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.
+It was a nudge by the LORD that caused a man who by family rights should have married Ruth to back out of accepting her as a wife.
You could call all of those things just coincides or things that happened by chance.
But the more you dig into the Story of Ruth the more you see that what we find is a perfect example of how God uses little nudges to get things done in our lives. You see how God doesn’t always shout out commands, send down angels or use the voice of prophets but can use a little prompting here and a little nudge there to get us to go the right way and do the right thing.
We see the same thing happening in other places in the Bible:
+The Woman at the Well – John 4
+The Story of Simeon going to the Temple the Day that Jesus was Consecrated (Luke 2:27)
I think this morning that if we could all share a little bit of our life stories we would find that we all have experienced various times where we have felt a prompting or a nudge from the LORD. Many times we may not have our spiritual eyes opened well enough to see it.
Leonard Sweet shares a story that may help illustrate what I mean. Listen to his words:
“One reason is that we’re oblivious to the obvious. I love the story from the 1970s about the man in West Berlin who worked in the eastern sector of that divided city. He would ride his bicycle to work each day and carry a bag of sand. Each day the surveillance officer at the checkpoint, suspicious of smuggling, would inspect the worker and the bag of sand, but never found anything. After months of this daily routine, the exasperated guard finally bargained with the worker, saying he would let him smuggle whatever he had in the sand if he would only tell him what it was.
To the guard’s chagrin, the West Berliner confessed that he had been smuggling bicycles.” (https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/blog/exploring-nudge-spirit-your-everyday-life)
I guess when you think about it we should see more burning bushes and the presence of angels. For when we feel a nudge, we need to know that it is just as powerful as the Archangel Michael or Gabriel themselves coming to earth or God parting the waters through Moses.
Now, we all know that while there are God nudges there can also be selfish pride nudges and evil nudges that orginate from the Evil One.
+Our pride can nudge us to put someone down or to cause harm or to think to highly of ourselves.
+The Devil can nudge us to commit sin, to harm someone by stealing from them or lying about them.
Those are nudges that we need to disregard and disobey.
God’s nudges are really neat things if you allow yourself to be opened to them.
F. B. Meyer’s gives some great advice on how to better receive them or understand them:
“Be still each day for a short time, sitting before God in meditation, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the truth of Christ’s indwelling. Ask God to be please to make known to you what is the riches of the glory of this mystery.”
In other words, develop you nudge ability.
+Get alone with God and become so much His friend that God can nudge your mind, your heart and your soul to do something that would uplift the name of Jesus and that would make another person’s life better.
It is very simple for us to do this:
One of the ways that God nudges me is that every now and then I am to pay for a person’s meal at a restaurant.
Let me explain:
There have been times that as Rebekah and I have been walking out of a restaurant that I see a young family or an older couple. For some reason it is usually one or the other.
I stop by and tell them what a wonderful family they have or mention that it is always good to be eating a great meal together as a family. It is usually as I walk past them that I get this nudge -
“Go back and pay for their meal – just lay down enough money to pay for their meal, for a great tip and a little extra.”
The first few times I have to admit felt a little weird. I didn’t know the people. I had no idea if they were as poor as the proverbial church mouse or as rich as Elon Musk.
All I know is that the LORD was nudging me to do something for them. So, I do my best to obey.
Does heaven open up and an angel suddenly appear?
Does the couple get down on their knees and thank God or come to faith?
Not yet.
All I know is that at the very least I have paid for someone’s meal and that in itself should help them have a great day and more than likely caused them to have an interesting conversation.
Who was that?
Do we know them?
Do you think that they will be back to ask us to do something?
God nudges. They can be subtle at times and perhaps strange at times.
I remember one time the Lord nudged me to go to a certain trucker’s restaurant and just order a cup of coffee and leave a healthy tip for the waitress. I think I had only eaten in that restaurant only one time in my life.
So, I drove to that restaurant, ordered a cup of coffee (which was not great) and had to wait on the waitress for a bit to bring my coffee. It became apparent that she was not having a great day and she was not in a great mood.
I have to say I talked to the LORD a lot the next few minutes. Had I been nudged wrong?
I mean she was not in the best of moods and the coffee was not that great. Maybe I should go to another restaurant. But I have found out over time that nudges from the LORD are not centered on me – they are centered on God helping others – I am just the vessel that God is using to help someone else. So, I gave her what I believed God wanted me to give her and left.
Maybe someday in heaven I will meet her and find out what that was all about.
I am sure we all have had such nudges and we if we had the time this morning, it would be amazing how many different stories we could share.
So, what are some of the ways that we know that it is a God nudge and that we should respond appropriately?
1. First of all, we have to be open to God nudges. We have to be able to tune our hearts, our ears, our minds and our souls to allow God to nudge us. We have to tell God that we will respond to His nudges. We have to be like Ruth and Simeon who did what God nudged them to do.
2. Second, we have to understand that God nudges usually happen while we are doing something in the natural:
+Boaz was nudged to make sure that Ruth got extra grain while he was just overseeing his fields.
+Naomi was nudged to promote a secret date between Ruth and Boaz while she and Ruth were having a simple conversation.
+The Woman at the Well was nudged to go to the well and meet Jesus
God loves to work in real life situations.
+While people are fishing or cleaning their nets. (Peter, James and John)
+While people are tending their sheep in the desert. (Moses)
+While people are doing their jobs collecting payments. (Matthew)
3. God nudges will always uplift the name and message of Jesus – nudges that degrade Jesus or cause us to go against His will are not nudges from the LORD. We can always be assured that God nudges will always promote love, mercy and grace.
As I read recently, if it is going to leave a Jesus dent – then it is a God nudge.
4. God nudges will always uplift another person.
Boaz’s was nudged to help Ruth.
Simeon was nudged to help Mary and Joseph.
Remember this Bible verse:
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10 NIV
5. God nudges will bring us closer to the LORD and enable us to love others more.
Historically, Jewish people have a rather interesting view of giving. They don’t look at giving as merely an act of charity. For many Jews, giving to others is simply one of the ways that God is allowing them to work with Him to help transform the world more into His image.
Now, take all of that in for a moment or two.
They believe that God wants to transform His world for the better. He created it. He wants to rescue and redeem the world. He has chosen to make the world better through those who were created in His image – Humans.
So, God gives people gifts, talents and resources for them to not only be able to provide for themselves but for them to have some extra which they can use to then help others and then by doing so the world becomes more and more like Heaven.
In other words, God helps us to be able to help those
+Who need cheering up; who need encouragement
+Who need a little more financial resources
+Who are not feeling well – physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually
+Who need a little help fulfilling their God given goals and aspirations
We can do that through God nudges – we can change our world by obeying God’s nudges and in doing so lives are changed by our help, our attitudes, our speech and by our presence.
By obeying God’s nudges, Ruth found herself no longer a childless widow living a life of poverty but as one of the greatest women of the Bible. She went from gleaning the fields for scraps of grain to owning those very fields. She went from being an outsider that many believed had been cursed by God to being the great-grandmother of King David and being included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of the World.
So, as we travel down our Lenten road – let’s be aware of God’s little nudges. It is not always a burning bush, a vision or a visit from an angel. Sometimes and more often than not, it is the LORD nudges us to
+Be open to His promptings and directions
+Listen to Him more
+To pray for others more
+To be more liberal in our giving of words of encouragement, support and love.
+To be extravagant in our sharing with others
+To do whatever we can to uplift the name of Jesus
+To do what we can to make another person feel important, accepted, wanted and welcomed.
God’s little nudges – what amazing things!
God’s little nudges – can not only change your life but the lives of those around you.
Let me challenge you this morning to watch out for God’s nudges. Let me challenge you to allow God’s nudges to allow you to do some amazing things in this life.
I believe that God is going to use all of us – nudging us to do some amazing things over the next few weeks and months.
Closing Song/Invitation/Blessing
