God's Sudden Move Can Visit Your Family

Introduction

You look at your family and sometimes think, "That's been stuck for too long." A couple worn down by the same arguments. A child drifting away. A parent who's never wanted to hear about Christ. Forty years, maybe, like the paralyzed man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. Pastor Joseph-Désiré Miall came to preach during the special Family weekend at Église évangélique Vie Nouvelle with a phrase he kept coming back to: God's "sudden move." That moment when the Lord, without warning, releases his power and unlocks what you thought was impossible. This message isn't a theory about family. It's an invitation to still believe that God can visit your household, today.

Outline

1. God's sudden move when everything seems frozen
2. "You and your household": carrying the promise for your family
3. Repent and turn back: the door to times of refreshing
4. Christ in place of "me": the end of selfishness in the home

1. God's sudden move when everything seems frozen

The pastor starts by taking you back to Acts 16. Paul and Silas have preached in Philippi, been thrown in prison, their feet in chains. Here's what the text says in verse 25: "About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God." Then, suddenly, an earthquake shakes the foundations, the doors fly open, the chains fall off.

Joseph-Désiré Miall is clear: there are things you can do, and there are things only God can do. God's sudden move is God's miraculous move. It can happen in a family nobody believed in anymore, in a marriage that expects nothing more, in a heart that seemed locked shut. It might be years that you've been praying over a situation that's "rotten," as he puts it, but God remembers your prayers, and his time comes. It's not about forcing God's hand, it's about believing he's the God of the sudden.

2. "You and your household": carrying the promise for your family

After the earthquake, the jailer at Philippi falls at the feet of Paul and Silas and asks, "What must I do to be saved?" The answer is direct: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31).

Joseph-Désiré Miall puts an important guardrail here. He refuses to turn it into an automatic doctrine. That word was first spoken to one specific man on one specific night. It doesn't mechanically guarantee that everyone you love will be saved just because you are. But, he adds, it does give you permission to carry this deep longing in your heart: "Lord, I want with all my heart for everyone in my family (those who came before me, those who come after me, those beside me), to know you personally." You can claim that prayer. You can refuse to lose heart in intercession, in witness, in the kind of life that will one day make someone in your family ask you: "What's the source of the strength I see in you?"

He also points to Cornelius (Acts 10). A devout man, a man who prayed constantly, a religious man, and yet a man who wasn't saved yet. His whole household would be reached by the gospel. It's possible. Keep hoping for your own.

3. Repent and turn back: the door to times of refreshing

The text that shapes the whole sermon comes from Acts 3:19: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." The pastor highlights the word condition. Refreshing isn't automatic. It rests on two concrete steps.

First, repentance. Honestly admitting that by nature and by habit, we're all sinners, all falling short of the glory of God. There's not a single righteous person on earth, not even one. Then conversion, turning to Christ, placing your trust in him, turning away from the idols and passions you were wallowing in.

The pastor also quotes 1 John 3:8: "To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil." In families, he says, there are demonic words that have been spoken, curses that weigh things down, discord that's been sown, quarrels, jealousy, dysfunction. Christ came precisely to undo all of that. Refreshing isn't just a bit of spiritual fresh air, it's the liberation of an entire household from what the enemy has planted there.

4. Christ in place of "me": the end of selfishness in the home

The pastor names plainly what poisons marriages and families the most: selfishness. "Selfishness, I could really say, is the cavity eating away at so many households," he says. "Me, me, me. I'm the one who's right, you're the one who's wrong." When "me" becomes its own idol, when everyone wants their own point of view and sensitivity to win out over everything else, you quickly become tyrannical in your marriage, in your family, and even in the church.

The way out is Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me." One key, but a total change. The pastor tells of stepping into a couple's home on the verge of exploding, shouting, anger, threats, a two- or three-year-old watching parents tear each other apart. He read them the Word, prayed with them, and God preserved that household. When Christ is left at the center (really at the center, as head of the home), the way you look at things changes, the way you speak changes, attitudes change, because the heart has been changed.

That's what it means for the whole person to be healed, he says. Christ starts at the foundation, at the heart, where the "groundwater table" of a human being sits. And from there, everything else gets irrigated.

Key takeaways

• God is still the God of the "sudden." He can unlock in one night what you've carried for years.
• The promise of Acts 16:31 invites you to carry your loved ones in prayer and witness, without turning it into an automatic guarantee.
• There's no time of refreshing without repentance and conversion: Acts 3:19 sets out both conditions.
• Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, even in the words, curses, and discord planted in your family (1 John 3:8).
• Selfishness is the cavity eating away at homes; Galatians 2:20 offers the way out: Christ in place of "me."

Personal application

1. What long-frozen family situation have you stopped waiting on God's "sudden move" for?
2. Which family members are you concretely carrying in prayer each week, believing they'll meet Christ?
3. Is there a specific sin you need to repent of today to see a time of refreshing return to your home?
4. Where is "me" competing with Christ in your marriage or family: opinions, authority, money, time?
5. Are you ready to let Christ take his place as head of your home, with everything that changes in how you see and how you speak?

Verses cited

• Acts 3:19 · "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord."
• Acts 16:25-31 · Paul and Silas in prison; God's sudden move; the promise to the jailer: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
• Acts 3:1-8 · The healing of the paralyzed man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple after forty years of infirmity.
• Acts 10 · Cornelius, a devout man, and his household reached by the gospel.
• 1 John 3:8 · "To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil."
• Galatians 2:20 · "It is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me."
• Matthew 18:20 · "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them."

FAQ

What does "God's sudden move" mean for your family?

It's the moment God suddenly steps into a frozen situation: a couple on the brink reconciles, a child comes back to the Father, a chain falls off just when you'd stopped believing it could. Pastor Joseph-Désiré Miall draws on Acts 16:25, where Paul and Silas are praying in prison and suddenly an earthquake shakes everything and throws the doors open. God still holds that power today for your household.

Does the "you and your household" promise of Acts 16:31 apply to me?

That word was first spoken to the jailer at Philippi, the pastor points out. It isn't an automatic doctrine guaranteeing the salvation of everyone you love just because you believe. But it does give you permission to carry a deep longing in prayer: to see everyone in your family meet Christ. You can claim that desire before God, refuse to give up, and stay faithful in your witness until God's salvation rises up in your family.

Why is selfishness so destructive in a Christian household?

Because it puts "me" in the place only Christ should occupy. Pastor Joseph-Désiré Miall calls selfishness "the cavity eating away at so many households": "me, me, me, I'm the one who's right." When everyone turns their own point of view into an idol, the marriage becomes tyrannical and the family tears apart. The way out, he says, is Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me."