The sermon by Conrad Mbewe discusses the cultural significance of having children in the African context, where it is seen as honorable and a blessing from God. This contrasts with certain Western perspectives where having children might be considered optional. In Africa, not having children can be viewed negatively, as if lacking divine favor. The sermon references Old Testament passages, like those in Jeremiah, that encourage marriage and procreation, which are perceived as natural and desirable actions. The speaker extends this concept to the New Testament, where the idea of family transcends the physical, emphasizing evangelism and the spread of God's word as a form of spiritual multiplication. This spiritual growth is seen as a continuation of God's blessings, ultimately aiming for God's knowledge to fill the earth.

In the African context, having children is still seen as something that is honorable. And so individuals will want to have as many children as they can be able to handle, rather than the opposite direction where you get married and say to yourselves, well, this is about us, we're not having children and so on. That's unthinkable. In fact, in Africa, if you don't have children, there is a black male almost within the context of the psychology in the community that God has not blessed you. So having children is seen as a blessing from the Lord.

And so any passage in the Old Testament, including Jeremiah, that's speaking in terms of get out there, marry, you know, have children and get involved in business and so on seems to simply be seen as of course that's the right thing to do rather than a command that people should feel grudging about, you know, how can God be asking this of us? Obviously in the context of Jeremiah, it was the understanding that having gone into Babylon, they should not hold back the life that God had already given them to engage in because Israel and any other nations multiplied through marriage and having children. When we then, again, as I said at the beginning, go into the New Testament, we go beyond the physical family and the appeal there is, you know, evangelize, multiply through multiplying churches, see God's word go forth in all these new cities and new nations and new continents and so forth until the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.