Best with What You Have | W.D. Frazee Sermons #1478

Can you do your best with what you have? In this candid study from March 5, 1980, Elder W.D. Frazee tackles a principle that most of us struggle with — the temptation to believe that progress depends on getting more space, more equipment, more personnel, and more budget. With gentle humor and repeated caution that "this is not for everybody, and it's not for anybody all the time," he unfolds a liberating truth: Christian leadership means learning to accomplish more with less.

Using unforgettable illustrations — a dachshund pumped with growth hormones, an automobile overloaded with gadgets, dinosaurs that grew too big to survive, and a missionary whose total possessions were a coconut shell and a spoon — Elder Frazee shows that God's method has always been small, efficient, and Spirit-dependent. Jesus Himself operated on a very small budget with minimal buildings and equipment, yet He was the greatest Teacher, Physician, and Evangelist the world has ever seen.

The test of Christian leadership is not how much you can accumulate, but whether you can make what you have efficient for God's purpose.

Key Themes: — "God can bless twenty acres of land and make them as productive as one hundred" — The danger of constantly investing for more room, more convenience — Four resources of leadership: space, equipment, personnel, budget — Be content with what you have (Hebrews 13:5) and start using it — The feeding of the 5,000: "How many loaves have ye? Go and see" — Pruning for productivity (John 15:2) — more fruit through less — Getting things "into as compact a compass as possible"

Key Texts: Philippians 4:5, 19 | Hebrews 13:5 | Mark 6:38 | John 15:2, 5 | 1 Corinthians 9:25

Spirit of Prophecy References: Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 152 | Testimonies, Vol. 8, p. 48