God has taken away our meetings and our feasts. Why? Our Governor issued an executive order that we must stay home and not meet in churches. No face to face church meetings are allowed whatsoever It is heartbreaking. But don’t forget: when God’s people take His worship lightly, He takes it away by force. He always uses secondary causes.

If we are thinking biblically about this – and that’s what we should be doing - we will blame ourselves. “Judgment begins in the household of God” (1 Pet. 4:17).

When God is displeased with the worship in His house, He destroys the house. When His people yawn at the worship, He yanks it away. This is what happened in the days of Malachi. He reports on the pitiful joyless worship being offered to God. In the Temple they are saying, 

“My, how tiresome it is!’ And you disdainfully sniff at it,” says the Lord of hosts, “and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?” says the Lord.”Mal 1:13, (NASB).

Amazingly, God destroys His own temples for this. Examples:

The Tabernacle of Mt. Sinai - destroyed by for licentiousnessThe Tabernacle in Shiloh – destroyed by the PhilistinesThe temple in Jerusalem - destroyed 3 times, first by Nebuchadnezzar, then by Antiochus III and finally in 70Ad by Titus of Rome.

God was the culprit each time. He raised up nations to chastise His people. They were going through their heartless, joyless, biblically ordered motions but taking “the Lord’s Name in vain” God says, They have no purpose, He does not delight in them, they are futile, and are an abomination (Isa. 1:11).

God takes away what we misuse. And always, for some, He gives us what we wanted all along – a license for Christianity lite.

Israel turned worship into formalism and God sent the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Philistines to take it away. He said, “Away with your sacrifices” “ (Hos. 6:6, Jer. 6:20, Amos 5:21-23)

He took away what they treated lightly.When we worship on casual mode, He takes it away by force.He seeks true worshipers who give Him heartfelt thankful worship.

He chastises us for our listless, bored, uncommitted, self-serving, reputation fortifying, insipid, powerless, thoughtless, heartless worship. He hates fake worship. He despises taking the Lord’s Day lightly.

Don’t be surprised to see church meetings banned if any of these things are true of us: 

He takes our church meetings away to teach us a lesson. He shakes the heavens so we will see heaven again.

As we look at the causes of COVID-19, and there are plenty to be disturbed about, we know, that whenever God is displeased with the worship of His people, He destroys their meeting place.

With all that's happening, we ought to consider that God takes away what we take lightly. And God has taken away our meetings and our feasts. Our governor issued an executive order that We must stay home and not meet in churches. No face-to-face church meetings are allowed whatsoever. It's heartbreaking.

But don't forget, when God's people take His worship lightly, He takes it away by force. He always uses secondary causes. And if we're thinking biblically about this, and that's what we should be doing, we will blame ourselves and our worship. Judgment begins in the household of God, 1 Peter 4.17. When God is displeased with the worship in his house.

He destroys the house. When his people yawn at the worship, he yanks it away. This is what happened in the days of Malachi. He reports on the pitiful, joyless worship being offered to God. In the temple, they're saying, "'My, how tiresome it is.'" And God says, "'You disdainfully sniff at it, "'and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick, so you bring the offering.

Should I receive that from your hand, says the Lord? That's Malachi 1.13. Amazingly, God destroys His own temples for this. Here's some examples. The tabernacle at Mount Sinai was destroyed for licentiousness.

The tabernacle in Shiloh destroyed by the Philistines. The temple in Jerusalem, destroyed three times, first by Nebuchadnezzar, then by Antiochus III, and finally in 70 AD, by Titus of Rome. God was the culprit each time, and he raised up nations to chastise his people. They were going through their heartless, joyless, biblically ordered motions, but taking the Lord's name in vain. And God says, what you're doing has no purpose.

He doesn't delight in them. They're futile and they are an abomination. Isaiah 1-11. God takes away what we misuse. And always for some, He gives us what we wanted all along, a license for Christianity light.

Israel turned worship into formalism and God sent the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Philistines to take it away. He said, away with your sacrifices, Hosea 6, Jeremiah 6, Amos 5. He took away what they treated lightly. When we worship on casual mode, He takes it away by force. He seeks true worshipers who give Him heartfelt, thankful worship.

He chastises us for our listless, bored, uncommitted, self-serving, reputation-fortifying, insipid, powerless, thoughtless, heartless worship. He hates fake worship. He despises taking the Lord's day lightly. So don't be surprised to see church meetings banned if any of these things are true of us. When we do it for appearances instead of love, for social status instead of brokenness, for careless duty toward God and one another, for doing it just to set an example for our children, for keeping our parents off our backs, for favor from church leaders, for not really caring much about the ordinary means of grace, for secret sins in worship, for reputation, for gain, for feeling that worship is drudgery, for despising the songs because of your personal musical tastes, for playing on the day of rest, for working for money on the Lord's day, for heartless compliance, for absence for frivolous excuses, for neglecting meetings for other priorities, for taking lightly the Lord's day for money, for avoiding meetings for offenses, for taking the Lord's name in vain by attending church thoughtlessly, for preferring family over the church.

He takes our church meetings away to teach us a lesson. He shakes the heavens so that we'll see heaven again. As we look at the causes of COVID-19, and there are plenty to be disturbed about, We know that whenever God is displeased with the worship of His people, He destroys their meeting place. You