God Nudges Series

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Ruth 1:16-17

Title: The God Who Nudges

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

I want to talk to you today about nudges – God’s nudges to be exact. I want to talk to you today about having the ability to correctly respond to one of God’s nudges. For as we read the Bible we do see God speaking with a loud voice at times:

+The burning bush (Exodus 3)

+To the Prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1)

+And as recorded by the Psalmist in Psalms 29

“Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the LORD in the splendor of His Holiness. The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of Glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.” – Ps. 29:1-5

But we also see that God speaks in other voices as well. One of those voices is through nudges.

Nudges – nudges are things like a soft push or a gentle touch.

Nudges – are those things that we see in front of us that compel us to a certain type of action – like the fact that most stores place candy near the cashier so that right before we put our last item on the conveyer belt we get a nudge to reach for some gum or some type of candy to buy.

Nudges – are those things that cause us to either buy something when we see a clearance sign or cause us to not buy something when we see that it has gone up in price over the last few weeks.

Nudges from the LORD are found all over the Bible. Nudges are sometimes called promptings; leadings of the Holy Spirit.

All of us no doubt have been nudged by the Holy Spirit to do such things as:

+Pray for someone or something – perhaps even in the middle of the night

+Give something extra to someone or to a special cause

+Volunter to serve in a certain area

The Book of Ruth is a wonderful little book. It’s the story of a young woman who started off life as a princess, overnight became a widow and sadly ended up being poverty stricken.

But that is not the end of her story. For as you read the rest of her story you see where she becomes a woman of means and the great-grandmother of the Greatest King in Israel’s history; King David.

It’s the story of how a woman was loved in her home country, hated in her adopted country for a time period only in the end receive the highest blessings a woman could receive when she married a man named Boaz.

Ruth’s story is the story of redemption. It’s the story of God’s Protection. It’s the story of how God works through nudges; promptings.

You see, we don’t read about any angels appearing on earth in Ruth’s story.

We don’t read about any voices coming from a burning bush, from a mountain on fire or supernatural proclamations from the mouth of a prophet.

We don’t even read about any visions or dreams.

But we do read about how God moves and speaks to His People. We do read about how God invites and makes a way for people to be rescued and redeemed.

You see, God is still talking but He speaks through little nudges and promptings.

+It was a nudge by the LORD by way of a famine that Naomi and her husband first moved to Moab.

+It was a nudge by the LORD during a time of harvest blessings that caused Naomi to return to the land of Judah with Ruth.

+It was a nudge by the LORD that caused Ruth to go to Boaz’s field to work.

+It was a nudge by the LORD that caused Boaz to notice Ruth in his field.

+It was a nudge by the LORD that caused Naomi to tell Ruth that she didn’t need to go to anyone else’s field to work than Boaz’s field.

+It was a nudge by the LORD that caused Boaz to tell his servants that they were to make sure that Ruth was able to glean plenty of grain. They were to purposely leave behind handfuls of grain so that she could collect them.

+It was a nudge by the LORD that later caused Naomi to set up a mystery date between Ruth and Boaz – a date that would then nudge Boaz to make a way possible for him to marry Ruth.