Returning To The Fear Of The Lord

Pastor Devon Ortiz returned to Isaiah 33 for the second part of his message on the fear of the Lord. The passage begins with judgment against Assyria for spoiling and dealing treacherously, but Pastor Ortiz emphasized again that the deeper rebuke falls on Israel. Assyria broke a pact with Israel, but Israel had first broken covenant with God by trusting an evil nation for protection instead of trusting the Lord.

Pastor Ortiz distinguished a covenant from a contract. Contracts are made with people we do not know or trust. Covenants are bound up with love, commitment, and relationship. He warned that many Christians treat God as if they have a contract with Him, wanting benefits while keeping the right to breach the agreement. But eternal life rests on God's covenant faithfulness, and the believer's response is not casual convenience. It is the surrender of a life bought with a price.

Stability Comes From Faithfulness To God

The fear of the Lord is tied to wisdom, knowledge, and stability. Isaiah 33:6 says wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and the fear of the Lord is his treasure. Pastor Ortiz connected this again to Proverbs, where the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom helps a believer make right choices. Knowledge helps a believer understand God well enough to make those choices. When Christians make decision after decision apart from God, the problem is not merely bad judgment. It is a heart not built on the fear of the Lord.

Stability is found by seeking God first. Pastor Ortiz applied this to marriage, finances, health, purpose, and daily faithfulness. If a person wants stability, they cannot be inconsistent with God. He contrasted the church's desire for blessing with its reluctance to obey. Christians love promises about God supplying need, never leaving His people, blessing the faithful, and rewarding those who seek Him, but they often want God to keep His commitments while refusing their own. The issue is fear. People commit deeply to jobs, hobbies, shows, and schedules, but treat God as optional.

The Fear Of The Lord As Treasure

Treasure is guarded, protected, and valued. Pastor Ortiz pressed the word treasure at the end of Isaiah 33:6. People do not leave treasure carelessly around to be lost or stolen. They protect it. He compared this to how closely people guard their phones, while many believers have drifted from God for years. The fear of the Lord is not a begrudging church schedule, a dress code, or a religious checklist. It is the privilege of walking with God.

The fear of God is not slave fear. Pastor Ortiz reviewed the prior week's correction. If serving God feels only like I better go to church, I better read my Bible, or I better serve, then the heart is treating God as a taskmaster. That kind of attitude will eventually stop serving, stop reading, and stop showing up because it does not love what God gives. Psalm 34 says to taste and see that the Lord is good. The fear of God should move the believer toward desire, not a joyless obligation.

The fear of God is not stranger fear. Pastor Ortiz used the illustration of knowing what someone likes because they are not a stranger. If God feels unpredictable and distant, the problem may be that the believer does not know Him well. Many Christians do not give, serve, or stay faithful because God is functionally a stranger to them. Biblical fear grows from knowing His character, not guessing at Him from far away.

The fear of God is not terror without relationship. Isaiah 33:14 says sinners in Zion are afraid, and fearfulness surprises the hypocrites. Pastor Ortiz said the believer should not crumble when trouble comes as if God is merely a devouring fire against them. James says to count it all joy in trials because God is doing something. A person can hold to God's unchanging hand when they know Him, but that confidence requires relationship.

Pastor Ortiz used Israel's misplaced trust as a mirror for modern excuses. People say they would serve, pray, read Scripture, witness, or be faithful if circumstances were easier, but those reasons reveal where trust has moved. Israel looked at visible danger and visible help, then chose Assyria over God. The church faces the same temptation whenever visible pressure feels more real than the Lord's command and provision.

How The Fear Of God Is Formed

The fear of God grows through yielded listening. Returning to Proverbs 1:7, Pastor Ortiz said fools despise wisdom and instruction. If a believer wants the fear of God to produce stability, they must yield to God and listen to what He says. Boundaries and rules are not strange; every relationship, game, and responsibility has them. The resistance comes because God's boundaries bring accountability.

The fear of God grows through receiving instruction. Proverbs 1 speaks of knowing wisdom and instruction and receiving the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. Pastor Ortiz asked whether believers have people in their lives who fear God and whether they actually listen to them. Biblical teaching does little good if it is heard but not received and applied.

The fear of God grows through understanding. Proverbs 1 also speaks of understanding proverbs, interpretations, the words of the wise, and dark sayings. Pastor Ortiz encouraged the church not to resent the parts of Scripture they do not yet understand. Those hard places become opportunities to know God more. A believer can walk with God for decades and still keep learning Him, and that continued discovery breeds reverence.

The Character Fear Produces

The fear of God produces Christian character. Pastor Ortiz moved to Isaiah 33:15-16 and said the passage gives marks of a God-fearing man. The issue is not merely trying harder to act Christian. Some believers need to stop pretending and start becoming what God is calling them to be. He illustrated this with giving up something loved for something better, then applied it to the hard decisions required in Christian growth.

He walks righteously. His direction and posture line up with God. The fear of the Lord shapes the path he chooses, not only the religious words he says.

He speaks uprightly. His words are honest because he knows God hears them. Reverence reaches the mouth and changes how a believer speaks.

He despises gain that harms others. He will not profit from oppression, exploitation, theft, or hurting someone along the way. Fear of God governs what kind of success he is willing to accept.

He shakes his hands from bribes and stops his ears from blood. He refuses what pulls him away from truth and stops listening to what he should not hear. Pastor Ortiz applied this directly to music and other inputs that feed sinful thinking.

He shuts his eyes from seeing evil. He governs what he allows his eyes to see. These are not merely things a God-fearing person fights to perform; they become marks of who he is.

The promise attached to these marks is also important. Isaiah says the one who lives this way shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given him, and his waters shall be sure. Pastor Ortiz showed that the fear of God is not taking life from the believer. It is forming the kind of character that can live under God's protection and provision.

Be, Not Merely Act

Pastor Ortiz closed by calling the church to change where the passage exposed them. The fear of God is not about impressing people or acting like a good Christian. It is about becoming a believer who does not want to hurt the God he loves. He prayed that the church would fear God in a way that strengthens families, marriages, young people, older believers, and the whole church, beginning with genuine change in the heart.