Followed By Mercy

What If God Isn't Angry? A Fresh Look at Global Outreach

• W. Austin Gardner

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Have you ever considered that much of our approach to evangelism might be missing the point? In this episode, Austin Gardner and Robert Canfield explore a life-giving perspective on missions that reshapes how and why we share the gospel.


At the center is a simple but powerful truth: we are not rescuing people from an angry God. God, who has already reconciled the world to Himself through Christ. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” That means evangelism is not an obligation we carry, but a privilege of being God’s ambassadors, inviting others into the good news He has already accomplished.


Through Scripture, personal stories, and mission field experiences, the hosts show how this changes everything. They tell the story of Rosita, a woman freed from a religious cult by discovering God’s grace, and share moments from around the world where lives were transformed not by clever strategies, but by the simple truth of God’s love.


This conversation will encourage anyone who yearns to gain a deeper understanding of God’s heart for the world. Whether you go, give, or pray, you have a role in the ministry of reconciliation. And as you discover, sharing the gospel is not about condemnation; it is about announcing the joy of a God who delights to bring people home.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Austin Gardner:

Welcome back to, followed by Mercy. I'm excited to be joined again by Robert Canfield. He's becoming my regular co-host here and I really appreciate that and enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy our conversations. We were just sitting here talking about world evangelism. You know, I spent a lot of my life as the—I started a mission board and a church with the goal of reaching the world with the gospel message. I was a missionary for 20 years. I started a center for training missionaries.

Austin Gardner:

I really believe in world evangelism and so I thought we would just chat about this a little bit today, about world evangelism, and I think that a lot of times I might have had, robert, the wrong focus. I was often focused on helping people, but I was focused on the people and not letting them know God had already done everything for them. In other words, I don't really know how to explain. We go at it thinking I don't want them to go to hell. Well, god doesn't want them to go to hell either. But we go almost thinking God wants to send them to hell. So we go like I'm going to be a missionary because I don't want God to send them to hell. Well, god doesn't want to send them to hell, he doesn't.

Robert Canfield:

He doesn't want them to send them to hell, but he did it. So he didn't want it so much he gave his only begotten son. That's what the scripture says.

Austin Gardner:

He gave his only begotten son because he done one and he's been long suffering. He didn't come to condemn the world In John chapter three. He didn't come to condemn. The world was already condemned.

Robert Canfield:

He came to rescue the world. I grew up in a little small town and I thought I could just, I didn't even think about the outside world. And it wasn't until I was introduced that I realized that I tell this to churches. I went on my first missions trip to Peru and I saw what God did there in Peru and I saw the passion, desire of people trying to reach other people with the gospel news. I saw young men trying to preach God's word as sincere as they possibly could from the word of God.

Robert Canfield:

And in that trip, my first trip, when I went down there with your son David, I realized that man, god gave me so much, he's given me so much and like there are so many people out there that don't have, they don't know about this good news. And God used you in 20 years there in Peru, almost 20 years right Between Peru and Mexico, almost 20 years right between Peru and Mexico. He used you in the Latin-speaking countries there and down there, to see many people understand what God's done for them and love them, and I was like man. That's incredible. That's what he wants for all of us Christians. I mean, the gospel is good news, but it's not just good news for some, it's good news for the world. I mean, we sing that, we say that it's good news for the world. We sing that, we say that it's in the Scriptures.

Austin Gardner:

I loved being in Missouri. I loved what happened in Peru. I loved being there. It was like the greatest time of my life. When I look back, I am most thrilled about what God did there. And you know, we went to carry good news. That's what gospel is is good news. And sometimes we turn that into you're a dirty, rotten sinner and you're going to go to hell, and that's not what the good news is. The good news is I think people probably got a good idea.

Robert Canfield:

People. You don't have to tell people they're dirtbags.

Austin Gardner:

They know it. And the whole point is you don't have to tell the guy he's got cancer. He's got cancer, he's figured that out and what he wants is a solution. And we were sent as ambassadors to carry the good news, to help people understand that God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, loved every one of them and wants every one of them to be saved.

Robert Canfield:

I look at it and you know he talked about and you brought up 2 Corinthians 5, that reconciliation, that reconciling unto God type thing. We were his enemies. The Scripture says that that's right. We went our own way and everybody's gone their own way, and the great news is that the way came down. Jesus is the way and the way came down. He has provided us a way into a peaceful relationship with God, and not just a peaceful relationship. We can now be made sons of God by belief on what he's done. I don't know out there what greater news you could say that other than saying God wants to have a relationship with you. He wants, he just doesn't want to have a friendship. He wants to put you in his family and he wants to change your life.

Austin Gardner:

And reconcile means restore. In other words, in the beginning he had a relationship with the whole human race. The whole human race walked away from him. We walked away, and he's the one that's trying to build this relationship back. It's him that's chasing us. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me, pursue me all the days of my life, and that's what it says. It says God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. God wanted the world restored to himself and he wanted his world back. I think there's a whole lot of things here to look at. First off, we know if we were truly saved by grace. We know it was all by Jesus. That's right, right, yeah, it has to be. If it's, we know it was all by Jesus.

Robert Canfield:

That's right, right, yeah, it has to be. If it's grace, it's all of Jesus.

Austin Gardner:

It's either works or it's grace. It's nothing that we've done, and all we did was receive a free gift. That's it. Sin wanted to destroy us, but God wanted to save us, yeah.

Robert Canfield:

We were walking. I think he says in Ephesians 2, according to the prince of the power, he did whatever he wanted. We did what our flesh was, but God I think it was Ephesians 2, verse 5, he says but God, who is great in mercy, they're that mercy coming after us. Right, that's right, he's great mercy, and it's by grace that we are saved, and it's all through faith. You can't get away from who we were and then what God's done, and he's seeking out lost men everywhere. He's going after the one that's gone astray and he's wanting them to bring back in the fold.

Austin Gardner:

Much of performance-based religion makes it feel like God is angry and hates everybody, and thank God, jesus is sweet and he might get the father to have mercy If that was the case, then I guess that would make Jesus the and I know Jesus is God.

Robert Canfield:

but it said that. I think it was in Acts chapter two. It said the counsel of God, god made up the plan. He is the author, he's the one that says okay, I'm going to send my only begotten son down there. We're going to reconcile it Like he came up with the game plan.

Austin Gardner:

Well, people want to turn that into cruelty that God killed his son and beat his son. But the Bible says right here it says God was in Christ. Look at what it says. It says, to wit, that God was in Christ.

Robert Canfield:

And that wit is like to understand, to think, to put that in your mind.

Austin Gardner:

You need to understand that it wasn't that God was angry, because it's God that loved first. What's it say about we love Him? Because he first loved us. He first loved For God, so loved first. What's it say about we love him? Because he first loved us. He first loved For God, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. But God committed his love.

Robert Canfield:

And if God's the angry one, then it would be Jesus beseeching you. But he says in the next verse, he says now that we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. It's not. I mean, Jesus and God are one. We got to get that in the mindset. Jesus is God, God is.

Austin Gardner:

Jesus. So God's not this mean arbitrary judicial figure who's waiting to strike people dead. He's the one that's up there begging.

Robert Canfield:

You Say come to me, Come to me. I provided the way.

Austin Gardner:

He just like he came down and spoke to Adam and Eve and said I am here to fix this, and he made a promise that his son would die to pay all the sin debt. That's exactly what's going on.

Robert Canfield:

He sees the people in turmoil. He sees everybody out there that's bound by some type of form of religion, and religion is not just in Christianity. There's many forms of religion all around the world that is performance-based, where people are trying and working and trying and trying to appease a God, and God is begging them, saying it's already been done, I did it and he's almost always angry, he's almost always mean yeah and he expects something out of them, like throw your kid into the river, feed him.

Robert Canfield:

You know what I mean. Give me sacrifice and he's like I provided a sacrifice. I mean he's a sweet God and he's a God that loves the world.

Austin Gardner:

And everything belongs to God. Already, all things are of God, all things belong to Him, and he's the one. I want everybody listening to catch this. I know, robert, and I understand this, but it was not you that got things right with Jesus, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus. God's the one that reconciled us.

Robert Canfield:

He wants that relationship. He wants it so bad he gave his only begotten son. When I think about that, that just shows me he is a God of love. He is the sweetest, most kindest God out there. It wasn't me coming to Him and saying here's my peace offering. It was Him saying I've already offered it and I'm coming to you and I'm begging you. I want to make you a new creature. All things will pass away. Behold, all things become new. I want to change your life. I want to bring life to you. I want to give you that life more abundant. I want to turn you from a sinner to a saint. I just want to make it incredible. I want you to have the best life.

Austin Gardner:

I think you can't understand what it says in verse 18, that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. God said to you I'm going to let you restore things. Your ministry is to go, get my relationship and rewrite. Let them know I've done everything. All they got to do is accept a gift. But it's hard to understand being a missionary if you don't understand that you were reconciled by Jesus. So move it off of your performance and move it on to His sacrifice. Move it off of what you've done unto what he's done, and so it won't be them cleaning up or changing their act, it'll be them simply receiving a gift.

Robert Canfield:

When you think about I know some things that people will probably bring in. I was preaching another time and I asked him why do we do world evangelism? And one person says because I'm a debtor, I'm a debtor. And Paul does say I am a debtor. And I was listening to somebody that says sometimes people think debtor is like I owe a person but we don't owe God anything. No, we don't owe him, and it's just like this.

Robert Canfield:

The concept, the mindset is this what is the gospel? The gospel is that God loved the world so much he gave His only begotten Son. And all you have to do is believe. There's no work that you have to do, there's nothing that you have to offer them, it's just faith in Jesus and what he's done, who he is and what he's done. And if you believe that, then the debtor is not to the God, but the debtor is to the message. Like, if I really believe, get this. If I really believe that God loves the world, and I'm believing and I'm putting my trust in that, then don't you think the world deserves an opportunity to hear If I say that God's, his sacrifice was for the entire world, that means there's no person out there that doesn't that should not hear this wonderful news.

Austin Gardner:

He's not willing that any should perish. And so, yes, god wants them all. He loved the world and here he didn't impute their sin to the world. Look what it says. The actual verse says verse 19, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world. God's already done everything to restore the world to himself. He didn't even put their sins on them, not imputing their trespasses. In other words, god said let's take the sin off the table. The sin off the table, because Jesus has paid the sin debt for everybody. He has tasted the sin debt for everybody, he cares about everybody. And he says God was in Christ and he took all the sin debt off and he reconciled the world. And all we're doing is going out as messengers to say let me tell you, god's done it all. And if you really believe, that.

Robert Canfield:

Then there's like an appointment that's been given to you, like an appointment of like this is a message for everyone.

Austin Gardner:

All of a sudden, you're very excited to be able to share this.

Robert Canfield:

It's not out of duty, it's not obligation. I mean, you look at those guys. They thought it was wonderful that they had an opportunity to preach the gospel. You look at Acts, chapter four. After they got beat, they walked out of that rejoicing, knowing that they were counted worthy to suffer. But the suffering was not just hey, I got beat. I think it's great that I got beat, no, no, the suffering was this we preached the best message to these people and they didn't like it, so they beat us. But we got worthy that we were able to tell other people and to tell about that wonderful news.

Robert Canfield:

Jesus had that same thing happen. He tried to tell the whole world and they didn't want it. And so we get an excellent opportunity as believers when we believe this message. This message that mercy has been following us since the day we're here in our mother's womb and it's coming after us. That mercy was just not just intended for me, but it's intended for the whole world. The whole universe, the cosmos is what he says. The whole world is intended to hear this.

Austin Gardner:

Because he is a savior of the world, especially those that believe. And I want you to notice in the passage, if you're looking at it with us in 2 Corinthians 5, he has reconciled the world. He has done everything, and so he ends up saying be reconciled to God. So God has done everything to restore you. If you're not born again and have lost people in the mission field you're going to, God's already done everything for every one of them and now it's up to them to be reconciled. That's wonderful news.

Robert Canfield:

That's great news and I don't know who wouldn't want everybody to hear that. I'll just use an illustration. So at the Taking the Light, we get involved with other people and ministries and missionaries that are around the world, and and we we try to help them, set them up a platform where they can use their talents and what the great message that God's given them to to to spread it out to other people. And the story of last month there was a lady, I believe her name was Rosita, and so what we've done is is we've been recording missionaries like David Gardner and other preachers that you know, that you've led to the Lord, you've trained in the ministry, and we've taken their gospel messages, their Bible messages, their content that they've been preaching, and we put it out on a radio broadcast that's already going on, like a radio station that already has a listenership. It's a secular station, and so we just buy some time and we send out the message, the good news, right, and so Rosita called in. She didn't call our call center, the place where we like to meet with the people and be able to give them a copy of God's word and tell them the good news, but she actually called the radio station. She called the radio station. She wanted to let them know that she's and a cult that doesn't believe that Jesus is God. A cult where she says that has rules and performance-based. And she says now I get to see that the message of that. There's a God in heaven that loves me, that gave me Jesus, and it's only by grace, through faith. And she called to tell the radio station that she didn't want to call us about that. So I thought that was really interesting.

Robert Canfield:

But the fact that she was in bondage to keep rules and have to feel like she had to do something in order to find favor with God. But now she's come to the realization through the preaching of the word, through those ambassadors that are going out and begging people to say, hey, be reconciled to God, he loves you, and that are sharing that message of love. Now she's being liberated. We're literally setting free the captive, it seems like, and God's using it through His message. And that's why when Paul says, he says I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God, it's God's power unto salvation to everyone that believes. It's for everyone, it's intended for everyone. It's the only way that we can be made right with them, and it's a wonderful message, and it's an exciting message when you realize it's not just intended for me, it's intended for all and I really do believe that, I really do believe that.

Austin Gardner:

I think that's a fantastically wonderful story. If you're listening and you're thinking, and this let me tell you there's no guilt here. It's a privilege to be an ambassador, it's a privilege to share this and you can do that where you are, in your country, in your family, in your village, in your city, or you can go overseas, but you do it because you know you're loved and you want to share the love. You know you're loved and you know they're loved.

Austin Gardner:

They are loved and God wants them to be in that relationship and you got to remember somebody's blinding their eyes because they don't want them to know that God loves them, and so they're doing everything they can so they can't see or hear or feel the love that God has for them. The devil's fighting, and so they need somebody to just announce he does love you and he does care about you and he will change you, and that's what we want to preach.

Robert Canfield:

And when we preach that we are recognizing that God has given us an opportunity, an opportunity to share. Like I said, we've been saying the most wonderful message and that opportunity has made us like go-betweens you think of it this way your podcast is Followed by Mercy, right Like God is using us as little mercy bots you know what I mean Going out there and he's working through us to display and show the wonderful goodness and gracious of God. And so, whether you're out here in the United States or here in a town or a village or wherever it's at, or you're around the world or wherever you're at, you get an opportunity to display and show the love of God. And you can say it through the Word and the message and you can do it through man being kind and trying to find open doors to sneak in there, and you know what I mean.

Robert Canfield:

Just say this is just a wonderful message. It just changed my life and it's just meant so much to me, it's done so much for me and he wants it with you too. I mean, I just think that it's not a rules-based thing. It's not making people feel bad. It's not guilting anybody based thing. It's not making people feel bad. It's not guilting anybody, it's just a wonderful opportunity that we get. It's a wonderful opportunity to show and demonstrate the love of God.

Austin Gardner:

So I hope that as you listen to that that you are, somebody might be motivated. You might just have in your heart I want to be able to share, I want to go share it. It'll be something the Holy Spirit makes birth in your heart, I know with me it was just like I really want to do that and I enjoyed it immensely. And, yes, that makes you different from others, because most people don't want to leave the comfort of their home and you don't want to guilt anybody or make anybody think that you think you're better than them because you're not. You just want to go share it and God put that in you. So I hope maybe you'll consider it. Maybe you would look and say I really want to take the gospel and I want to go to a place where they haven't heard it and I want to share the gospel, but share it now, where you are, and share it across the street.

Robert Canfield:

I remember a couple of years ago we went to was it Kierke Kierke? And we recorded that there's a man there, just for those listeners out there. There's a man that lives in a little small village, about 400 people, 300 people. Yeah, not many, and he was a miner right.

Austin Gardner:

He mined the block Anyways he used to do the story the volcanic rock.

Robert Canfield:

Yeah, and so he wanted the world to know. He wanted us. We went out there and we tried to set up a transmitter out there and he wanted us to tell. He wanted to tell a testimony, he wanted to say something and he talked about how you and your family. God used greatly into his life to not only see himself get saved but as a family gets saved, and he wanted to. I don't know about you to not only see himself get saved but his family get saved, and he wanted to. I don't know about you, but how did that make you feel when you had that man Like he was, he's like I don't want to be. He was a tough guy, was he not? He wasn't trying to be emotional, but he got kind of emotional there and that had to make you feel like a million bucks.

Austin Gardner:

I thought yeah, unreal.

Robert Canfield:

And you look at that and you're like God not only gave you the good news to be reconciled with him, but then now he used you to make an impact for good in another person's life.

Austin Gardner:

I think there are a lot of people that love us, that have been ambassadors. They love us and it's really not us. They love it's the fact that we took them to good news and it was God working through you Yep, and I thought that's an exciting to me, that's an exciting I think any of you listening that could be you. God may do that with you if you let him. You've had a pretty rich life. Oh, I think so. I've been followed by mercy. You, oh, I think so. I've been followed by mercy.

Robert Canfield:

You've been followed by a lot of mercy. I have, and everything I've known about you is like you've always. You said you've been followed by mercy but you like to help others find that way and how God used you and I've been greatly. I realize what God's done in my life and it's he has been so good to us, hasn't he?

Austin Gardner:

He's been wonderful, I think all of us can say anybody that's a born-again believer, you can truly say you have been followed by mercy, amen. And I hope that you'll pray about that, pray about all the people that are ambassadors. There are men and women sharing the gospel message all around the world, and God might have a place for you to go, and so I hope you'll think about that.

Robert Canfield:

Any final words I'd like to say for the people out there listening, I don't view missions work as a duty or an obligation. Nope, I think it's. I get to tell others about the greatest God in the world that died for them and loves them, to tell others about the greatest God in the world that died for him and loves him. And I truly believe with my whole heart that God loves the world, and it's not just a single person, because that'd be a small God, but he's a huge God. He's a God of the entire universe.

Austin Gardner:

He says he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Robert Canfield:

No, he doesn't. He's a great God and he wants them all and he wants to use us. And sometimes we allow like what we said in several podcasts ago we let Satan distort that view and we turn it into some type of obligation or we feel like this person is better than the other person and it's just so weird focus. It's a mind when you're not really thinking on Jesus and God and His message. But when you look at that, it doesn't really matter what happens in your life. It's all about for the furtherance of His good news. Amen, Because he's such a great and wonderful God. So I hope, if you don't decide to go, I hope you get plugged in some way, because I don't think believers are everyone's supposed to go, because not everyone might have the same gifts or temperaments or have the same things happen in their life, but everyone can be a part, they can pray.

Austin Gardner:

They can give, they can share what's happening.

Robert Canfield:

And it shouldn't be just I'm just going to give money and not think about it. I was driving to work. I drive driving my daughter to work this morning and it was a weird thing for me to say, but I said, let's just pray for missionaries. And I was thinking about that, because I was just thinking. So many times I just say, yeah, I'll give.

Robert Canfield:

But some of those people, some of God's ambassadors out there, they're in some pre-places where the light's not the brightest and it can get depressing and sometimes they need encouragement. Sometimes, when God puts in our mind these people, we just need to pray for them. We need to ask God to encourage them. And it's a real battle. I think prayer is a real battle. I think we need to think about others and I think we need to think about those ambassadors on the front line and and beg God. And literally I prayed for that. And then what was it? This morning, a guy just texted me at breakfast and he says I don't know why God keeps putting me on your, you on my mind, but I'm praying for you, what you need, and it's just a, it's just an encouragement thing to know that there's people out there that love Jesus, that love His gospel and love the ambassadors, and I think we're all supposed to play a part in that.

Austin Gardner:

I think it's the most fulfilling work in the world to know God and to share what you know about God with other people. I pray you'll think about world evangelism and you'll find your place. We appreciate it. Any further words? That's it Well. Thank you all very much place. We appreciate it. Any further words? That's it Well. Thank you all very much for being with us today. I hope you'll share this with others and I pray that it's been a blessing and we look forward to talking to you the next time.

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