2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.  To have a good garden, there are some requirements.   Good soil, good seed, planning, labor, and tools
are must haves to have a good garden.  We must remember,  after that we have planned and planted, we must rely on our Heavenly Father for the harvest.
Let’s compare the garden to the Christian life.  Someone planted the seed of God’s word in our life.  To become a child of God the seed had to have fallen on good ground.  That ground had to be plowed and broken up.  The Holy Spirit begins to dig around in our hearts preparing the way for the seed of God’s word to germinate.   In our garden here at home everything  is growing nicely.  There’s still work to do!  The weeds have begun to grow also! Imagine that!  We must deal with the weeds or the weeds will choke out the good plants in the garden. When a person gets saved, there will be weeds in their life that will spring up with the intent of choking out the good growth.  We are told to grow in grace, not grow in grass!  We use a tiller and a hoe to rid the garden of the weeds. 
There’s another thing the garden needs after the weeds are removed, that is fertilizer.
The Word of God is absolutely necessary in order to take care of the weeds in our lives as well as fertilizing the grace in our lives.  We need to read it, we need to hear it preached, we need to heed it!  The person who is hearing God’s word and not doing God’s word will never grow in grace.  One more thing… The soil is prepared, the seeds are planted, the garden has sprouted, the weeds are at bay, fertilizer has been applied, now… we need it to rain!  There must be water in order to have a good crop!  In the scripture water is many times used as a type of the Holy Spirit.   We need the precious Holy Spirit of God to help us if we are to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus.   To have a good garden we need the sunshine and rain.  To grow as a Christian we need the SONSHINE and the RAIN that the Spirit of God provides!  Amen.  Pastor