Work the Word

Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Part of Weekend Series — August 2026 Sermon Series

August 2nd, 2026

Scripture: Proverbs 18:21 (NKJV)

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Prayer

Gracious Father, thank You for Your Word to be opened up in our hearts so we might receive what You have for us today. We know, God, that You’ve ordered our steps at this place, at this moment, to speak to us about destiny. So we pray, God, that at the end of this message, somebody’s life will be changed forever in this place, or even around the world. We thank You for the Word that You’ll give, and we thank You that it will come to pass, and we’ll give You all the glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I. INTRODUCTION

Watch the full Sunday service: https://www.youtube.com/@mtzionnashville

There are many people who are under the assumption that destiny is something we stumble into, but the reality is that destiny is something we speak into. We focus on our prayer, on fasting, rightfully soul-building our faith, but we overlook the daily declarations that quietly shape the direction of our lives. What you say consistently becomes what you see eventually — and too many of us are praying for a future that we are sabotaging in the present. Our words are verbally sabotaging what we are asking God to do.

God never intended your mouth to just be something that communicates your feelings. Your mouth was designed to carry weight, to carry blessing, to carry your destiny — and it is important to hear this, because the conversations you have in the kingdom should never be casual. Those conversations are creative. That’s why when you mature, you recognize that you do not have time to waste, and you do not have words to waste.

Understand this: this text reminds us that your tongue is not just an instrument of expression for your feelings — your tongue is an instrument of expectation. Whenever you speak something, there is intent in what you speak. What we call a “bad day” is actually unchecked language. God trusted language. God trusted the Word in the creation of the whole world — He entrusted the creation of the whole world to His Word — so we need to be mindful of how we steward our words as well.

Proverbs was given to us by Solomon. Proverbs finds itself in the context of the biblical genre called wisdom literature — imagine a father sitting down giving wisdom to a child, saying, “This is how you should live wisely.” Throughout Proverbs you see over a hundred references to words, to language, to the tongue. That’s important because what Solomon concludes — what I want you to understand — is that wisdom is not tied to your intellect; it is tied to how you govern your words. You and I both know a lot of very smart fools. Wisdom makes knowledge obedient. Realize this — this is why Solomon says death and life are in the power of your tongue.

Imagine the level of influence you have: you can either talk yourself to life, or you can talk yourself to death. You must understand that your tongue is that sensitive — your words have the ability to either build up or tear down. Your words have the ability to encourage or discourage, to heal or to create wounds, to shape the direction of your entire life.

The second half of this verse is incredibly important, because it also says that those who love it will eat its fruit. Solomon’s audience — he uses an agricultural reference the original hearers would understand. For example they knew what it means to sow a seed and reap a harvest. They understood that our words are like seeds, and when you sow a seed of a word, you’re going to reap a harvest. Understand this: the seed that is planted grows over time, and eventually that thing comes back — whether it’s a harvest that blesses you, or a harvest that brings you sorrow. So there are some words that will come back in your generation, and there are other words that will come back in the generations after you. But words form ideas — words matter. Please understand: every compliment, every criticism, every lie, every act of encouragement, every complaint, every blessing is being planted in the soil of our relationships and our lives, and eventually those things produce fruit — and the person who spoke those words is the one who must eat that harvest.

And Proverbs is not teaching us “name it and claim it” theology — no, that’s not what we’re talking about. This is not about presumptuous demanding. This is about understanding biblical alignment. It’s about understanding what Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” It’s about what James talks about in James 3:4, when he compares the tongue to a rudder — that small thing on a big ship that controls the direction of the whole vessel. Every single day of your life you have to realize that your words are giving direction to where you’re trying to go.

So let’s talk to the people of God, because I want you to hear this: your words shape your world.

II. YOUR WORDS SHAPE YOUR WORLD

Creatio Ex Nihilo

Here’s the first thing I want you to hear: your words don’t merely describe your reality — they shape your reality. From the very opening pages of Scripture, in Genesis, God establishes the defining principle that creation responds to proclamation. There’s a powerful word — “bara” — it’s that word that means “out of nothing.” God created. In other words, before there was light, God had His Word. Before there was land, there was the Word. Before there were stars, that was a Word. Before there was humanity, that was a Word. God stepped into nothing and God spoke something into being. That’s the creative power of God — God said “let there be,” and it was.

Watch this — John picks up that same thread. John chapter 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.” All things that were made were made by that Word. So therefore Jesus — watch this — is the Word made flesh, and you and I are flesh made by the Word — which means that if the Word of God is in your life, and there is a promise on your life, you have the same authority to open up your mouth and speak into nothing, and it can become something.

Everything that is made in the image of God can create atmosphere and environment. Expectations and possibilities come out of what they speak. The same tongue that blesses is the same tongue that can create barriers. The same tongue that can declare faith is the same tongue that can declare fear. So when you continuously speak limitation, you frame your life to agree with what you just spoke. When you decree defeat, you strengthen the prison you’ve been praying for God to get you out of. But when you speak hope, when you speak God’s promises, you start lining your life up with heaven’s possibilities.

Proverbs  reminds us that the tongue carries authority, not merely volume. It’s not about how loud you speak, it’s about how you speak. Some people associate authority with loudness, but you and I both know loud people are not always wise people. Sometimes it is at the whisper that authority comes forward.

Can I help you understand this — your faith is only as close as your confession. There are many people who are asking God to reverse something, but they keep on rehearsing it. You pray for breakthrough while you speak defeat. You pray for healing while you speak sickness. You wake up every day always speaking about what’s wrong with you. But every time somebody asks how you’re doing, you say, “Oh, let me tell you about my pressure, let me tell you what I’ve got going on” — you keep on rehearsing what’s wrong. You’re declaring what you’re believing God for, you’re setting up to believe God for a new home, but then you’re always complaining about what you don’t have. Why don’t you start speaking to what you are going to have — let me see if I can make this make sense. You’ve got to get to a point where you recognize a lot of what you’re dealing with is not always conflict — sometimes it’s suffocation from the negative words you have spoken over your situation.

A. What you speak repeatedly is what you eventually see visibly.

See, your destiny is always moving in the direction of your declaration. I can’t tell you where you’re going by looking at what you have — I can tell you where you’re going by how you talk, because what you speak repeatedly is what you eventually see physically. Repetition, repetition — repeated statements turn into structures, structures turn into systems, systems turn into strongholds. You don’t need to fix your prayer life, you need to control your speech — because if you control your speech, what you speak will not speak you out of what you pray for. Repeated words strengthen your belief system, positively or negatively. So you’ve got to understand what David modeled — he did not just rehearse repeated confidence in God, his repetition built his resolve.

What you keep calling “this is just how I am” may actually be the verbal prison you have constructed with your own confession. When you have faith, you learn how to create an atmosphere around you that changes the situation. You cannot speak defeat all week and expect to get victory on Sunday morning, because God is consistent, not contradictory  The visible world follows the spoken word. So if you want a new picture, get new words. Everything that happens around you is shaped by the words you speak. Think about it — parents shape their children through repetition, leaders shape their teams through repetition. People are shaped by what you constantly speak.

B. Silence becomes agreement when truth needs a voice.

Can I go a little further, because I want you to hear this — this is going to bless somebody. Silence sometimes becomes the truth that needs a voice. Sometimes not saying something is saying something. Silence is not always humility — sometimes it’s a coward dressed up as maturity. There are moments when saying nothing is actually saying something, because refusing to speak the truth doesn’t make it disappear — it just allows it to go unchallenged. Evil has always benefited from the silence of good people. Watch this — silence becomes permission. Throughout Scripture, God always advanced His purpose through people who were willing to open up their mouths.

Moses had to open his mouth when he stood before Pharaoh — God said, “Let my people go.” David refused to let the giant’s insult go unanswered. He opened his mouth and spoke what he spoke. Esther risked her own life because she understood that influence without courage is a wasted opportunity. She opened her mouth. Nathan confronted David when everybody else was trying to protect the king. He opened his mouth. Elijah, alone on Mount Carmel, confronted an entire nation that had become comfortable with compromise — he opened his mouth. John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, in wild places — he opened his mouth, declaring, “One is coming after me whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie.” On the day of Pentecost, Peter opened his mouth and declared that the Holy Spirit had come upon the world. Jesus Christ is called the Word, because the Word is the answer for a broken world.

History even reminds us that history needed voices willing to open their mouths — Rosa Parks opened her mouth, Dr. King opened his mouth, John Lewis called it “good trouble” because he understood that silence protects injustice. The gospel has never been called to comfort — the church has been called to confront. Whatever contradicts the heart of God, we cannot remain silent about — when image-bearers are treated as though their lives are disposable. We cannot remain silent when families are grieving lives. We cannot remain silent while an entire community carries the weight of injustice. We cannot ignore that thousands of women are losing their jobs and people are hurting while we sit back being quiet. The church needs to be cleared and delivered from prophetic laryngitis and open up its mouth and say something. If my brother is hurting, if my sister is hurting, I’ve got to say something — because if you say nothing, you are complicit.

I need to tell you something — people who have faith have a voice that speaks. Just to speak, love speaks. You don’t think love speaks? You’re always trying to get the person you’re in love with to tell you they love you. For example, “I do love you, look at everything I do for you” — but sometimes you just want to hear them say it, because love has a voice. Love has a voice. You’ve got to open up your mouth and learn how to start saying something.

Look, somebody else — you’ve got to say something. You’ve got to learn how to speak over your situation. You’ve got to speak over your diagnosis until it starts lining up with what God said it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your situation until it starts lining up with what God said it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your city until it comes into agreement with what God promised it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your children until they become who God says they are — they shall be who God says they are, not who people call them. You’ve got to speak over your walk, over your relationship with God — I will not let anything else speak to me, I will speak over it. I’ll tell you: some people need to open up their mouths and say something — that’s confession, and that’s why confession creates consequences.

III. CONFESSION CREATES CONSEQUENCES

• Homologeo
• Character
• Context
• Conviction
• Abraham
• David
• Joshua
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Confession creates consequences — the text doesn’t separate words from outcomes; they’re tied together with divine intentionality. So confession is not simply what you admit — it’s what you authorize. What you authorize determines what manifests. I know some of you are thinking about your confessions like, “I saw you, I saw your post, I know you were there, I know you were outside” — but biblically, confession is far more than that. Confession is far more than positive speech. The New Testament Greek word for confession is homologeō — I love that word, because homologeō means “to say the same thing” — to say it over and over. You have to keep saying the word. It’s like being told, “How many times have I told you to take the trash out” — you have to keep saying it, over and over. That’s what biblical confession is: agreeing with God until your life catches up with what God has already declared. God, You declared something over my life, and my life doesn’t look like that yet, but I will say it over and over again until my life catches up with what You say.

That’s why you’ve got to stop being hard on yourself, because I know sometimes you look at your life and you say, “I’m so far away from what You say I am” — but you’ve got to keep speaking it. “I will be. I shall. One day I will become.” Keep speaking it, even if people think you’re crazy. You’ve got to learn how to keep confessing it.

Can I tell somebody: every confession is a vote. Every time you speak, you’re either voting for faith or voting for fear. You’re either voting for God’s promises or voting for your problem. Your mouth speaks, and you just can’t stop speaking. Confession requires three things — I’m going to give them to you.

Confession requires character.

You can’t be out here confessing stuff without character. You can’t be out here declaring and confessing something but living a lie Ifyou don’t even speak kindly to people, how are you going to confess like that? If you’re being nasty, are you going to confess like that? You can’t be confessing while your heart is full of grief you won’t deal with. The Bible says in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” In other words, you cannot expect God to bless what your lifestyle continuously contradicts.

Next, context.

Your confession has to be rooted in proper context, because here’s the problem — you cannot confidently speak a word that you’re not correctly understanding. Too many of us take Scripture out of context and try to apply it to fit our own narrative and our own agenda. So what happens is we know the blessing, but we overlook the conditions attached to the blessing. We’re out here holding up Scripture out of context, trying to make it make sense, because we want it to fit what we want. That’s why I teach the way I teach — see, a text without context is a pretext. Can I talk to you, people of God? Confession is not grabbing a random verse to support what you want — it’s understanding what God originally meant when He said it. You cannot quote “all things work together for good” unless you’re willing to acknowledge the rest of the verse — “to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.” You can’t be out here saying, “Ask whatever you will” without understanding “if you abide in Me and My words abide in you.” You can’t be out here saying, “I can do all things through Christ” without understanding the context — when Paul says this, it’s about contentment: “I’ve learned how to be content whether I have much or little, God, I’m at peace either way — now I can do all things through Christ.” You can’t take the parts you like and leave out the rest — that’s like a child whose mama said, “If you clean your room, I’ll give you a popsicle,” and the child only remembers “popsicle” and skips “clean your room.”

Conviction.

Conviction is — remember what I said earlier about homologeō — it is speaking something so much that you’ve believed it within your heart. I have rehearsed it in my spirit, trained my body, trained my mouth to say it, trained my energy and my spirit to start looking for it. All my energy is directed toward it. Every day I wake up, I’m reinforcing it. My convictions are so strong that when I say something, you’d better believe I believe what I say. I don’t say it out of fear — I say it because I confidently believe what I declare shall come to pass. I could be on my bed going into surgery and I will still be saying, “By His stripes I am healed.” I could be in a situation not knowing where my next meal is coming from, but I’ll declare, “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory.” I could be going through the roughest season of my life and still declare, “You will keep me in perfect peace if I keep my mind stayed on You.” I can have enemies all around me, but I can declare, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” Though my enemies come against me to eat up my flesh, they shall stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear — though war rise against me, in this I will be confident. I’ve learned how to trust conviction.

A. You cannot curse your future and expect God to bless it.

Can I tell you something — you cannot expect God to bless your future while you’re negatively speaking about it in the present. You can’t be out here watering your weeds while praying for flowers.

Confession, people of God — it’s so important that you come into agreement. You can’t curse what you’re expecting God to do. You’ve got to start speaking well over the things God is giving you. You’ve got to train yourself to be thankful — that’s what gratitude comes from. I may not have everything I want, but I’m thankful for what I have, because somebody would love to have what I have. Stop and learn to be grateful for where you are instead of always cursing where you are.

This also shows up in how we deal with other people, because your words matter in how you treat people. Most of us would never intentionally curse somebody outright — but what we do is we assassinate people’s character through gossip. We call it “discussing” but it’s criticism. We call it “being honest” but it’s venting, and we’re really spreading poison. We expose other people’s failures while hiding our own, and we repeat information God never assigned us to carry. We become more interested in being first to share a story than first to restore a person. You mask the gossip by saying “I could be wrong, but don’t tell anyone I told you this” — “just between me and you, be careful” — and then people tell others that same thing about you, because our words matter, and eventually if you keep speaking negative words, you create an environment around you. It’s almost like a negative algorithm. You start attracting more of the same.

Misery loves company — birds of a feather flock together. You’ve seen it: negative people always hang out together, and eventually the negativity rubs off on those around them — always critical about everything. And here you go trying to be nice, inviting them over, blessing them, and they walk in and say, “This is nice, but I don’t like the way you painted your walls” — always something negative to say. That’s not really about your walls — that’s a negative seed in them that hasn’t been dealt with. That’s what’s wrong — they don’t know how to celebrate somebody else without it threatening their own spirit. Celebrating with someone else in their blessing is worship. The reason your life feels stuck sometimes is because you keep tearing other people down.

B. Agreement with fear produces fruit you never intended to eat.

Crazy, negative people sitting around, always putting negative energy into the atmosphere. For example, there have been some people, referring to our new 5 services, who said, “ I don’t know why they are doing that? Who do you think they are? This is post-pandemic, nobody’s coming to church like that anymore”.

I wish you could’ve seen us that day, because we spoke this into existence . We went to Brentwood, you couldn’t get in there. We got back in at 8:15, we had 2,000 people sitting where you’re sitting right now. We went over to Jefferson Street and we were in overflow. We went to Antioch, and it was standing room only. We had a line to get into Children’s Ministry. Look around this place today — you can’t tell me what God speaks into your spirit, will not come to pass!

Let people call you crazy, let them think you’ve lost your mind — but you’ve got to learn how to keep speaking. I don’t want to be around people who aren’t speaking positive. I want to push people toward their purpose . Get the blessing, go get the house, go get the car, go get your degree. Stop sitting around negative, because your trauma is what’s allowing you to be negative.

My dear friend watching right now — this is Miss Oprah: She said she took a friend shopping one day, and the friend said, “You could use another black dress,” and she knew in that moment. There will always come a moment in your friendships where you know. That’s the moment when people show you who they are and when they do, believe them. You’ve got to believe that your real friends will celebrate your blessings even if they don’t benefit from them.

I want to talk to somebody else today. Touch your neighbor and say I want to see you blessed, I want to see you grow, I want to see God do everything He promised in your life. I want to see you go to the next level. No hater on this row. Go get whatever God has for you.

Listen to me. You can have a dream, but if it’s laced with fear, it’s not going to be what you thought. Faith and fear cannot coexist. Faith comes by hearing, but fear is a spirit. Faith comes by the Word, and fear is a spirit. Fear is not an emotion, it’s a spirit — so let me show you how it works.

Picture a movie scene of three teenage kids walking through a forest in the evening, as the sun sets, falling through the trees. Just that picture by itself — three teenage kids walking home through the forest as the sun sets, no music, nothing — and you’d just look at that and say, “Wow.”. However, the moment you add some scary music in the background, then the whole thing has changed, because at that moment you realize, fear has a sound.

Fear has a sound. Faith has a sound too. You wonder why some of us praise God the way we do. You wonder why some of us are quiet, while others make a lot of noise. It is because if fear has a sound, my faith has a greater sound. “When I think of the goodness of Jesus, and all He’s done for me, my soul cries hallelujah! I thank God, and praise His name.” Take your seat if you know what some of us have been believing God for. You understand this sound.

IV. FRUIT FOLLOWS YOUR FOCUSED SPEECH

Listen — fruit only comes after focused speech. Pay attention to this: fruit only comes after focused speech. It’s no coincidence that we’re reading Daniel Goleman’s book this month which is about focus, because your speech must remain focused. What the enemy will do is deputize people to offend you, so that you will react instead of responding. When you’re disciplined, you’re measured, you’re not easily provoked — but when you’re not disciplined, he hijacks your emotions. It happens all the time: somebody gets upset with you, they’re not disciplined, they say something hurtful, and a week or two later they come back and say, “I just want to apologize, I don’t know, I was in a bad place, I didn’t mean what I said.” But it’s hard to un-hear that — especially when what they said seemed to come from such a deep place, like they’d been carrying that about you for years. You realize they meant it from their soul; they’ve been feeling that way about you a long time — because that’s what happens with unmanaged emotion: you start reacting.

A. Loving your words means taking responsibility for your declarations.

That’s why you have to understand, in this season, be careful — because loving your Word means you’ve got to take responsibility for your declarations. I’ve got to take ownership of what I say. Watch this — the tone and the timing matter. I have a responsibility, because it’s not just what I say, it’s how I say it. It’s the difference between a glass of water and losing your mind. People who don’t have discipline about how they speak.

You get pulled over by police for a normal traffic stop and you get your license out. You have your stuff ready, you’re calm, and your tone is good. But somebody without discipline starts being difficult, escalating something, and ends causing you both to catch a case for it. Be quiet, because escalating gets you nowhere! People without discipline get themselves into situations, because they don’t know how to measure their tone — or worse, their timing. You have to know that you can say the right thing at the wrong time. So, Lord, help me have the wisdom to say the right thing at the right time.

B. If you do not like the harvest, change the language you are planting.

If you don’t like the harvest, change the language you’re planting. You don’t just need to see it, you need to feel it, because your environment reflects your expression. Change your thoughts with your confession. You’ve got to speak life until things begin to align.

I know some of you hearing this today might think this sounds quite mystical. It’s like I’m saying you just speak into the atmosphere and things happen. I hear that. But is it really some mystical kind of thing? Don’t you realize you do this all the time with Siri or Alexa? Who are you talking to? You’re talking to something programmed to respond to your voice, and you trust the information it gives you as truth. When you speak to it, you have confidence the information is accurate — you cook meals off it, you take directions off it, because you trust what it’s been programmed to say back to you is true. So if you have that much confidence in Alexa, I need you to have that much confidence in God’s Word. I’m not speaking my own word; I’m speaking God’s Word back to Him. “I am the head and not the tail. I shall be blessed going in and blessed coming out. Everywhere the sole of my foot treads on, God said he would give me,”. Are you hearing me? I want you to get to the point where you open up your mouth, because the enemy has always tried to muffle you.

The Pharisees and Sadducees had a problem with the crowd around Jesus, because they were praising loudly — and they said to Jesus, “Can You please tell Your people to be quiet?” And Jesus said, “If they hold their peace, the very rocks will cry out.” Because what the enemy wants is for you to sit back and say nothing, but a closed mouth doesn’t get fed. I’ve come to tell you: learn how to open your mouth and speak what you need. Start declaring: “I am not broken, I am building. I am not stuck, I am striving. I am not defeated, I am developing. I am not delayed, I am directing. I am not empty, I am evolving. I am not overlooked,  I am not by myself, I am with myself.”

You have to get to a point in your life where you open your mouth and come into agreement with God. One more testimony: I asked Alexa a question, and you won’t believe what she did. She said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that right now.” I thought I was talking too fast like I often do, so I slowed down and said “Alexa” again — and she said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that right now. She said, “There seems to be a problem with your connection. Go to your modem, disconnect it for 30 seconds, reconnect it, and try again.” And it hit me: there are some people who are talking to Heaven and getting the same response — “I’m sorry, there’s a problem with your connection, I can’t help you until you get reconnected. Try again.” But this time, because you’ve got the Word, God has reconnected you. Next time you open your mouth, I need you to believe that whatever you say to God shall come to pass.

I need somebody to open their mouth right now. I don’t need you to give God praise just to overshadow every negative word, every hateful word. Lift up your voice and declare the power of life. Give Him glory. Lay your hand on yourself, and declare: “I am blessed. I am God’s child. I am not perfect, but I am loved. I am becoming all that God said I will be. My declaration is moving me towards my destiny. From this day forward, my words will not speak death — they speak life. I speak it over my body, I speak it over my mind, I speak it over my family, I speak it over my business, I speak it over everything I come in contact with. Everything I come in contact with will be blessed. Every word I speak shall be a word of blessing.” Now give God glory one more time.

Have a blessed new week with the Lord! ❤️