Encounter With God
by Murrell Ewing
1979 · Encounter 79
Kind: conference session
Scripture: Ephesians 4:8-13

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/murrell-ewing--encounter-with-god
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
and gave gifts unto men now that he ascended which is but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth he that descended is the same also that ascended up fro far above all heavens that he might fill all things and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god unto a perfect man unto the measure of the statue of the fullness of christ could you say that last phrase with me unto the measure of the statue of the fullness of christ and everybody say amen and i want you to hold your right hand up and say god anoint the lips of your feeble servant tonight anoint our ears to hear and melt our hearts together in the presence of the lord tonight hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you so very much god bless you you may be seated it hasn't been too long back just a few years ago and some of you may remember that we had a youth camp and the theme of that youth camp was how does it feel to be that tall and i will never forget that because that was an experience of my own when i was just a little boy there's always been something about me something about my nature that i was intrigued by by tall things height always did intrigue me mountains i i wish a lot of times on vacation going through the mountains living in such flat country as we do in south louisiana i've always wished that i could do more than just look at hills and i wish there was some way that i could get my arms around them or crawl up on their lofty peaks and and i always wanted to know what it was to just really get high on the mountain you know other than just driving up you know something about driving around the top of a mountain you don't realize that you're high until you get up there and look down but i always felt like that i'd love to just get out so one day we was driving through the mountains and we stopped the car and i said i'm fixing to get me a good load of mountains i'm gonna i'm gonna get right down where they are and i'm gonna hug them and i'm gonna enjoy just you know looking at something at a distance and enjoying it that's one thing but when you can get an arm full of it that's something else and so i was gonna get me an arm full of mountain and i got out of the car and i started up the side of the mountain oh i probably got 15 foot about about 15 feet up i was give out panting for breath but still in all there's been something about mountains that have intrigued me hype that just really really intrigued me my dad my dad when he married my mother was he was six foot four and he wore i think his waist was 29. he weighed 135 pounds when he got up he kind of unfolded you know just stood by we got a picture of him standing beside of a car an old 38 ford and and he's he just kind of laying down on the car and and he's so tall until his head is way up above that car looks like he could have reached to the ground on the other side so tall and and i was a little old stubby thing you know when i was young and and still a little stubby but i'm not quite so i'm not quite so short but one of i guess probably i worried my dad with this question more than any other question and i remembered as a child because i i look up at him like this oh

and it's he looked like a pine tree he was so tall and and i'd look up at him and really i i wondered he was so tall until i thought things looked different from from his vantage point and and if i could have just been that tall i felt like i could have seen things a whole lot better and so the question i worried my dad i guess half silly with the question daddy how does it feel to be that tall and of course he he didn't he didn't know how to answer it i mean he did the best he could and to satisfy my mind and he had set me down and tell me well son it doesn't feel any different to be as tall as i am as than it does to be as tall as you are you know i mean i'd look up look up at him and wonder how the weather was up there you know it just just something just well i finally found myself lacking two inches as tall as my dad and i found myself a man but yet in my adulthood and in my growing up in god i still i look at at great men i look at big people i look at i look at people that's that's big of statue not just big in size but big in spirit big in heart big in faith big and holy ghost big begging god and i'm constantly asking the question maybe not audibly to them but how does it feel to be that tall brother barnes how does it feel to be as tall as you are brother tenney how does it feel to be as tall as you are i think perhaps this this idea of encounter 79 has been born in the hearts of our leaders for a reason and a purpose and i don't want us to take it lightly here tonight there are a lot of challenges and there's a lot of mountains in life that you'll face and there's a lot of things that will become they will intrigue you so much until you will set your mind to conquer you'll set your mind to climb the mountain there's things that will challenge you and you will not stop until you get it done but i'm here to tell you tonight in counter 79 young people who are embarking on your direction and course for life for now in eternity i want to tell you tonight one of the greatest challenges that you will ever face one of the greatest mountains that you will ever face one of the greatest battles that you'll ever face and one of the greatest victories you will ever win you will see that mountain or that challenge the next time you look into a mirror because your greatest challenge will probably be yourself amen encounter 79 encounter 79. now that's staggering really when you realize the power of of of this world when you realize the power of satanic forces when you realize the powers of of of the powers that be when you realize the strength of all of this and the impossibilities of some of the avenues of life that you could take and the challenges it presents and what it would mean to finally one day ultimately conquer that and of course in this particular stage of life there's something about stardom and fame and all of these these kind of things that that really hold a a a fascination to us and and they are intriguing to us and all of this but i want to tell you tonight if you were to conquer the world of stardom and you were to become the second elvis presley if you were to conquer the world of stardom and become another marilyn monroe if you were to conquer stardom and become another beetle group are are some of the names that that that could be dropped right now and and some of the some of the stars of of this hour if if you if you were to ever conquer these things whatever the energies that it took to conquer that world and whatever the victory that would have been accomplished by the energies that were expressed or are put out you will never you will never have the victory and you will never taste of sweet success

like you will taste of if you ever conquer yourself because until you conquer yourself you will never conquer the other now i'm not here to talk about making fame in the world and and stardom and all of this i'm here talking to a bunch of young people that want to be used of god am i right now i want you to get with me tonight i'm talking to every one of you i said i feel like i'm talking to a group of young people that want to be used of god i don't think i i don't think i'm talking to a bunch of young ladies that that desire to be another marilyn monroe i don't think i'm talking to a bunch of young men that want to be another elvis presley i think most of us realize that perhaps that that that is vaguely or greatly impossible and just a vague possibility but yet the interest and all of that is just not there for those things but i'm talking to a bunch of young people that somewhere you want to find the place you want to find the avenue you want to find the combination to the lock you want to find the key to unlock the door you want to find whatever that secret something is to find that place of usefulness in the kingdom of god am i right now i want to tell you tonight you hear me when i say the church the most important institution given to the world the church is not lacking in equipment to do the task that she has been designed to do amen the church is well equipped to do what god has designed and even bought with his own blood the church to perform god has equipped the church with every necessary ingredient and every necessary tool do you believe that now there's a job to be done there's a task to do there is a tremendous feat to perform and if we are not doing the job i want you to know now it's not the fault of the church it's it's not the fault of the church you can say what you want to say the church has been equipped with every necessary tool to do the job that she was purchased with christ's blood to do and if we're not getting the job done it's not the church fault and it's not that in the design of god he left us to be a weakling helpless bunch of people in this last hour that's not the picture at all the s the trouble the the the point of weakness lies within our not desire because i believe there are young people in this building tonight that want to be used of god you want to be used of god you love the cause of god and you love the church and you want to see the church do the job that it was called on to do you want to do it and you want to be used of god and it's not that you don't have a desire but the trouble is that somewhere we have not come to the place of awareness of what our role in the church is to get it done there was something happened in my ministry in lake charles here several years back now and it it taught me a great lesson that has been a tremendous help to me in dealing with people and that let me let me quickly give you the the story there was there was a man who came to our church

on well pretty regularly his wife was a member of our church and his wife had had the holy ghost i suppose for probably 30 years and he had been living with his companion filled with the holy ghost for all these years this man came to our church almost every time the doors were open he wasn't quite as faithful as his wife but yet he was he was relatively faithful and i remember time after time time after time that man would sit there on those pews and and he would hear the message he would sit through service after service he would feel the conviction of the lord the convicting power of god he would sit through altar call after all to call revival after revival sit there as though he were just totally untouched totally out of it and unmoved and i had i had prepared sermons and and and felt in the holy ghost the tug and the weight of that man's soul on me at different times and and minister ministers besides myself we have preached sermons to that man and and with him in mind trying to trying to get him somehow off of that back pew and into an altar well much too much to my hurt one day i just simply said well kirby buller will never live for god kirby buller is a hopeless case and i wrote him off and i suppose that probably every preacher alive at one time or another has written certain ones off you know this is just a hopeless case i'm sorry and i had seen him turn against walk i mean turn his back on the on the altar and the preacher that was pleading so many times and walk out unmoved and so i just simply wrote him off and i said it's a hopeless case i may as well forget him and everybody else may as well forget him and here we here we were i mean it had been so long now since i i mean i just i just i just quit trying and as far as as far as really feeling a burden to pray for him i didn't feel a burden to pray for him as far as i was concerned he was he was hopeless he had crossed the deadline and i never will forget one day in a sunday morning sunday school class the holy ghost had anointed us that morning and and the presence of god was there and conviction was there and and kirby bullard just like all the other sunday mornings he stood there unmoved untouched without any visual sign of of being being touched whatsoever and when i when i got through preaching somehow another again a burden hit me for kirby buller and i thought to myself well this is this is ridiculous you know he's he's hopeless there's no way now i walked off of the platform and i walked back in into the vestibule he had already excused himself from the service and he was standing in the vestibule and i walked right straight up to him stuck my hand out to him and the holy ghost told me to tell him and i did exactly what the holy ghost told me to tell him i just reached my hand out and shook his hand real firm and strong and i said kirby blewer god wants to do something mighty wonderful for you and tears started streaming down my face when i said that and when tears started streaming down my face i looked into his eyes and i like to faint it tears welled up in his eyes and started falling over the lids and rolling down his face and i've never seen kirby buller even even act like he wanted to cry never seen him even act like and when he started crying he he great big felon robust and manly and leathery and and he dropped his head real quick and kind of shook his head like it was an experience that he wasn't quite adapt to and didn't want anybody to see the tears but he made an utterance when he when he dropped his head and shook it like that that i'll never forget as long as i live and he said no brother merle god could never forgive me for what i've done it starved me and i said what do you mean kirby buller what do you mean god could never forgive you he said you weren't with me during world war ii

he said you wasn't standing there when we was in the heat of the battle you don't know what i've done you don't know the lives that i have taken god could never forgive me for what i've done the holy ghost anointed me to talk back to him that day and i told him i said kirby bullard the very fact that that god has moved on one of his preachers to come back to this vestibule and talk to you today and the very fact that tears have have dropped out of your eyes and down onto your clothes proves to me and should prove to you that god wants to forgive you and god wants to love you and god wants to save you there was something about that encounter the very next night that man was in church it might have been that very night that was on a sunday morning kirby buller walked down the aisle of the church fell in the altar and god filled him with the holy ghost you say preacher what lesson did that teach you it took me a lesson that i don't want to ever forget it taught me a lesson that what i had determined was kirby bullard's reason for not serving god was not his reason at all i thought he was hardened i thought he was calloused i thought he was a rebel i thought he just didn't want to have god nor nothing to do with god but how wrong i was the truth of the matter was that the devil had hood weak kirby buller and had put an obstacle in his path and made him believe there was no hope for him in living for god so i determined in that situation that my judge of character was not always true that there was a man that really would have loved all of these years to serve god but the devil had put a barrier in his robe and told him god cannot forgive you and that's what had kept him out of the church all of those years so i'm telling you that to tell you this i don't believe tonight that it's because some of us are just simply rebellious by nature and don't want to be used of the holy ghost that's not the reason that some of us are not successful in the kingdom of god are not doing great things and becoming great successes and doing great exploits for the cause of god it's not because we don't want to do it but somehow there's a hang up here there's a hang up there the devil has told this one this and he's told that one that and he's got this barrier in somebody else's mind he's told this one you don't have enough education he's told that when you don't have enough personality he's told another one you don't have enough talent he's told another one you don't have enough this or enough that and he's got a lot of people sitting on pews non-productive because they don't think they can do it because they've listened to what the devil has told them but i'm here to tell you tonight just as just as beautiful as the fact that god's church is equipped i want you to know god's church can equip you to do the task and to do what's needed because what god needs is a man or a woman that'll stand up and say god i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do i feel the holy ghost here tonight hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah how many of you would be honest enough with me tonight and stand to your feet and say brother ewing you're exactly right the devil has made me believe that i couldn't do it because of this or that

or the other but the devil's been alive to me god wants to use me in his kingdom god wants to use me if you feel that way we'll just stand up right now and say that's exactly right hallelujah around here hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah i'm preaching to you tonight that if god has ever done it for anybody else he'll do it for you if god's ever used anybody else you get your attitude right with god he'll use you if god's ever anointed anybody else to preach you get your attitude right god would anoint you to preach if god gently wanted anybody else to sing you get your attitude right and god will just saying hula loves her god wants to use you and you want to be used of god but what stands between us the only thing that stands between us and doing the work that god has ordained this church to do is just a little growing up and maturing in our concept of what our role is with god now you want to sit down a little bit let me tell you a little bit about our role some of them may thought i was about to quit if i keep a feeling like i'm a feeling right now we just started let me explain something to you did you realize that a child when it's born into this world by virtue now i want you to get this let everybody else walk around i want you to pay attention to me by virtue of its helplessness that child is taught that it's the king of its world now the child can't help because it's helpless and if everybody was to just just lay it out there and say you take care of yourself the child would starve to death because it can't walk it can't provide its own meals it's helpless so it learns by virtue of his helplessness that when something is not just exactly right to cry and when it cries somebody comes to its rescue it's not the child's fault that by the time he gets to be a year old he's as small and as rotten as he can be it's not the child's fault because he's taught by virtue of his helplessness that when he wants something he said why and mom rather than hear that we'll go do what the youngin wants and when diapers are not just exactly right he learns the discomfort of that and he said why and rather than hear that all day mama go change that dude amen that's exactly right that child is taught that it's everett whimper is somebody's command he is taught by virtue of his helplessness that his authority is the call and command

of the entire kingdom and so when he sits in a high chair and he points to the ice box and he's just now getting to where he can kind of you know kind of point and and in a general direction and all this and he sits there and he says wow you know and and mom knows that if that youngin can say why that it's time for him to begin to talk and begin to ask for what he wants because she don't want a child that grows up you know as long as he lives and can't talk just pointing for what he wants and all this so she sits there and she says like a dummy what do you want darling and the little fella says again wow and mom wanting to teach him how to talk and how to say something she sits there very sweetly what do you want darling and he looks back at her and can't say it but said you stupid thing you've gotten it every other time i've ever said why what you're sitting there for and if he could talk he'd say i want water ignorant and it's a traumatic experience in the life of that little fella when his every discomfort and every cry has been the kingdom's command and when finally everybody goes to wanting to exact a little something out of him and and for him to gain a little knowledge and learn how to talk and they began to sit there like knots on a dill pickle when he begins to give orders and so it's a traumatic experience and he looks at everybody like stupid what tree did you fall out of i'm not the one that gives orders around here this is not my world this is mom and dad's world instead of them being my servant i am really their servant it begins to come through to him and that's what causes kids to do like landy did one time lanny was a little bitty felon he was just coming through that traumatic experience in life you know and and and really it was it was a trauma for him because dear lord joan did everything you know just because he had such a loud mouth and you'd do anything to get that mouth stopped i promise you and one day she had been exacting some things out of him instead of him giving the command she was giving the command and and he he told her one day he said mama he said you remember when you as a little girl and i was a daddy did you ever hear him say that you remember when you as a little girl and i was the daddy well see what he was really remembering was the time back when he gave the the command and his mother took the command but now it's it switched around and he finds himself the little boy and her the mama it's a traumatic experience really it is but it's got to be it must be and it cannot work any other way you you wish that it didn't have to be that way but nature teaches it to be that way and of course then there's where maturity comes in and and i i i don't know i don't know tonight how to get this across to you i don't know how to impress this with you but i am afraid not with just the college and career age group i'm afraid that as a as a general attitude among god's people we have been living too long in an immature concept of what role we play in the kingdom of god i'm afraid we have been just a little immature in our concept we have come up with in in the in the first years of our christian experience and our every cry was god's command because god loves his children god loves his youngins and the church mama loves the kids and and and that new convert comes in every time it ever every time it smiles there's somebody to smile back at it or every time it comes in a frowning there's somebody to go over and and pick it up and pet it and

pamper it and every time it needs to burp there's somebody always there to burp it and and every time it needs something it learns that it's helplessness is the command and i'm a wondering tonight if somehow the people of god have not lingered too long in an immature concept of our relationship with god and i'll tell you what has developed the attitude has developed among us that i can't do it because because you know i'm afraid i don't have this or i don't have that what it what has happened everything that we are to do everything that is that is ours as the church to accomplish it's it's it's something personal with us the fear of failure is on our back whether it works or whether it don't work it's on our back i don't know whether i will be able to do this because it's been our world and we know what our limitations are and yet we don't know whether we can get god to accommodate us in what we want to do for him so the pressure has been on us we we realize we we know that there's people that that that are bigger than we are we know there's a there's a standard of measure on the side of the wall that christ filled and that we want to one day be to the fullness of that measure of that statue we understand that but yet we are the king of our little world we give the authority we give the command but yet when there's a task to perform we don't know whether we have the ability to do it or not because the pressure is on us because of our concept but you hear me and you hear me well tonight if we could ever grow out of that childish concept of this is our world and we're trying to get god to accommodate us for what we want to do instead of it being our world and we getting god or trying to convince god did you ever find yourself on your knees praying and trying to convince god to do something that he wanted to do a bit more than you did one day it was the it was the funniest thing i'd i i literally laughed at myself i was down at the altar and i was a crying i was in the church all by myself i just a crying just a weeping and i was begging god i found myself trying to find the right words i said god if i could just find the right words that would turn you on i'd lay it on you today god because i want to see a revival if i could just find the right combination that i could that i could talk to you to where to where you you just you just melt and mellow and begin to weep and cry with me and and if i could convince you of what i want to see you do and lo and behold right in the middle of that god stopped me and the holy ghost rebuked me and the holy ghost spoke back to me and said son you're asking me and try to con trying to convince me to do something that i've already died so that it could happen i want to see it worse than you do i said oh my god oh oh i see i see so i found out that it's not me trying to convince god to come and accommodate me but really what the picture is god is trying to get me into a condition to accommodate him because it's really not my world at all it's his world i'm not really the lord of this world at all i'm not the one giving the commands he's the one giving the commands and i don't go because i want to go i don't go at my bidding i don't do what i want to do and try to get god to accommodate me now that's what our concept has been we got up

and we wanted to be a success at singing we wanted to really put it over you know because we'd seen some others get up at camp meeting and boy they got up there and they had their coats on a lock and there had their suits on a lock and they had this and they had that and boy they really tore things up with the camp meeting and i'd love to do that too man i'd love to get up there and i'd love to do that too and so we get up there oh god now look lord you come down here and help me now i want to turn things on here tonight i want to i want to really do it tonight god and we get up there and we fall on our face and we drop watermelon seed all over everywhere as the old saying goes we burst our watermelon but somehow and the reason sometimes we have not wanted to sing is because i'm afraid i will fail i'm afraid it won't work for me the reason i don't want to preach is because i'm afraid it won't work for me you see it's our world and we're afraid that we won't have the right words to say to get god to accommodate us in our little game i don't want to preach god i'm afraid i won't be able to do it i don't want to go knock on doors i don't want to work on a bus route i don't want to do this i don't want to do that i don't want to teach a sunday school class because of the fear of failure and the fear of failure is because it's our world and we're trying to get god to accommodate us and the fear is that we can't convince him to do what we'd like for him to do when we put forth our effort but the wrong concept will keep us in a place of non-productivity but if we could ever get out of that concept if we could ever get into into the attitude that it's not my world it's god's world hallelujah and god i'm not trying to get god to accommodate me but god is trying to get me to accommodate him hallelujah and if we'd go about it with the attitude i don't care what they think about me god has given me the the open door to sing and i'm gonna sing hallelujah if it helps the devil i'm gonna sing if they sit back there and look at me like a knot on a dill pickle that's all right i'm gonna sing hallelujah i'm gonna preach if they sit there and and moss over i'm still gonna preach i'm not gonna let nothing stop me because i'm not doing it for them i'm doing it for him hallelujah he's not the they're not the one that gave you the talent to sing he's the one they're not the one that asks you he's the one they're not the ones who are not you he's the one hallelujah and get it out hallelujah but i don't know whether i can do it or not baby but i'm afraid they'll make fun of me if i pray out loud baby but i don't know i don't know whether they will accept me if i get up there or not baby in front what's another good word ambusha oh god that's what's caused so many of us to stay in those places of non-productivity because we were so immature that we were doing it as of ourselves as under people but you will never be a success as long as you do things unto yourself or unto others you will only be a success when you get your eyes above the crowd and gonna do it under him under him under him let's stand up and tap our heads and love jesus tonight hallelujah hallelujah

i i've watched it at youth camps for years i have seen children get up before the youth camp body just go ahead and stand i'm about through and if they get up there with this little y'all pray for me what i try to sing it puts that congregation so on edge and so tense until everybody's just sitting there shaking just she's scared to death or he's scared to death and it scares everybody else today but do you ever see an old boy or an old girl just walk up there like i ain't trying to impress you bless god whether i can sing or whether i can't that don't make a particle of difference i'm gonna do this unto god today hallelujah boy when that kind walks up there you know they don't have to tell you don't listen the way i sing they don't have to say that they don't they don't have to say say i can't sing like brother wayne goodine but bless god i'm gonna do my best anyhow they don't have to say that everybody can tell they can't when they get up there but that don't make a particle of difference they're not doing it for the congregation they're not doing it for applaud they're not doing it for handcuffs they're not doing it for one thing except just simply to glorify god that's all your glorified god that's the glorified god just to glorify god that's all that's all just a glorified god that's the glory if you're so scared of people that means that you're doing it to the wrong crowd don't worry about what people say don't worry about what people think don't worry about the response of people you're not doing it for them you're doing it glory praise god bless god i don't care what you think about it i'm going to clap my hands in here and so they just back up i don't care what you think about it i'm going to magnify the lord anyhow and so they just cut loose in there and they get shot and paid and worship god i want a bunch of college and career kids to grow out of that immature concept of it's my world and i'm trying to get god to accommodate me get out of that business get into that attitude this is god's world this is god's church this is god's kingdom back your ears and get with it glory to god jesus have mercy when you ever started to shout did you ever stop to wait to see what everybody was going to think about you don't lie to me

you know every one of us have said a long time in services and wonder what's everybody going to do and what are they going to think of me if i do what i feel like doing but you never did get your blessing sitting there wondering what everybody was and when you finally got victor over everybody else then when you cut loose you got what you're looking for hey man hallelujah you've got what you're looking for you've got what you're looking for and god can use that god can use it god can use it i promise you i want to preach so bad i ain't tasting it it's too late to preach i'ma quit but let me tell you this before i stop god gave me this little this little thought one day and i wrote it down i was preparing for a sunday school lesson when the holy ghost began to speak i got me a pen and i started writing and this is what the holy ghost spoke to me that day it's been a blessing to me god never gives to one the finished product of his desire but he will make available all the raw materials needed for faith to build its dream praise god there's a lot of people that sit right there on that same pew in the church they sit right there now god if you want to use me tonight you just come on down here and you take my right hand and lift it about a foot above my head and you take this right foot that i've got glued to the floor and you pick it up three foot off of the floor you take my large body and my anatomy that i can't get very high off the floor and you make me do it and i'll be happy to yield to the holy ghost honey when god makes you do it you ain't yielded nothing he's not looking for people that he's got to make do anything he's looking for people that he just gives the suggestion and they take it from there and act on it he just lets him know what his will is not if you're looking for god to make you one of the best preachers in pentecost you'll be sitting there a long time honey if you're looking for god to make you be one of the best teachers or one of the best singers or one of the best birth workers or one of the best anything if you're waiting on god to make you that i'm sorry you can have the best preacher in pentecost and he won't make you what you're supposed to be you can have one of the greatest churches in pentecost and that church and that preacher will not make you what you're supposed to be and you can have a tub full of the holy ghost and it won't make you do anything the holy ghost your church and your preacher

cannot make any more out of you than what your dream to be is if you dream to be mediocre and you're content that's all you'll ever be if you dream to be just a mediocre christian that's all you'll ever be god will never give anyone the finished product of their desire but he will make available all the raw materials necessary for faith to build its dream oh god have mercy but if you dream a dream and you've got the will to climb the hill god will see to it that everything you need is made available to you to become whatever you want to be praise god praise god praise god praise god so i'm a challenger tonight college and career i will challenge you tonight young people of the louisiana district and neighboring visitors that have come in as well i'm challenging you tonight you can be whatever you dream to be and god will let you have it put your faith to work get out of the concept that it's my world and i'm trying to talk god into doing me a favor by anointing me tonight bless god forget all of that and do what you do as unto god glorify the lord glorify the lord glory father lord don't play to the audience play to the balcony it was a young lad grew up in a city he was taught by a professor he became a great musician the world picked up his talent he became world known traveling around the world finally one day his hometown decided that they would give him a night of honor and they invited him back to the city auditorium the place was packed by people of the city that wanted to give him honor and so he sat down there that night the first time back for a concert in his hometown after his making it big while he was playing the numbers of the tunes of that night he was searching the audience he was looking he played simply by memory but his eyes were scanning the audience looking certain finally he got to the last number of the night which was to be his masterpiece what he was had become famous for and so he sat down and he said i'm gonna do it the best i've ever done it tonight for my hometown audience and he gave it everything he had while he was in the middle of playing that beautiful beautiful masterpiece his eyes were still scanning and he looked in the balcony and he saw a face that he had wanted to see all the night when he got through with his presentation of that last tune the crowd burst into applause but there was not an expression not one on the face in the balcony and so he said i'll play the tune again i'll play it again and i'll do it this time to where i'll get an expression from the face in the balcony and so he sat back down when the applause had died down and he began to play this time

he played it like he had never played it before anywhere and when he got through the crowd this time went wild they began to whistle they began to holler they began to wave their hands and applaud but not an expression had changed on the face and the balcony he said i am determined i'm going to do it to where i'll get it i'll get i'll get some kind of a change of expression on the face in the background and so he went back to the piano he took his coat off he rolled his sleeves up he said i will play it this time i'll play it and he sat down and that time almost literally attacked the piano and he played it until all the strength in his body had just simply had flowed through his arms and into his hands and he poured himself on the keyboard of that piano and this time the crowd was so ecstatic until they were waving and they stood and they were screaming and they were applauding and when he had nothing left to give the face in the balcony simply smiled and his old professor held up a hand just simply did that if you play to the bleacher the hand clap is all you'll ever get but if you lift your attention it may cost you a little more but if you can ever get the smile from the master in the balcony you'll have it made then