This sermon reflects on the importance of understanding the measure of our days and living each day as if it were our last, emphasizing the need to seek God's guidance and wisdom in all aspects of life. It delves into the concept of spiritual surplus, urging believers to pray for abundance and prophetic insight to navigate the challenges ahead. The message highlights the significance of stopping leaks in our character, avoiding mischievous madness in speech, and embracing a life filled with righteousness and love.

You know, in the chapter which we just read, the 39th chapter of Psalms, and the 4th verse, Psalm 39, and the 4th verse. Lord, make me to know mine end. You see, people want the bottom line, isn't it? What did he make this year? Or, what is my business worth at the end of this year? Make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days. You see, that is, you know, when you want to project something. I shall do this this year, and I shall do the next thing in 2012. And then I will do another thing, a further step in 2013. Well, that's how people project their advance or their business. But, here, there is an unspecified factor. The measure of my days. Make me to know the measure of my days. I don't know how many of you have been interested in athletics. But, you know, in a 400-meter race, you have to go right around that oval track. And four times around the track makes 400 meters. But before the runners start their last lap, which is the fourth, there is a bell rung. Now, this is the last lap. You know, we don't have any such bell to warn us. And we do not know which is the last lap. And if we keep the kind of pace that we had maintained, we are not going to win the race. The last lap means we give everything we have to it. That's the last lap. But we don't know which is the last lap. Which means some of God's children have said, I live as though this is my last day on earth. You see, how do we live? We live as though everything will be a rigmarole. It will come on and we just have to live it all over again. And we get bored and so on and so forth. But we don't live as though it is the last day in our lives. Suppose you were told this is the very last day of your life. What would you like to settle? There would be a few things which you want to communicate to somebody close to you. There would be certain things which you want to tidy up so that you don't leave all things in a mess. But here, what a wonderful prayer this is. Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days, what it is. You see, that I may know how frail I am. You see, that I may know how frail I am. There are so many things in which human strength and endurance themselves cannot pull you through. You see, it is amazing. Some of the great sportsmen just collapse. And everybody thinks, hey, this fellow was in the pink of health. Why has he collapsed? What's wrong? And it's discovered that there is something wrong with his heart and his sports days are over. So, sometimes we don't realize how frail we are. Yesterday I was looking out of the window at a bird feeder. And I was so surprised. There were such a variety of birds feeding. They would come and I thought they were spring birds. I say, what are they doing here? In this low temperatures, how do they live? But they were, oh, they were trying to bide their time and get their way at that little feeder. And some of those birds were bullies. And they didn't let the smaller birds come by, you know. But however, the smaller birds would try to sneak in and just get a few grains, I suppose. Now, all right. So, even in the midst of our bitter winter, the Lord takes care of those birds. How amazing. How amazing that they can survive. You know, man can't survive. You leave him out in the cold the whole night and say in a porch like this, porch we have here. By the morning, probably he would be dead, frozen. But the birds don't seem to go that way. The Lord cares for them. You see, how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, and my ages as nothing before you. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. My days are as a handbreadth. They are nothing before you. Every man at his best state is altogether vanity. You know, David had a very rough life. He was a fugitive. He had to run from a king who pursued him. He knew what a jealous spirit could do. He had to battle against his own wicked nature, susceptible to awful immorality. But he had to humble himself and cry to God for a new heart. Renew a right spirit within me. You see, a right spirit within me. The old spirit is no good. You know, it doesn't help if we are just like corks thrown into a current. And where the current goes, the cork goes. What do you mean? You're not to be like that, nor I. But, you know, if we are going to build upon the world's values, you will only find emptiness, vanity. The world's values are, look good, you know, have a nice exterior, polish your manners. But God says, be right with me within, within your heart. So, my dear friends, we must look at those leaks. See, if a big ship springs a leak, like the Titanic did, when it struck an iceberg. It was designed, the designer was of the ship, the builder of the ship, the architect and so on. They were there, in the vessel. As it was sinking, it had sprung a leak. What are the leaks in our nature? What are the leaks? Now, if you turn to Ecclesiastes, and the 10th chapter, we see a leak which is prevalent in many people. If you turn to Ecclesiastes, 10th chapter, and the 12th verse, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious. You see, gracious words don't hurt. Well, what is the great problem about gracious words? We can't talk gracious words. We can be just gracious to others. Some people are very abrasive, you know. That's wrong. The Bible says, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. He gets into a rage, as though he is ready to burst open. You see, he will swallow up himself. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. Mad talk. You don't listen to a madman, do you? You don't ask a madman, which is the direction that I must take. I'm looking for this place. And you don't trust a drunken man or a madman. But, when a mouth goes out of control, God says, the end of his talk, the sum total of his talk, is just mischievous madness. See, we can't engage in madness. God has given us sanity. God has given us the ability to think. What a terrible thing it would be if we were irrational. We couldn't think straight. You lost your mind and you begin to think this and that, and bizarre ideas come into you. Oh my, it would be terrible. You would be a madhouse. But, God's thoughts, the beginning of his words is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. A fool also is full of words. Full of words. Now, my friends, you and I have to be full of fruit. The fruit of righteousness, the fruit of love, the fruit of purity. See, God has given to us that grace that when we are grafted into the true vine, then we bring forth the fruit of that vine. The fruit that is in Jesus, the life which is in Jesus, comes out of us. Now, that is the fruit. So, friends, we see there are these leaks. God helped me to stop the leak. I had a very foolish tongue. You know, idle talk. God helped me to just put a bridle. He put a bridle, and that leak was stopped. It was an awful leak. Now, we come to the next. What would we ask of God coming to the end of the year? What would we ask of God? You see, when the Holy Ghost has come, He will show you the things to come, the Bible says. You know, He designs us. Even our difficulties, our trials, are a designing process. Oh boy, when people work on a lathe, you can see the sparks fly. You know, they're grinding something or getting the part into correct measurement. You've got to grind. It's so smooth and correctly. You can't make the slightest mistake there. And so the sparks begin to fly, and there's a loud noise. Why the grinders are working. And before this process begins, of course, there is the process of going through the fire. You can't do too much unless the metal is heated up. Okay, so there is the fire. There is the grinding. There are the trials. Before a proper part is produced. And if you produce a slightly defective part, the company is going to say, Hey, we will not accept even three defective parts in a million. We don't want your supplies anymore. You're not going to be our supplier. That's the end of story. You can't talk them into accepting bad parts. Of course not. Their company will go bust. And so there is the grinding to be done. There is the lathe work or whatever work. And a proper part is produced. Now, in this process, if you turn to Genesis chapter 37, you know God was putting Joseph through a process. And in this process, it began quite early. Genesis is the first book of the Bible, 37. And Joseph began to have dreams. They seemed to be irrational dreams. I hope you don't go by your dreams because suddenly you find a tiger chasing you in your bedroom. What sense does that make? No. Anyway, if you turn to Genesis chapter 37 and 4 and 5, here is Joseph dreamed a dream and he told it to his brothers and they hated him yet the more. You see, unfortunately, Joseph was so loved to the extent of partiality by his dad. When his mother died and his mother having died, Joseph became a very special boy to his dad. And, of course, the brothers. And what was the dream? I've dreamed a dream. He said to them, however, I pray you this dream which I have dreamed. Seventh verse. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field and lo, my sheave arose and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheave. They bowed to my sheave. Ah, his brothers were wild. Eighth verse. Shall thou indeed reign over us or shall thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more. But, you know, God was trying to speak to little Joseph. I'm going to do something with your life. And God did it. If you turn to chapter 41, chapter 41 and verse 24, you'll see Pharaoh's dreams. And Joseph was called up from the prison. The king wants you to interpret his dream. Huh. And how could he? Twenty-fifth verse. And Joseph, chapter 41 and 25. And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is won. God has showed Pharaoh what he is about to do. Look at that. He could have said, What? You dream of cows and all kinds of stuff? No sense to all that rubbish. Don't worry. That would be our interpretation. But, Joseph's interpretation, which he could see, was prophetic. God is showing the king what he is going to do. And what was he going to do? Send seven years of plenty, abundance, surplus. And during those surplus years, prepare for the seven years of deficit, tough years of starvation, famine. You see, what a prophetic voice. Saved a country. See, there was nothing like that when the surplus years were coming, when money was flowing in. You see, what was it a few years ago? And everything was on top. People said, Hey, everything is booming. But we didn't know that the tough years were coming. You see, the prophetic spirit. We need that prophetic spirit. The spirit which shows us the things to come. You know, it helps us in every way. The prophetic spirit. We don't understand it. You see, was this dream to be understood straight away? No. It appeared to be so far away, so distant, so remote, not likely to happen. Oh, we can get through with all that. No. It would have resulted in starvation and death. You know, spiritual surplus. We never think of spiritual surplus. We are trying to dig up. You know, I feel very sad when I say, Ha! I am not giving the best to the people. I am just trying to scrape the bottom and get a little and give it to the people. What's that? God wants us to run a supply which is surplus. A overflowing cup. Ask God. Let us ask God. We don't know a thing about the coming year. We know nothing. But we can ask God. Lord, I've been running on dregs. I've been running on low supply. I've been running on empty. Please give me surplus. Let me abound. Why can't we pray like that? And God will hear us. God will give to us the surplus which is in His presence. My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. What do you mean? How can you talk about all the days of your life? How can you? What do you know? What is ahead? The psalmist could say, My cup runneth over. Oh, may God give to us such cups. A year where we operate on surplus. On spiritual surplus. Not just getting by dragging ourselves along. No. The Lord will do it. Let us pray. Gracious Father, we want all the leaks to be stopped. We don't want leaks, Lord. Mischievous madness. We don't want mischievous madness in our talk. Lord our God, we want prophetic words like Joseph. That prophetic spirit that saves nations. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive me, Father. When I have spoken mischievous madness and an abundance of foolishness. No, Lord, we don't want to be that. We want to be able to say, My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Lord, give to us that strong confidence. The Lord is my keeper. The Lord is my shade upon the right hand. The sun shall not smite me by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve me from all evil. He shall preserve my soul. The Lord shall preserve my going out and my coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Oh, my Father, give to us faith. Give to us this confidence. Give to us a prophetic spirit. Oh, let us not run on empty. Oh, please, Father, hear our prayer. Thank you again for bringing us to this last Sunday of the year. Bless all your people around the world. We ask this in Jesus' holy name. Amen.