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
Success over Stinking Thinking 1
Let's get honest—your mind is never off the clock. Most research says you'll process more than 6,000 thoughts today. The hard truth? About three out of every four will pull you in the wrong direction. That's over 4,000 daily thoughts whispering, "You're not enough," "You'll never change," or "God couldn't possibly use someone like you." It's "stinking thinking," not just harmless background noise. It's a relentless undercurrent, chipping away your peace, purpose, and connection with God.
But what happens when your circumstances are already challenging—when you're betrayed, broken, or facing your darkest valley—and these negative thoughts start piling on? David, the shepherd-king, knew this battle all too well. He lost everything overnight: his own son tried to kill him, his most trusted friend stabbed him in the back, and his reputation was shredded. Most people would crumble. David, instead, ran straight to the only anchor he had left: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Those weren't just pretty words. That was a man in crisis refusing to let the storm in his head define his reality.
This is more than Bible trivia. Scripture lays out a path for mental and spiritual transformation. Romans 12:2 doesn't just suggest positive thinking; it commands us to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 takes it a step further, calling us to take every toxic thought captive and drag it into the light of Christ's truth. This isn't spiritual theory—it's survival.
And I'm not preaching from a safe distance. After my cancer diagnosis, lying awake in the dark, those same old lies showed up again: fear, regret, questions about God's goodness. What made the difference? I kept returning to the truth of Psalm 23, sometimes with trembling faith. Over time, God's promises began to take root deeper than my fears. The process was slow and occasionally messy, but it was real. There is freedom, even for those hopelessly stuck in old mental ruts.
This episode is for anybody tired of losing the battle in their mind. You don't have to live hostage to stinking thinking. There is another way—anchored in grace, shaped by truth, steady in the Shepherd's love. Join me as we walk through David's journey, my own, and—most importantly—God's Word, to discover how you can have victory in your thought life. It's not about pretending the hard things aren't real but about letting God's truth speak louder than the lies.
If David could find peace in chaos, so can you. Let's walk this road together. There is hope, and it starts with one thought at a time.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
I'm excited to talk to you about Psalm 23, and I need you to know how it has worked in my life. So today we're going to take a little bit of a break from Psalm 23,. Although it is not a break, it is honestly a full explanation of what I want to challenge you to do. You see, we have stinking thinking, we think the wrong things. We'll get into that today and we need success over stinking thinking and David exhibits the perfect way to handle that. He shows us in an Old Testament setting, without fully understanding all you understand. He shows us how to get success over our stinking thinking. So I want to take a few times of just chatting with you and I want to discuss that with you.
Austin Gardner:The Bible says in Romans 12, 2,. Be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It's hard to know the perfect and acceptable will of God when you're in the middle of stinking thinking, when you're thinking God doesn't love me, I think I'll just go eat worms, I don't have any friends, I got cancer, people have turned on me, I can't pay my bills, I'm having marriage problems. Whatever's flying at you is stinking thinking and it's ruining you. It's hard to be successful in thinking the right thing when all that's happening. How can you know what is right thinking? It's by being transformed, by the renewing of your mind. You think bad thoughts and those bad thoughts take you down a rabbit hole, down a tunnel that will literally destroy you. Our thoughts shape our lives. It's because we never stop thinking. We talk to ourselves constantly. Scientists have stated that you think over 6,000 thoughts a day during waking hours. That's five or six thoughts a minute. They're brief, they're fleeting, they run through your head, but they really mess with you and scientists. You can look all this up on the web. Scientists say 75% of those are negative. That means four or five of them are negative. You are getting hit. You're getting hit with what? 4,000 negative thoughts a day. But there is help for us and it is exactly what David did in Psalm 23.
Austin Gardner:David is in the middle of the worst possible scenario in his life. He's a king, the top man, but he's on the run for his life. His son wants him dead. His best friend that he has had as a friend from childhood wants him dead. He knows that before god he has failed in every way possible. He knows it. You don't have to tell him. You don't have to remind him. You don't have to remind him. He knows. He knows he failed as a husband, he failed as a dad, he failed as a king, he failed as a man. But he doesn't go there. That's where I go, and I think that's probably where you go, and we start thinking all these negative thoughts and we start thinking horrible things that go on in our minds. But that's not what he did. That's went straight to truth.
Austin Gardner:The Lord is my shepherd. I'm not going to think about what I did wrong. I'm not going to think about how I deserve it. I'm not going to go groveling before God. I know that the Lord's my shepherd. I know he loves me, even in my stupidity. I know he loves me when I've done wrong. I know he loves me when I've failed him. Boy, that's hard to accept For me. It's really been hard, but it's truth.
Austin Gardner:Our help is found in 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 4 and 5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. We have weapons that can pull down these strongholds, these thoughts that we have let become such a part of us that we think of them as truth. We've accepted these lies and we need to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We want to cast that down. We want to grab every thought and bring it into captivity to Christ, every thought into obedience to Christ, to think truth, not lies, because we are what we think. We are what we think, and when we think negative thoughts, what we think and when we think negative thoughts, we just add to the turmoil. We destroy ourselves and it's a horrible way to live. It's not the way you were meant to live. It's not what God wants from you.
Austin Gardner:Proverbs 23, 7 says as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Now think with me. Negative, fleshly and fearful thinking block us from God's best. God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but we're afraid and we think negative thoughts instead of positive thoughts. We doubt he can love us. We feel like we're unworthy. We're unworthy, but he doesn't want you to feel like. Can you imagine we're unworthy but he doesn't want you feeling? Can you imagine I'm the dad of four and granddad of 20. Can you imagine one of my grandkids coming to me and saying I don't deserve to be your grandchild? I'd be like what are you talking about? I love you. I'm so honored because I love them. But we go to God, who loved us so much before we ever did anything, that he saved us from our sin, that he changed our lives. And he comes to us and says I'm buying you, I'm buying you, I'm paying for your sin. I'm bringing you to me and he's excited to get us. And we go I'm not worthy. He's like I didn't ever ask you to be worthy. I'm worthy.
Austin Gardner:God gives us success, but it begins with a renewed mind. If you want success over your stinking thinking, you got to do it by letting God help you get a renewed mind. The word translated in 2 Corinthians 5 is thinking. It's the same word for imagining. It means thoughts, arguments, reasoning or logic based on evil intentions. It means to imagine. In Philippians, chapter 4, verse 8, it says think on these things. That word means to calculate, to consider, to believe, to reckon, to determine. You see, thinking is work. Now, thinking seems to be the natural thing for us. But thinking is work and every action, if you think about it, every action starts as a thought and an imagination. I'm going to go drink coffee. The fact is, a lot of your enjoyment, of much of what you do in life is you imagine what it's going to be like when you go in there and get that freshly brewed pot of coffee. We think about it, we imagine the smells, we imagine the sounds, we imagine what it's going to taste like and we go about it. We imagine the smells, we imagine the sounds, we imagine what it's going to taste like and we go get it.
Austin Gardner:This word think has to do with arguments. See, when we're thinking, a lot of times we're arguing with ourselves. I know truth about what the Bible says, but I don't feel that truth and I argue with myself. You see self and Satan and the world and religion with myself. You see self and Satan and the world and religion. They bring arguments against the God of heaven and his truth and we argue and fight and fuss in our heads with truth and we accept things that aren't true. So it is your choice what you're going to do with these arguments. It is your choice about whether or not you'll bring them into subjection. You can bring your thoughts into the light of truth and demolish them, or you can allow them to fester in your heart. See, your inner critic loves to make arguments against God. Your inner critic loves to make arguments against God.
Austin Gardner:So, before we, I think we'll close today, but I want to go over some thinking with you. How about doubt? God can't use me, boy, I messed up, or I don't have the talents and I'm not like him. Doubt, how about fear? Well, what if I fail? What if it doesn't? Doubt? How about fear? Well, what if I fail? What if it doesn't work out? How about bitterness? They'll never change. Those people will never change.
Austin Gardner:Defeatism. I'll never be free. I'll never get victory over this. I'll never be able to change my life. Those things become strongholds in our hearts. We begin to believe them and we set them up like castles that protect a lie. We think I'm not good enough, I don't have any talents. We think I'll never succeed. We think nobody likes me. I'm just a burden. I don't even know why I'm here. I don't know why I'm alive. I'm sick. I've got cancer and I deal with more health issues than other people's. I got it worse. I'm no longer useful. Why does God still have me here? I'm a failure. I'm not smart enough, I'm too fat, I'm too skinny, I'm too tall, I'm too short, I'm too light, I'm too dark. I don't deserve happiness or success. Look at my past. Look at where I come from. Look at what I've done wrong. I am always messing up. I'll never find love. I'm worthless. Everyone else is doing better than me. I'm damaged.
Austin Gardner:Good, do you hear all that stinking thinking? How much of it do you recognize as being some of your thinking? How much of it do you say, yeah, I don't think I've thought that a time or two. I think I've acted like. That's true, come on, be honest, I got more and we'll catch them next time. But I want you to know you can have victory over your stinking thinking. So, before I close, I'll tell you that I laid in bed at night with stinking thinking. I felt the cancer was coming on. I felt that I was at the end of my life and I wondered why God was doing this to me and why I've lived and tried to do right. Blah, blah, blah, blah. It was stinking thinking. Then I learned to focus on Psalm 23 and what I'm sharing with you, and it radically changed my life. That's what I'm calling you to, we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about how to go about it and how to have that.