shall they hear without
a preacher? There's no help going to arrive,
there's no help going to be presented except through the lips of one
of God's servants that please God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. This is how help comes. Do you
need help? This is the way it comes. It
comes through the words of a man preaching the Word of God and
then the Spirit of God putting it in your heart and in your
soul. Won't you come over and help
us? The man of Macedonia said. The apostle Paul said, I'm on
my way. I'm on my way. Packed his bags. Let's go. Silas,
let's go. Okay, brother Timothy, let's
go. You packed up? We're heading to Macedonia. And
they got over into Macedonia and the first city they came
to was Philippi. Well, they couldn't find a church
there that believed anything. Finally, they went out walking
by the riverside and they found a woman who needed help. Her name is Lydia. And she was some other women
sitting there by the riverside in a prayer meeting. I'll tell
you, the apostle Paul began to preach and the scripture says,
opened her heart and she attended to the things that were spoken.
You know what she got? She got help. She got help. And then some other things happened
and after Paul had cast a demon out of a woman who was ranting
and raving and troubling him and Silas and Timothy, for their
troubles they got cast into prison. but there's somebody there in
charge of the prison. He needs help, but he doesn't
know it. He's in a bad way, but he's got no idea. He thinks he's
got a good job right there in charge of the prison, living
nearby, makes good money, got his family with him. As the old
saying is, he felt like he had the world by the tail on a downhill
pull. He had everything going for him.
And these prisoners, the apostle Paul and Silas, Paul and Silas,
the magistrates brought them in, said, put these men in the
dungeon. He said, gotcha, I'll take care of them, don't you
worry about it. He put them in the inner dungeon, reserved for
the vilest of criminals. lock the cell door, put the keys
outside. He lays down in his office to
go to sleep. Oh, he needs help, but he's got
no idea about it. But the Lord sent an earthquake. That's what it takes many times
to reach us, is an earthquake. And the Lord shook the entire
prison. And He shook up this man. I wish God would shake up somebody
this morning. Wouldn't that be wonderful? I longed to hear someone cry
out to me what that Philippian jailer cried out to Paul and
Silas. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Wouldn't that be refreshing? I want to be saved. I want to
be delivered from sin. I want to be delivered from guilt.
What must I do to be saved? And the word comes back, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. He didn't
know he needed help, but he got it. He got a whole lot more than
he bargained for, I'll tell you. because God saved him by his
grace and the scripture says that the apostle Paul taught
him the word of God and then baptized him. Help, help. Then Paul and Silas,
they leave, they leave Philippi and they pass by a couple of
cities Ron read to us, and there's no indication they stopped there
to preach the gospel. And they go directly to Thessalonica. And the apostle Paul, for three
weeks, he preaches in Thessalonica. And then God began to do a work. See, this is what we need today.
We need God to do a work. Oh, I know churches have promotions,
and they're doing this, and advertising, and entertaining, and they have
their gimmicks, and they have their programs, and they have
their singings, their gospel groups come in and sing, and
everybody goes whoop-de-doo and hallelujah, and they're all having
a good time, and all of that kind of stuff. That's not what
we need. That's not what we need. We need
to hear the word of God. I'll tell you how God's gonna
help you. It's not gonna be through a gospel singing. And most of
these gospel quartets and so forth, very little gospel. They
might have some good singing, but very little gospel. That's
not what God uses. God doesn't use meetings where
people share their experiences. God uses the Word of God, the
Word of the Gospel. What the Apostle said in Ephesians
chapter 1 is the Word of Truth. That's the Gospel of your salvation. If you want to be entertained,
there's a whole city full of churches ready to entertain you.
want to hear about some sad stories and life experiences and that
sort of thing, how to do this and how to do that, a lot of
churches, they're ready to take you in and embrace you and say,
we're glad to have you join up today, we'll baptize you next
Sunday and the next Sunday you'll be teaching a Sunday school class,
we'll have you in the choir for a long. Yeah, there are a lot
of churches there, but if you need help, See, we've got something that most of these churches around
here don't have. In fact, if they had this, we'd
just say, let's join together. You know what they don't have?
They got a lot of stuff. I'll tell you what they don't
have. They don't have any help for people. They don't have any
help for eternity bound. Sinners. Here's where the help's
to be found in the gospel of the sovereign grace of God. See,
here's what I'm saying. Nobody can help you but God. And this idea that you can do
something yourself for your salvation, there are preachers standing
in line to tell you that. There are preachers standing
in line to tell you their remedy for all that ails you spiritually. But somebody's got to raise the
voice and say, nobody can help but God, and He doesn't have
to. Whoa! That'd be something to say in
these churches, wouldn't it? God's the only one who can help
you, and He's under no obligation to help you. He doesn't have
to help you. Well, I thought that's what God
was for, was to help us. Now, wait a minute. We're here
to glorify God. We're here to magnify God. And
He doesn't need you. You need Him. This idea that the church needs
you, and we need you, and God needs you, and Jesus needs you. Well, that's just not so. You need the Lord. You need the Lord. And God sent
to these people in Thessalonica a preacher. And after God had established
the church there, this is probably, oh, a year and a half later,
Paul sends them a letter. That's what this is, is a letter
to the church of the saints of God in Thessalonica. And he begins the letter this
way. He wrote two letters to them.
The second letter he wrote about Oh, six months later, both of
them delivered by Timothy. But here's what he says, and
he greets him in verse one, 1 Thessalonians chapter one, verse one, Paul.
And he's such a humble man. He could have told him all of
his credentials, but he didn't, he just said, Paul and Silvanus
at Silas. and Timotheus or Timothy under
the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, you're God's
church. You're the Lord's people. And
he says to them, grace be unto you and peace. I bring you words of grace and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the one
who established peace. You see, we were at enmity with
God. We were enmity against God. We
were hostile against God, but our Lord Jesus, He came and made
peace. He made our peace. He is our
peace with God through the blood of His cross. Grace be unto you and peace. From God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then he says, we give thanks
to God always for you all. He's almost a southerner there
if he had just said y'all, but he said you all. We give thanks
to God always for y'all. making mention of you in our
prayers. Here's a man given to thanksgiving
and he's given to prayer. So that he says in verse three,
remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor
of love and patience of hope and our Lord Jesus Christ in
the sight of God and our Father. He says, we give thanks always
for you all, but we give this thanks to God. He didn't begin
by saying, I give thanks to you folks for
you received me and you receive the Word of God. No, He doesn't
thank them. He doesn't thank them. You see,
no thanksgiving is due to the creature. No thanksgiving is
due to any of us. What have we ever done for which
we should be thanked? We're born with our fists in
God's face. We're born rebels against God.
No, we're not to be thanked for anything, we're to be blamed.
We're to be blamed for our own sinfulness, for our own ungodliness. Where is thanks to be given?
We give thanks to God for you. The Lord had raised up a congregation
of people in Thessalonica, people who believed the gospel, who
believed Christ Jesus. They believed that God was just
and justifier through the doing and the dying of this glorious
person, the Son of God. And the Lord did a work of grace
in their hearts. The Lord brought them to believe.
The Lord brought them to rest in Christ Jesus. The Lord brought
them to see everything that they were, everything that they hoped
to be, everything that they would be in eternity was due to the
grace of God given to them in Christ Jesus. So he begins the
letter by saying, we give thanks to God. And he keeps repeating that throughout
this epistle. Look with me a little bit further.
Look in chapter 2. Look at chapter 2 and verse 13. Chapter 2 and verse 13. He says, For this cause also
thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the
word of God, which you heard of us, you received it not because
I said it, You received it not as the Word
of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. The Word of
God. Watch it. Which worketh, which
effectually worketh. I love that. It is operative.
This is the marvelous thing about the Word of God. And it's the
reason our ministry consists of just preaching the Word of
God. The Word of God has such authority
and such omnipotence about it that in the hands of the Holy
Ghost, it is operative in the heart. You don't have to twist
him by his arm. You don't have to beg anybody
to do anything. All you gotta do is just turn
this message loose. Just preach the Word. That's
what the Apostle Paul said to Timothy. Preach the Word. Be
instant in season, out of season. But why should we limit ourselves
in only preaching the Word? Because there is in this Word
the very power of God unto salvation. Isn't this exactly what the apostle
wrote to the church in Rome? He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believe it. It's the very dunamis, the dynamite
of God. And you're talking about something
that will bring an earthquake in the soul. It's the word of
God in the hands of the Holy Spirit. And the reason people
aren't moved by the word of God, the reason that people can sit
there with indifference, perhaps, and say, well, this is for somebody
else, hope somebody else gets something out of this. I'm not
getting much out of it, sure hope he hurry up and quits. The
reason, because you've never had an earthquake visit you.
You've never had the sword of the spirit pierce your heart.
This is our great need today, I'm telling you. We don't need
more revivals. We don't need camp meetings.
We don't need all of these things that men are doing, healing revivals
and such things like that. We need the bare arm of God Himself. We need God to make His arm,
to stretch out His arm and do something for people that people
can't do for themselves. This is what the apostle Paul
says. We give thanks to God because you heard the word of God. And
it wasn't just because I said it. Listen, I'm thankful for
preachers. And I know you are. But you mustn't
ever just blindly follow a preacher. You must follow the word of God.
You must take heed to that which the scripture says. And as we
go through the Scriptures, receive it not because I say it, not
because Henry Mahan said it, not because some other preacher
said it. That doesn't make it so. Receive the Word of God because
it is the Word of God, no matter who sets it forth, whether it's
me or Bill or any other preacher. It's still the word of the living
God. And this is what God uses. And you'll notice that he says
here, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because
you receive the word of God, which you heard about, you heard
it. How does faith come? By hearing
and hearing by the word of God. I know sometimes people say to
me, call me, and I get emails, I get letters, people say their life's difficult, and they ask
me, would you pray for me? And I do, I do. But I also have asked them on
several occasions, why don't you come hear the Word of God? I can't do much for you over
the telephone, but if you'll come sit where other people sit,
I can give you the Word of God that helps sinners. That's what
helps. How can you expect any help to
come to you when you don't sit under that which God uses to
give aid to us? This is gospel aid. You need
to saturate your mind and your heart with the gospel. Sit under
the ministry of the word. Don't sit at home. And even,
and listen, I appreciate the ministry God's given us by way
of the internet. And we've got people watching
our service this morning by way of the internet, and I'm very
thankful that they can do that. There are people who live long
distances away, hundreds and hundreds of miles away, who are
watching this, who are entering into this worship service. But
those of us who are locally, who are local people, though
we can benefit from the ministry of the internet, nothing, nothing
is a substitute for being right here. Nothing is. You join in the singing. You
join in the reading of the word of God. You're an encouragement
to people here, but there's just something about being under the
immediate sound of the Word of God. It isn't because you're
listening to this man, whoever happens to be standing up here
preaching. As long as he's preaching the
Word of God, that's all that matters. And that's what God
uses. And so I hate for people to say,
you know, I'm so down, Jim. I'm so, I'm sad. And sometimes people say, I don't
even know why. And I tell them, you need to
be under the preaching of the word. Don't stay away. You need to
come and you need to hear. what the scriptures have to say
and receive this as the word of God. Look again in chapter
three and verse nine, he says this. He says, for what thanks can
we render to God again for you? He's thanking God. for all the
joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God. I'm joyful,
you're joyful, who are we gonna thank for this? The joy that
floods the heart, that sins are forgiven, that we stand in the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all is well between
us and a holy God, who are we gonna thank? We'll thank God. And isn't it wonderful when a
whole congregation comes together And as it were, we all say in
union, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. You have helped
the helpless. You have rendered gospel aid
to people who had no hope in themselves. Again, he says in
chapter five, look at chapter five. And he says this in verse
18, chapter five in verse 18. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now, I
don't know what your circumstances in life, may have a little idea
of some of you, but most of you I don't. Don't know what you're
going through, don't know what you're experiencing, don't know
your trials, don't know your troubles, don't know your difficulties. But no matter what it is you're
going through, the Word of God says, in everything give thanks. And here's the reason, for this
is the will of God concerning you. In other words, God's perfect
will is being worked out in all of your experiences. in all of
your difficulties, so you get thanks. I was talking to someone yesterday
regarding an article that I wrote, I don't know, two, three weeks
ago, I suppose it was, how that we not only bow to the will of
God, but we need to rejoice in his will. It's like the old timers,
they used to use this word acquiesce in the will of God. In other
words, you don't just say, well, this is the will of God, so I
guess I gotta take it. I guess I gotta bear up under
this. That's not a good attitude. A good attitude is, this does
hurt. This pains me, whatever trouble
or affliction it is. But I know my Heavenly Father
makes no mistakes regarding me. And he will see to it that everything
will work together for my good. And so I'll give him thanks for
it. That's what it means. And everything give thanks. For
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And then
if you turn over a page in the second Thessalonians, excuse
me, chapter one, In verse three, here's his second
letter and he says, we are bound to thank God always for you brethren
as it is meet because that your faith groweth exceedingly in
the charity of every one of you, of every one of you all toward
each other aboundeth. He says, I'm going to thank God
because I see the interaction of the congregation with one
another. I see how you minister to one
another. I see how you care for one another.
I see how you love one another. I see how you give to one another.
Are we like that? Are you like that? We ought to
be. And he says, I thank God for
this. I thank God for the joy and the
peace of your congregation. It's a blessed thing when the
saints of God get along in peace and harmony. And if we do, we
thank God for that. We come from all kind of backgrounds.
We're all kind of different people. Northerners and Southerners and
Midwesterners and maybe some other folks as well. I don't
want to leave anybody out, but here we are. have different viewpoints
on a variety of things. And yet we all come together.
Here we are this morning, a body of believers. We're all together.
We're meeting under the same roof, hearing the same gospel
and rejoicing in the same Savior. I thank God for that. I thank God
for that. That's what Paul is saying. I
thank God, no matter who you are, all these different viewpoints, Some people are pessimists, some
are optimists, some say the glass half-full, some say glass half-empty. Well, you know, we got all kind
of different viewpoints like that, but we all say, isn't the
Lord wonderful to us? Isn't the Lord gracious to us?
And in that, we're thankful, we thank God for that. And I'll
give you one more quickly in the second chapter, verse 13. He says, but we're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God, from the beginning, He'd chosen you to salvation.
Boy, that's something to be thankful for. God chose you unto salvation
before you was ever born, before anything ever existed. He says, God chose you unto salvation. You see, that's the reason the
man from Macedonia said, come over and help us. Because they
were chosen of God unto salvation before he ever made the world.
And those people in Thessalonica that would make up this congregation
and the people in Philippi who made up that congregation, they
didn't have any idea of the sovereign grace of God, that God had chosen
them under salvation. Well, how do we know that they
were chosen under salvation? We'll go into that in more detail
tonight, but it was one of the ways was this, the word of God
came to them in power. And this same apostle who was
so thankful for them, he prayed for them. Go all the way back
to the first chapter again, and I'll just give you this briefly,
and then we'll kind of pick up with this again tonight. He says
in the second verse, chapter one, verse two, we give thanks
to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Pastor, what can I do for my
fellow brothers and sisters in the congregation? Number one,
pray for one another. Lift one another up in prayer.
And, he says in, well I don't have time to get into it, Great
detail, but he will even say to them, pray without ceasing. That means you can't, it doesn't
mean you should pray every minute of every day, but just don't
stop praying. Don't stop praying for each other.
Don't stop praying for the word of the gospel. And he says this,
and I'll give you this and I'll quit. Look at the third chapter
of the second Thessalonians. Because he's emphasizing two
things here, thanksgiving and prayer. And he says this in 2
Thessalonians chapter three, verse one. Finally, brethren,
pray for us. Who's he talking about? Preachers.
He's talking about himself, Silas and Timothy. Well, for what should
we pray? that the word of the Lord may
have free course and be glorified just like it's been glorified
in you. That's what he said. Pray for
us. Pray for preachers of the gospel. Pray for one another. Pray for the conversion of sinners. And pray for those who minister
to you in spiritual things. Thanksgiving and prayer. What
could the Apostle Paul do for these folks in Macedonia? And
what can I do for you? I'll give you gospel aid. What do you want from a
preacher? I asked many years ago when I
went to Almonte, to a pastor in 96. I said, what do you want out
of a pastor? Said to all the people, we're
meeting downstairs, we'd had fellowship lunch together, I'd
preached several times, had one of them little cordless mics
so everybody could hear me. I said, what do you want from
a preacher? And somebody said, I want you
to love us and tell us the truth." I said, well, I think maybe I
can do that. I'll do my best on the first
part to love you. I'll try to do that. Sometimes
you have to work at loving some people. Everybody's not as lovable
as others. But I do promise you this, I
will tell you the truth. I'll be honest with you.