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
Faith, Love, Thanksgiving
Faith, love, and thanksgiving. Three simple words that carried Paul’s heart even as he sat chained in prison, facing the shadow of death. Instead of despair, his letters overflowed with joy. How?
In this episode, we open Ephesians 1:15-16 and discover what it means to trust Jesus completely, to love others freely, and to give thanks no matter the circumstance. Faith isn’t just wishful thinking.
It’s leaning your whole weight on Christ, like Hudson Taylor trusting God to provide, or Jim Elliott declaring that surrender to Christ is no loss but gain.
Love isn’t reserved for the easy people. It’s for all saints, even those who’ve hurt us. It’s choosing forgiveness and blessing instead of bitterness. And thanksgiving? It’s the natural language of grace, the kind of gratitude that refuses to be silenced, even behind prison walls.
Through stories of missionaries who endured loss yet loved, and wisdom from Scripture and history, we’ll see how faith is the root, love is the fruit, and thanksgiving is the song of the Christian life.
What would change in your life if you anchored your faith in Jesus, loved someone practically today, and spoke words of thanksgiving out loud? That’s where real freedom begins—because you can chain a man’s body, but you can’t chain a heart filled with faith, love, and thanksgiving.
Share this episode with a friend who needs encouragement, and let’s walk together in the grace Paul knew so well.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Welcome back to, followed by Mercy, our podcast. I'm excited to speak with you today and we're going to go to Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 15 and 16. And the Bible says Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Now we'll start a study of that prayer and start a study of what Paul's saying and doing here. Paul has been in prison, he is chained right now. He doesn't know if he's going to live or die, and yet he writes a letter with an overflowing heart. He's not complaining, he's not writing with despair, but he's writing in thanksgiving.
Austin Gardner:This passage, what we're looking at. It captures the Christian life in three words that we want to think about faith, love and thanksgiving. You see, paul had faith in the lord jesus, he had love to all the saints and he had thanksgiving that never quit. Those are not just bible ideas, theological ideas, christian ideas. They are truths lived out by men and women throughout all of history missionaries, survivors, thinkers, people whose blood, whose, whose blood, whose lifeblood they are. They let me say it another way they gave their lifeblood to it, but they put flesh and blood. They put those words into real life.
Austin Gardner:Paul begins I heard of your faith and the Lord's Jesus. Now, faith is not positive thinking or gritting your teeth. It's not about how strong you feel. It's about who you are and who you are resting in. Who you are resting in. Remember, from the very beginning of this chapter and every podcast, we've been talking about being in Christ. So true faith is leaning your whole weight on Jesus. Leaning your whole weight on Jesus.
Austin Gardner:There's the old story that I know all of you will have heard, but Hudson Taylor, the minister of China, was facing impossible financial needs and he, like George Mueller, he wasn't as big on sending financial needs and letters as others had, but he had a conviction God's work done in God's way will never lack for recording. Never lack. Excuse me, I was checking to make sure I was recording. Did you catch how dumb I can be? But God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. That's what faith looks like. It's not the resources, but it's the living Lord Jesus who takes care of us. Or how about our missionary Jim Elliott to the Indians of Ecuador, the Alca Indians, who are now called the Waurani?
Austin Gardner:Before he died, he wrote in his journal, which is one of my favorite books if you're ever looking for something really good to read. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Faith for him wasn't just a vague feeling he cannot lose. Faith for him wasn't just a vague feeling. It was full, settled confidence that eternity was real and Jesus was worth everything.
Austin Gardner:So let's get it down to personal. What would you do today if you were absolutely confident that God was with you? Would you be a missionary? Would you take the gospel to some other part of the world? What is it you would do if you just really believed what you know is true biblically? That's faith. It's not just feelings, it's decisions, not just words, it's action.
Austin Gardner:So then Paul says and love unto all the saints. You see, faith is the root and love is the fruit. It's not love for some saints, it's love for not just the easy ones, but all saints. This kind of love doesn't come from us, you see. It's easy to love the easy ones, but it comes Jesus living his life in us for us to be able to love the others. It is a picture of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Now here's the hardest truth you can't love if you're still holding on to bitterness. Unforgiveness blocks love. Total forgiveness means letting go of revenge, gossip, even a secret wish that someone would get hurt or they would suffer. It really means praying that God would bless them. That's what you're called to do. That's what I'm called to do. We're commanded to love our enemies, and Jesus is love. God is love and he's the one that loves through us. He gives us his love, so let's live in that.
Austin Gardner:Adonai Judson buried his wife and children on the mission field in Burma and crushed with grief. Yet he stayed and he kept on translating the word of God. That made a massive difference in lives. Love is not a feeling, it's an action. It's picking up the phone, it's writing a note, it's praying. The prayer, it's choosing what's best for someone else, even when it costs you. That's love unto all the saints.
Austin Gardner:And then Paul says he ceased not to give thanks for you. I cease not to give thanks to you, making mention of you in my prayers. He's in prison, yet he cannot stop giving thanks. That's astonishing, but thanksgiving is the natural language of grace. Yet he cannot stop giving thanks. That's astonishing. But thanksgiving is the natural language of grace. It's the highest expression of our faith. To thank God before the answer comes is to say I trust you more than what I can see. Thanksgiving is never silent. Gratitude unspoken looks like ingratitude. Paul didn't just thank God quietly, he even told the Ephesians. Those words lifted their hearts. I'm always impressed with these old mysteries, but William Carey's Bible translation burned up 10 years of work and he wrote the loss is heavy. Years of work and he wrote the loss is heavy, but this will show us the preciousness of what remains. And he gave thanks in trial.
Austin Gardner:Now you know that even people outside of the church, outside of Christianity, have seen the power of gratitude. Charles Dickens said reflect upon your present blessings, blessings of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Now, because you're listening and you were probably listening at one and a half speeds, listen to this, I'm saying it again. Charles Dickens said reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. There you go. Everybody knows better than that. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor, wrote when you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. A pagan emperor saw what many Christians seem to struggle to see.
Austin Gardner:So what do you need to thank God for today? Don't just think it, say it, write it, express it. I'll be honest it's hard when you're playing the victim and you're going over and over about how they hurt you or they betrayed you or they left you. It's hard to be thankful, but when you start seeing God's hand in it. So take a moment, think of somebody who's encouraged you. Thank God for them. Think of someone who loved you when you didn't deserve it. Thank God for them. Think of someone who loved you when you didn't deserve it. Thank God for them. Think of someone who's hurt you deeply and say God, I release them, I want you to bless them, I want you to love them through me. Think of someone you've never said I'm thankful for you now and decide that you will tell them.
Austin Gardner:So how are we going to live this out? How are we going to live out this prayer that we're beginning a study of that Paul had Well. Number one we trust Jesus in all of our choices. Act as though he is with you, because he is. He lives in you. In the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Don't wait for feelings.
Austin Gardner:Love, start with an action. Choose one person to love. Practically Pray for those that have hurt you. Don't dare hold back. Give thanks, don't hold it in. Express your thanks, write it. It in. Express your thanks. Write it, say it, show it. So those are the three words we're considering today Faith, love, thanksgiving. They're not about trying harder, they're about Christ in you doing those things. The Lord Jesus, christ is your faith, jesus is your love, jesus is your thanksgiving. So release the bitterness, forgive fully, don't be unforgiving. Love practically, thank verbally, and your whole life is going to begin to change.
Austin Gardner:Paul showed us the Christian life in three colors Faith in the Lord Jesus, love unto all the saints and thanksgiving that never ceases. Faith is trusting him in every decision. Love is letting God love others through you, letting the Lord Jesus who lives in you, love even the ones that hurt you, even the ones that betrayed you. Love them, pray for them and ask God to bless them. Thanksgiving is a natural overflow of a heart that knows grace. Can I just say to you it's hard to complain when you're thanking, and complaining is like praying and praising the devil, and Thanksgiving is like condemning the devil and praising God. So be thankful, so anchor your faith in Christ. Love someone in a practical way, thank somebody by name, and as you do, you'll discover what Paul knew even in prison, you can't chain a heart filled with faith, love and thanksgiving.
Austin Gardner:Next time we'll step into the next verses, where Paul is going to ask God to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. But until then, you need to remember you are loved, you are held, you are free to live a life of faith, love and thanksgiving. So I want you to keep in mind Paul's in prison. He's chained there, he doesn't know if he's going to live or die, but he's not complaining, he's not whining, he's not thinking about who did him wrong, who turned him in, how he got caught, who hit him, who did something against him. He's living in thanksgiving, he's trusting jesus, he's loving people, even those who are mistreating him, and he is thankful, wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the lord Jesus. You know what. He's not listening. I heard about y'all loving me. It's not what he's. He heard about their faith in the Lord Jesus, and he heard about how they were loving all the saints, and so Paul couldn't quit giving thanks.
Austin Gardner:I want to be thankful, I want to be a person full of gratitude. I don't want to hold any bitterness, I don't want to hold on to any anger and I know you don't either and so I'm challenging you to let this part of the scripture be a reality in your life. Thanks for following, followed by mercy and, by the way, surely goodness and mercy have chased me down, followed me all the days of my life, and if you look back over your life, you can see it too. God is always working in our lives, and I am so thankful. Thank you for listening. I pray you'll share this with somebody if it's a blessing to you. God bless.
