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
God Chose You in Christ Before the Foundation of the World
You are secure, purposeful, and fully identified in Christ because God chose you before the foundation of the world. This choosing has nothing to do with your performance and everything to do with God’s eternal grace and love.
In this episode, we look at Paul’s words in Ephesians, written around AD 60–62, where he encouraged believers to rest in their identity in Christ. Grace means God always makes the first move. He gives unearned favor. Every blessing you will ever need is already deposited in your spiritual bank account in heavenly places.
To be chosen in Christ means you were selected before time began. This election isn’t individual privilege but a corporate reality. Christ is the chosen One, and those united with Him share in His choosing. Far from excluding anyone, God has reconciled the world to Himself through Christ. That means we can share the gospel with confidence, knowing the sin debt has already been paid.
Being chosen doesn’t fuel pride. It fuels responsibility. We don’t work for victory but from victory. Our security in Christ means God will never quit on us, no matter our failures.
Thank you for listening. Remember, you were chosen in Christ before time began. Live today in the joy of that security, walking holy and blameless to the praise of His glory.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Welcome again to, followed by Mercy, a podcast showing you just how much God is good to us. Surely, goodness and mercy do follow me all the days of my life. You realize how good God's been to you. Well, we're in the book of Ephesians, and that is one of the most exciting books in the Bible and we're seeing that we are followed by mercy. And we're seeing that we are followed by mercy because, you know, before you ever were, god already chose you in Christ to the praise of his glory.
Austin Gardner:This passage of scripture we're looking at today emphasizes the strength of our security, our purpose and our identity. It is Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. And if you have time to open your Bible, you might enjoy reading that. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are in Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according, as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So look at that wonderful passage of Scripture. It's a passage of Scripture that lifts us up.
Austin Gardner:It's a passage of Scripture written by the Apostle Paul somewhere around AD 60 or 62. It was written to the church at Ephesus. It was written to the wider church. It's not about really correcting like Corinthians or Galatians. It's about instruction and encouragement so we know who we are in Christ. That's what we're going to look at our identity in Christ. That's the first three chapters, and then those last three chapters are about how to live out who we are.
Austin Gardner:It all starts with blessing and grace. It begins with what God has done and not what we do. It begins with what God has done and not what we do. So the goal here is the Apostle Paul lifts our eyes above the dirt of daily struggle to the riches of heaven. Grace be to you and peace from God, our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace, unearned favor, god's unearned favor, peace, harmony, wholeness and freedom from fear. You know what grace means. It means that God always makes the first move and that we get peace when we find our union with Christ. Grace means no more proving yourself you are accepted, we have peace because we rest in the finished work of Christ. So every day begins not with I got to do better, but with I will accept and receive the grace of God offered unto me. So how do you start out your days? Do you start out in self-effort I got to do better, or thanking God? The language of heaven, the language of the Christian, is gratitude. Blessed be the God and Father who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So here we are with all of our blessings. They are secure, they can't fade away. They're saved for us in heaven. We may be poor on the earth or feel poor, but in our spiritual bank account we are rich beyond the wildest imagination.
Austin Gardner:Now I really wanted to bring us to the whole point today of the fact that we were chosen. He picked us, he selected us. It's not random, but it's intentional and it all comes out of Him and His love and His purpose, not our merit. The Bible says not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. So the election, the choosing, being chosen, is rooted in Jesus Christ, the elect one. We are in Christ, we're united to him. You see, it's a corporate election. The choice that's being chosen is Christ, and those in Christ are chosen. So don't worry about whether or not you're chosen. Worry about if you're in Christ, because if you're in Christ you are chosen. See God's eternal perspective. He's outside of time and he is above time. In the beginning, when our world began, he already was and he'll be there in the end. Your salvation rests on God's eternal plan, not your feelings, because you can easily begin to think poorly and to doubt and to wonder. But we are chosen. We are chosen and he chose us to set us apart. He chose us to make us spotless, like the sacrifices in the Old Testament. He chose us to live in an atmosphere of holiness. Being chosen is not a privilege to boast about. It's a call to live out. Who we are Chosen is not about our status but more about our responsibility. We are to allow Christ to live in us and through us. That's who he is Now.
Austin Gardner:The Bible says that God initiates and we respond. The Bible says God initiates and we respond. So he offers a gift and we accept the gift. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. You earn from sin. Sin brings death, sin brings harm, but the grace of God is extended and it is ours to accept. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. So we accept what God did for us.
Austin Gardner:Now, because we are chosen and we're in Christ, no one can lay anything, nobody can charge, no one can accuse God's elect, because it is God himself that justifies. So we are chosen and we rest in God's unchanging faithfulness. He chose us before we ever sinned. He chose us before we ever did anything wrong. He chose us before we ever did anything right. So we don't work to gain victory, we work from victory. We were saved, rescued, changed, chosen, and so now we live that out. So the fact that we are so secure and accepted, and in the family, it doesn't produce laziness, it produces obedience, it produces worshipful living.
Austin Gardner:We don't say I must prove myself, we say I'm chosen in Christ and so we're going to live out what God's doing in our lives. So what does that mean? We're chosen, we're chosen. Can I just say that word scared me for years, but here's what I know. We already belong to God. We were His creation. We walked away. We're lost, but lost in God's economy is a beautiful thing because we belong to Him. And we walked away and he came to find us, all of us, all humans. He's a savior of all the world, especially those that believe. He has paid the price for everyone, and so he offers a free gift, and that gift is salvation.
Austin Gardner:So what do we do about being chosen? We are going to thank God all the time, live a life of gratitude. Thank God, he loves you and he chose you. By the way he chose everyone. You never have to worry when you share the gospel of Jesus Christ. You never have to worry. I wonder if they're chosen. They're chosen. It's up to them now to accept the gift. He has already paid every man's sin debt, all the sin debts paid. He has reconciled the world to himself.
Austin Gardner:Go read it 2 Corinthians, chapter five. He's reconciled the world to himself and now he tells us go out and tell them be reconciled, because it's all done, it's all up to them to accept it. So we live in gratitude, but we live in holiness. We live in a life that's set apart to him. You see, what he did was he said you're mine. It's kind of like what I did when I married my wife 52 years ago. I set her apart from me, and so she's always lived for that. We are secure. We live in assurance.
Austin Gardner:You do not have to wonder if God's going to take care of you. You do not have to wonder if he's going to be there for you. You do not have to wonder if I mess up one more time, will he quit on me? That's not going to happen. So we share Christ boldly with everyone. We're excited about the fact that he saved us. We're excited about the fact that he loves us, but we know he loves everybody, for God so loved the world. So we share that gospel message with everyone.
Austin Gardner:And since we know we're chosen and we know God wants them and he chose them as well, that changes how we treat everyone, because we treat everyone not as outsiders but as people that he loves. And Jesus died for them and paid their sin debt. He took all their sin on him so they could have his holiness. So, as I repeat, grace and peace flow from God. Every blessing that we have is what we find in Christ. We were chosen in him before the foundation of the world to live in holiness and love and a blameless life, because he does all that to us, and so it's not something you strive for, it's something you accept that he is living his life through you. So I would challenge you to pray. Lord, thank you that you chose me in Christ before time began. Help me to live the holy, blameless life, the loving life, to the praise of your glory, and let it all be to the praise of his glory. Do you understand that he loves you? He chose you, he paid the price. So blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and he has chosen us because of his goodness and his grace. He has chosen us in him before the world, the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. He has great plans, he has done a great work in our life and we live in acceptance of that. I want you to know you're chosen.
Austin Gardner:Being chosen doesn't mean he didn't choose anyone else. It just means you realize that salvation started with God. He loved me first. That's why I love him. He saved me and I don't deserve it. He loves me every day. There's nothing I could do to ever make him love me more. He chose me. He chose me, he chose you. He chose us when we were still sinners. He chose us when we were still weak and undaunted. He chose us when we were his enemies. We walked away, but he never let us get away. He's come for us. So share the gospel, send mysteries around the world, tell others about how much Jesus loves them, because we are the chosen in Christ. In Christ, all because of Christ. It's all Him, not me, not my works, not my goodness, but in Christ we're chosen. Thank you so much for listening. God bless you today.
