Sunday Service · 27 September 2026 · Daughters’ Day 

Scripture: Psalm 103:1–5 

Message at a Glance  Being alive, breathing and able to lift your hands is a big deal — and none of it is your achievement. In the Kingdom of God there are only receivers. Pastor calls you to a lifestyle of extravagant thanksgiving: God gives, then steps back to watch how you respond, and a grateful heart becomes both a weapon and a shortcut to blessing. On Daughters’ Day he blesses the daughters of the church and draws out the overlooked virtues of Job’s wife, whose household God restored.

Key Scriptures  Psalm 103:1–5 — Forget not all His benefits  1 Corinthians 4:7 — What do you have that you did not receive?  Psalm 36:5–6 · Isaiah 63:7 — The greatness of His love; a list of His dealings  John 6:11 — He gave thanks, and it multiplied  2 Samuel 6:21 — David’s extravagant worship  1 Samuel 2:3, 21 — By Him actions are weighed; Hannah’s increase  Psalm 144:12 — Daughters as palace cornerstones  Job 1:5 · 2:8–10 · 29:2–5 · 42:10 — Job’s wife and the restoration of the family

It’s a Big Deal to Be Alive 

The fact that you are alive is a big deal. It is not ordinary, and it is not automatic. That you are breathing, sitting in God’s house and reading these words is God’s mercy, God’s grace and God’s hand upon your life. He kept you alive — that is the only reason you are here — and no amount of thanks will ever be enough. Yet how easily we take all of it for granted. 

If you can lift your hands to the Lord, that is a big deal. Think of how many people sit unable to raise their arms because of a frozen, painful shoulder. So lift your hands today and say it plainly: “Lord, it is You. It is You. It is You.” 

If you can breathe in and breathe out, it is because God has shown you mercy. Do not treat it lightly. Many people spend large sums of money just to breathe — on a ventilator, tied to an oxygen cylinder, struggling for every breath. If you are breathing this afternoon and able to raise your hands, you owe God glory and thanks. It is not your cleverness and it is not your ability. It is a big deal. 

For some people, even having hair is a big deal. Pastor shared how someone very dear to him, a person in a very high position, called him after attending a class reunion. Everyone who had studied with this person had grey hair or no hair, was struggling with health, or could barely walk. Standing among them in good health, the caller suddenly realised: this is the grace of God. If you share that conviction — that you and I are standing here only by God’s grace — open your heart and give Jesus glory for it. It is a big, big, big deal. 

No Achievers — Only Receivers 

There is a saying: inside the Kingdom of God there are no achievers; there are only receivers. Paul put the question to the Corinthian church directly. 

1 Corinthians 4:7  For who makes you dif er from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Whatever you have — health, wealth, intelligence, ability, family relationships, a vehicle, a ministry, a position or status — you received it from God. The person who says, “I did not achieve this. I did not earn it. It is not my cleverness, my ability or my competence,” will never fail to worship. That person will always give God the glory. 

Inside the Kingdom of God there are no achievers — only receivers. 

If you are thankful, your tank will be full — your storehouse will overflow. So do not treat the ability to say thank you as a small thing. Say it from your heart: “Lord, everything I have and everything I am is by Your grace. It is because You showed mercy. I did not earn it; it is not my cleverness, my ability or my competence. Jesus, it is You. Let my health be by Your grace. Let my generation be by Your grace.” 

Your gratitude list should grow longer every single day. If you know how to be grateful to God, your life will become very simple. 

It’s Not Normal to Be Normal 

A devout believer once said, “It is not normal to be normal.” We assume that being normal is normal — but walk through a hospital and you will see otherwise. If you are simply normal, that itself is the grace of God. 

If your eyes can see, if your ears can hear, if you can open your mouth and speak, take time today to give Jesus glory for each of these. None of it is your ability or your cleverness; it is God’s mercy. If your heart is beating right now, it is beating because of God’s grace. 

Psalm 103:1-5  Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Notice why the psalmist says “forget not.” It is because we are capable of forgetting. So do not forget any of His goodness. He is the One who forgives all your sins. He is the One who heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the pit of destruction and sets you up again. He crowns your life with tender mercies. He renews your strength like the eagle’s. Do not forget that the One who renews your youth is God. 

You are not alive today because you have money, or because you are clever, or because you know good doctors. This is a benefit God has given you — grace God has given you. If you understand that being alive today is by God’s grace, give glory to the Lord. 

Thankfulness Is a Weapon 

Pastor shared something he learned recently: a thankful heart is a weapon, just as fasting is a weapon and prayer is a weapon. When a son or daughter of God thanks the Lord, something is released in the spirit. 

The Lord told Pastor that before this year ends he should hold a service of nothing but thanksgiving — not to hear a sermon, not to bring prayer requests, but simply to salute the Lord. Worship and thanksgiving are, in a sense, patting the Lord on the back and saying, “Thank You, thank You, thank You, Lord.” It is saying, “Lord, I just want to offer You a sacrifice of thanksgiving. I’m going to do something just to thank You.” He is God, after all. 

Pastor recalled hearing someone ask why America, despite its many problems, has remained powerful. One answer offered was that it does something few nations do: once a year it sets aside a day of Thanksgiving — to thank God, to thank family, to thank colleagues and neighbours — and God has kept that country. But for you, thanksgiving is not one day in the year. Every one of your days should be a day of thanksgiving, a day of thanking the Lord. 

To give thanks in this way means to esteem Him — to respect Him, to honour Him, to hold Him in high regard, to admire Him. Blessed be the name of Jesus. 

A Love That Is Meteoric 

Pastor read Psalm 36:5–6 from The Message, which describes God’s love as meteoric, His loyalty as astronomic, His purpose as titanic and His verdicts as oceanic — and then adds that for all His vastness, nothing and no one slips through the cracks: not a person, not even a mouse. 

Psalm 36:5-6  Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast.

He drew out the words this way. When His love is called meteoric, it means it is solid. When it is called astronomic, it means it moves at high speed toward you. When it is called titanic, it means it has a size and strength that exceeds every expectation. And in all that greatness, you are not lost. 

Make a List: Keep a Thanksgiving Journal Isaiah 63:7 in The Message opens with the resolve to make a list of God’s gracious dealings — all the things God has done that need praising, His generous bounties, His great goodness, His lavish compassion and extravagant love. In the Malayalam Bible the verse reads: “I will prepare a list of Jehovah’s gracious dealings, all the good things He has done for us, all His works that are worthy of praise, and His great goodness toward the house of Israel and His abundant blessings.” 

Isaiah 63:7  I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD And the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.

Make a list — just to say thank you. List God’s dealings with you. Even if you learn nothing else today, learn this: keep a thanksgiving journal. When you wake up thanking the Lord, you are taking up a weapon. 

And the things you thank God for will multiply. When the Lord took the bread and the fish and gave thanks to the Father, they multiplied. 

John 6:11  And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.

So realise what God has given you. Do not forget to thank Him — be healthy and be strengthened in it. Do not grumble. Do not become a complaint box. Do not keep complaining and crying to the Lord. Start thanking Him for the goodness He has done and the grace He has given. 

What you thank God for, God multiplies. 

Thank People Too 

Thankfulness is not only for the Lord; you must learn to thank people too. Someone once said that the most beautiful word in the English language is mother. If your mother is alive, thank her. Thank your wife. Thank your children. Do you actually say it? Turn to the person beside you and ask whether you say it — and then thank them. 

God Steps Back and Watches 

Once you learn one of the Lord’s ways, you will understand this. Pastor called a young man named Aju forward to illustrate it. Imagine the Lord gives Aju something — a pen, say, or better, may God give him whatever his heart desires. After God gives it, do you know what God does? He steps back. He steps back, sits down and watches how Aju responds and reacts to what He has given. 

If Aju gives glory to the Lord — dances and worships, jumps, falls down and jumps up again — God says, “Ah, he is good. I did one thing for him, and look at the love he shows.” Seeing that response, God keeps giving more. To the one who has a thankful heart and worships, God will keep on giving. 

That is why the most powerful thing you can do in your Christian walk is to thank Jesus every day for every blessing, whether it seems small or big, and give Him the glory. How can you thank Him most extravagantly? Salute Him. Worship like David did before people. Jump and dance, saying, “Lord, thank You, thank You.” Clap your hands. Run and give glory to God. And God will say, “Whenever I do anything for him, this is how he responds. He glorifies Me. I will do more and more for him.” 

2 Samuel 6:21  So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord.”

Today, in your most extravagant way, open your mouth and give glory to the name of Jesus. God always steps back to see. 

After God gives, He steps back and watches how you respond. 

By Him Actions Are Weighed 

1 Samuel chapter 2 records the song Hannah sang, and one line in it says that by Him actions are weighed. After the Lord does something, He weighs the response to see what it will be. 

1 Samuel 2:3  “Talk no more so very proudly; Let no arrogance come from your mouth, For the LORD is the God of knowledge; And by Him actions are weighed.”

Consider Hannah. She had no child, while Peninnah had many. Then God gave Hannah a child, and after receiving him she began to sing and glorify the Lord — the whole of that song in 1 Samuel 2 is Hannah’s. And the Lord said, in effect, “If she responds like this when I give her one child, I will give her more.” Peninnah had many children, yet hers is a story of grumbling and provoking. Because Hannah responded rightly when she received one, God said, “I will give again, and again, and again.” Scripture records that Hannah went on to bear three sons and two daughters. 

1 Samuel 2:21  And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile the child Samuel grew before the LORD.

Therefore, gratitude is a shortcut to blessing. Look at someone near you and say it: God is watching. He is looking. So give glory to God. 

Gratitude is a shortcut to blessing. 

And thank people — your parents, your family members. Go and thank them. There are people who belittle others, but people who belittle people will always be little. And remember: you can never attract what you attack. 

Whether it is those who help in your home or the one who drives your car, say “Thank you.” Some people get the words out so reluctantly you would think speech itself were painful for them. It should not be like that. Whoever serves you at home, be kind to them. If you take things for granted, you will be grounded. 

Daughters Like Palace Cornerstones This Sunday is also Daughters’ Day. Pastor thanked God for the three blessed daughters God has given him, and prayed for every daughter in the church. Psalm 144:12 says that our daughters shall be like corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace (so the King James renders it; the New King James reads “pillars, sculptured in palace style”). 

Psalm 144:12  That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; That our daughters may be as pillars, Sculptured in palace style;

Pastor blessed every daughter in the congregation with this verse — whether mothers or sisters, mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law or daughters. 

“I am blessing you: may you be like a cornerstone — polished, palace style. May God polish you into a beautiful cornerstone. May God increase your beauty — your spiritual beauty and your physical beauty.” 

A cornerstone is the stone that joins two walls together. Usually it is daughters who hold relationships together. Pastor shared that if he ever raises his voice a little at home — with his wife or with Dan — his girls step in between and say, “Hmm, Appa.” Generally, daughters are peacemakers. 

“May you be palace-style peacemakers for the Kingdom of God. May God make you daughters, full of His grace, who bring healing to the church, bring healing to relationships, hold things together and make them shine.” 

Seeing the Good in Job’s Wife 

With no time for a full message, Pastor turned simply to one character in the Bible whom we almost always speak about negatively — a woman, Job’s wife. The Holy Spirit gives her only a single brief line in the whole of Scripture, and when we read it we are tempted to think, “What is wrong with this woman? Isn’t she someone’s daughter too?” 

Job 2:8-10  And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Only a man like Job could see the good in his wife — and Job was a righteous man, a God-fearing man, a man who walked with God. So Job always saw the good in her. Notice that he did not call her a fool; he said she was speaking as one of the foolish women speaks. Every preacher criticises her, but Pastor chose to point out the good qualities he saw in her — qualities he prayed all the young women would have, and the men as well. 

First, she was not a hypocrite. She did not display on the outside what was not on the inside. In the spiritual world today many people act; they put on a show of piety, especially when coming to church. She had no such nature. There was no hypocrisy in her. She was original. 

When her ten children died, she spoke out of the pain a mother feels. There is a condition known as survivor syndrome. When everything around you is destroyed, or you pass through trauma — someone dear to you dies, your wealth disappears in a day, your job goes, your children go — guilt and fear rise up: “Will something happen to me next?” Any small thing can then create trauma inside you, even a physical condition. You may have migraines or terrible headaches, feel suddenly exhausted, not want to be with anyone, and simply want to be left alone. In the middle of all that, her words about her pain were exactly what she felt. There was no hypocrisy and no acting. 

So do not demand that people put on an act around you. God knows your original self — who you really are. He called you after seeing and understanding you entirely. You don’t have to fake it to make it. You can be real before God. 

You don’t have to fake it to make it. You can be real before God. 

Second, she never stood in the way of prayer and worship. When Job was offering sacrifices at the altar and praying for his children, not once did she say, “Listen, we don’t need this in our house — we don’t need all this worship and prayer here.” She was for it. 

Job 1:5  So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and of er burnt of erings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.

Daughters, be for worship. Be for prayer. Be the ones who make room for the Lord to be worshipped and glorified inside your homes. 

Third, there was joy in her home. Go home and read the opening verses of Job 29, where Job looks back on the days when there was great happiness at home. Because of Job’s wife, the house never lacked happiness. She never once sulked. So say it with a smile — no swollen, pouting face. Relax. 

Job 29:2-5  “Oh, that I were as in months past, As in the days when God watched over me; When His lamp shone upon my head, And when by His light I walked through darkness; Just as I was in the days of my prime, When the friendly counsel of God was over my tent; When the Almighty was yet with me, When my children were around me;

“Today I declare prophetically: may Jesus change the atmosphere inside your homes.” 

Pastor added a lighter story. A husband once wrote in his book, “If I didn’t have my wife’s support, I could never have written a book like this.” His wife protested, “He is lying — I wasn’t even at home while he was writing it!” To which he replied, “Exactly. That is why I said it was because of my wife’s support.” 

Fourth, she did not join the accusers. When Job’s friends came and kept blaming him, his wife did not join them. She did not say, “Yes, tell him — we keep telling him and he won’t listen.” Some people are like that: “Pastor, we keep telling him and he just won’t listen.” She did not do that. Even then, she stood by him in support. 

Fifth, she did not leave in anger. Their wealth was gone, their house was gone, their children were gone — and after everything was gone, she still did not leave. Some people are simply waiting for their husband to show some shortcoming so they can reconnect with old classmates and old flames. She did not go the wrong way. Even then, she stayed holy unto God and faithful to her husband. 

Sixth, she did not react back. Even when Job asked why she was speaking like a foolish woman, she did not retaliate. She did not write to the women’s commission. If someone spoke to you like that today, how would you respond? She did not start an argument or pick a fight. She did not say, “I’m going back to my parents’ house.” Because of that, Job could see nothing negative in her, and he gladly received her back — for she had never once wounded him. 

And because they went on to raise a family together, God gave them ten more children. He returned everything that had been lost. 

Job 42:10  And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

A Word for Families 

“Inside some families, a divine restoration is about to come. When you start thanking, when you start worshipping, when you thank God without grumbling for the relationships He has given — whether a wife or a husband, daughters or sons — when you thank God for the blessings He has given, He will return what was lost and honour you in the land again. The Holy Spirit is giving this message to someone today. A family breakthrough — a breakthrough inside family relationships — God is commanding today.” 

Close your eyes and submit yourself to the Lord in the presence of Jesus. Glory to God. Thank You, Lord. 

Key Takeaways  • Your breath, your health and your life are a big deal. None of it is your cleverness or ability — in the Kingdom there are no achievers, only receivers.  • Forget not all His benefits. Keep a thanksgiving journal; a thankful heart is a weapon like prayer and fasting, and what you thank God for multiplies.  • God gives, then steps back and watches your response. By Him actions are weighed — gratitude is a shortcut to blessing.  • Thank people too — your mother, spouse, children and those who serve in your home. Those who belittle people stay little; if you take things for granted, you will be grounded.  • Learn from Job’s wife: be real, be for worship, keep joy in your home, stand by your family, stay faithful and do not retaliate — and expect God to restore what was lost.