Your Tree Is Already Planted
by Scott Graham
2007 · The Pentecostals of Alexandria, Alexandria, LA
Kind: conference session
Scripture: Exodus 15:1, Exodus 15:23-25, Exodus 1:13-14, John 16:33, Exodus 15:27

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/scott-graham--your-tree-is-already-planted
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
you would make me feel so much better if for about 13 and a half seconds everybody in this place would act like you're real glad to be born whoa Thank You chief much better thank you when I was young and ignorant some things have changed I'm older I remember sitting in this meeting watching his brother Jeff Arnold get up here every night on the last night and I thought you know it's got to be kind of cool to preach the last night of because of the times I was young and ignorant did I mention that all about three o'clock this afternoon I thought it is kind of cool when Jeff Arnold preaches the last night of it cause the time we're driving to lunch today and my wife was commenting on dr. Jeffers message today and we were referencing that thing about searching the Scriptures just for something to preach and I said honey I can't explain it I go through times when it seems like there's more stuff in that book to preach then I got services to preach it in and then I go through other times when I think there ain't nothing left to be said kind of like about now what a great time I'd say I am so blessed to be here thank you brother Mangan for what you and this church give to us I'm enriched by being here hallelujah Exodus chapter 15 reading beginning in verse 1 I'm honored to have my lovely wife of 20 years here with me tonight my son is I believe over in the peak a retreat he may be over here he talked about slipping over I conveyed to him that he wouldn't be grounded either way and he indicated he might stay over with the young people Exodus chapter 15 and verse number one then saying Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord and spake saying I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider had been thrown into the sea verse number 23 of that chapter and when they came to Marah they could not drink of the waters of Marah for they were bitter therefore the name of it was called Morrow which means bitter and the people murmured against Moses saying what shall we drink and he cried unto the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree which when he had cast into the waters the waters were made sweet there he made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he proved them they came to that place of bitterness and God showed him a tree now I may not know much but trees don't grow overnight before they ever left Egypt that thing was there my word to you tonight is this your tree is already planted your tree roots are already there Jesus thank you for your word thank you for the chance to be together thank you for entrusting us with something as precious as your word now I pray we'd received tonight what you're going to say this is all about you tonight that's your name receive glory speak to us by your word tonight in Jesus name I pray amen amen you can be seated for a little while Exodus 15 is first and foremost a psalm of praise under the Lord I know it's an exodus and it's not in the book of psalms although parts of it are in its reference there but Exodus 15 is a song of praise and I'll tell you comfortably tonight I can understand why Israel was singing I know why they were singing honey they had a right to their history demanded it and presented them with an unparalleled opportunity to proclaim the

power and the goodness and the mercy of the Lord if ever a group of people have lived who had seen firsthand the bountiful mercies of God in the saving hand of the Lord it was those people who were standing there on the shore looking at the roiling waters that had just buried their adversaries and so when this people considered their present position in light of their prior condition they just could not help themselves they got caught up and carried away captivated by and consumed with offering joyful excited praise unto the Lord I can understand it nobody had a better right maybe there is maybe with a human history can I get any more and so in this group of people standing and sitting before me today considered and could you just for one second consider our present position in relation to our prior tender sentence you just going to have to excuse us tonight if a little noise bothers you if a little emotion bothers you if a little excitement bothers you hang out with the slave or just a memory I'm on my way land of milk and honey I just can't help myself when I get in the house of God I have to be hey praise and it was in my notes first and I know you're a preacher and therefore you're exempt but I Got News for you honey before you were a preacher you were a slave before you want preacher you were a redeemed child of God you don't get it you don't get a free pass with me I'm sorry i sat on a platform one time several years ago was supposed to preach they got the singing I was shouting and hollering and I said to myself I better save my voice and the Lord went pow he said I already saved your voice I saved your hands I saved your feet I've saved your body I saved every part of you I think you're so important in the pulpit that you can't praise me now I'm not what I used to be I've been born again and somebody's gonna preach about it why'd you lie about it so I can understand why we asked this way nobody has a better right sure enough Bears fans Saints fans

Patriot fans and I remember who else is in it Gator fans get out of town Colts Colts fans you want to widen and crawl over how to ball for that because he gets more excited about Jesus and he does Gators but sure enough funny if 80,000 people can crowd into a stadium 22 below zero peel their shirts off beat their heads green shout like a wild man and nobody thinks they're funny surely when somebody reminds you that you've been washed in the shed blood of Christ surely when somebody tells you you've got a treasure because of the times are not sure or not sure what's buried in the sea he cast my sins into the depths of the sea I got a right yep right and you understand israel's reason for praise and he spend a little time at this point reminding you why israel was shouting on that day when the brooks had dried up and the famine stole every morsel and the flocks fell dead one by one in the field they fled to egypt protected for a season by joseph and then disaster struck when a pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph and their condition is described in brutal detail in Exodus 1 and 13 and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and more and prick and in all manner of service in the field all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor and thus for 400 years they suffered the hurt and the pain and the indignity of being Pharaohs construction team for his treasure cities they were broken and beaten and abused and to all their understanding forsaken until on the back streets of Goshen a baby boy was born the barrel said should not live but whom the midwives would not kill and this one that perils one and destroyed was adopted into Pharaoh's house and raised by Pharaoh's daughter and fed at barrels table and educated in barrel schools and been educated in God's desert and Moses returns as God's messenger and lead them out of Egypt 10 pegs delivered in one night spoiled the nation of Egypt trapped by the Red Sea shut-in but the wilderness and delivered my god and now standing on the other side looking at the still boiling waters they lifted up their voice and sang I will sing unto the Lord for he has to try out gloriously the horse and the rider thrown into the sea verse number four barrels chariots and his host happy cast into the sea his chosen captives also are drowned in the Red Sea verse 10 outdid us blow with that wind and the sea covered them and they say has led in the mighty waters it is known as the song of Moses he led the people in singing but not alone for when he got done miriam picked up a tambourine and marion the properties in verse 20 the sister of Aaron took a timbrel in her hand and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with high praises were going on it was Bo TT BC they were having a high and holy time had a lady come up to me after service one night and she fed me a line she looked at me with her Knowles all sprinkled up in 72 attitude wrinkles and she looked at me and said you know brother Graham you really don't have to act like that and I borrowed a line from an old Ronny Henson

Henson's album and I look back at her and I said sister you're right you don't have to you don't have to take a bath either but it feels good when I said and beyond that it makes you more pleasant to be around and it might do wonders for that stinking spirit of yours to baptize it in a little gratitude for a enemy drowned in the sea ha but brother Graham it doesn't take all that I beg to differ with you it does take all that when you realize just how far down you are it takes all that when you realize that your best efforts couldn't get you out of Egypt it takes all that when you know the Pharaoh was about to overtake you understand all that when you know by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself it's a gift of God it takes all that well so I'm not puzzled by Israel's praise I would have been confused by somebody that didn't I'm not confused by her exuberance I'm mind blown by those that don't but what I am puzzled by is what immediately follows because no sooner had they left this high and holy time the waves hadn't even settled down on the sea yet from the blast of God's nostrils the Egyptian armies debris was still washing up on the shore the dust of 4 million feet was still hanging in the air from the dancing over their deliverance and now bitter water the because of the times hotel-room hadn't shown up on my visa bill yet the DVDs I've ordered haven't even arrived in the mail the spiritual high that set my feet to dancing it's still tingling in my shoes and now better water you want to know how God I'm not where I need to go here you wonder how God confirmed to me that's what I was supposed to preach he let me live it this week two weeks last two weeks two Sundays ago we had our first service in our new church we've been building it for 16 months God gave us a place right on the interstate at a price we couldn't even dream about he's such a god thing I can't even get we've been driving nails and painting walls and pigs and drywall sweating bullets for 16 months and two Sundays ago we had our first we thank you that's all right too god big oil we excited man son it was the highest Sunday I've had I was not even touching carpet I preached I don't know what he was but it was good we run about we'd had on Sunday nights throughout 300 we had 500 and church that day son I did why I mean it was a Red Sea seaside experience and then on Monday sister Dugas went in the hospital and on Friday the diagnosis came brain tumor and on Monday here the word came inoperable it's not supposed to happen that way we're supposed to move in this new building and unprecedented things are supposed to happen we're supposed to just go all on higher higher higher and better water was there I wish I could tell you that three days that because of the times it's going to turn your own seven into a bowl of cherries a better roses but the reality is as you did go through the tulips you're going to run into some poison ivy life is going to give you some bitter water John 16:33 these things I've spoken unto you that in me ye might have

peace but get it straight in the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world I'm talking about bitter water I'm gonna get where I need to go when the thing that you plan for fall through that's bitter water when a family member disappoints you and shatters your dreams that's bitter water when your child rejects the moral underpinnings you try to instill that's bitter water when the dream of revival did you cast on Sunday it's rotten down by visionless people on Monday that's bitter one we need precip rate for years but the breakthrough has come that's bitter waters when your trust in a product has been broken and betrayed promises that's bitter water when you share your soul with someone it repeated elsewhere that's bitter well when your life partner doesn't share your heartbeat that's bitter water with someone you poured yourself in to backslides that's bitter water when the church board rises up against you that's bitter one when the lawsuit in short charge that's bitter water when you preach a funeral instead of shouting about a healing that's better water when every Sunday is not because of the times and your dreams seem distant and your vision is blurred by opposition and your calling is questioned that's bitter and the shocking thing to me is how quickly it can come just three days from Wow just three days from because of the times Friday Saturday and I try to carry home when I got here and there's no choir there like this it's sister Mickey not singing the house down there I told sister Mickey the other night I said in the world of female vocalist the United Pentecostal church Mickey Mangan and all the rest of it she ain't there and I got cool fancy little scenery things with God floating across the screen I don't have a lady sitting on a front roll weighs 42 hours each day I ain't got that I don't have fella sitting up here that prays the other 42 and gets up and gives me one of these ever not have that I don't have it and all of a sudden all that stuff I was shouting about when brother Cunningham got done and all that stuff I shot about when brother hardly got done and all that stuff I shout about every time brother man you touch the microphone seems a long way back on the red sea Shores and Moses cried out to God and he said now this there are a certain verse in the Bible that kind of tickle me he looked at God said God we're thirsty he said got an answer for you there's a tree now there's two things about that that I'm confused by if I've been going 3 days in the desert and thirsty ain't nobody gonna have to point a tree out to me I'm hunting shade on my own you would think everybody in Israel could crowd under that tree already knew that tree was there but God had to show Moses the tree because when you're in those bitter water experiences it's hard to see what God is doing all you can do is look at your puddle of disappointment all you can do is look at your pool of shattered dreams you can do this look at that bitter thing that has betrayed you but all the while just beyond there is a tree that God has let me get to the end here now I may not be real bright but trees don't grow overnight y'all mushrooms you spring one

of those up overnight God make a gourd growing hurry in the Book of Jonah but trees don't grow overnight when you plant the tree honey you're planning for the future you build a house you plant trees around it for what they're going to look like 20 years from now not right now because when you plant that little sapling it ain't strong enough to stand on its own you got to tie it up and you got to shield it from the enemy and you've got to be sure that the little critters don't chew on the bark and it's a full-time project to be sure that tree makes it to maturity here's what I'm saying somewhere in the distant past God had allowed one little seed to drift into a crack of that desert floor and every place else might have been drives but it rained on that spot and other places might have had storms but he held that one in his hand and every time the desert sheep came to grazed he shooed him away from that one and every time the Sun tried to beat on it he gave it shade from his hand until it grew day after day after day after day all because one day in the future his kids were going to taste this bitter water I wish you'd let me speak into your life right now all I'm saying is this before they drink one sip of the water the treaty was already planted and before they passed through the Red Sea the tree was already planted and before the firstborn fell didn't he yep the tree was already planted and before one drop of water had turned into blood the tree was already planted before anybody in Israel knew they needed it it was there before anybody knew what it would do it was there before anyone knew how it would work it was there so you want my word for you tonight before you even head home your tree is already planted he eboshit areata elbow keep before you ever got that doctors diagnosis and the tree was already planted before you preach your first sermon in that city the tree was already planted before you taught your first home Bible study your revival was already planted before that child walked away from truth the miracle was already planted before the enemy ever attacks you your tree was all ready planted I wish your face would reaches right now before you even tasted the bitter water the tool of your deliverance was already established the date of your miracle was already decreed the judgment against your adversary we're already written honey I know it's bitter right now but look around and see what God's doing that you haven't noticed before this is all I'm saying right now I hope you can hear me I'm telling you that God has already positioned the elements of a revival to shake your city God is already speaking to people that you don't even know about wait a minute hold it I ain't letting you off Matty I said right now in your city there are people in homes that are crying out to God you don't even know they're there yet right now right now there's money in your city that God's already getting lined up right now there's miracles in your city that God's already get it with and when the time comes when you taste that bitter water God's gonna say look and what I've been working on I can't you lose from that right now God's doing things you don't know about he about suckle toriyama God's already gotten a piece of property with your name on it it's just the county doesn't know it yet you think money's a problem with God he owns the cattle on a Thousand Hills honey he's already working on somebody you don't know about but could put more money into your building program than you've ever dreamed up in a six month period don't you tell me that's beyond my god he was working on it before you

ever moved to that town he was working on it before you ever came out of Egypt he about Arianna hawky he was putting it together he was getting the pieces in place there is a tree that was planted before you ever tasted that bitters whoa got to do this much got to this much the Lord looked at his rights there that day and he said if you will just follow me if you'll obey me if you'll obey my statutes if you'll do all that said he said I will not put any of the diseases on you that we're on the Egyptians now when I read that I I'll have to confess I thought I didn't really remember a whole lot of diseases that came on those Egyptians frogs it's not a disease water in the blood that's not a boils baby death of the firstborn I mean it's seriously darkness not a disease well god I kind of think what God was saying was the problem is not the water I can handle the water I've already got the answer for the water growing by the pool the problem is your reaction to the water the problem is not diseases of the flesh but Egyptian diseases of the spirit that get into people when they get too bitter water and he said if you'll just trust me a little bit I won't let you fall prey to the things the Egyptians better pray what kind of disease is you talking about how about anger and bitterness I'll kill them I'll chase them down and slaughter every one of them they're not going to treat me that way I wish you'd let me right now help you a little bit but bitter water experiences you can't corrupt our spirits until the anointing of God cannot operate in us for the anger that we feel Ingrid Saints and Ingrid family and anger it districts and anger it officials that anger at the organization anger and those that differ with me anger at the water itself and God says if you'll trust me a little bit I won't let that Egyptian disease get on you Egyptian diseases like indecision go stay go stay going away then come back that's an Egyptian disease it tries to plague us maybe God called me here maybe if he didn't maybe God led me here maybe not maybe God can bless this church maybe not maybe God will save my family maybe not maybe God wants to pour out revival here but it maybe not I got a question for you slick was there a pillar of fire and cloud or not Moses how did you get here in the first place I got up every morning and there was this pillar of cloud that I followed and I got up every night and there was a pillar of fire that I followed and the only reason I'm even here is because God brought me here and God knew the water was bitter when he took him there you want the proof of it ERT had the tree growing to fix it can I help you right now listen to me I got just a little pathetic thing happening to me right now listen to me God did call you God didn't aren't you God did position you God did seed you too God did send you to that city God did send you to that church God did place you there God did empower you God anoint you that does have plans for you I don't care bitter it is right somebody's got to say that Egyptian disease of indecision it's not going to take me away from the barracks now I traveled too far to get here I journeyed three days in the desert to get here I know when I got hearing one what I thought it'd be but I looked up I quit looking at my problem and I see where God had made preparation for this before I ever got here and so the tree was there but what fascinates me and I'm done right here is what comes next because in the last person that chapter

it's 15 and 27 it says and they came to Elam where worked well wells of water and threescore and ten palm trees and they encamped there by the twelve wells of water instead of one bitter pole 70 palm trees to rest under instead of one to cut down all the sudden Moses says I come to understand you never read where he told them to camp by God that's just a place you pass through that's just something you go by goes on the horizon is what I've been looking for 12 times as much shade in my life I will not die here I will not stop here I will not get discouraged here he already planted my tree he already took care of my miracle and just on the other side but my bitter water I'm done you ready can you receive this you're not going to live in bitter places all your life you're not just going to barely exist in a bitter place you are not destined to spend all your days frustrated and wishing and regretting and hurting you just passed through that place but you set up your tent in a place called Elim and you hear me right now you're going to camp in a place of a revival church you're going to camp in a place of seiran miracle signs and wonders you're going to enjoy the growth you've dreamed up you're going to sip you let me preach to me right now you let me preach to me right now okay you're all watch I'm a priest Scott Graham that wretched diagnosis of a tumor in the brain of your co pastor's wife it's not gonna undo what God has promised you in the city of st. Louis Missouri the sanctuary is going to be a revival center and miracle signs and wonders are going to be done by the name of the Holy Child Jesus and scores eight hundreds are going to pray through in the city and and pass it through bitter water but I'm not living there I'm passing through bitter water but I'm not staying there I see I see I see I see my destination on 70 palm trees and a dozen wells of water you pardon me just a minute I'm not illuminate in Morris I'm just passing through and I know it's okay because there's a tree planted I've been through it don't camp there pass through it I'm going to the whales I'm going to the 70 trees now go let this bitterness and junk on me and I'm

going through it lay your hands on back of somebody and say you gonna make it no crepe arms we can wear to pay too there are you gonna make it get your head up it's yours on the prize let your face increase I'm going through you