The Power of a Whisper: How Listening to God’s Voice Changes Your Life and Legacy | Dr. Rod Casey

Across town at Woodcrest and I was youth pastor in your Christian Chapel and that might have been the first time We met and then I know We reconnected during a season of my life when I was in transition and I had opened the church and then ten years later had closed the church and Rod’s one of the brothers that I elder brothers that I kind of sought out and he was kind enough just to sit with me and To talk with me and encourage me in a time of transition And so and that’s really a part of Rod’s heart Not only it does he care deeply about theology and if you read his book also basketball But he cares deeply about theological education So he currently is the director of TEI, Missouri, which helps pastors in the local area get more theological training Because believe it or not even here in America pastors sometimes are so busy pastoring and working that it’s difficult for them to pick up and go to a seminary or other places and So Rod is full-time engaged in that and then but his real heartbeat is just to mentor pastors and men And so it’s it’s a great joy for us to have him here He’s probably gonna talk about his book But I just want to mention we’ve got 25 copies and I want any of us any of you that want to take one of These please take one and I only ask one thing is that you if you take it if you take it, please read it Read it because I promise I’ve already in the chapter 3 and if you read it, you’ll not only enjoy it You’ll want to give it to someone else You’ll read it and go, you know I think my son needs to read this or I’ve got this one man that needs this other person that Needs to read this so Rod just come and share with us and we’re glad you’re here. Let’s give him a hand My wife asked me last evening What do you have tomorrow I said, oh you didn’t know I’m taking my first stop on my book tour I Have a second one planned speaking in Ashland on March 8th, but this is my first and I’m really honored I Wrote a book starting last February that was a ministry memoir It’s essentially 13 experiences that I talked about and how? God is the hero of that story and how I have experienced his leadership and help and guidance through the years and Put it together for the sake of my grandchildren and I had it published at Christmas of this year and just I read it for the third time recently chapter a day and My cringe factor was not as high as I thought it would be I’m actually quite pleased and have aspired to write and Delighted and as Tom says our ministry the theological education initiative Purchased these books and we’re giving them away and there’s a donation page at the back if you’d like to help Participate in that but otherwise it’s just a way to do that So thank you for the privilege of being with you today, and I just admired I Have voted this church as having the best food Ever I’ve been here more than a few times for various fellowships and opportunities, and I’ve never been disappointed and I’m glad to see that the guys can keep up with the gals because Usually they were cooking our lunches and so way to go men You heard about the denominational executive who was so admired by his staff and Also that he loved them that he said to them Given the fact that I’ve had such a long Prosperous ministry here with you. Would it be okay if I was buried in the denominational headquarters wall? well, they agreed and they put a little crypt together in the side of the wall and Sure enough. He died They placed his body there and had a memorial plaque over it and three days later They heard noise inside the wall So they opened the wall. They pulled the casket out. They opened the lid and The denominational executive stood up Well, they said to him Dear brother, you’ve been to heaven and back What is it like to which he replied nothing like our denomination says it is and With that they shut the lid and threw him back in the wall My growing up experience Had an uneasy way with the charisma now for those who wouldn’t know that term just the work of the supernatural the ways in which God interacts in this life in ways that we don’t anticipate those parts of Scripture that are you know sign gifts and a little bit like what and So in the independent fundamentalist Baptist environment that I grew up in We believed in the Trinity Father Son and Holy Bible Well that continued into my theological studies at Dallas Seminary and As a result of that there wasn’t much space That’s an understatement for the realities of the workings of the Holy Spirit. You would occasionally hear a preacher say Something that went like this Well, I was going to talk about this but God told me to talk about this instead so we would do that and Occasionally you might hear someone use the word prompt, but quite hesitantly So this has been an unlikely adventure in Hearing the revelation of God in my life In the preface, I basically say no one would ever accuse me of being a charismatic and yet here are 12 stories about where God has intervened and given me what I call a thought that is not my thought and When I’ve had that thought it has changed the trajectory of my life given me correction and surprised me. I was in college when mrs. Fred Brown came down the hallway and met me as an excited Music minor I had just sung in front of the faculty for this University Christian school Where I was attending and had taken a lot of music Composition classes joined the choir and private lessons when she said to me Rod I’m sorry to tell you the faculty like you very much, but the answer is no. I went back to my dorm room and laid on the bunk bed and thought now what am I going to do and I cried a bit and I opened the Bible and God in his grace met me and Isaiah 46 was something that encouraged me never could do that again But you know God meets us in our immaturity as well. I Don’t think Isaiah meant what I experienced that day, but you know regardless it was there, and I thought well What am I going to do now? I remember walking through campus one day in the summer I stayed over that summer and was working And I I had a thought that I just knew wasn’t my thought I Known to think with God No attention had ever been given to that idea, but the thought was take a professor instead of a class chapter one So When the hard copy came out on the Registrar office I have to explain this to the younger college crowd That there wasn’t like a digital copy yet, so I went and flipped it open and down that column Was the one that said? Professor and I picked Dennis Michelson before I even looked at the class Dennis Michelson was the guy who when we had Chapel when he spoke we didn’t all go to sleep and So as a result of that we might even have conversations about what? Dr.. Michelson had said during the course of the week, so I signed up for the class it was called homiletics homily the study of preaching and for the first time in my life taking that class I Found a subject that came easy for me like I had heard my peers Talk about other subjects for them It wasn’t hard to study. I was excited to study the readings. I was invigorated by and So you might say to yourself. Oh, I bet you’re a extrovert I bet you’re a person who’s naturally inclined towards being in front of a crowd and the answer is that’s not the case in fact quite the opposite homiletics the study of the rhetoric of tools communication tools Opened up a world for me that things that were deep inside of me things that I was excited about Gave me some principles and some skills in order to be able to take this quiet shy last born of five young man and began to give him the skills to be able to do what I’m doing with you here today and have done through the years in my ministry life Take a professor instead of a class and I heard it through the power of a whisper in order to just respond to say and It’s affected the trajectory of my life in significant ways the second experience is the most dramatic of all the 12 stories that I tell I Announced to my wife in August of 2014 You Know how I’ve talked about maybe going and teaching in a Bible college or a seminary preaching teaching preaching and theology in the pastoral ministries Department of some school. I said, I think that’s time I’d gone and pursued a doctorate in my 40s in order to be able to do that and I was now excited to sort of go do that and and Not to mention that the faith community that I was a part of was about it was Unraveling and I could see a train wreck in its future But that aside I just said hey, I think it’s time to go teach to what she said I Don’t think God’s in that I Said well, I begged to differ with you and In October when we go out to California and worked Biola University for the Evangelical homiletic society where the teachers of preaching gather in America’s Bible schools I said some of those will be there including our alma mater Dallas Seminary So I’m gonna talk to Timothy Warren and Vicki Anderson and they were you know TAs of mine back in the day and I wouldn’t be surprised the subject didn’t come up and you like Dallas I said to her and you could do good the work you do in Dallas and I don’t think that’s in the cards, but okay We went to To the society meeting and Things were happening just as I had hoped before dinner that Thursday evening I’m talking with Timothy and Vic and they don’t offer me a job. Nothing’s come up yet about a transition I don’t know them that well But I’m surmising how it would happen After dinner My mentor preaching mentor Who’s also employed now there at at? Biola Talbot School of Theology said to me, how’s it going in Central, Missouri? He had been here several times and I said not good. He said what’s going on? I said well our senior pastor is just basically quit Just biding his time there’s some messes that have been made I feel like the institution is unraveling He said what are you going to do? I said, I’m hearing the very words. I had hoped I said to Don who is well connected to the world of Expository and biblical preaching and I said to him done I think I want to go give to the next generation what you gave to me I’d like to go teach in a Bible school or seminary to which he said I Could totally see that rod and when you’re ready, let me know and I’ll help you and My Spirit ran cold and I don’t even know what that means The next morning Jack Hayford who would be a familiar to name to many of you who’s a Pentecostal at Church of Van Nuys and speaker in our promise keepers at this time was about 81 years old and He’s the plenary speaker and many of these schools are not those who traffic in the sign gifts or in the supernatural but here’s a Pentecostal who’s sharing his thoughts and frankly, he’s saying some things that even to me were a little bit like hmm like He would say holding his Bible I Can just breathe in the aroma of the Spirit He would say I just walk in the front yard of my House and he said God talks to me now again I’m not anti any of that and I have been an open to whatever the Lord might provide and He and he’s 81 and so I have a confidence that you know he he’s learned the voice of God in ways that I aspire to as He was sharing he went on to say I’ll never forget when I was younger and in the four square denominate denominational offices He said there was a woman there that I attracted a lust for and all of a sudden This we’re talking about teaching preaching and he’s talking about having lust for a younger woman and So and he’s 81 and everybody’s gonna you know like this and he continues the story. I prayed and prayed about it He said I never acted out on it, but he said it just consumed me for months But he said I’ll tell you I’ll tell you where I was in the hallway of The four square offices when it left me a deceiving spirit and What I’m about to say happened in milliseconds Milliseconds, I thought oh my word. You’ve got to be kidding me a Deceiving spirit. I don’t name my spirits except for the Holy Spirit and that fast it came to me a Deceiving spirit that’s on you on me So he says I’ll tell you how you know a deceiving spirit he said first of all, it’s always self-serving Snap now he was old enough that he said there were two things, but he forgot the second thing But he didn’t have to because the Spirit of God the Holy Whisper Said to me Play it out over eight or nine years In other words, it’ll be cool move into a new city It’ll be nice being able to tell your stories to these students invest in them But play it out over eight or nine years. What do you leave behind and Just that fast I had this love of Central, Missouri and the young men that God was gifting me giving me to be able to invest in and So I could see Drinking tea at Panera Bread and that came to my mind and the thought of sitting with John Draghi and my other pastor buddies and attending the pastor’s fellowships these things came to my mind and then I thought about Being at Parkland Hospital in Dallas where I’m just a number instead of the person like I’ve had the experience of greeting me at the emergency room and A doctor praying over me So that all happened that’s strike two Strike three happened that night when I sat down to a table just like this next to Cal Pearson and I said to him Cal How’s it going at Southwestern Seminary? He said oh, I’m not at Southwestern Seminary Anymore, you didn’t know I went into the pastorate. I said, you’re kidding me I’m thinking about going from the pastorate into the seminary without any knowledge of my experience Cal says to me Rod You wouldn’t believe how dysfunctional higher education is He Said you look to me like a leader you’d hate it He said I’ll tell you one thing if you’re looking for an easier gig you ought to take it because preaching and pastoring is ten times harder than teaching in a seminary is and at that point I threw up my Figurative hands and said Lord. I hear you strike three. I’m out. I’ll stay and face whatever’s coming So as I’m walking with my wife in downtown Disney that night I tell her these three experiences and I get done and she says I Told you God wouldn’t in it. Oh Goodness the mercies of God to come to us in thoughts that aren’t our thoughts as We’re thinking with God as we’re consulting with him as we’re listening That can come to us of course in some more dramatic ways, but in some very simple Stories like I’ve put into my own memoir Where the power of a whisper where God rescued me where God came to me? I’m walking in the mall as I do on the days that it’s too cold to walk in my neighborhood and I nearly bump into a sign on this Friday morning That looks a little annoying to me, and it says blood drive today This is about two and a half years ago and I just sort of excused myself around it kept walking and I don’t get but down to the Dillard’s wing and this Irritating whisper comes to me again I Believe in blood donations. I think it’s important that people have access to blood when they need it I Have good general assent that we ought to do things that help our community Not what I do Except for the power of a whisper You could do that It took me another full lap Before I finally relented and walked in and I’m now a two-gallon and a pint blood donor Come on Now I don’t think we all can do everything But the Lord has these some things and mine happens to be picking up litter because I worked at McDonald’s when I was a struggling church planter and the Mac way of The founder mr. Coke was that you had to pick up paper within a full city block And if you remember back in the day before there was a Chick-fil-a that was one solid green space And I’m a 28 year old graduate of a prestigious seminary Picking up paper. So when I left McDonald’s I Thought I’m done with that Until I got a job At a church and the first morning I step out of the car. There’s a piece of paper with a Snickers wrapper Laying on the floor and a banana peel between me and the door And I just step over thinking you mean I’ve come to a church where they don’t have a facilities director And I heard the Spirit Prompt me and say well, how about you big boy? You could pick it up here You’ve had the training you’ve watched the videos Oh That’s chapter 10 You could do that You could do that You don’t have to do everything But there are things that we do that remind us That we can we can be a part of all of that What we do is we think with God We hear from God through thoughts that are not our thoughts We shine the light of Scripture on to those thoughts and Then we submit them to our Spiritual community to our elders in particular and we say to them. I have a thought I Don’t think it’s my thought How does that compare With Scripture and its teachings and Then we ask for them to speak into it and in the back of this resource. I’ve included a practice That I have found invaluable and that I practice many mornings if not most and That is it’s simply called a manual journaling Manual journaling and there’s a template in there But a manual journaling is simply like four entries that I put into a journal and it just simply goes like this I’m writing as If God is speaking I’m making an assumption that God is at work in my life and has things to say So in this a man you’ll journaling. I’m just writing Something like this, I’ll have a prompt I See you as from God God speaking to me. I see you dot dot dot Sitting there worrying about how to get this book published. I hear you feeling Disappointed at three different publishers saying no I know you want to make a contribution to your story as to how to get this done. I Am strong enough To provide a way and Then finally I am enabling you To take the next step To contact in this case To take the next step To contact in this case the local publisher step into self-publishing through the carriage house And then we say yes to whatever that next step is surrendering the outcome of the disappointments that will come with it and this kind of a manual journaling has served me well in terms of my uneasy and Unexpected Journey in the work of Navigating the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit If I may I’ll leave you with reading from this my contribution The question that I’m answering is When do you get to stop being a Christian? Do you get to be stop being a Christian brides on their wedding day, is it appropriate to say oh, it’s your day You get to act however you want and we would say No Well, what about the day that you experience the loss of a job? Or you can’t stay there any longer Any longer we’d say oh, well give yourself a break you don’t have to be Christian today. Oh Here’s the one that I’m really talking about Well when I retire I’ve done my job. I Don’t have to make my contribution any longer. Let the next generation have it I Say small things matter your contribution matters Your seemingly small contribution matters a lot to someone and you are a terrible judge of its value That’s why you can’t ever retire You heard me resist planning for it celebrating it or waiting for it I don’t mean there won’t come a day when our bills are paid from income we receive from Social Security Pensions and or 401ks, that’s fine I’m talking about retiring from what you uniquely contribute to your world and instead become an entitled brat Is that too harsh? Waking up self-absorbed expecting to be catered to or saying I’ve done my part. It’s somebody else’s turn. I forbid it Getting your mind around how you contribute to your world is a lifelong process throughout your life You will likely talk about it in a variety of ways But at the core of it there is a common theme for me as best I understand it is about being the mentor I wished I’d had You’ve heard about this repeatedly through the book. I want to be the mission Mentor, I wish my dad would have had I want to be the academic mentor and pastoral ministry that some seminary professors were to me I want to be president of their fan clubs. I want to put gospel ointment on their service wounds I want to grow old with Julie supporting our two girls their husbands and their children retire. No, thank you My oldest brother Randy was a model of aging Well, if you asked him if you could borrow his truck, for example, he would tell you it wasn’t his to loan. I Gave it to God he would say and I’m confident. He’d be delighted for you to use it He used the same Dave Ramsey cliche when you asked him how he was doing Better than I deserved Was his guaranteed comeback his reputation is land Legendary in our hometown of Festus for getting waitstaff to give him the check of people. He knew sitting at tables nearby He relished the thought of their surprise after he left that their meal was already paid for beyond his regular Charitable giving commitments Randy kept a monthly sum of three hundred dollars to meet someone’s need on More than one occasion. I was that needy one That’s the testimony of my two daughters as well when he died in the spring of 2024 He had come alongside a struggling food bank the Jefferson County rescue mission and as its director Revitalize it when he couldn’t get out of bed any longer people came to his living room bedside to hear a lame joke talk about how they were struggling and let their pastor Randy pray for them one last time a Scripture that reminds us to not look down on small things is Zechariah 4 10 in The New Living Translation it reads do not despise these small beginnings for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin The context surrounds the frail and faltering work of the exiled people returning from Babylon to rebuild Solomon’s temple under Zerubbabel Along with the spiritual oversight of Haggai and Zechariah Even the hanging of a plumb line to get a straight wall was celebrated No act when motivated by a heart of love is too small Would you pray with me and So our gracious God may we be attentive to the power of a whisper and Lord may we always respond with a yes By your grace and in your name we pray amen Praise the Lord.