Pastor Judah Smith Tells 8,000 Women They Are God's Favorite
WASHINGTON – Judah Smith, pastor of The City Church in Seattle, Wash., told 8,000 women at the Women of Faith conference on Saturday that they need to realize the magnitude of God's love and he challenged them to consider themselves His most cherished.
"I double dog dare you get alone this week and say to Him, 'Hey God, it's me the one You love,' because you need to hear yourself say it. You are God's favorite!" said Smith.
Smith was the only male speaker on Saturday and he captivated attendees with a refreshing perspective about love. His message began with humorous accounts of his initial concept of love early on in his marriage and emphasized God's incomparable affection against the miniscule scale of the love humans have for one another.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"At 21 and six months into my marriage I learned about my wife's love language which is quality [time]. One day, when I got home from playing golf, I walked in and said, 'Yo girl, where you at? I see you, hey!,' which means, 'You're beautiful, you're gorgeous, it's good to see you,'" said Smith. "I thought everything was good until I saw that she was upset and she asked me, 'Is this how we're going to live? Are you going to play golf all the time?'"
She wanted to spend quality time together, said Smith, but out of anger, he made a retort. But it was then that he realized his efforts as a newlywed husband needed to improve. Through this problem, he said he was able to understand how profound God's love is, and once someone understands that concept, then they are able to project abundant love to others.
"Agape is unconditional love, He needs no reciprocation, it's always perfect. God's love is obsessive, you can't shake it, you can't run from it or reject it," said Smith.
Hundreds of people in attendance were touched by his message and raised their hands afterwards to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Smith told them their attendance at the conference was not a coincidence but an opportunity to acknowledge that God has been waiting for them to accept His love because He wants to show them how much of a superhero he can be to them.
"Do you live like God's favorite, like the one that He loves? It's very apparent in scripture that His love is what moves God the most. He is most moved not by your love for Him but His love for you. Grace is not man going to God, the message of grace is God coming to man," said Smith.
He told the crowd of thousands to shed their idea that God loves them only when they are in good standing.
"I come to you from sunny, tropical Seattle to plead with you and tell you that His love, not your inconsistencies, your performances, or your inadequacies matter the most," said Smith. "If you shifted your worship, your adoration, your thoughts, your prayers to God's love for yourself, and realized that it's never ending, unrelenting, unconditional, it's inexplicable, it's always for you no matter how you fail, what you're going through, then you would know, you are the one He loves," he concluded.
