Why Are You Here?

This past week I attended a Christian music festival. It was both good and bad. The goodness or badness of it, and others like it, depended upon the answer to one simple question. It is a question that mankind has been asking itself for millennia. Why are we here?

To some extent Christian music festivals are just like county fairs. There are food vendors, amusement rides and people wanting you to buy things. And there is also entertainment. Lots of county fairs, and secular events like it, need a draw. Some big headliner band to get people to come. And that's the problem for the "Christian" music festival.

"Christian" music festivals, sadly, are a representation of many churches. They provide entertainment to make "worship" more enjoyable and to draw people in. Christian music festivals are a business. The same is true for our churches.

Churches see their attendance numbers go up when they have a special musical guest and so they continue to have them. But why do we go to church? Why are we there? In God's eyes it had better not be to hear our favorite jazz or polka band playing. To paraphrase the words of one worship song, "We were made to worship. We were made to bow down."

There are many wonderful things that happen at Christian music festivals. That is why I have attended over the past twelve years. The relationships formed, the special moments of prayer and people coming to faith in Christ. God uses many things to draw us to Himself. But I get back to the main question. Why are we there?

I attended worship Saturday afternoon. There were probably 50 people there worshiping while thousands of others played basketball and ate way too much food. Another question we should be asking ourselves is, "Is this thing I am doing, is it honoring to God?"

Is riding on a Ferris wheel honoring to God? Probably not unless you are using the ride to share the Gospel with someone about the futility of living life without Jesus - going around and around.

God should be the reason we do everything. If not, then why are we doing it? For ourselves and our own enjoyment?

I'm as guilty of doing this as anyone else. But my favorite moments are the ones spent back in the campsite talking with another believer about their faith and how they came to believe. Did I worship? Yes. But not in truth and spirit. Therefore it wasn't really worship. I was just singing songs.

And that is not why we should be here or anywhere. We were made to worship. If not, why are we here?

"10Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11“The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
I am not listening."

- Isaiah 1:10-15

The following worship song was performed by an artist I heard this past weekend. As you watch it one can quickly tell it's not about him. It's actual worship. Why? Because the artist is not even singing for much of it. It's God's people doing what they were created to do. Worship.

Here I Am To Worship - David Crowder