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
The LORD is MY Shepherd
“The Lord is my shepherd.” What does that really mean?
We’ve heard those words from Psalm 23 so often that they can sound like background noise. But slow down. Let it hit you. Is. Not was, not will be—is. Right now. At this moment. In the chaos, in the quiet, in the mess, and the unknown—He is present. Actively shepherding.
And then there’s “my.“ That little word changes everything. This isn’t just a line about God watching over people. This is about Him watching over you. Personally. Specifically. Try reading it like this: “The Lord is [your name] ‘s Shepherd.“ Feel that? It gets real fast.
This isn’t a distant God checking in now and then. This Shepherd knows you. Your story. Your pain. Your history. Every failure, every fear, every hard thing you don’t say out loud—He sees it all. And still, He stays. Still, He loves. Still, He leads.
When life sideswipes you—when the diagnosis comes, the family falls apart, and the bills stack higher than your hope—this personal relationship becomes your anchor. You’re not just believing in a higher power. You’re holding onto a Shepherd who knows your name and refuses to let you go.
And when you wander (because we all do), He doesn’t show up with anger or guilt. He comes running. The Shepherd searches. He lifts. Jesus carries. And when He brings you home, He throws a party, not a lecture. That’s grace. Not earned and not deserved. But offered freely and fully.
So what do you do with that? You receive it. That’s it. You don’t have to perform. You don’t have to clean yourself up first. Jesus already paid the price. Just trust Him. Say yes. That’s how you claim this relationship.
Whatever you’re facing today, this is true:
The Lord is your Shepherd. You shall not want.
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The Lord is my shepherd.
Austin Gardner:We have looked at the Lord who he is. He's a personal, relational God who loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. He has worked at it far more than any of us ever worked at it. He gave his only begotten son just so we could have that relationship. God is love and God is good. We've seen the Lord is. We've seen that it's a right now. Present tense is so. Now I want to move on to the Lord is my shepherd, my shepherd. See, it's personal. We're not talking about the congregation. We're not talking about the church. We're not talking about all the people. We're not talking about the world. We're not talking about the church. We're not talking about all the people. We're not talking about the world. We're talking about you. He is mine and I am his. My is a possessive word. My shepherd, I want you to imagine yourself with a name tag that says property of the good shepherd. You belong to the shepherd.
Austin Gardner:Now, remember, the whole psalm revolves around the Lord. It's really not about David. David is reflecting on, meditating, on thinking about the Lord is his shepherd. You could rewrite that psalm and not do any harm to it at all if you just replaced my with your name. The Lord is Austin's shepherd. Austin shall not want. The Lord makes Austin lie down in green pastures. The Lord leads Austin beside still waters. The Lord restores Austin's soul. You can do that with your name. You see I laid in the bed at night. The Lord restores Austin's soul. You can do that with your name.
Austin Gardner:You see I laid in the bed at night, all panicky and torn up about all that was going on in my life. It's the cancer that's advancing and it's the losing of the family and the losing of opportunities, the losing of a part of your life, all of your life on earth. Even though I'm going to heaven, one side of me said I'm ready to go to heaven. The other side said I don't want to lose my family, I don't want to leave this earth, I don't want to leave my family. And then I would reach down and touch the spots in my abdomen where I could feel the tumors and panic would rush into my mind. And then the Lord directed me to go meditate on.
Austin Gardner:The Lord is my shepherd. I am important to him. I am important to him, you are important to him. He is our shepherd, my shepherd. Imagine the good shepherd, carrying you on his shoulders, with your name engraved on his staff. Austin's shepherd, carrying Austin on his shoulders, the shepherd taking good care of us.
Austin Gardner:I want you to know. Our shepherd is a personal shepherd. He calls you by name. Jesus said that they hear my voice. They know my voice. I know their names. He knows our name, he knows your name, of all the billions of people on the planet, all that have died and all that are yet to come.
Austin Gardner:The shepherd knows you. He knows exactly where you're living. He knows every detail about you. He knows every detail about your life. He knows every failure, every thought that was out of place. He knows about it. And I know right now you'd expect a religious person to come in and say you ought not have been thinking like that. But Jesus, your shepherd, loved you in spite of every thought you've ever had and every failure you've ever had. He loves you. He knows every detail.
Austin Gardner:There is something special about my shepherd. When your children say my mommy, my mom, my dad, my daddy, they have complete trust and they know they belong. That's my daddy, that's my mother. We say my shepherd and Jesus says my sheep. I don't know how you can think of anything any more special than that. His love for you was so great that he left the 99 to find you and bring you home from your lost state and celebrate your return. I want you to just think a minute here. You were lost, I was lost, we were in sin. We jumped the fence, we jumped the creek, we were out over in the other desert wilderness, another man's pasture. We were a long way from where we belonged to be and he didn't come after us with a stick. He came after us, loving us just like he did. He left the 99 and he went and he searched until he found us and then he picked us up and put us on his shoulders and laid his head laid our head right down where he could talk to us, and he whispered sweet things to us all the way home. He brought us home and when he got home, it wasn't to reprimand us, it wasn't to give us a list of rules, it wasn't to tell us what we had to do to get things right so we could be back on a good relationship with him. It was to have a party. That's what Jesus when he told the story. We had a party. We got you home. We had a party. Can you imagine that you had a party? We got you home. We got a party. Can you imagine that you got a party?
Austin Gardner:Your shepherd, the Lord, is my shepherd.
Austin Gardner:He guides you. He knows what you like to eat. He gives you richly all things to enjoy. He knows you. He knows everything about you. He knows what you like and what you don't like. He knows your favorite food and he loves to see you enjoy in life. He came to give you life and life more abundant. That's not just heaven, that's not just spiritual talk. He came to give you life and life more abundant. I want you to know that our shepherd, my shepherd, pays attention to me. My shepherd has his eye on the sparrow, but he has his eye on Austin. He has his eye on you. I don't know what you're going through, I don't know how you're hurting, but I want you to know the Lord is your shepherd. By the way, even if you're lost, he's your shepherd. He's just still looking for you to bring you home. Do you understand that, even if you've never trusted Christ as your savior, he's already paid the price for your sin. He's already done everything for you to get saved. All you got to do is believe it, accept it, realize it. All you got to do is it's a gift. All you got to do is take it.
Austin Gardner:More than I could ever belong to my wife, who I love with all my heart. I've been married almost 52 years. She is my wife, jesus is mine and I'm his. More than Betty is my wife, more than I'm her husband. This is an intimate one-on-one relationship where I belong to him and he belongs to me. I belong to my shepherd and my shepherd belongs to me. I can rightfully shepherd and my shepherd belongs to me. I can rightfully say my shepherd. There's a substantial difference between a home and my home, a substantial difference between a house and my house.
Austin Gardner:So I want you to understand the Lord is my shepherd. I have that relationship Christ, god, the Holy Spirit. That's a good thing, but he is more than that. He is my God, my shepherd, my Abba, my daddy. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, my shepherd is your shepherd.
Austin Gardner:And I want you to know right now you don't have to do anything to get saved except believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, trust, accept the gift. You don't have to go looking for it, you don't have to talk anybody into it. Jesus has already paid all the sin debt for you. I don't want you to know, I don't care where you've been or what you've done. He already knows you. He knows all about you and yet he still loves and adores you and you can't change that because he is in love with you. Would you trust Jesus today? The Lord is my shepherd. Take that home with you. Think about it all day long. Just meditate on this. He's mine and I am his. Think about this. My shepherd will take care of me because I belong to him, because I'm his, he'll take care of me. He's my shepherd. So what are you facing? Is it cancer? Is it problems and chaos in your life? Is it family issues? Is it health issues? Is it financial issues? Know this the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.