91 - Maturing as a Kingdom Artist with Matt Tommey

In this episode, I share a message I recently gave on what it means to mature as an artist in God’s Kingdom.

Connect with Matt online at www.MattTommeyMentoring.com or on Instagram and Facebook @thethrivingchristianartist

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Please Note: The resource mentioned in this episode is no longer available for purchase. You can find all of our current resources at: https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/resources.html

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to The Thriving Christian Artist, the podcast where we hope you connect with God to bust through the roadblocks that have held you back for years, create the work you love, and really live the life you know God created you to live as an artist in His kingdom. I'm Matt Toma, your host. Let's get started. Well, hey there, my friend. Today's podcast episode is sponsored by my Finding Clients to Buy Your Artwork mini course. Listen, over the years, I've been really privileged to be able to sell literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of original art myself. And God's really shown me some incredible ways to do that. And really, after getting tons and tons and tons of questions from people over the years, that's why I started my Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program. I wanted to teach artists how to do that and how to do it the way the Lord showed me through building connection and and really being excellent at your artwork, being led by his voice, all the things that I talk about in the mentoring program. But you know, sometimes people are not ready for the mentoring program for whatever reason. They're like, you know what? I just want some clear information about selling my work right now. And that's why I designed this Finding Clients to Buy Your Artwork mini course. It's actually five different videos and worksheets that are from the artist mentoring program where I walk through exactly how you can begin to find clients to buy your artwork. See, most people, most artists, especially emerging artists and artists maybe like you that are trying to make it in their art world, trying to get their art career off the ground, trying to start selling their work, they kind of go from marketing idea to marketing idea, technique to technique, hot thing to hot thing, you know? Well, they're doing Instagram. Maybe I should do that. Or they're doing Facebook. Or maybe I should do Facebook Lives. Or what about going to the Chamber of Commerce? Or do I need to join my art league? Or all the different things that people are struggling with. And you know what? There's a really, really simple way that works no matter where you are in the world that allows you to begin to formulate a brand and ultimately a business that will attract clients to you so that you can not only build connection with them, but you can build sales. That's the way I've been doing it for 25 years. It's literally produced a six-figure art business for me many years. It's still the way that I operate my art business, and it's the way that I've been teaching thousands of artists for years in the mentoring program to do it. And I'd love to be able to do that for you as well. Now, the mini course is just 39 bucks. It's a one-time purchase, and it includes five videos. The first one is called Telling the Story of You. The second one is developing your client avatar or your ideal client. The third one is all about developing your unique selling proposition. That is, what is it that makes you unique in the marketplace and how do you really leverage that in a way that's going to help you develop connection and sales? The fourth is bringing it all together. And then the fifth is all about cultivating referrals and strategic partnerships in meaningful ways so that you can have essentially a free sales force that's out there thinking about you top of mind in whatever you do and referring you and sometimes even selling your work for you to clients that they're already in relationship. Listen, this teaching is probably one of the most valuable teachings that I do in the mentoring program. I pulled it out as a mini course for just 39 bucks and it can be yours today just by going to the show notes and clicking on the link. All right. I'd love to see you grab it and I'd love to see you start thriving and quit struggling to try to find clients in your business. You can absolutely do that. And it'd be my great honor and privilege to be able to help you do that through this little mini course. All right, bye. Well, hey there, I'm so glad that you're with me today. Listen, I wanted to jump in and talk about a topic that I see a lot of confusion on and a lot of frustration on. with artists who are trying to be everything that God's called them to be in their life, who are trying to mature in the gifting and the calling that God's given them, but are really struggling with that and feel like they're just not on the ramps. They're like, I can't get off of go. And so if that's you, I hope this is really going to encourage you today because really this is just something the Lord begin to drop into my spirit, actually, as I was driving to the studio today. And so, you know, you never know when the Holy Spirit is going to be speaking and when he's going to be dropping something in to your heart. And so I hope this is going to be a big blessing for you today as well. So because otherwise, you know, we just kind of live our life based on our best guess. And who wants to do that, right? We do not want to live our life based on our best guess. We want to live our life based on the on the movement of the Holy Spirit inside of us. And so I'm super excited to share this with you as you're starting out your day or wherever you are in your day, wherever you might be in the world. Hopefully this is gonna be something that's really a blessing for you. Now, before I do, I wanna give a big shout out to one of my awesome podcast listeners. I love to do this every time we get together. And today it's Felicia Bush. So Felicia, thank you so much for... subscribing to the podcast, the Thriving Christian Artist podcast on iTunes and leaving me a five-star rating. What? And also a great testimonial. She says, listen, this podcast series is a taste of the abundant life promise to the Christian who walks with God. She said, I became a member of Matt's Created to Thrive mentoring program last month. Awesome. I'm glad you did. She said, I've already been refocused and reinvigorated as a studio artist after 17 years of being an art educator, pouring myself into the creative lives of others. But now it's my turn. Matt Tommy, his community of artists and his amazing resources, this podcast included, were a gift from God in helping me in this transition in this new season. Matt is articulate, able, and anointed for this. Well, Felicia, listen, thank you so much. It really means the world to me to know that you're listening, to know that what I'm doing both here at the podcast and in the mentoring program is a blessing in your life. And I'm really, really glad that you took the time to leave a rating and a podcast review. Listen, wherever you are too listening, if you would, you know, that would be a huge blessing. Go on to iTunes and you can just click right there at the bottom of all the episodes. If you're on your phone, there's a little place there that says write a review. You can click on that and write a review just like Felicia did. You can subscribe to the podcast and make sure that you're getting every episode and let others know if it's been a blessing in your life. I want to talk about why your yes opens the door for God's blessing and the maturity of the Holy Spirit coming through your heart, coming through your life. It's your yes that opens the door. And a lot of people, because we've been taught so much about salvation and how salvation works, which is awesome, we equate, listen now, we equate the way maturity and maturing in the kingdom works to the way salvation works, all right? And nothing could be further from the truth. There are some similarities and I'm gonna be breaking that apart today, all right? So if you got a pencil or got a pen or whatever, you can come back and re-listen to this if you need. But there are some really big differences, but there are also some things that are really alike. And so I wanna kind of parse those differences for you today because if you don't get this, listen, if you don't get this, you're gonna be really sitting over by yourself at the party of the kingdom going, why am I not maturing? Why is everybody else seeming to really flow in this and I'm not flowing in this? Why is everybody else seeming to have favor flow through their life? Why is everybody else seeming to have abundance flow into their life? And I'm not able to have that. That's really frustrating. I don't know if you've ever been there before, but I've been there before. I've definitely been there before. I've been there before where you're like, why is everybody else getting this except me? If that is you, you can say, yep, maybe that's me. Maybe raise your hand. You're like, yep, that's me. I feel that. So again, salvation and kingdom maturity are not the same thing. They flow differently. Salvation is a free gift gift. from God, all right? It's a free gift from God that happens once in your life, all right? The Bible says that nobody can come to the Father unless the Holy Spirit draws him or draws her. And so as the Holy Spirit begins to move in your life through a variety of situations, through God's own sovereignty in your life, he begins to move on your heart and draw you to the Father. And what happens is, you know, you begin to experience a drawing to him that hopefully ends in a salvation experience, all right? So that's a one-time event that happens in your life. Once you're saved, once you're in the beloved, all right, you're his son, you're his daughter, all right? There's no need to rehash that salvation experience again. You have been adopted, all right? That's really key for you to understand, all right? Now maturity, however, all right, kingdom maturity, is a daily moment-by-moment process, all right, that is also led by the Holy Spirit, but also we have a big part in that because our role is to cooperate with the movement of the Holy Spirit inside of us as we, what, align with God's divine design for our life. For many of us, that's being an artist. We cooperate with him as we walk as ambassadors, all right, in the earth, doing the things that God's called us to do, all right? And also, you know, as we really learn that we are now sons and daughters, all right? We're no longer who we used to be, all right? This is really, really key. And so here's the deal. If you got salvation over here that's a one-time experience, In your life, you've been adopted. And then you've got another process over here, kingdom maturity, that is a day-by-day process. A day-by-day yielding, a day-by-day cooperating with the Holy Spirit. That is so, so important to realize because here's the deal. If you treat maturity like salvation, again, the process of, If you treat this ongoing process of maturity like the one-time process of salvation, then what you're going to begin to believe is that God is just supposed to come down and make this happen in your life. Just like salvation is a free gift from God, you accept Jesus by grace through faith, and all of a sudden, there's a change that's made in your life. You're going to start to believe that kingdom maturity happens like that as well. All right. And in reality, you have a big part to play. The Bible says, all right, always good to go back to what the Bible says, right? Hello. The Bible says in Romans that what? We are transformed by the what? By the renewing of our mind. That is fundamental transformation. Real transformation happens in your life as you begin to come into agreement. All right. with who God says you are. You begin to think differently on a moment by moment basis about life in the context of this new reality. Now, listen, this is so, so important. And I look back at my own life and I look at other people's lives and I'm like, why did nobody teach me this? I've been a believer, I'm 45 years old. I've been a believer, it seems like my whole life. It's only until the last moment 10 years that I began to understand that the mechanism that God has given his sons and daughters to see change happen in their life is not begging him, is not hoping that somehow he's going to come down with the Holy Ghost fairy dust and sprinkle it on me and all of a sudden everything's going to change, is not that he's going to get in a good mood one day and all of a sudden bless me. Listen, a lot of you believe that. I know because I hear the stories all the time. of years of frustration, wondering, why is no change happening in my life? Change happens, not because God got in a good mood, not because God sprinkled the magic fairy dust, of which there is none. Change happens in your life when you begin to align with the Holy Spirit and renew your mind according to his word. And that renewing happens, listen, this is what I started out talking about today. That renewing happens by you simply saying yes. Your yes opens the door for God to begin to move in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit. See, everything in the kingdom, everything in the kingdom happens through agreement. You can either agree with the enemy's plan for your life, the woundedness, the trauma, the experiences, the bad stuff, the negative things, you can agree with all that stuff, or you can begin to agree with, moment by moment, the truth of God's word. And whatever you begin to agree with is like opening a door and saying, come on in. I welcome you in. All right, that's really, really huge. Now, here's the difference I want to draw between the salvation experience and kingdom maturity. Because again, people... really get frustrated and get stalled by thinking that kingdom maturity happens like salvation happens. In the salvation experience, which is what most believers are familiar with, in the salvation experience, when the Holy Spirit begins to move on your life, when God begins to orchestrate things that happen in your life, you are viewing God at that point in the light of your sin. All right? The Bible says nobody can come to the Father unless the Holy Spirit draw him, draw her. And as we're drawn to the Father, we're drawn to the reality of, oh my goodness, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I can't do this by myself anymore. The things that I've been trying to make happen by myself anymore, I can't make them happen anymore. I can't do this. I need help. I can never approach a holy God by myself. I need a savior. I need a mediator. That's why Jesus came, right? That's why the father sent Jesus to be that mediator on our behalf, to bring us back into relationship with him. But I want you to see a piece of this. When you're seeing the father at that point, you're seeing him usually in the light of of your sin, your need for a savior. And your yes, saying yes to God through Jesus, when you say yes to Jesus, you're opening the door for transformation to begin to come. Boom, the snap of the fingers. You're opening the door for transformation to be welcomed in to your life. And boom, a change happens. Like that old song, what a wonderful change has been wrought in my life since Jesus came in to my heart, right? All right. So that's the salvation experience. Now, listen, if you continue to live your life, this is so big. So whatever you're doing right now, just stop and come back to me. All right. If you're multitasking, come back to me. All right. If you continue to live your life, viewing God in the light and your relationship with God in light of your sin, you will never, ever, mature into the fullness of who God's called you to be. That's really big. Why? Because when you become a son and you become a daughter, your view of God, your view of the kingdom, your view of life is supposed to change. You're no longer viewing God as holy father up in heaven that you could never approach because you're so sinful. You're approaching him as loving father who has adopted you and now called you son and now called you daughter, has now given you everything you need for life and godliness, has blessed you with more than you could ever ask or imagine, has equipped you with everything you need to go do the thing that he's called you to do. I mean, this is like, this is huge. And yet most believers continue after they get saved They continue to view God and view what's possible, not in light of adoption, but in light of their sin, in light of who they used to be. Think about that right now. As you approach God, as you're living your life every day, are you approaching him and thinking of life in terms of your adoption as a son or daughter, or do you continue to rehash And I would say, allow the enemy to replay that thing in your mind over and over. Yeah, I'm just a, this sounds real religious, right? I'm just an old sinner saved by grace. No, you're not. You're a son. You're a joint heir with Jesus. You're a, you see what I mean? It's a totally different reality, all right? And so your position as a son and a daughter, and when you say yes, that invites the holy spirit into you into your heart it activates the holy spirit that's now living on the inside of you all right through that salvation process and that's when you begin to to mature because you're maturing what in a new reality you're being your mind is being renewed your mind your your inner gps system is being recalculated all right to a new And so if you continue to only view God and only view your kingdom calling and only view what's possible in the light of your sin and who you used to be, then you are going to be really, really frustrated. And listen, you will become paralyzed because there's nothing that you can do in your own strength to produce the fruit of the kingdom in your life. That's why in my mentoring program, in the books I've written, all that kind of stuff, everything that I talk about with artists, do I talk about how to sell your art? Absolutely. I've done it for years, sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of original art myself. I know how to do that. By the Holy Spirit, thank the Lord. Do I know how to build a brand? Yes. Do I know how to help you develop artistically and become both filled and skilled like Exodus 31 said? Yes. Do I know how to help you walk in integrity and strength in business? Yes, I know how to do that. But listen, none of that matters if you don't walk in the fullness of your new identity in Christ. Because otherwise what happens is you see all this fruit, this possibility in the kingdom that you want to see in your life, And yet you continue to focus on your old reality and the old way of doing things, that old grid of I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I'm not good enough. I can't do this. Maybe one day God will get in a good mood and bless me. Oh, I see it happening for others, but not me. If that continues to be the thing that is rolling around in your mind, listen, I don't care. how many times you post on Instagram. I don't care how many followers you have on Facebook. I don't care how many people are in your booth at a show or on your mailing list. You will never, ever, ever mature in the kingdom. You'll never be able to walk in the fullness. You may get a measure of fruit, but it will not be fruit that remains until you begin to shift your focus to your new reality and allow and cooperate with the Holy Spirit so that you can be renewed inside. Woo! I mean, come on, somebody. This is huge. This is really, really huge, and it is the difference maker. Listen, the artists who are in my Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program, the ones who I see over and over and over that are making the most progress, whose businesses, if I can say it, whose businesses are flourishing the most, who are selling the most art, who are maturing the most in their creativity, who are setting boundaries in their life and really flowing. You know who they are? They are the ones who have done the identity work, and they are the ones who continually nurture this renewing of their mind based on their new reality. If you don't do that, then you, my friend, are spinning, your wheels on and on and on and on. All right. Listen, I hope you're getting this today because this is so, so important. Maturing in the kingdom is about cultivating that new reality inside of your life, in your thoughts, in your heart, in your imagination, in your beliefs. And all of that, listen, your thoughts become your beliefs and your beliefs become your actions and your actions become your habits and your habits become your life. And so listen, whatever you're thinking about all the time, that is the fruit of your life. Your life is the fruit of that. Whatever you're thinking about all the time, whatever your focus is in your life all the time, that will eventually become your life. That's what the Bible says, is a man thinks in his heart. What? So is he. So listen, I want you to get this today so bad. In fact, I wish I could come to wherever you are right now and open up your head and pour this in. But again, that is not how the kingdom works. This is not a supernatural event that happens one time like salvation. Kingdom maturity happens day by day. That's why I tell people all the time, the mentoring program is so important for artists because they're able to walk with other artists that are intentionally doing the same thing in their life and able to encourage them. That's when real change begins to happen in their life. It's not information doesn't just make change happen. It's interaction, not only with the Lord and not only with the knowledge, but also with the community of people, others that are walking the same road that you're walking. You know, I remember when I moved to Asheville several years ago, 10 years ago now, I remember saying to somebody, yeah, you know, being in Asheville, you better bring your A game because the artists that are here are incredible. And being around other great artists raises the bar in your own life, raises the bar in your own creativity. And you know what I've found? Artists who are in the mentoring program, artists who are intentionally walking this thing out in the context of community with other artists who are believers who are doing the same thing, guess what? Acceleration begins to happen in their life. Why? Because God just loves them more? No. Because they've chosen to invest in themselves, invest in the journey, invest in this process of learning and linked arms with others who are doing the same thing. All right? And that's when change begins to happen. You know why it's interesting in our Thriving Christian Artists Facebook group, we have almost 16,000 members now. And we have about 900 members in Created to Thrive. And you know what? That's really telling. You know what it says? It says a lot of people are thinking about the possibility of what's possible in the kingdom. A lot of artists are thinking, yeah, I want to kind of See what's going on. I kind of want to play with this a little bit. I kind of want to just, you know, test the waters a little bit. But then there are some kind of like Gideon's army that come out and say, you know what? I'm going for it. I'm not just going to play around the edges of the pool anymore. I'm going to jump in. And it's those that begin to see acceleration happen in your life. And I want that for you. I want that for you. I want you to begin to see accelerated maturity happen. happen in your life. And I want to, I want to invite you as always become a part of the mentoring program. If you need to start with a book, start with a book. All right. If you need to, to start with coming to gathering of artisans or our thriving Christian artists conference, you know, next year or whatever, but whatever you do start, whatever you do start, because I want the things that the Lord wants for you. God's called me to raise up an army of artists to reveal his glory in the earth. And I know that, That if you're watching this, if you're listening to this right now, you're a part of that. And I don't want anything in the world to hold you back from everything that God's got for you. All right? Hey, let me pray as we're ending today. And I just want to pray that the Lord would solidify the things that I've been teaching today in your heart so that you can begin to go to the next level, the place that he's got for you in the kingdom. All right? Well, Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you, Lord. God, I thank you that you who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it. And Lord, as we look at you, we receive our identity. Whoever you, Lord, thank you. And this is for somebody right now. Listen, whoever you're looking at, whoever you allow to speak into your life, whoever you allow to define you, that's who you're giving permission to, to give you your identity. Are you looking at the old ways of doing things or are you looking at the Father? And Father, I thank you right now that as we look at you and as we listen to you, Lord, it's our yes that is opening the door to say, Father, you define us. You define me. Not as an old sinner saved by grace, not as somebody just barely making it, but God, as a son, as a daughter in your kingdom, joint heirs with Jesus, equipped, God, I pray that you would make that reality our reality today. God, that you give us strength and empower us by the Holy Spirit to do the things that you've called us to do, to be the people that you've called us to be. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, listen, thanks so much for being with me on the podcast today. If this has been a blessing in your life, please take a moment and go to iTunes, either on your phone or your computer, iPad, whatever you use, and give it a five-star rating. Also, just leave a little message there, write a review so others can know that this has been a blessing in your life. Share it with others as well. We always put quotes from the podcast on Facebook or on Instagram, so you can follow us there and share those as well. Plus, listen, if you're interested in finding out more, about the Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program. It's really important for you to realize we are closing the doors to the mentoring program for the rest of the year at the end of September. The link to join is in the show notes. So I want you to make sure that you click on that, read the incredible testimonies of transformations, watch the videos of artists whose lives have really gone from struggling to really thriving in everything that God's called them to be. And I want to just give you a personal invitation to to be a part of that one more time. So just click the show notes down there and you can get all the information. All right, listen, thanks so much for listening to the podcast, for being a part of this incredible army that God's raising up. You absolutely were created to thrive and it's my privilege to be able to walk on that journey with you. All right, I'll talk to you next time. Bye. Until next time, remember you were created to thrive. Bye-bye.