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
From Law’s Diagnosis To Grace’s Cure
What if the relief you desire isn't found in doing more, but in trusting what's already done? There is a sharp line between the law that diagnoses and the grace that heals, swapping performance-based religion for a living for a steady walk of faith. From the x-ray and mirror metaphors to Paul's piercing questions, "Did you receive the Spirit by works or by hearing with faith?" we confront the drift from gratitude to grind and show how "It is finished" functions as a verdict that frees, not a slogan to frame.
You'll hear why grace isn't God lowering the bar, but God meeting the bar in Jesus. We reflect on the trap of checklist spirituality, quiet time, tithing, attendance, serving as measures of worth, and how that quietly forges chains of anxiety and exhaustion. The conversation turns practical and pastoral: faith as a hallway rather than a doorway, rest as evidence of grace at work, and the transforming power of "Christ lives in me" for daily habits, motives, and hopes. Expect a clear case for living from acceptance rather than for it, and a path out of the pressure to prove yourself to God.
If you've ever treated grace like a starter battery and yourself as the engine, this one is a reset. We invite you to breathe, to let diagnosis lead you to the cure, and to ask with honesty: where am I still trying to add to what is finished?
In This Episode:
- Law as diagnosis, grace as cure
- Galatians warns against earning what is given
- Faith as hallway, not one-time doorway
- "It is finished" as verdict, not slogan
- Moving from proving love to Christ living in us
- Grace meeting God's standard in Christ
- Replacing performance anxiety with rest and trust
- Practical shifts in habits toward communion over metrics
We slow down to explore Galatians and how grace breaks the spell of performance, turning diagnosis into healing and effort into overflow. From "It is finished" to "Christ lives in me," we trade checklist worth for a steady walk of faith and rest.
Listen, share with a friend who's weary of spiritual striving, and leave a review so more people can discover rest in the gospel. Share this with someone. God bless you.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Well, this is Austin Gardner back with you here on Followed by Mercy. And I am so excited to get to continue talking to you. You know, you are surely, surely being followed and pursued by goodness and mercy. God loves you. And I was just thinking, it's all just was born out of my own thinking about the book of Galatians. And so I want to go back through some of that with you because we can now rest in the grace of God. Grace lets us breathe again. See, the heart of the book of Galatians was the gospel. Paul writes, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. In other words, the law is like an x-ray. It shows us the fracture, but it can't set the bone. The law can expose what's wrong, but it can't fix it. It can diagnose, but it can't heal it. When I look in the mirror, I see the dirt on my face, but the mirror can't cleanse me. It can't help me clean up. So law does one job, grace does another job. Law shows me what's wrong. Grace gives me the remedy. Paul said, by the law is the knowledge of sin. You can't ever live up to it. That's the point. It was never meant to be lived up to. Like we do. Paul said, Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Who put you under a spell? Who hypnotized you? Who gave you the idea of earning what you could only receive as a gift? I think we've all been there. Maybe you started your Christian life full of joy and gratitude, knowing that God loves you completely. But somewhere along the line, the checklist took over. My quiet time, my tithing, my attendance, my serving, all the good things I do, but not saving things. They became the measure of our worth, and the mirror turned into our master. And this is why Paul asked the question. This only would I learn of you. Received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. In other words, how did you start this journey? Did God fill your heart with his spirit because you earned it or because you believed? What begins in grace can only continue in grace. There's no graduation from the gospel. There's no moving on to deeper truths that replace the cross. The moment we start adding effort to grace, we're stepping back into bondage. So let me tell you, I have personally dealt with this. I've tried to please God, to get closer to God, to work harder for God. I fill my schedule with ministry. Didn't say no to anybody. I told myself I was serving God, but deep down I was trying to silence the fear that I wasn't enough. In the middle of that exhaustion, you can hear the Lord almost whisper in your heart, You're working for me, but you've forgotten to walk with me. That's what the Galatians are learning. They're learning to walk again. Paul quotes Habakkuk and says, The just shall live by faith. That's not just how we're saved, it's how we breathe. He said, Faith isn't a one-time door, it's a hallway of the Christian life. We never move past dependence, we never outgrow grace. That's what separates Christianity from every other religion. Every religion says, do and live. The gospel says live because it's done. When Jesus on the cross, he said, it's finished. That wasn't a slogan. That was a declaration. The debt was paid, the curse was broken, the door flung open. You can't add to finished. So you can go to the doctor, and a doctor can examine you and tell you what's wrong with you. And that will be a diagnosis, but you need medicine. When you know what's wrong, now you need help. When I found out I had cancer, I needed surgery, I needed medicine. The law is God's diagnosis. Grace is God's medicine. That's great, isn't it? The law can tell you what's wrong with your heart, but only grace can make it beat again. Paul sums it up with this I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. You see, that's like what M. R. Dehan called the autobiography of grace. The old Paul died on the cross. The proud, self-righteous Pharisee was gone. The man who once said, touch not, taste not, handle not, could now say, Christ lives in me. That's the Christian life. Not trying harder for Jesus, but Jesus living his life through me. If you're not, it's not me proving my love to God, it's his love proving itself through me. You see, Paul warns Galatians that if righteousness comes by law, then Jesus died for nothing in vain. That's pretty strong. If you and I could earn salvation by rule keeping, then Calvary would be a waste. I know you don't believe that, but we live like it's true. Grace isn't God lowering his standards, it's God meeting his standards for us in his son Jesus Christ. Think about that. Grace isn't God saying sin doesn't matter. It's God saying I'll pay for it myself. That's the kind of love that changes you from the inside out. I don't mean this rudely, but we make faith complicated. But it's not. Faith is simply believing God tells the truth. He said it says your sins are forgiven, they are. If he says you're his child, you are. If he says the Spirit lives in you, he does. You don't have to feel it to believe it. You don't have to prove it to keep it. You just receive it and walk in it. Grace doesn't make you lazy, it makes you alive. But if you're living under grace, it will be known because you feel rest. Which one describes the way you're living today? Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Can you not hear me? He's doubtful. He can't believe it. You trusted God to save you, but now you're trusting yourself to stay saved? We may not say it out loud, but sometimes our actions show what we believe. We treat grace like the starter battery that gets the engine running, but it's up to us to keep the car going. No, the same grace that saved you is the grace that sustained you. You don't outgrow grace. If you're feeling like a failure in your Christian walk, if you're trying to do better, maybe it's time to stop and say, Lord, I can't, but you can. That's not weakness, that's worship. I want to thank you for listening as we look at and consider the fact that we are saved by grace, and we're just kind of meditating through the book of Galatians, though I'm in the middle of Ephesians. I just, I my mind goes everywhere in these days, and I am so grateful I get the chance to talk to you. I hope it's making a difference in your life. Thank you for listening. Share this with someone. God bless you.
