1. Second Corinthians 9:8 says God wants us to "abound to every good work." Strong's Concordance says the word "abound" means, "to cause to super-abound or excel."
2. Thayer's Greek Lexicon says the word "abound" means, "to exceed; to overflow; to make abundant or excellent. 'Abounding' is used of a flower going from a bud to full bloom."
3. This is God's will for His children. We need to understand it is God working in us and through us that allows us to "abound."
4. I appreciated our brother's emphasis in his exposition of Romans 12:1, 2. "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..." (Romans 12:2).
5. Allow God to transform you.
6. Ephesians 5:18 says, "Be filled with the Spirit." The passive voice means, allow God to fill us.
7. This is what Philippians 2:13 means -- "For it is God which worketh in you..."
8. Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." "And God is able..." (II Cor. 9:8).
9. This is our strength for soulwinning -- "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you..." (Acts 1:8).
10. Getting back to II Corinthians 9:8, let us consider the word "abound."
11. The word is found 39 times in the New Testament. Sometimes it is translated, "increase." "And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily" (Acts 16:5).

I. WE WILL ABOUND IN THE GRACE OF GIVING (II COR. 8:1, 2, 7).

1. The Macedonian Christians were poor. Verse 2 refers to "their deep poverty."
2. I read an interesting story about a Christian businessman who was traveling in Korea. One day he saw in the field a young man pulling a plow, while an old man held the handles.
3. He asked the missionary who was accompanying him if he knew these two men, and the missionary said the two men were father and son. When their church needed to erect a building they sold their ox and gave the money to the church building fund.
4. Now, without their ox, they were pulling the plow themselves. The businessman was so impressed with what he saw and heard that when he returned to the USA, he told his pastor, "I am going to double my tithes and offerings. I need to do some serious plowing!"
5. The Macedonian Christians were poor, yet their giving was rich. How is that possible? By the grace of God (8:1).
6. Giving is a grace, and it is God's will for each and every Christian to be a cheerful giver (cf. II Cor. 9:6-8).
7. Many believers are missing out on the blessings of God because they are not abounding in this grace. The Lord Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).
8. The word "abound" describes this great blessing (II Cor. 8:7; cf. Luke 6:38 -- "running over," -- "to overflow, to pour out beyond measure").
9. Malachi 3:10 says, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
10. "Running over" (Luke 6:38) and "pour out" (Malachi 3:10) describe the abounding grace of God.
11. This is the fullness of the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of joyful believers. The words "pour out" are often used this way (cf. John 7:37-39).
12. The LORD says in Proverbs 1:23, "I will pour out my spirit unto you."
13. Isaiah 44:3 says, "For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring."
14. Joel 2:28 says, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh."
15. Peter quoted Joel's prophecy on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17).
16. Ezekiel 39:29 says, "For I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD."
17. Acts 10:45 says, the gift of the Holy Ghost "was poured out" on the Gentiles.
18. Romans 5:5 says, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
19. God’s grace is planted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. In II Corinthians 8:2, we see the unusual (from a human standpoint) combination of joy and deep poverty.
20. The grace of God was bestowed until the “abundance” of joy and poverty “abounded unto the riches of their liberality" (8:2).
21. The word "abound" is used in the New Testament to describe an experience of being filled so full of the joy of the Holy Spirit that they overflowed in blessing to others.
22. Norman B. Harrison said, "What a provision for financing the cause of Christ in the world! Not drives — far, far from it. Nor yet dinners that fill the stomach, but grace that fills the heart. Then giving becomes the luxurious outpouring of heaven’s treasure in the heart through the medium of material substance. Multiplied thousands, through the Christian centuries, have proved that when the Spirit infills the heart with this grace there is an inner experience of joy out of which proceed, not mere charity or benevolence, but the 'rivers of living water' freighted with tokens of love, His and ours" (His Indwelling Presence).

II. WE WILL ABOUND IN GOOD WORKS (II COR. 9:8).

1. In II Corinthians 8, we see how God allows us the joy and privilege of abounding in giving.   But it is more than giving, it is working.  God wants us to "abound to every good work" (9:8).
2. I have observed that good givers are good workers; and good workers are good givers.   The grace of God flows out from us, and giving is just one of the channels it takes.  Second Corinthians 8 and 9 teach this very clearly (cf. 9:6-8).
3. God is able to make us overflow, out of His abundant supply of grace, in every sort of good work for the blessing of others.
4. First Corinthians 12 speaks of the diversities of gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I Corinthians 12:6 says it is "God which worketh all in all."
5. Cf. I Corinthians 15:10.
6. Paul says in Colossians 1:29, "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily."
7. In Ephesians 1:19, Paul refers to the working of God's mighty power working in us.
8. Hebrews 13:21 says the Lord is working in us so that we can do that "which is well pleasing in his sight."
9. In Ephesians 3:7, Paul calls it "the effectual working of his power."
10. The word "abound" is used twice in II Corinthians 9:8, emphasizing that God fills us over and above our own need so that we in turn may overflow, and abound in blessings to others.
11. We recall the illustration of the two oars.  The two phases of the Spirit-filled life should be kept in mind — God's part and ours.

·  God is able to make all grace abound toward us

·  that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

12. Ephesians 2:10 says we were "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
13. Since God has prepared these good works beforehand, He is able to make us channels of blessing when we allow Him to fill us and overflow us.
14. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58).

CONCLUSION:

How I praise Thee, precious Savior,
That Thy love laid hold of me;
Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me
That I might Thy channel be.

Channels only, blessèd Master,
But with all Thy wondrous power
Flowing through us, Thou canst use us
Every day and every hour.

Just a channel full of blessing,
To the thirsty hearts around;
To tell out Thy full salvation
All Thy loving message sound.

Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me,
A clean vessel in Thy hand;
With no power but as Thou givest
Graciously with each command.

Witnessing Thy power to save me,
Setting free from self and sin;
Thou who boughtest to possess me,
In Thy fullness, Lord, come in.

Jesus, fill now with Thy Spirit
Hearts that full surrender know;
That the streams of living water
From our inner self may flow. -- Mary E. Maxwell