By Vicki Stamps
Contributing Writer
ST. LOUIS—Encouraging Christians to get “fired up” is important to Ean Hendrix, 28-year-old evangelist and pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Seymour.
Hendrix told the Sunday morning congregation of Canaan Baptist Church in St. Louis that the message of II Peter 1:12-13 is not a “new prophecy.”
“The Truth is the foundation we need to build on,” Hendrix said. “We need to be stirred up by the things we know and should never forget.”
Hendrix pointed to John 3:16 as the first item to “stir up” the people.
“He knows you and loves you,” he said. After leading the congregation in saying the verse, Hendrix said, “The Good News is ‘Whosoever.’ Whatever sin you’ve committed does not change the love of God. He still loves us because of His greatness. His greatness does not change.”
According to Hendrix, the truth in Romans 5:8 is another reason “to get stirred up.”
“He sent His own Son, His most precious, spotless Son to cover our sin. Animals were not good enough; the sacrifice needed was the very best. The Cross at Calvary paid the penalty for our sin. We’ve got to get stirred up.”
Our baptism is another reason to get excited.
“We need to thank God not for our water baptism,” he said, “but for the baptism described in Romans 6:3-5. The baptism of our new life comes from Him and we are able to bear much fruit.”
According to Romans 12:2, we will have a victorious life.
“Christ is able to overcome whatever life throws,” Hendrix said. “He promised never to leave us.”
Hendrix pointed to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as having their faith tried.
“Christ was with them. ‘Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.’ God didn’t keep them from the fire. But, He goes with us.”
The communion that Zacchaeus experienced is another reason Christians should be excited.
“Christ desires fellowship with us. He reaches out offering to make us new without the devastating sin which separates us from God,” Hendrix said. “Zacchaeus changed because he was abiding with Christ.”
Our hope in a living God is the ultimate reason for us to be “fired up” according to Hendrix.
“If you look where Buddha is buried, you find Buddha bones,” he said. “If you look in the tomb of Jesus, there is nothing there. He is alive and in the presence of God making intercession for us. He is saying, ‘Father, this is the one I died for and purchased with My own blood.’”
Besides Hendrix speaking at the morning service at Canaan where Bruce McCoy, president of the Missouri Baptist Convention, is pastor, the singing group Mercy Rains led the worship time. This singing group of young siblings and cousins led the congregation in a range of new choruses and older hymns.
“I love to update the arrangement of older hymns,” Champ Callahan, lead singer, said. “They are important because of the theology in the message.”
McCoy, who is in his second year as Missouri Baptist president after serving the two previous years as MBC first vice president, has emphasized the office of evangelist in his final year of service.