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
The Pharisee in the Mirror: Breaking Free from Legalism
We all know the "Pharisee" characters in the Bible—the ones who stood on street corners and judged others. But the "Pharisee spirit" is more subtle than we think. It’s the inner voice that prioritizes rules over relationships and performance over presence.In this episode, Austin Gardner dives into the mirror of his own 50-year journey in leadership and missions. He discusses how legalism often starts as a desire for excellence but can end up as a shield that prevents us from being truly vulnerable with God and others.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:If you’ve ever felt the exhaustion of trying to be "perfect" for God, this conversation is for you.
- Why we use religious rules to hide our own insecurities.
- Three clear signs that "the Pharisee" is taking over your heart.
- How Austin’s battles with cancer and COVID shattered his own need to "perform" and led him to deeper grace.
📘 Order "Pain to Praise" on Amazon
🚀 Leadership Training: Visit Alignment Ministries at https://www.alignmentministries.com/
🌐 More Resources: Visit https://waustingardner.com
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Keywords/Tags:
Pharisee, Legalism, Grace, Faith, Personal Growth, Ministry Leadership, Spiritual Health, Austin Gardner, Alignment Ministries, Pain to Praise
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Well, I'm excited to be back with you. This is Austin Gardner, and you bless me. So I just want to tell you you're not going to believe what's coming up. I want you to spread the word and get other people involved and interested. This will come out on YouTube and here on the podcast, like everything is. But I did a five-day interview or five-session interview, all in one day, actually, but it'll come out across five days. Beautifully done video by a friend that attends our church, and he is a master videographer. I want you to spread the word. It's an interview of Robert and Kelly Canfield, and Kelly has Pompeii disease. And so we'll be talking about that. But today I want to talk to you about the Pharisee in the Mira. You know, the villain we all love to hate. Again, I'm Austin Gardner, and I want to talk to you about a character we all know very well. When you read the New Testament, there's a clear villain. He's the guy in the long robes, standing on the street corner, praying out loud so everyone can hear him, looking down his nose at the sinners. We call him the Pharisee. It's easy to preach against that guy. It's easy to point him out in other churches or other leadership circles. But lately, as I've been reflecting on my 50 years of ministry, and I wrote pain to praise, I realized something very uncomfortable. The most dangerous Pharisee I've ever met didn't have a long robe or a street corner. He's looking back at me in the bathroom mirror this morning. That Pharisee spirit is so sneaky. It's hard to see it in ourselves. It's because the Pharisee spirit doesn't start with evil intentions. It usually starts with a desire for excellence and a deep respect for the Word of God. In the beginning, you just want to do things right. You want your marriage to be perfect, your ministry to grow, your life to be holy. But somewhere along the line, doing things right becomes more important than loving people well. I've been there. I've been the guy so focused on the rules of the mission field or the standards of the church that I miss the hurting people, the hurting person right there in front of me. We use the law as a shield to protect ourselves from being vulnerable. If I follow all the rules, I don't have to admit I'm struggling. If I perform perfectly, I have to deal with my own pain. But as I wrote in my book, so you can't get to the praise if you're too busy pretending you don't have any pain. I'm afraid we're too much like the older brother when Jesus told the story of the prodigal son, overlooked as the dad, who was such a loving and wonderful and kind dad, but even more overlooked, maybe, is that older brother who said, I did it all right. I am certain that he did not mean to come across like he did. And I never meant to come across like I did. It's so easy to be a Pharisee because you want to look out the window and compare yourself. You want to be able to say, I'm doing better than they are. To blunt, honest truth is we kind of rejoice in other people's failures. We kind of like it when they mess up because when they mess up that you might want to look at and it'll help you know if you're looking at a Pharisee when you look in the mirror. Three subtle signs, but it maybe help us spot it. Performance over presence. Do you care more about how your spiritual life looks to others or how it actually feels between you and God? When we're in this mode, our prayer life becomes a chore to check off, not a conversation with a father who loves us. It's about what we do, not about who he is. That's where we call for that caricature again. Then it's rules over relationships. The Pharisees in the Bible were mad that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. Think about that. A man was healed, and they were upset about the calendar. When we care more about protocol being broken than a heart being mended, we've lost the way. It's more about the rules, more about the standards. Third thing that might help us is the compassion as a compass. In Luke 18, 11, the Pharisees stood and prayed like this God, I thank you, I am not like other men. If your sense of peace comes from being better than someone else, you aren't standing on grace. You're standing on pride. And pride is a very shaky foundation when the storms of life hit. So what do we do? How do we break the mirror of legalism? Well, it starts with honesty. It starts by admitting that we're just as much in need of grace today as the day we first believed. Now that's something we have a hard time accepting. Most of us would say, you know, I was really messed up and God saved me. But we kind of feel like we got, we got, we got, we got, we got, we got, we it's kind of how we do it. We got to be honest. We got to admit we need grace. I think of the cabinet of great thinkers I've followed over the years, men who understand that leadership isn't about being above people, but being among them. It's really influence. It's the kind that John Maxwell talks about. And it doesn't come from a title or a set of rules. It comes from a heart that people can trust. If you want to kill the Pharisee in the mirror, you'll have to stop trying to be the hero of your own story. Let God be the hero. I have been the hero of so many of my stories. But the truth is, when God brought all of this kind of crashing down in my life, I realized fighting cancer and COVID and all the chaos, I couldn't perform. I couldn't be the strong missionary leader. I was just a man in bed who needed help. And you know what? God met me there more deeply than he ever did when I was performing on the stage. I can honestly say that I've never known God like I feel like I'm learning to know him now. Oh, God has made such a difference in my life. So if you're listening to this and you feel the weight of trying to be perfect, I want you to take a deep breath. God isn't looking for a Pharisee, He's looking for a child. I want to challenge you this week. Find one area where you've been judging someone else and instead offer them the same grace God offered you this morning. Smash the mirror and look at the cross instead. Thanks for joining me today. If this spoke to you, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. If you're looking for a deeper dive into the moving from performance to peace, grab a copy of my book, Pain to Praise. It's a little bit sensitive or tender talking about this because I'm admitting to you my failures. But I think that's what I need, Grace. I need him. Well, I'm Austin Gardner, and I'll see you next episode. God bless you. Thanks for listening.
