Take your Bibles and turn to Psalm chapter 8, please. Psalm chapter number 8. Psalm chapter 8. I'm amazed at how good God is to us. I'm amazed at how great God is. God has blessed us so much this week. Just this week, the blessings have been insurpassable. I can't imagine having to do this every week. Our flesh couldn't take it. I mean, really, this is great, amen? I appreciate the Lord even paying us attention. God don't owe you anything, amen? God don't have to come by. He does it because He loves you, amen? God don't owe you anything tonight. God just, hey, He's just that kind of God, amen? Well, I thank God that He would even consider me as unworthy and good for nothing as I am. God would still consider me, amen? Boy, what a great God we serve. What a good God we serve tonight, amen? Boy, I tell you, we don't deserve what we got tonight. Boy, if you're sitting here and you're lost and going to hell, it's your own fault. Amen. Anybody can't get saved in this. There's something wrong with them. Amen. I thank God this has been good. Amen. I appreciate the cooking and the fellowship and all that. Ditto what all the rest of them said. Amen. Man, this is a great meeting. I enjoy coming here. It's good to come here and get in this meeting just to get under the preaching, amen, and the singing. It stirs your heart, and you leave here with a zeal and a new hope and a new outlook, and you want to go on a few more days for God. Amen. That's what it's about. Amen. That's what it's for, Brother Kenny, to kind of encourage one another in the faith. Amen. I'll try to give you something to encourage you a little bit tonight, Lord willing, and get out of the way. Psalms chapter number 8, and look at verse number 1. Psalms chapter 8 and verse Number one, the Bible says, O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. He's hollering that. He's yelling that, amen. He's shouting that. Who has set thy glory above the heavens? Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger." I like verse number three. That's where we're going to park for just a few minutes. Amen? Verse number three, the Bible says, when I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained." I want to just look at verse number three for a few minutes tonight, and the Bible said, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers." I won't talk about the finger of God, amen? The work of thy fingers. You know, fingers are very important instruments on your hand, amen? Each one of them has different purposes in life, like members of one body, amen? The fingers have a certain purpose, and each one of them fulfill that function or that purpose. You can do a lot of things with fingers, amen? I mean, you can think with fingers, amen? I mean, some people think with their fingers. You can take your thumb, for instance. You can give a thumbs up, amen? That lets folks know you like what's going on, amen? You can give a thumbs down, amen? That lets them know that you don't much care for it, amen? Or maybe you can just hitch a ride, if you need one. Amen? I'm telling you, there's a lot of things that you can do with your fingers and your thumb. I mean, take your index finger, that thing right there does a lot of things. Hey, you can make a declaration with that finger. Amen? Folks have done that. They've made declarations with that finger. As a matter of fact, not only that, but you can preach with that finger, amen? That finger will reach folks on the back row in any church, amen. I mean, think about how great a work can be done with the finger, amen? I mean, there's a lot of things you can do with that finger right there. I mean, listen, you can make signs with your fingers, amen? Now, that middle finger there, it ain't worth much. You ever notice how it's always the one in the middle that's cursed? It's always the one in the midst that's cursed. Amen? I mean, you know what I'm talking about. Then you've got that ring finger. That's where your ring goes. Amen? Anybody knows when you get married, you've got to have a ring on that finger. I mean, hey, every one of them's got a purpose. That pinky, I've tried and tried to figure out what it's for. I don't know. I ain't figured that one out. Amen? I don't know what it's for. I've tried and tried, but I just, I prayed and asked God to give me something, but I just couldn't get nothing from Him. I'm saying these fingers are important. I'm going to tell you something, God had fingers, and God took His fingers, and God God created things with His fingers. God fed just by His hand, feeds all the sparrows, and all the birds, and all the creatures of the earth, and all the creepy things. I'm telling you, but you know what God did? God wrote with His finger. God wrote some things with His finger. That's what I want to deal with tonight, just for a little while. About three times in your Bible, God wrote with His finger. And we'll look at those real quick. Get out of the way, amen? I mean, I know some of you might write with your finger if you had paint. might do some finger painting, amen? I mean, that's one way of looking at it. Some of you might write in the sand or something, but that wouldn't last very long. We'd blow it all away. I mean, but God wrote with His finger. Can you imagine that? That's power, amen? I mean, you know what? The Bible says in Exodus 31 there that God rode on a mountain with His finger, amen? Moses, you know the story. I went up there and God, the Bible said God wrote the commandments on the front and the back. Think on that in a while, amen? A god took his finger, you say, what? He rode low on the mountain. I mean, that's what he did, amen? Moses was up there, and God gave him the Ten Commandments. You know the story, while he was gone, they created that golden calf. They said, we want not what's become of Moses. And so they started, they created a God to worship. Isn't that what we do today, amen? We no sooner get out of church, bless God, and we're creating our own gods, and we're worshiping other gods, amen. Come on now, you was shouting while they was singing amen. Did I kill it, amen? I'm trying to preach a little glory message. We can get mean if you want to. I'm telling you, he wrote law on the mountain. Amen? He wrote the Ten Commandments. And Moses started down the mountain. And Joshua was with him, and Joshua said, Hey, you hear that? I hear, I hear something. Sounds like there's a war going on. And Moses said, That ain't a war. There's a singing going on in the clan. They were having a party, and he got down there, and sure enough, they had made this calf, this golden calf, and now they're worshiping this calf, and singing, and taking their clothes off, just like we do today. Amen? And so Moses, he did the only thing he should have done. He just threw them commandments down and busted them all to pieces. You say, what's the significance? If he hadn't, God would have killed them all. If he hadn't destroyed them commandments, God would have killed all of them. Because they told God, they said, Moses, whatever he says, we'll do it. That was before they got the tabernacle. That was before they had a mercy seat. That was before they had somewhere to take their sin. Amen? They said, whatever He says, that's what we're going to do. I'm telling you something, He had to break those commandments or else God would have had to kill all of them. Next time He got them, He got them after they had a mercy seat. I'm just trying to help you a little bit. I'm telling you, He wrote law on the mountain of God. Amen? Hey, listen, He brought those things down there, and you know what they did? He found the priest. He found the preacher, Aaron. He found Aaron. And I want you to hear what this preacher said. This just don't cost you nothing. He said, what in the world have you done, son? He said, I don't know. I just told them to break off their gold and their earrings and their nose rings and all that stuff. He said, I'll throw it in the fire and I'll pop this can. I didn't have nothing to do with it. I didn't have a spade. I didn't have no... I didn't chip away at nothing. All I did was throw in this, and I popped this calf. Ain't that the way we do today, amen? We're always first to blame God for it, amen, or circumstance. We don't ever blame ourself, amen. This country ain't going to get no better till we start taking responsibility for ourself, amen, and our own sinful life. Well, anyway, hey listen, he took his finger and wrote law on the mountain. Not only that, in Daniel chapter 5, he wrote judgment on the wall. Amen? This old king one time, he decided to throw himself a party. And he called all the dignitaries. And he had himself a big shindig. That's what we call it in South Alabama, amen? He had him one of them big old shindigs. And man, all the governors was there and all the hootenannies and whatnots and all that, they were all, anybody that was present, and man, he wanted to impress them, you see. And so he said, you know what I think I need to do? He said, we need to go over there to God, where we had this stuff stored up from the house of God, and we need to bring it over here, them golden goblets and all them chalices and all that stuff, them offering plates, and we need to bring them over here, and we need to drink wine out of them cups. You say, what did he do? He blasphemed the things of God. He made mockery of the things of God. Hey, you know what he did? He was having his big party, and he had God's stuff. He had things that were dedicated to God. Things that were set apart for God. You say, that's not important. That's not really... God don't look at... Hey, you better be careful. You know what he did? He killed a man and his entire family in Joshua chapter 7, I believe it was, just because he kept back what was God's. He kept back part of the tithe. Look it up and see. Amen. That's what the curse... God said you better not touch it. It isn't a cursing thing. You know why it was cursed? Because it was God's. It was set apart for God. Amen. And this, these cups were set apart for God. And this, this drunken crowd, this crowd, this orgy crowd, this blasphemous crowd, they took and put liquor and wine and beer, all kind of that trash and filth in God's goblets, amen? And they're sitting there making fun of the Most High God. About that time, he's sitting there feeling real big and high, and all of a sudden a hand came over. by the lampstand, and started writing God's finger, wrote judgment on the wall. You say, what did he write? He wrote, this is Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Amen? This won't work in your King James Bible. He wrote, meaning, meaning, to kill you for sin. He wrote, He wrote judgment on the wall. All of a sudden, that man got somebody, got Daniel in there to read it. And Daniel said, hey, I can understand it. Oh, well, we got all these magicians and wise men. They can't figure it out. What does it mean, Daniel? He said, oh, that's King James Version. I can read God's writing, amen? He said that, that says you've been weighed in a balance and found wanting, amen? And you better set your house in order you're fixing to die." About that time, his knees started smoking again. If he ever wanted to peel off fingernails, that would have been a good time to do it, amen? I mean, he'd been like a wood chipper, amen? He was scared. He was shaking and rattling. And hey, it wasn't much longer after that that he was gone. You say, what was that? God's judgment? Hey, listen to me. God wrote the law on the mountain. And He wrote judgment on the wall. Amen? Over in John chapter 8, They brought an old gal. They had caught her red-handed in adultery. I ain't figured out yet how they just caught her. They caught her in adultery, red-handed. That's like your hand in a cookie jar. Amen? And they grabbed her and pulled her down there, threw her down in front of Jesus. And said, the law says, this is what's got to be done. What do you say? Boy, I'll tell you, I like that part right there. I like this part, amen? I'm telling you, hey, I'm telling you, God wrote law on the mountain, amen? And God wrote judgment on the wall in the king's palace. And I'm here to tell you, not God wrote grace in the dirt, amen? God wrote grace in the dirt, bless God. Hey, listen, you say, preacher, what do you mean? I'm telling you, man, you know what I'm looking at? I'm looking at dirt, amen? I'm looking at dirt over here, and dirt back there, and dirt over yonder, and dirt back there, and dirt over there, and dirt over yonder, and God wrote grace, grace, marvelous grace in the dirt, amen. Bible says you ain't nothing but dust. You just dirt. We live in a world, everywhere you go it's just dirt. Amen? Go down to the supermarket and it's dirt. Amen? Go to Walmart and it's dirt. Everywhere you look it's just dirt. I mean, we're just full of dirt, amen? We're made of the dirt. We're made of the dust of the ground. And the only thing good about you is the breath of God. Are you hearing me tonight? Hey, I'm telling you, He wrote grace in the dirt, amen? You don't deserve to be here. You're unworthy to praise Him. You're not good enough to embark upon His presence. Amen. You don't deserve to come in this throne room. Hey, hey, hey, I'm telling you something, bless God. But God Himself took His mighty finger and stepped down and wrote grace in a dirty black heart and gave it life. Amen. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all our sins. He wrote grace in the dirt. You know what your problem is? You think you're something. You know why you're so easily offended? Because you think you're something-sized dirt. You know why you always carry grudge around? You know why you're always carrying a chip on your shoulder? Because you think you're something-sized dirt. Hello? You ain't nothing but dirt. Don't flatter yourself. Amen? I'm telling you something, dear God. Hey, we'd be better off. Our homes would be better off. Our churches would be better off. Our lives would be better off if we just remember where God brought us from and realize I'm nothing but dirt. But one day in 1986, God came by my way, and He wrote with a mighty finger of God. He wrote grace in the dirt. Amen. He wrote grace in the black dirt, in an old black heart. Our hearts are deceitful, desperately wicked. Amen? Who can know them? God knows them. Amen? We are just nothing but old. ungodly, good-for-nothing dirt. Are you hearing me? Are you with me? You don't really believe me. You get to sweating up like I'm doing right now. After a while, I'll go home and take my white handkerchief and do my neck like that, and it'll be dirt. You say, why is that pretty? Because I made of dirt. That's all you are is dirt. You're hearing me tonight? I'm telling you, hey, God wrote grace in an old black heart. I remember one time I was preaching a tent meeting over in Gastonia, North Carolina. Man, we was sitting there. I had more saved outside the meeting than I did inside. Couldn't hardly get folks, a lot of them, to come to, especially church folks. They was too godly to come to a tent meeting. Didn't want to get dirty. I'm telling you, I'd have a meeting, close a meeting, I'd get my rocking chair. I believe everybody ought to have a rocking chair. I got one in every room. I believe it's a sin if you don't have a rocking chair. I got two in my living room. You ought to have a rocking chair, everybody. I believe there'd be rocking chairs in heaven. Amen? I mean, dear, my sister got me a shirt for my birthday. It says, I rock. Got a rocket chair on it. I was going to wear it, but you ain't supposed to wear stuff written on your shirt in church, you know. Hey, listen to me. See me at the church, bud. Hey, I'm talking about a black heart. I was sitting there in the rocket chair after the meeting that night and just had one of the lights on under the tent. And man, we had a good meeting that evening. Thunderstorm before every service that week. Man, God just blew through. I remember one evening I was out there holding on to a ripcord and the tent was just lifting me about that far off the ground. And I was praying and crying and begging God. And finally I wised up. I throwed that ripcord up in there. I said, God, what am I doing? This is your tent. I said, if you want to blow it away, blow it away. I'm going to lay down. Well, you do, preacher. I want to lay down. You know what? He's still sitting there the next morning. God takes care of his. He don't need you. I was sitting out there one night, and here come I heard him when he came down the street, and for some reason, I knowed he was coming right to me. I could hear it coming, I mean, ten miles down the highway. I mean, that old hog was a-thumping, and man, he pulled up in the yard there, pulled right up, almost under the tent, and cut that thing off and come walking in. And so help me unto God, I'm telling you, that boy, Brother Jack, you're a big old drink of water, son. I believe that's your old boy there, he was a big one. He had one of them log chains, you know, and then had him on one of them ride to live and live to ride, one of them old beards about down to here and hair twice as long and all kinds of rubber bands in there that looked like a sissy. Of course, I wasn't going to tell him that, you understand. And I thought, oh, dear God, I've been preaching, working all day, preaching all night, putting up the tent, worrying with the curtains, and now I've got to put up with this. I said, God, what are you trying to do to me? And he'd come walking in the tent. He said, hey! You're the preacher! I said, no, he's out there. I said, I said, I reckon I am. I figured all I could think I could do was bluff. He said, he broke down in tears. He said, my name's Charlie. He said, I need some help. I'm going to lose my mind, preacher. I brought Charlie over and sat him down. He's like a little kid. I sat him down in the chair and I said, Charlie, and I began to tell him what God did for me. I began to tell him how I'd lost my home and lost my job and ruined my life, wrecked everything I had. I sat there about 30, 45 minutes and I told Charlie what Jesus could do for him. Charlie looked up at me. He said, Preacher, snot running and tears. He said, Preacher, you reckon He'd save me? I said, I reckon He would. Old Charlie got down there in the sawdust and began to pray. I never heard a prayer like that in my life. Even I didn't pray that good. He said, God, this is trouble. He said, Oh God, I'm a sinner going to hell. Oh God, would you save me? And he started throwing salt dust in his head. Just throwing salt dust on him. He said, Oh God, dropping puddles down in front of him. You say, Preacher, what happened? Did he get saved? I don't know. But I know if I'd been God, I'd have saved him. I'll tell you what he did. He got up and I could see a different expression on his face. You know what he did next night? He came back and brought his family. About three or four days went by, he came back and had a haircut. I didn't have to preach on it, I didn't have to stomp him or beat him up. Hey, I just preached God, amen! Just stayed in the book, amen! And God fixed his life, amen! Hey, what are you saying, preacher? I'm saying, hey, he wrote law on the mountain, and he wrote judgment on the wall, but he wrote grace, grace, marvelous grace in the dirt, amen! He wrote grace for a black heart. He wrote grace for a broken heart. I came home from work one day. I walked in the door. My wife was sitting in the kitchen floor, squalling like a baby. Some of you have got problems. Listen, I've been in this thing long enough. Ain't none of us in here haven't been hit by something. And if you haven't, you just hang on. Everybody in here has got a great story to tell. She sat there and she cried, and I said, oh, my heart broke. Oh, my heart broke. I said, honey, what's the matter? I've never seen my wife cry like that. I mean, just over a broken heart. She began to tell me how she took Tristan to the doctor and how they had told her that he had cystic fibrosis and he wouldn't see 12, age of 12. I mean, that's something to have to tell a lady, you know, by herself. I wouldn't go down and punch you in the light side. I did. All kinds of emotions. was sitting there, she was weeping, and we prayed and prayed, and we decided to take him to have another test. We took him to have another test, and sure enough, the same test, they said, he's got cystic fibrosis. He's not going to live very long. He was about four years old at the time, maybe five. And then we just, I mean, just broke and hearted, I don't know how you do things, but if you ever get desperate, if you ever really get desperate for something from God, people won't bother you. They won't embarrass you to ask for prayer. Everywhere I went, Brother Charlie, everywhere I went, I'd stop by the drive-thru at McDonald's. And I'd say, hey, you go to church? Yes, sir. How about praying for my boy? I had to go to Walmart and ask the cashier, would you mind putting him on your prayer list? I didn't know if they had saved him or not. It didn't make no difference. If they could get ahold of God, I wanted somebody to get ahold of God. We went to test after test. We just would not take that for an answer. I mean, four or five tests, and finally one day, They said, let's just take him to Charleston, South Carolina. They took him down there to Charleston. That's where the experts were. We'll find out. I prayed the hardest prayer I ever prayed in my life. I mean, I can't tell you how devastating it was in my heart. But I said, God, That boy is not old enough to know what salvation is. I said, but Lord, if you'll see fit to save him one day and maybe do something with his life, I wish you would just spare him. I said, but God, if you don't think he'll live for you, if he's not going to grow up and be a man of God, if he's not going to live for God, I said, if you're not going to be saved, just go ahead and take Him on. Are you talking about something hard to pray? I had to work out of town. I went out of town. My wife and her sister, they took Him down to Charleston. They wouldn't let me get off working. We just sat every few minutes on the phone. Everywhere we stopped asking people to pray. That afternoon, my wife called me, and I could tell there was something different about her. When the phone rang, it sounded different. And she said, you ain't going to believe what I just heard. I said, yeah, I know what you heard. She said, what I hear? I said, he don't have no cystic fibrosis. She said, doctor said, they gave him the best test they could give. They said, he's just got asthma. Just send him home. He'll be all right. Six tests. All of them were positive. I'm talking about grace for a broken heart. Hey, my boy tonight is not living for God. That other part wasn't the grace part. This is grace. He's rebelled. out in the world. Oh, I know he's saved. You say, how do you know, preacher? Because he's been on rock bottom forever. He's miserable and God's fixing to kill him. Or maybe he'll just answer that prayer. Can I say something? I'm not trying to... I'll quit, brother. Listen to me. Mama, let me tell you something. You hear me tonight. Don't you quit praying for that boy. Don't you give up on that, boy. I don't care what them preachers said. I don't care what your friends said. I don't care what that church said. Hey, you keep praying and trusting that book and counting on the promises of God, and let God fulfill them. Amen. You say, what do you mean? I mean, there's grace for a broken heart, amen? God knows how to fix it! God knows how to make it work out alright! I ain't giving up. One of these days, just like somebody said this week, hey, every morning and every evening and every afternoon, I look down that road, amen, and I know I'm going to see, come home to God. Hallelujah to God. It's going to be worth it. After a while, amen. You say, why? Grace in the dirt? I'm talking about the finger of God. You don't mess with the finger of God, folks. It's grace for a black heart. Grace for a broken heart. Let me just say this. There's grace for a blaspheming heart. One time when I was out in sin, unsaved, wicked as the devil, This is just one time, I could name you time after time, when God came to me and protected me as a lost man, when I didn't know who it was and what He was doing. I remember one night, I used to ride by the church where I now belong to, or I'm a pastor now in Alabama, but I used to belong in North Carolina to my uncle's church. I used to ride by there every day just about. And I'd ride by there and cuss and make fun of them. Laugh at them. Look at them bunch of fanatics up there. Look at them bunch of hypocrites. Look at them bunch of idiots up there. And I'd make fun of them. All week, just ride by. Week after week and month after month. And then one night, I went out and ruined myself one night. We were sitting in a pizza inn. Me and four or five other friends. Brother Jack, I'm going to say this with shame now. You listen to me. We had too much. I remember that night when I stood up in the seat in that pizza inn. And it was crowded and full of folks. And I sang four verses of Amazing Grace. Drunk out of my mind. Up chucked all over my food. And you know them idiots applauded me. Let me tell you something. You listen to me. God should have snapped my neck right there. God should have broke my neck and flung me in hell. He should have grabbed me by the nape of my head. threw me in the halls of the dam, but mercy came by, and grace took a finger and wrote in the dirt the night." Amen. Thank God for the grace of God when you're blaspheming, amen. You better thank God tonight.