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
Born Free: Law, Grace, And The Laughter Of Isaac
What if the heaviness you feel isn't from sin but from spiritual striving that grace has already answered? In this episode, we walk through Paul's sweeping argument in Galatians using the vivid story of Hagar and Sarah to reveal why law and grace can't coexist in the same heart without conflict.
Hagar represents Sinai's effort, rules, and slavery. Sarah embodies promise, faith, and freedom. Ishmael is what happens when we rush God's plan; Isaac is the joy born from trusting His promise. Together, we press into the hard but freeing command to "cast out the bondwoman," discovering that it's not cruelty but mercy, a call to end the exhausting dual citizenship of grace and law.
We'll talk about why Christ plus anything equals slavery, how legalism dresses the flesh in Sunday clothes, and why rest—not performance—is the true fruit of faith. Freedom is not a trophy you win; it's a gift you guard daily, listening for grace's final word: finished.
Freedom's purpose is not license but love. When belonging is settled, obedience becomes a want-to rather than a have-to. That shift restores joy, Isaac's laughter, because the burden of proving your worth is gone. If you've felt the weight of doing more for God just to feel accepted, this episode calls you back to Sarah's tent—where promise lives and laughter waits.
Conversation Highlights
- Hagar and Sarah as two covenants and two ways of living
- Ishmael as human effort versus Isaac as promise
- Casting out bondage to end inner conflict
- Standing fast in liberty as a guarded practice
- Why grace changes desires while law fuels fear
- Love as the aim of freedom, not license
- Christ alone versus Christ plus anything
- Practical signs of slipping back into legalism
- Joy returns when we live in promise
Subscribe, share with a friend who's tired of striving, and help others find their way back to freedom in Christ.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Well, this is Austin Gardner back with you on our podcast, followed by Mercy. And I am so excited that you would take the time every day to listen just for a moment. As God is growing me and my knowledge of him, I'm learning more about him every day. Fact is, I would say that I see God teaching me more today than I ever have in my life. And we're going through the book of Galatians, just a scan over, just a look over. And we've seen Abraham and we've learned a little bit about his faith. And we're going to go just a little bit more because Paul tells us another story. He says, Tell me you that desire to be under the law, do you hear the law? Do you not hear the law? Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. That's the story of Hagar and Sarah. It's an allegory, a living illustration of the difference between bondage and freedom. You see, there were two women and two covenants. If you can see the contrast between Hagar and Sarah, you'll understand the whole message of Galatians. Hagar represents Mount Sinai, the covenant of law, of effort, of slavery. Sarah represents grace, the covenant of promise, of faith, of freedom. Hagar's son was born after the flesh. Sarah's son was born by promise. Two women, two sons, two ways of living. See, God promised Abraham and Sarah a child, a child that would be the part, the start of a great nation. But years passed, nothing happened. Sarah got really tired of waiting. She told Abraham to have a child through her servant Hagar. Seemed logical, made sense humanly, but it wasn't faith, it was flesh. It was you doing and trying to accomplish God's promises. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, but he wasn't the son of promise. Years later, there's a miracle in Sarah conceives Isaac. This child is born through faith and not their effort. Ishmael is what happens when you try to help God out. Isaac's what happens when you trust God. That hits home, doesn't it? How many times have we tried to speed up God's plan to make things happen on our own timetable? When we do, we always end up with Ishmael, something born of effort instead of grace. There were two sons representing two covenants. Hagar's covenant is the law, Mount Sinai, the old system of rules and rituals that can't give life. Sarah's covenant is grace, Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the promise that God Himself would do what He could, what we could never do, what Abraham could never do. You see, the law produces slaves, but grace produces sons. That's the dividing line of Galatians. You can live like Hagar's child, always striving, always afraid, always trying to earn love and never feel insecure. Or you can learn to live like Isaac, laughing, resting, rejoicing in the promise that your father's love is already yours. So he is told to throw out the bondwoman. Paul says something strong here, something that sounds very harsh. Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. That's not cruelty, it's clarity. You can't live in both houses at once. You can't live half under grace and half under law. Though I will admit that most of us have tried to do that quite a bit. You can't trust Christ for salvation and trust yourself for sanctification. You can't mix Ishmael and Isaac in the same tent. They will always fight. That's what happens in our hearts when we try to live by both law and grace. We end up in conflict with ourselves, with others, with God. The old nature and the new nature cannot share control. One has to go. Let the old system go. Let go of the self-effort, the performance-driven faith. Stand in grace. Live in freedom. Don't go back to slavery. But now after you have known God or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements where until you desire again to be in bondage? Why would you want to go back? You've been adopted, embraced, set free, and now you want to crawl back into the cell? It sounds foolish, but we do it all the time. We say I'm forgiven, but we still punish ourselves. We say I'm loved, but we still live in fear. We say I'm accepted, but we still wear a mask. That's going back to Hagar's tent. Legalism is the religion of the flesh dressed in Sunday clothes. It looks holy, but it leads to bondage. Grace may look risky, but it's the only way to truly live. Then comes one of the most beautiful verses in the New Testament. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Stand fast. Hold your ground. Because freedom isn't something you earn, it's something you guard. Grace doesn't mean life will be easy, but it means we're not fighting to be accepted. We're living from it. If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. He'll fill your life with religious activity that feels spiritual, but keeps you from resting in grace. You don't have to prove your worth to God anymore. You don't have to fix what Christ has already finished. We are free, free from guilt, free from striving, free from the tyranny of enough. Some people hear that and they get nervous. If you tell people they're free, they'll go wild. But the truth is the opposite. When you know how deeply you're loved, you don't want to sin. You want to walk in that love. Fear can restrain behavior, but only love can change hearts. The law says you better behave. Grace says you already belong. Belonging changes everything. The freest man is the one who does what he wants. But the one who wants is the freest man, not the guy who does what he wants, but is the one who wants what he ought to want. In other words, we are new. We have a new want-to. That's what grace does. It reshapes your desires. It gives you a new appetite, new strength, new joy. Freedom isn't cheap. Christ made us free. That freedom cost him everything. He took our stripes, the thorns, the cross, so we could live without the chains. Don't treat that freedom lightly. Don't hand it back to a jailer of fear and guilt. Live like it matters. Live like someone who has been redeemed. Sometimes that means saying no to voices that try to drag you back under the law. Voices that say you had to earn God's approval. They whisper, you never measure up. They say you need to hear the voice of grace when it says finished. You see, Isaac's name means laughter. And when you finally live in grace, joy comes back. That's what this story is really about. Grace doesn't just set you free, it gives you your laughter back. The laughter of someone who knows the burden is gone. The laughter of someone who can finally rest. Paul ends this by saying, So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. That's us, not bound, not striving, not afraid, free. Stop living like Hagar Shaw, tired, fearful, burdened by the weight of trying to make God proud. Grace isn't calling you home to Sarah's tent. Excuse me, Grace is calling you home to Sarah's tent, where promise lives and laughter waits. Don't go back to the law. Don't go back to guilt. Stay where the promise is. You've been born free. So live like it. So we are so blessed. We've walked with Paul through a battle between law and grace. We've been to Abraham's tents. We've been to the tent of bondage and the tent of promise. And that brings us to the big question: Are we going to still live free? Why do I keep letting things abuse my freedom? For brethren, you have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for the occasions of the flesh, but by love serve one another. That one verse holds the balance between license and legalism. You're free, but freedom has a purpose. You're free to love. Grace doesn't make a man lawless, it makes him loving. That's the difference. The law demands love, grace delivers it. When Christ lives in you, obedience stops being something you have to do. It becomes something you want to do. Grace puts the road in your heart. You don't need constant signs and warnings when love becomes your direction. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Let's not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The yoke was a heavy harness that tied the oxen together. It's slavery, rules, and rituals. It's heavy, creaking, and impossible to bear. But we slip back into it all the time, don't we? Freedom in Christ doesn't mean you have no master. It means your master loves you perfectly. It means you're not working for his approval anymore. You're walking in it. If you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. He wasn't attacking the ritual, he was attacking the mindset. Circumcision has become a badge of pride. Look how devoted I am. If you depend on that, you cannot add one law to grace. The second you add something to grace, it's no longer grace. It's not what that God stops loving you, it's that you stop living in freedom. Grace and law cannot be mixed without canceling each other out. It's not Christ plus anything, it's Christ alone. The moment you try to earn what he freely gives, you step back into slavery. And none of us want to live in slavery. We want the freedom that we find in Jesus. Isn't it exciting just to hear and see how the apostle Paul goes read the book of Galatians again? Maybe you ought to read it every day while we're just talking about it and let the Lord continue to teach your heart. You are loved, you're accepted, we are in good shape before the Lord. Go enjoy what God is doing.
