Psalm 86:11| The Church Untied | Pastor Tanks | 08-08-2026 | Reach City Church

Psalm 86:11 puts the whole burden on the table: “Teach me your way, Lord. I will walk in your truth. Untie my heart to fear your name.” The call to be the church untied presses into total allegiance, because devotion to God cannot sit beside other devotions like everything is equal. God does not compete. God does not accept standing next to other altars.

Deuteronomy 6 shows Israel entering a land full of other gods, and Moses puts the Shema in their mouths: Yahweh is one, Yahweh is the only Yahweh, and Yahweh must be loved with all the heart, soul, and strength. The heart, the will, the thoughts, the emotions, the body, and the strength all belong to him. Jesus repeats that same command in Matthew 22, so full devotion is not an Old Testament idea that can be set aside. Full devotion is the expectation of covenant relationship.

Elijah exposes the fake gray area at Mount Carmel when he asks, “How long are you going to struggle with two choices?” If Yahweh is God, follow him. If Baal is god, follow him. The moment God gets placed on the same plane with anything else, the other thing has already been chosen, because God will not share his authority with lesser things.

Gideon’s altar shows the problem clearly. Gideon builds an altar to the Lord, but God comes back and says the Baal altar and Asherah pole still have to come down. God does not merely want a place in life. God wants the seat that the idol had. The altar to God must be built on top of the demolished altar, because the empty throne will not stay empty.

Jesus says no one can serve two masters, and James says friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Family, wealth, comfort, companionship, success, and acceptance can all become rival altars. The rich young ruler shows that the response to the word reveals the seat of devotion. Jesus loved him by naming the thing that owned him, and the man went away grieving because he had many possessions.

The word of God creates a crisis inside the person who hears it. Clear truth starts sounding like parables when the heart does not want to obey. The issue is not always comprehension. The issue is often desire. The Spirit gives understanding, but fleshly devotion blocks discernment.

The psalmist knows the prayer has to be honest: untie the heart. Worries, riches, pleasures, plans, relationships, and ambitions can choke fruit before it comes to maturity. An untied heart may still struggle, but it does not want the thing that dishonors God. The church that wants to clean out leaven must also ask God to untie every rival devotion and put him on the throne.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God shares no altar [19:42] God does not merely ask for a respectable corner in life. Gideon’s altar was not enough while Baal’s altar still stood nearby, because shared space still meant shared devotion. The demolished idol had to become the place where God’s altar stood, showing that obedience is not just removal but replacement. [19:42]
• 2. Gray areas hide slow drift [03:47] The slow drift rarely announces itself as rebellion. It often speaks the language of relationship, freedom, and “it ain’t that deep,” while quietly redefining what obedience means. Compromise becomes dangerous because it lets a person feel close to Christ while moving farther from him. [03:47]
• 3. Response reveals real devotion [32:42] The rich young ruler did not expose his heart by asking a bad question, but by grieving when Jesus touched his treasure. The word of God has a way of finding the one thing a person hoped God would not name. How a person receives correction often tells the truth about what has the throne. [32:42]
• 4. Confusion can be resisted obedience [37:49] Clear biblical truth can start sounding unclear when the heart has already decided not to do it. Jesus ties understanding to listening, and listening means hearing with a willingness to obey. The problem is not always the translation, the communicator, or the complexity of the doctrine, but the devotion that wants another answer. [37:49]
• 5. Untied hearts may still struggle [56:22] An untied heart is not a heart that never feels temptation. An untied heart hates the sin it falls into and gets up quickly, instead of using a fall as permission to keep walking that road. Struggle becomes different when desire has shifted from protecting the flesh to honoring God.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [01:53] - The Church Untied
• [03:08] - Tethered Devotions Stunt Growth
• [07:10] - God Accepts No Shared Devotion
• [08:11] - Loving Yahweh With Everything
• [14:19] - Elijah Confronts Two Choices
• [16:24] - Gideon’s Altars Must Come Down
• [22:26] - No One Can Serve Two Masters
• [31:17] - The Rich Young Ruler’s Devotion
• [36:40] - When Truth Sounds Like Parables
• [49:58] - Untie My Heart
• [52:34] - Thorns That Choke Maturity
• [57:58] - Choose Today Who To Serve
• [60:13] - Laying Rival Devotions Down

Bible Reading

Psalm 86:11
“Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.” [00:01:46]

Deuteronomy 6:4-5
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” [00:08:11]

Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” [00:22:26]

1 Kings 18:21
“Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ But the people did not answer him a word.” [00:14:19]

Judges 6:25-26
“Now on the same night the LORD said to him, ‘Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it; and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take the second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.’” [00:16:24]

Matthew 22:37-38
“And He said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.” [00:13:58]

Mark 10:21-22
“Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.” [00:31:17]

James 4:4
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” [00:26:04]

Observation questions

1. In Deuteronomy 6 and Matthew 22, what words show how complete love for God is supposed to be? What parts of a person are named? [00:08:11]
2. In Elijah’s challenge on Mount Carmel, what are the two options placed before the people, and how do the people respond? [00:14:19]
3. In Gideon’s story, what was not enough about simply building an altar to the Lord, and what else had to happen to Baal’s altar and the Asherah? [00:18:18]
4. In Mark 10, how did the rich young ruler respond when Jesus named the one thing he lacked, and what did that response reveal? [00:32:42]

Interpretation questions

1. If God commands love with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, what does that suggest about the idea that God can simply have one important place among many? [00:14:00]
2. Why does Gideon’s story point beyond merely removing idols and toward replacing them with devotion to God? What happens when the old altar comes down but the throne stays empty? [00:19:42]
3. Jesus says no one can serve two masters, and James says friendship with the world is hostility toward God. How should that shape the way a believer thinks about “small compromises” that seem normal or harmless? [00:27:46]
4. When clear truth starts sounding confusing, how can that sometimes be more about resistance than lack of understanding? What kinds of desires can cloud discernment? [00:37:49]

Application questions

1. Psalm 86:11 gives language for an honest prayer: “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” Where does the heart feel divided right now? Is it being pulled by comfort, approval, money, a relationship, a plan, or something else? [00:51:50]
2. Shared devotion often hides under a gray area and a slow drift. Where has obedience been getting redefined lately so that compromise feels acceptable? [00:03:47]
3. God does not only call for rival altars to come down; He takes the seat that the idol used to occupy. What would it look like this week to put God in the exact place something else has been holding in daily life? [00:20:06]
4. The response to God’s word often reveals what already has the throne. When Scripture touches a sensitive area, is the first reaction usually softness, grief, defensiveness, or excuse-making? What might that reaction be exposing? [00:49:01]
5. Worries, riches, pleasures, and responsibilities can choke fruit before it matures. What pressure or pursuit has been quietly draining devotion and making spiritual growth harder than it needs to be? [00:52:34]
6. An untied heart may still struggle, but it does not want the sin it falls into. When failure happens, is there a quick turning back to God, or a pattern of using one bad moment as permission to keep going? [00:56:22]
7. Full devotion is not vague or abstract; it shows up in actual choices. What is one concrete step that can be taken this week to choose God over a rival devotion? [00:57:58]