In Matthew 11 Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Who doesn't face challenges today that can sometimes make you feel heavy hearted and burdened. The invitation Jesus gives goes unheeded much of the time but to those who do hear his voice the offer he makes has no equal. Compared to the tonnage many of us try to carry on our shoulders, Jesus' burden is light. Compared to the baggage we drag around, the monkeys on our backs and the grindstones at our noses; Jesus yoke is easy. True, his is a way that doesn't always come natural to us. His way must be learned and his cause must become our cause. But he promises rest if we will but surrender to his plea; his gentle, humble plea.
If you're visiting today we want to welcome you in a very special way. You may or may not feel 'weary and burdened'. The call of Jesus may or may not be new to you; it may or may not be welcomed at the moment. But it's our hope that being with us will be refreshing to you and, yes, we hope you'll want to come back and join us again. But more than anything we hope, in our own humble and gentle way, to extend to you an invitation to not only enjoy today's service and meal together, but to also allow us the chance to share with you more about Jesus if his call is something that you haven't already embraced.
We've gone all out to try and make this as welcoming a time for you to 'come to church' as possible. We're very blessed to have 
this fine church building to worship in. We're not methodist but are very thankful that the Sunnyside United Methodist allow us to share this space with them. We've pretty much taken the "pilgrims on a journey" thing literally; we don't own a building of our own but are thankful to make this attractive spot our regular place of worship. We believe the church is the people, not a building. But that doesn't keep us from thanking God, and the methodists, for this sanctuary. We are called the Portland International church of Christ, a mouthful to be sure. But we especially want to be known for our love for one another, and our hospitality, and our gratitude.
We've gone all out in bringing in a fantastic guest speaker for this occasion. Marty Fuqua, evangelist from the Los Angeles International church of Christ, will be delivering the message and we know that this will be a special treat. For over 30 years Marty and his wife Chris have been helping people take the easy yoke of Jesus. He's a dear friend to Christians everywhere and we're blessed to have the Fuquas with us this weekend. We hope that this will be the first of many visits from them, and you as well.
We've gone all out in preparing a meal after service that we hope you will enjoy with us. A number of great hearted members of the church have volunteered their time in feeding us. For them it's a labor of love and genuine hospitality. Tracey Remington, our "Deaconess of Nice", has overseen the meal and it's going to be a treat.
Hopefully this doesn't sound like the church is bragging about itself. I'm the lucky minister of this congregation and while I've been writing with the royal 'we' tense so far, allow me to brag for just a moment about what you've walked in to.
This isn't a perfect group of people, but I've never seen any better or more loving and generous a group of people in my life. I have a right to say that; they've taken care of me for the last four years. Once, I walked in here like maybe you have today. I didn't know many of these folks. I was weary and burdened...and I'm the guy they brought in as a preacher! I thank God every day that He brought me here and that I get to be with this church which has become my family, friends, counselors, and flock. If I'm a shepherd, I have been blessed with real good sheep. But, no, that's not really the picture I'd like to paint. Jesus is our only shepherd around here. I'm just the sheep with the loudest bleep and you've joined a group today who are very patient, kind and hospitable. I hope you have the opportunity to get to know us all as I have.
And today you've joined in worship with a group that really believes in serving outside of our fellowship and our membership. We support an outstanding, world renowned charity named HOPEworldwide. We usually wear blue t-shirts proudly displaying their logo while at work representing them and serving others. You can see those t-shirts in action on 3rd Friday evenings downstairs in this very building feeding the hungry in a program that has operated here for years. You can see those t-shirts at work several other times during the year: partnering with Habitat for Humanity, taking toys to less privileged children, and a number of other serving days throughout the year. Join us sometime and we'll give you a blue t-shirt. Or join us for one of the HOPEworldwide fund raisers we'll be doing this year. In March we're having a basketball marathon to raise at least $12,000 for the Sihanouk Hospital in Cambodia. In April we're having a concert here in this sanctuary to raise money for orphans in South Africa. And we have two fundraisers this next summer; we even have a team in the Hood to Coast Run. Yes, we're running to raise money yet again to help our partner HOPEworldwide do good all over the world. Last week we gave over $3200 to relief for our congregation in Haiti through HOPEworldwide. We hope you can join us sometime in one of these worthy endeavors.
So please feel welcome today. If we can be of further service to you there are several ways of contacting the elders or me and you'll find them printed here. We've hoped to introduce ourselves to you in as warm and eager a way as we can.
And if you haven't met Jesus yet, we hope to be able to make that introduction as well.
Sincerely,
Steve Johnson
