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
No Whining
The Shepherd's Pursuit: Psalm 23 Reimagined
What if everything you thought about Psalm 23 was shaped more by funeral homes than by the raw, bleeding reality it came from?
Picture this: a broken man crouched in a cave. He's not writing from comfort but chaos. His son wants him dead. His best friend betrayed him. The kingdom is falling apart. His heart is heavy with regret—failures as a father, husband, and king. And from that place of desperation, David writes the most quoted psalm in the Bible.
The Cave, Not the Pasture
Psalm 23 wasn't birthed in a peaceful meadow with sheep nibbling on grass. It came out of the wilderness. Out of running. Out of fear. The "valley of the shadow of death" wasn't poetic language—it was David's actual location. He was a fugitive, not a farmer.
And that context changes everything.
Confidence Before Confession
Right here is where the religious mind starts to short-circuit. Because David doesn't open with an apology, he doesn't start by saying, "Lord, I've failed." He doesn't promise to do better. He begins with something bolder than repentance: "The Lord is my shepherd."
Hold on. David is the man who:
- Let his daughter be violated and did nothing
- Slept with another man's wife and had him killed
- Made choices that led to a national civil war
And yet, he starts with confidence, not guilt. He doesn't say, "Lord, if you'll still have me." He says, "Lord, you're mine. And I'm yours."
The Prodigal Principle
This sounds a lot like that father in Jesus' story, the one who didn't wait for a perfect apology. The son was still filthy from the pigpen, shame still dripping off him—and the father ran. Cut off the rehearsed speech. Wrapped him in love before he had a chance to explain.
That's the kind of Shepherd David knew. This Shepherd doesn't operate on performance but on pursuit.
"I Shall Not Want"—A Declaration Over Time
That phrase—"I shall not want"—carries more than just poetic rhythm. In Hebrew, it speaks to the past, present, and future. David is saying:
- I haven't lacked
- I don't lack
- I won't lack
Because God hasn't changed, even when David had, his Shepherd wasn't faithful because David was—it was because He is.
This isn't motivational; it's not wishful thinking. It's trust rooted in God's character, not the sheep's behavior.
Not a Funeral Psalm, but a Battle Cry
Psalm 23 was never meant just to comfort the dying. It's a declaration for the living. For the desperate. For the ones hiding in caves and trying to figure out if they've blown it too badly to be loved again.
It says the Shepherd comes looking for lost sheep. Not the ones who find their way home. The ones too hurt, too ashamed, too stuck to move. And He doesn't come with a club of punishment. His rod and staff are for protection and rescue. To fight off what's chasing you. To pull you close when you want to run.
Turn Around
If you've been hiding—ashamed, exhausted, feeling disqualified—hear this: the Shepherd isn't waiting for you to clean up your act. He's not waiting for promises you can't keep. He's chasing you. Right now. With the same love that ran to David in a cave and the same love that ran to a p
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Well, I am excited to talk to you about Psalm 23. I know that you know the psalm. I know that you're accustomed to the psalm. It's a very common psalm. It's one everybody loves. It's most often associated with death, you know. I mean, that's what we hear. You know when you're afraid or when you're at the graveyard or at your funeral home. And somebody will always read Psalm 23 because it says In the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thou rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Austin Gardner:I want to take you through a journey through Psalm 23 and what God has done in that psalm in my life, and I think that it will excite you. Now, as we get started. I do want to read it to you today. I won't read it every time that we get together, but I want to read it to you. But I'll just start with one verse. How about that? The Bible says the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, and that's how David begins his psalm.
Austin Gardner:Now, as a boy, I thought that the psalm was probably written when David was a little shepherd boy, but there's too many things in there that don't make sense about. When he was a boy, he would have had no idea about the valley of the shadow of death. Probably he would have had no idea about enemies threatening him. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. He would have understood. You know the things about walking beside still waters and laying down in green pasture. I don't know how much he would have understood about the Lord restoring his soul. I do think he would have understood something about I'll fear no evil. But it seems like this psalm was most likely written and if you check out the commentators, most likely this psalm was written when David was on the run from his son, absalom. Others say it's possible that when Saul was trying to kill him. But anyway, he understands death and he takes and makes it a part of what goes on with sheep and his knowledge of shepherds. I want to take it to you and I want to say to you that I believe it's when David is on the run from Absalom. His own son wants him dead. We'll look at that over and over during this time as we go through Psalm 23. His son wants him dead. His best friend, ahithophel, wants him dead. Ahithophel was his best friend, a guy. He'd spent many years with His friend, turned on him and sided with Absalom against him. We'll delve into reasons that might have happened later, but I want to bring you to the psalm first, because I want to challenge you to get a hold of something.
Austin Gardner:Sometimes, when you want to get right with God and when you want to serve God and when you want to think about God, you think about how you got to get right to come to God. You think about how you got to get deserving to get God's love and you think about how you've got to do things to get God on your side and you begin to think like that. I'll be honest, I think you know that's true. I think you know that you on occasion begin to think in terms of well, I got to earn this love, I've got to earn this, and that's just not true.
Austin Gardner:David, as he begins Psalm 23, says the Lord is my shepherd. That's where he starts. He doesn't start with I failed my son Absalom when Amnon raped his sister Tamar. That's two of David's children. One of his children raped his other sister. David did nothing as a parent. He failed as a parent. He didn't get in there and help him. And so David failed as Amnon raped Tamar. Then he waited a couple of years. He still hadn't done anything and Absalom is just blown away by it. And Absalom is bothered by it. He can't stand it. And Absalom finally steps in and does something because his dad won't do it. And then Absalom tries to get things right with his dad but his dad won't let him and so he's failed miserably as a father. He wouldn't discipline his children. He wouldn't call them out when they did wrong. He's failed as a husband. Can I remind you he's got several wives he shouldn't have, but he has several wives. Can I remind you that he killed Uriah to get ahold of Bathsheba and to become the husband of Bathsheba? Can I remind you that he has sexually sinned with Bathsheba when they weren't married. He committed adultery, she got pregnant and he killed her husband. Not too good. Can I remind you that he's failed as a king by numbering his troops and doing a lot of things wrong as a king and a leader of God's people.
Austin Gardner:You say why do you bring all that up? Because I'm afraid that church and religion has taught you that you have to earn God's approval to get God's help. You don't feel like you can say the Lord is my shepherd. When you think I'm off in a far pasture and I'm doing my own thing, I broke out of the fence, I jumped across the fence, I ran across the river. I'm doing my own thing, and so I don't see how God could be my shepherd. Simply not true.
Austin Gardner:David is on the run. He's probably hiding in a cave somewhere back in the woods. His men are around him. The majority of people are against him. Everybody wants him dead. His best friend's trying to get him killed, and David knows exactly what to do. And that's what I want to call on you to do.
Austin Gardner:David says the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. He doesn't go. Oh God, I come to you and I apologize, and I apologize and I repent and I'm so sorry and I've been a scum and I've done wrong, and I'm like, please, god, give me a chance. He doesn't do that. He doesn't do that because he knows something that you need to know God loves you. He loves you right now, right where you are, and the fact is, you may have jumped across the fence, run across the road, run across the stream, you may be on the run as a sheep, but your shepherd is right behind you, pursuing you in love to bring you home. Not going to whip you, not going to beat you. Sin will do enough of that for you. He's there to bring you home.
Austin Gardner:And so David, in depths of discouragement, says Let me get back to reality, let me get out of what's going on here and back to where I ought to be. And then he says the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord is my shepherd. Helvi is my shepherd. I am is my shepherd.
Austin Gardner:I shall not want that word in the Hebrew. I shall not want. That word means I have not wanted. I will not want that word in the Hebrew. I shall not want. That word means I have not wanted, I will not want. I don't want right now and I never will want because I don't want. I'm in God.
Austin Gardner:And he says he goes all the way through this psalm Not one time does he repent. Do you remember when the prodigal son ran away and did all that wrong? And he came back, ready to apologize, quote, unquote ready to say he was sorry, he had a whole list of things he's going to do to get things right as he comes, running back to see his father, but his dad never listens. His dad comes running out of the house, grabs him, kisses him, hugs him, smells his pig stink all over him, calls for him to be bathed and get a new robe and get his daddy's shoes on his feet and a ring on his finger to kill the fatted calf. And that's how God loves you. This morning Now, I know probably if you're drawn to this passage or this set of videos or this set of podcasts, you're thinking I've messed up and I don't know that God loves me and I don't know that God will come for me and I don't know that God cares.
Austin Gardner:And I'm here to tell you that he does care. I think I love one of the things that goes on in this Psalm as much as I love anything else the fact that David goes. He's still my shepherd. I have messed up, I have done wrong. I have been doing my own thing. I have been living where I have done wrong. I have been doing my own thing. I have been living where I shouldn't have lived, but he's my shepherd.
Austin Gardner:I'm not saying that David's not sorry for his doing wrong. See, I think David could have been going I brought this on myself If I had just disciplined Amnon, if I had just taken care of Absalom when I should have, if I had just not slept with Bathsheba, if I had just not killed Uriah, if I had just been a faithful husband, if I, if I, if I you know you play that game, don't you, if I? And then you think that God loves you because of that. I need you to know God loves you because God is love. I need you to know that God is good to you because God is good. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. You see, you got to understand.
Austin Gardner:God's never good to you because you're good. God doesn't love you because you love him. God doesn't love you because you do right. God loves you because God loves you. You belong to God. You're his sheep. He is your shepherd. Whether you're acting like it or not, he is your shepherd. And so I want to challenge you to consider with me today that he loves you, that he cares about you, and I don't care where you are, I don't care what you've done. Turn around. The shepherd's standing right there. He never left you. He will not leave you. He's here to help you. It's time to turn and receive the love that's flying at you, that's coming at you like a wild river, loving you no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter where you are. He loves you and it will not stop. The Lord is my shepherd. Thank you for listening and I hope you'll be with me tomorrow as we will delve more into Psalm 23.