Followed By Mercy
The Followed By Mercy Podcast
Real Grace, Honest Hope
You might notice a new name and a fresh look, but the heart behind this podcast is the same. After years as the World Evangelism Podcast, I sensed God leading me to a deeper, more personal path centered on His relentless mercy and the kind of honest hope that can reach into every hurting place. That’s why this show is now called Followed By Mercy Podcast. The format may shift, and the tone may be a bit more personal, but my mission hasn’t changed: I still believe the world desperately needs to hear the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. You are welcome here if you’ve been with me from the beginning or just found us now.
What if God’s love is more personal, stubborn, and relentless than you ever imagined?
Welcome to The Followed By Mercy Podcast, where we get honest about pain, hope, and the kind of grace that finds you right where you are, five days a week. This isn’t about religious performance or church routines. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt worn out, unseen, or unsure if they belong in the story of God’s love. Every conversation is rooted in this reality: God loves you right now, just as you are, and He isn’t giving up on you.
Here’s what you’ll find in every episode:
Experience God’s Relentless Love
Every show starts by reminding you that the Shepherd knows your name, cares about your story, and isn’t offended by your failures or questions. This is personal—it’s about God’s unwavering affection for you.
Find Your Place in His Heart
Once you grasp how fiercely you’re loved, sharing that love with others doesn’t feel forced. It becomes the most natural thing in the world. Real grace overflows.
Prayer That Changes You
We pray together—not just for the world “out there,” but for the battles and hopes you’re carrying right now. These prayers are honest, rooted in Scripture, and meant for hearts that need a gentle touch from the Shepherd.
Discover Your Unique Role
Whether you’re called to go, give, serve, or show kindness in your corner of the world, God’s mercy meets you where you are. You’re not just a bystander. You are His beloved, invited into the story He’s writing.
When life knocks the wind out of you, this is a place to catch your breath. You’ll hear the encouragement that meets you on your hardest days, and your honest questions will be welcomed. No pretending, no heavy-handed advice—just the reminder that your Shepherd is right there with you, walking every step with you, even when you feel like giving up.
Why does this matter? Because some days, it feels like nobody sees you or cares what you’re going through. But the truth is, you have a Shepherd who never takes His eyes off you, lets you slip through the cracks, and never gives up on you. That kind of love can put you back on your feet, and it might be the hope someone else is waiting to see in you, too.
If you’re longing for more than just religious talk—if you want to know you’re not alone and that God’s mercy is following you all the way home, you’re in the right place. Whether you listen in the car, on a walk, or in a quiet moment, let every episode remind you: God’s mercy is after you right now, ready to bring real grace and honest hope.
Subscribe today and join a community to discover what happens when loved people become loving people. The journey’s just beginning, and there’s a place for you here.
Followed By Mercy
Loves Me, Loves Me Not: Breaking the Performance Mindset
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What comes to your mind when you think about God? If it’s a judge or a taskmaster, it’s going to shape your entire life. Today, Austin Gardner dives into Ephesians 3:16-19 to show us a different picture.
Austin shares his personal journey of moving from a "judging" view of God to experiencing a Father who strengthens us from the inside out. We talk about the "breath, length, depth, and height" of a love that passes knowledge, and why 1 Thessalonians 5:24 is the most encouraging verse for anyone feeling "not enough." God is faithful, and He is the one doing the work in you.
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Rethinking Who God Is
Austin GardnerDo we realize how good God is? You know, I've made that kind of like the rest of my life's mission. I want to make sure you know just how good God is. You know, most of us would agree that God forgives sin and God saves us from judgment, but the Bible reveals that God desires to bless us, to strengthen us, to fill our lives with his presence, to transform us from the inside out. I spent a long time in my life thinking of God as more like a taskmaster or a referee or a judge, wondering if I could measure up to him. And that really kind of messes you up. A.W. Tozer said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. If we think of God as distant and harsh or uninterested, it'll shape how we live. But Scripture shows us a different picture. God is the God who blesses and strengthens his people. I want you to go with me in your hearts. You don't have to look it up in your Bible, but in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 16 through 19, which I have been preaching through this, Paul prays probably one of the greatest prayers in all of Scripture, Ephesians 3, 16 through 19. And he prays that God, He, would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. I think it kind of blew my mind. He uses two words there. He said, uh, that you might be able to comprehend that somehow you can wrap your mind around how much God loves you and how much Jesus' love is so deep and so wide and so high and so low. And then he said, Well, it passes knowledge is beyond what you can understand. See, Paul didn't pray that you'd be wealthy or have comfort or have success or have easier circumstances. He prayed you'd have spiritual strength. That's amazing, isn't it? He didn't pray for you to be rich. He didn't pray for you to have a good life, he didn't pray for you to be successful. He prayed for you to have spiritual strength. Strength in the inner man, to be strengthened with might by a spirit in the inner man, in your heart, in your soul, in your spiritual life, that you would be strengthened. God's greatest work is the work he does inside of us. He does it, it's not about changing our circumstances, but by transforming who we are becoming. I like this quote by C.S. Lewis. He said, God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from himself because it's not there. Spiritual strength comes from God Himself living within us. Paul continues, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That's more than believing Jesus exists. It means Christ becoming central to your life. It means his presence shaping your thinking. It means his love guiding your decisions. God doesn't just save us and leave us alone. He lives in us and he strengthens us. That's a picture of a tree with deep roots. When the roots are deep, storms don't destroy the tree, drought doesn't kill the tree, winds can't uproot the tree. God strengthens believers so that life storms do not destroy their faith, so that life storms, and they come, don't destroy our faith. Corey Tinboom said, never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. But we've got to know God, don't we? Paul says in Ephesians, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. That's a beautiful paradox. He wants you to know what you can't know. God's love is greater than anybody can fully understand. God loves you and every one of us as if there were only one of us. God loves us like you're the only one. My daughter-in-law used to sing a song, and God loves me like I am his only child, and all God's children think that way. I love that song. The more deeply we experience God's love, the more our lives change. Then Paul said that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. That's what he's ending the prayer with. That's crazy, wild, isn't it? Hard to believe. Think about that. God wants to fill our lives with his presence. That means his peace fills us, his joy fills us, his love fills us, his strength fills us. God at work in us, totally alive in us. God wants to pour himself into our lives. What a God! I didn't know this God. God wants to transform our lives. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 23 and 24, he said, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calls you, who will also do it. There are two more powerful truths here. God wants to sanctify you completely. He cares about your spirit and he cares about your soul. He cares about your body and he cares about your entire life. God doesn't want partial change, he wants complete transformation. And the beautiful thing is he will do the work. Faithful is he that calls you, who will also do it. God himself will do the work. That's probably one of the most encouraging statements in the scripture. God doesn't command growth, he empowers it. God always meets our need and takes care of us. So how are we going to apply this today? Well, you ask God for spiritual strength. Paul prayed for it, so we should. We stay rooted and grounded in Christ. So we spend time with the Lord in Scripture and in prayer, in meditation, and in worship. And we send down deep roots. And I think probably the hardest thing for me of all, and maybe it works that way with you, is that we have to receive God's love. It is one thing for me to preach about loving God, but it's another thing for me to actually figure out He loves me. He really loves me. I think I'm more like the kid I was back in the hills of Tennessee when I was a boy. And I take those daisies and I pluck a leaf off to say she loves me. The next one, she loves me not, and you'd hope that you'd end up with a she loves me as you got to the last petal. And I think sometimes I've thought, I hope God loves me, but he loves me not. I hope God loves me, but he loves me not. The God of the Bible is not distant. He's not unloving. He's the God who blesses his people. He wants to strengthen your heart. He wants to fill your life with his presence. He wants to root you in his love. He wants to transform your entire life. Read it again. Faithful is he that called you, who will also do it. 1 Thessalonians 5.24. God is faithful and he will finish his work. I am so excited about who God is and what he's doing in my life. I'm so excited about who he is and what he's doing in your life. And I just want to challenge you to know this. The God we serve loves us. We're his creation. He loved us not because we do good, not because we earn it. He loves us because he loves us because he is love. He is good. If you want to know what he's like, he's like Jesus. When Jesus was on earth, we saw an exact picture of who God is. What a loving, sweet, gentle, kind God we have. Not judging. There's no condemnation of them that are in Christ Jesus. Not condemning, neither do I condemn you. I just want you to know you have a God who loves you. I want to thank you for listening. I know that it takes time out of your schedule to pay attention to these, to look at the YouTube videos, or to listen to the podcast. I want to thank you. I write on wauseggardner.com. I write on Alignment Ministries. I send out two email letters every day. I also write in Spanish. I am writing with one purpose. I'm speaking with one purpose in mind, that you would know how much God loves you. And so if you'd like to join me in some of that, I would really appreciate it. If you'd like to comment or say something, give me a call, talk to me. I'd love to hear from you. God bless you, and I pray you have the most wonderful, blessed day. God bless you richly today.
