Fear In The Right Place

Pastor Devon Ortiz preached from Isaiah 33, where Isaiah announces judgment in the middle of Israel's dealings with Assyria. Israel had looked to Assyria for protection, but Assyria broke covenant with them. Pastor Ortiz emphasized that God did not let Israel hide behind Assyria's treachery. Their deeper problem was that fear had already driven them away from God. They feared control, circumstances, enemies, money, and relationships, and that misplaced fear pushed them toward the very help God had not told them to trust.

The fear of the Lord brings stability. Isaiah 33:6 says that wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and then says that the fear of the Lord is his treasure. Pastor Ortiz connected that to Proverbs 1 and Proverbs 9, where the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. If wisdom and knowledge create stability, and both begin with the fear of the Lord, then the instability in a believer's life often reveals that fear has been placed somewhere else.

What The Fear Of The Lord Is Not

The fear of the Lord is not the fear of being enslaved by God. Pastor Ortiz warned against serving God only because of punishment. Slaves obey because punishment motivates them, but Romans 8 says believers have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. They have received the Spirit of adoption, crying Abba, Father. Salvation is not merely rescue from hell; it is salvation to Christ, into sonship, inheritance, and fellowship with Him.

The fear of the Lord is not the fear of an unknown stranger. Pastor Ortiz compared this to the fear people felt toward unknown forces, where distance and uncertainty make everything feel threatening. Many Christians manage God from a distance in the same way. They attend church without being part of the church, sing without noticing what they sing, serve without passion, and read Scripture as if knowing God will only cost them something. That kind of distance is not biblical fear. It reveals that God has become a stranger.

The fear of the Lord is not emotional terror without relationship. Isaiah 33:14 describes sinners in Zion being afraid and hypocrites surprised by fearfulness before the devouring fire. Pastor Ortiz distinguished that terror from the treasure of verse 6. When a person does not have a real relationship with God, they often chase transactional feelings. They ask whether church felt exciting, whether Bible reading produced an immediate emotional result, or whether prayer gave them what they wanted. A real relationship is deeper than constant emotional payoff. It has respect, trust, honesty, and closeness.

Respect, Trust, And Intimacy

Pastor Ortiz spent time showing that the fear of the Lord is tied to relationship. Respect changes how people speak, listen, obey, and trust. When respect disappears, people try to control instead of trust, and relationships begin to erode. In the same way, a believer who loses reverence for God begins to lean on their own way rather than trusting Him with all the heart.

The fear of the Lord is where true intimacy begins. Pastor Ortiz pointed to Psalm 25:14, where the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and to Psalm 112:1, where the blessed man fears the Lord and delights greatly in His commandments. This fear is not cold distance. It is reverence that learns to hate evil, delight in God's commands, and draw near enough to know Him.

That relational frame shaped the rest of the sermon. Pastor Ortiz was not calling the church to be less aware of God's power or judgment. He was calling them to stop confusing panic, distance, and punishment-driven religion with the reverent relationship Scripture calls treasure. The believer who fears God rightly knows both His holiness and His fatherly goodness, and that knowledge changes the way trouble, sin, obedience, and blessing are interpreted.

Misplaced fear always moves the heart somewhere. Israel did not stop fearing when they turned to Assyria. They simply feared the wrong thing and made choices from that fear. Pastor Ortiz applied that to ordinary life: fear about control, money, relationships, and circumstances can make a Christian run to what looks visible and manageable instead of running to God. The issue is not whether a person will fear. The issue is whether fear will be placed in the Lord or in something that pulls the heart from Him.

What The Absence Of Fear Produces

Without the fear of the Lord, people become what they condemn. In Isaiah 33:1, Assyria dealt treacherously, but Israel had also broken covenant with God. Pastor Ortiz said the fear of the Lord keeps man from becoming the oppressor because it reminds him that God measures and governs the outcome. Without that fear, people often reap the very thing they have sown and suffer from the decisions they refused to bring under God.

Without the fear of the Lord, people build confidence on broken ground. Isaiah 33:7 shows the ambassadors of peace weeping bitterly because the covenant with Assyria failed. Pastor Ortiz noted that they grieved over Assyria's broken promise, but not over their own break from the fear of God. The absence of God's fear never leaves a person neutral. It leaves them trusting men, plans, and visible supports that cannot hold them.

Without the fear of the Lord, blessing begins to decay. Isaiah 33:8-9 pictures highways lying waste and fruitful places withering. Pastor Ortiz said that when fear of the Lord leaves, the land around a life begins to deteriorate. Things that used to bring joy become empty. Life loses color. The blessings of relationship fade because the relationship itself has been neglected.

Without the fear of the Lord, religion can hide distance from God. Returning to Isaiah 33:14, Pastor Ortiz warned that sinners in Zion were surprised by terror because they had religion without submission. He connected this to Matthew 7, where people say Lord, Lord, and hear that Christ never knew them, and to Hebrews 10:31, where it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

These evidences were meant to be diagnostic, not merely descriptive. Pastor Ortiz asked the church to look honestly at whether these pictures were attached to their own lives. Are they reaping from decisions they refused to submit to God? Are they heartbroken over broken human supports while unmoved by distance from the Lord? Are blessings fading because relationship has been neglected? Are they using religion as a veil over a life that looks no different from the world?

Pastor Ortiz also made the gospel application clear. A person can be motivated only by avoiding hell and still miss the beauty of being brought to Christ. He said the Christian life is not meant to be fire insurance. The believer is saved to know Christ, to belong to the Father, and to walk as a child and heir. That is why slave fear cannot produce the relationship Isaiah calls treasure.

He also tied fear to the way believers treat relationships around them. When respect leaves, communication, honesty, obedience, and intimacy begin to fail. The same pattern appears in a walk with God. If reverence is absent, the heart starts trying to control life rather than trust the Lord. That makes the fear of the Lord deeply practical. It changes how a Christian handles marriage, church, obedience, and hidden sin because it changes how close they want to be to God.

The Fear Of The Lord Is Treasure

Pastor Ortiz closed by calling the church to see the fear of the Lord as a gift, not a burden. It is not a chore list or a religious weight to carry. It is treasure to desire, guard, and pursue. The invitation pressed each hearer to ask whether they were living with genuine reverence for God or only with religious knowledge, and to seek a real relationship with Him rather than running to whatever feels easiest when trouble comes.