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
For His Name's Sake
What Does It Mean to Walk in Righteousness?
If you've ever felt like righteousness is about keeping it all together, performing better, or being the "good Christian," this episode might surprise you—in the best way.
Psalm 23 tells us, "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." Not for my name. Not because I earned it. But because He's good.
We dig into what it truly means to walk in righteousness—and it's not what most of us were taught. Righteousness isn't about achieving a spotless track record or proving ourselves to God. It's about receiving something we could never earn and following the One who knows the way.
We explore the powerful (and frankly, shocking) example of Lot. He made disastrous choices. He lived among compromise. Yet the Bible calls him "righteous Lot." Why? Because righteousness isn't measured by flawless behavior—it's grounded in grace. It's God's declaration, not our demonstration.
In this episode, we'll walk through:
- Why righteousness begins with receiving, not achieving
- What 1 Corinthians 6 teaches about being washed, sanctified, and justified
- How God leads us like sheep who can't navigate paths on their own
- What Lot's story reveals about God's faithfulness when we stumble
- Why your worst moment doesn't disqualify you from being called righteous
- How your security is rooted in God's character, not your consistency
- Why "for His name's sake" is the most freeing phrase in the whole psalm
Let this episode be your reminder: God didn't save you because you were good. And He doesn't keep you because you keep getting it right. He leads you in paths of righteousness because that's who He is. Not because you deserve it but because He's a Shepherd who never stops rescuing, guiding, and loving His sheep.
You're not walking alone. You're not walking blind. And you're not walking to earn anything. You're being led—gently, faithfully—by the One who already calls you righteous.
Take a deep breath. Rest in the Shepherd's care. And trust the path He's guiding you on.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
I hope you have been meditating on righteousness and I hope you've been meditating on he leads me in the paths of righteousness. That's because I know how to walk in the paths of sin. I know how to walk in the paths of Adam because that's where I've lived my entire life. But once I trust Jesus, all of a sudden I'm in a whole new world. I'm now connected to the God who's wanted to connect to me. I'm connected to the God who came looking for me. I wasn't the one that went to him, he came to me. All I did was open the door and trust him. You see, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God. God gives us a gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, and he came seeking us. Now he says I'll lead you. You don't know how to lead this new life. See, david is in the middle of a battle and at this time it's easy to get discouraged, it's easy to get all bothered, it's easy to get torn up. But he needs the Holy Spirit of God to lead him. And the Holy Spirit lives in you and he's going to lead you Now. I know that it might frustrate you just a tad, because we've been talking about righteousness, and we've been talking about the fact that your righteousness is a gift from God and something God's doing in you, and we have talked about the fact that God is going to bring forth fruit in our lives. But I want you to consider with me that he made us righteous, and so let's consider where we were and what we were before.
W. Austin Gardner:The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Unrighteous people, those that are not righteous? He leads me in the paths of righteousness. Those that are not righteous will not inherit the kingdom of God of righteousness. Those that are not righteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Don't be deceiving yourself. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves, of mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.
W. Austin Gardner:He lists a whole lot of sins. He said those people don't go to heaven, when that's who you are. You're not part of the family, you're not born again, you've wandered away. You've crossed the fence, you're living out in the far country. He's looking for you because he loves you and you're his, but you run away and he wants to bring you home, run away, and he wants to bring you home.
W. Austin Gardner:But then he says this guys, a lot of y'all were like that before. So you were that, if you'd be honest, before God saved you, you were living in those areas of sin. But you know what's happened. You've been washed, you've been bathed, you've had the filth and the dirt and the sin washed away. You've been sanctified. You have been sanctified. It says you are sanctified. That means you are made holy.
W. Austin Gardner:All of this is a work of God. Doing this in your life, you are justified. That means you're righteous. It's a work of God and it's all been done in the name of the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of our God. You see, god takes us and makes something out of us, not us. We don't do it, he does it, we receive it, and it's all of grace. It's all of grace. I'll get there in just a minute.
W. Austin Gardner:But to really kind of aggravate some of you, maybe Not everybody who's righteous lives righteous, not everybody just does the right thing. They've been born again, they know the Lord Jesus, but they're not doing right. They're not doing right and you can be quick to judge. We find a story in the Bible. That is just shocking, beyond shocking. Lot he used to be hanging out with Abraham he's his nephew and old Lot. He goes down to Sodom and Gomorrah gets in the leadership of the town. He's not serving God, he's not doing right, he's not sharing his faith and his daughters get him drunk. The city of Sodom and Gomorrah, like four cities, have been destroyed. His wife has turned into a pillar of salt. His daughters get him drunk. He has sex with his own daughters. And you and I would say, oh brother. The fact is, when the angels came to get him out of town, he wanted to offer his virgin daughters. Can you believe that? What a man, what a man.
W. Austin Gardner:But here's what the Bible says. Peter said that God delivered just Lot, righteous Lot, righteous Lot. And Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. It says two or three things to me. Number one you can't tell who's just Not your call, it's the Lord's call. And the second thing is you might think that they are enjoying sin and living in sin, but Lot, while he was in Sodom and Gomorrah, while he was doing all this stuff, he shouldn't have something ate him alive, because he belonged to God and God was at work in his life. I'm not advocating that it's okay to do what Lot did. It was wrong and it tore him up and he lost and there were consequences. But he was still God's and he still belonged to God. And so you've been living and you honestly used to serve God. And then you got in a mess and you got away and you started doing the wrong thing. He loves you and he's calling you back. He's at work in your life. I want you to know righteousness isn't about what you do. It's about what God did in you.
W. Austin Gardner:Now we're back to Psalm 23, and I want you to consider with me what it says in Psalm chapter 23. It said he leads me in the paths of righteousness. The Lord is my shepherd. You remember all the things it says I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me. He leads me. The emphasis is on the Holy Spirit of God. The emphasis is on the shepherd. The emphasis is on the Holy Spirit of God. The emphasis is on the shepherd. The emphasis is on what God's doing.
W. Austin Gardner:All of Psalm 23 is not about what you do, but about what God does and what God's doing. That's what it's about. Do you understand that? Do you catch that? It's what God's doing. He leads me. He will guide me, not I will guide me, not. You've got to get yourself in the paths of righteousness.
W. Austin Gardner:You could hear some religious preacher say you got to put yourself in the paths of righteousness, but when you belong to the shepherd, the shepherd will lead you in the paths of righteousness. He will work this out. He doesn't speak about what you should do or what I should do or what we should do, but he tells us what he will do. And David looks up. Now, david has been done wrong paths and done wrong things, and David said Lord, he doesn't say it, it's understood. I might've messed up and all that, but you are my shepherd. I've and all that, but you are my shepherd. I've done wrong things, but you're my shepherd. I'm in trouble, but you're my shepherd, you are my shepherd and you will lead me.
W. Austin Gardner:And then I think the last thing for us to look at is for the love of his name, for his namesake. You see, he says in Psalm 23, for his namesake. Remember who he is. Y'all remember his name. You remember we went over. The Lord is my shepherd, the word is gracious and merciful and long-suffering is slow to anger. In other words, we talked about all these great things he says if you remember who he is, you know what he'll do. If you remember who he is, you'll know what he'll do. He does what he does on account of his name. It's who he is. He can't help it. It's just who he is.
W. Austin Gardner:In Psalm 106, he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. He wanted everybody to know who he was. See, god's doing a work in your life because of who he is, not because of who you are. He said I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. Your sins are forgiven for his name's sake, not your name. Because of that, for his name's sake, they went are forgiven for his name's sake, not your name. Because of that, for his name's sake, they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. It was because they loved Jesus. It was about his name. He has done all this work because of his name, the name of Jesus.
W. Austin Gardner:So I want you to know that your security is not in how good you are. Your credit's not based on your character. It's based on his character and he's going to lead you. I know you don't know where to go right now. You don't know what to do. You're surrounded by your enemies, you're overwhelmed, you're discouraged. You don't know what you're going to do. The news of the cancer is eating you alive. The fact that your family's falling apart is destroying you and you don't know what to do. You don't know where to turn.
W. Austin Gardner:But in the middle of it all, you want to turn your eyes on Jesus, because he loves you and he won't forget you and he won't walk away from you. The Lord, he leads me in the path of righteousness because of who he is, for his namesake. He leads me and he leads you. He saved me and he's going to take me all the way through. He saved me when I wasn't any good, and I keep messing up and he keeps on rescuing me because it's never about me, it's always about him. It is his name, his honor, his glory. So, as you close today, I hope you spend the day meditating on this. I want you to remember this he loves you because of who he is. He's doing things because of who he is, and you can rest in him because he is the great God of heaven. The I am the God of relationship. He is merciful and gracious and slow to anger. He keeps forgiving, over and, over and over. He's wonderful Thank, the Lord, for the Lord is our shepherd.
