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Asahel Nettleton, who was greatly used to God

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during the Second Great Awakening, often retreated to

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the healing waters at Sarasota Springs in New

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York because he was weary from his revival

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labors.

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But once he got there, word would always

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come out that Nettleton was in town and

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he was always pulled away from his rest

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to go preach the gospel.

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Jesus told his disciples, when they returned from

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their evangelistic efforts, to come and rest a

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while.

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We read in Mark's Gospel in chapter 6,

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beginning in verse 30, And the apostles gathered

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themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all

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things, both what they had done and what

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they had taught.

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And he said unto them, Come ye, yourselves

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apart, into a desert place, and rest a

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while.

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But they all died preaching anyhow.

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There's always been a Moody, or a Sam

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Jones, or a Whitefield, who spent themselves on

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Christ and the gospel—George Whitefield, while making his

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way through a crowd of four thousand hearers,

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on his way to his field pulpit in

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the open air, in a field in Exeter,

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New Hampshire, was questioned by a bystander, who

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commented, Mr. Whitefield, you look more fit for

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bed than for preaching.

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To which the great evangelist replied, Quite true,

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sir, but I'd rather wear out than rust

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out.

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Whitefield preached his last that day, to die

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the next morning, at the age of fifty

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-five, worn out from his labors.

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Sam Jones wore himself out, laboring for Christ

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and the gospel, and dropped dead on a

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train at fifty-nine, before he got back

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home.

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Moody barely got home to die in his

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bed at sixty-one, but he was half

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dead before he got there anyway.

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I believe it's tough going on the front

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line of the battlefront, because that's where the

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fighting is the fiercest.

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If you're gonna beard the devil, you have

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to fight him where all hell is a

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-poppin' all around you, where the poisoned arrows

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buzz your head, and the smell of hot

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lead fills your nostrils.

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I believe a prophet of God can get

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mighty weary, mighty chewed up by the devil,

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and at the point of exhaustion.

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I don't reckon the prophet Elijah was any

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good for preaching, under the juniper tree, in

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complete exhaustion.

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If he tried to preach a sermon there

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in that condition, it would have been a

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dud, after he spent himself on top of

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Carmel, going toe to toe with four hundred

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and fifty thousand four hundred and fifty prophets

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of Baal.

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If you're gonna cry, thus saith the Lord,

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you better be dead sure, friend, you have

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shut yourself up to God, and have a

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message from God to deliver to the people

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of God.

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And when you're standing before the prophets of

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Baal of your generation, and when you're done

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delivering that message of judgment upon a guilty

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generation, and the devil's throwing everything at you,

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including his filthy kitchen sink, you better find

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a place to rest a while, to catch

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your breath, and get the gumption to go

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fight again, as you go out there once

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more under the power of the Holy Ghost,

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to preach as a dying man to dying

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men.

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Many have died with their boots on.

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Stephen died just as he finished his sermon,

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while being stoned, as he saw Christ rise

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from his throne.

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Jesus had to get up to go greet

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him.

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Ralph Barnard was walking out the door on

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his way to a preaching engagement, when he

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crumpled to the floor from a heart attack.

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I haven't had a vacation since.

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God's called me to preach.

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The only rest I got last year was

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forced, while I was in the hospital after

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heart failure.

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And you can't rest there, anyhow.

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How can you rest, when people are moaning

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all around you?

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And how can I rest, when folks are

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dropping into hell all around me?

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I'd rather be on the out-and-out

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for Christ, than die preaching, than in a

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bed, anyhow.

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Only one life, which will soon be passed.

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Only what's done for Christ will last.