Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the R.G. W. Dunham College of Business at Houston Christian University. I'm your host, Darren Shear, and this is the show that helps Christian business leaders to integrate biblical values into business. On today's episode, we're joined by Matt Tommy. I had actually heard Matt's name quite a bit through the years, uh, has done, has continued to do a lot of really great work equipping um uh particularly Christian artists, uh, entrepreneurs, uh, to really just activate the gifts that God has put inside them to share with the world. And um it turns out that we lived in the same area for a relatively brief amount of time. Um we I left Houston, left Texas, came to Western North Carolina, and then Matt recently relocated from the same church where I attend now, uh, and is is now living in in Texas. But I'm just glad we were able to still connect over the over the internet here. Uh, you're gonna really enjoy hearing from him. Matt is an author, artist, entrepreneur, and mentor who is passionate about helping people live in the abundance of God's kingdom. Through his personal growth journey and extensive work mentoring artists, Matt learned how to make kingdom principles easy to understand and apply to everyday life so anyone can experience the abundant life in Christ. And he currently resides in East Texas with his wife Tanya and their son Cameron, where he enjoys friends, family, gardening, and creating art. And his art is just uh world-class. Um, y'all got to go check out some of his uh his baskets that he makes and paintings. And he's the author of several books, including Unlocking the Heart of the Artist, Prophetic Art, and his latest book, God's Plan for Living: A Simple Roadmap to Your Ideal Kingdom Life. Matt, welcome to the Christianity and business podcast. Thanks so much, Darren. Glad to be here with you. So, when did you first realize God wanted to be involved in your work in the marketplace?
SPEAKER_00After I had screwed it up by myself for many years. I think a lot of us can uh can relate to that, but for me, that all kind of came to a head in 2009 when I had been in ministry. I had owned my own company for a number of years, I'd bounced around from through jobs after uh, you know, going through a lot of turmoil in the in the housing crash of of 2007 and eight. And um, in 2009, the Lord began to give me vision for uh raising up an army of artists uh globally to reveal his glory in the earth. And he said, I want to use your art, the baskets that you've been making all these years as a hobby. I want to use that as the vehicle. And I was like, what in the world is is that gonna be about? That doesn't seem like it could do anything in the kingdom of God. And God began to give me this vision for creative expression in the marketplace, not only as an artist, but also as an entrepreneur, uh, the place that I would both receive my provision from him and make an impact. And so that was that was big for me. Um, and that started me on the journey that that I'm still on today. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Am I remembering correctly that the first time in the scriptures that it says the Holy Spirit filled somebody was with those craftsmen building the tabernacle?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Exodus 31, Bezalel says he was filled with the Spirit of God and skilled in every manner of workmanship. So I love teaching on that, being filled and skilled, we call it that uh you know, you got to have the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but also this co-laboring aspect where we enlarge our capacity to to flow with the Lord in in the gift things that He's given us. So yeah. Well, why don't you teach a little bit on that? Well, well, I think for I think for all of us, you know, the enemy has always wanted to kind of keep us on this pendulum of of the extremes. And one extreme, which I lived in a lot, and I think a lot of us that are sort of doers by nature can can relate to, which is, you know, the the skilled side of things. I gotta do it myself, I gotta build my skill, I gotta go get all the knowledge, make it happen. If it's gonna be, it's up to me, you know, that kind of thing. And yet when we do that for long enough, we realize that we can be, you know, pretty effective and kind of fruitful in our life, but there's no joy, there's no life, there's no really fulfillment and momentum of the spirit. And yet on the other side, we can have, you know, be full of dreams and passion from the Lord. We can recognize a calling on our life and even an anointing. And yet, when we don't enlarge our capacity by developing, you know, what the Bible talks about in Proverbs and knowledge and wisdom and understanding that you need to build the house, uh, then you sit there in this kind of situation where the Bible says, you know, hope deferred makes the heart sick. You've got people that have lots of hopes and visions and passion, but no real track or ability to see those things come to fruition. And so I think throughout God's word, whether it's the concept of being filled and skilled, whether it's in Genesis, be fruitful and multiply, whether it's in Matthew 25, parable of the talents, it's you know, faithful with little, ruler over much. There's this idea that everything comes out of intimacy with the Lord. And in that place, we learn to co-labor with Him and do like Jesus said, right? We we do the things that we see the Father doing in line with our unique uh design and assignment. And as we do that, we both experience life, but we also be get to be the conduits of life that that God calls us all to be uh in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01So yeah. And you you began to share uh how you first realized God wanted to be involved in your work in the marketplace. And what what was some of the fruit that started to be produced outwardly uh when you started to make that shift?
SPEAKER_00Well, the the first thing that I realized was these supernatural divine appointments. I started meeting people and being in situations that there was no way that I could have ever planned or thought of or manufactured in in any way. I call it in my first book, Unlocking the Art of the Artist, I talk about this story and I call it double doors of favor. It was like just this moments where God would show me something or I'd feel a sense of a leading to go in a direction. And as I would step, the doors would open. I'd ask for one thing, God would give me two. I'd ask to meet this person or or for a connection in this area. And within a couple of weeks, there it would be. Um, I remember the the Lord gave me, uh just highlighted a newspaper article to me one day in um a local newspaper in Northwest uh Atlanta where we were living at the time. And immediately he said, Go meet the person that this is talking about. It was a Christian art gallery. I went up there and met the lady. And long story short, two weeks later, they ended up giving me the art gallery. Like, here's the keys, it's yours. And I was like, what is going on? Like I could not, I couldn't, you know, understand um how all these things were happening. It was like, you know, I kept thinking of this model of, well, God will bless me when he wants to, and I just need to, you know, obey the rules and kind of, you know, don't be an overt sin and just kind of hold on until Jesus comes. And God's like, no, you're learning to co-labor with me. You're coming into alignment with that thing that I've designed you to do. And that's where the favor and the open doors and the momentum and the life and the provision and the opportunities, that's where that is. That's that lane. And so everything from ideas, opportunities, resources, relationships, finances, uh, job opportunities, all of that started really opening up as I came in to alignment with who God had called me to be and quit trying to do it just on my own, um, out of my own good ideas. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01And what's what you've already started to unpack a couple of scriptures for us, but what's one that really speaks to that idea? Um, that's one of your favorites related to business and entrepreneurship.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think this idea and that we find in 2 Peter 1, 3 and 4 that says, you've already been given everything that you need for life and godliness. And we participate in the divine nature or this abundant life, right, that God's called us to is in the kingdom. We participate in the divine nature through the precious promises of God. And so when I started to understand that in the cross, I was not only redeemed from death, hell, and the grave, I was reconciled to relationship with the Father and restored to the fullness of the kingdom that everything that I would need for this life, God had already made provision for and through Jesus now restored that to me, it really shifted everything in my heart. It shifted me from thinking that I had to try to figure out everything on my own. It shifted my prayer life from begging God to do something. And rather than coming into a faith alignment with Him and praying, Lord, thank you that the very thing that I need today, Lord, the relationship, the idea, the connection, the financing, whatever it is, you've already made provision for. And it's through faith that I receive that um and that I get to walk in that. And so that changed everything for me because it went from me trying to figure it out on my own and do things for God versus learning to co-labor with him as his son, already having everything provided. And it took a huge amount of pressure and need to perform or manipulate uh the situations. And I could just wake up every day and I still try to do this today and be like, Lord, this is your story. You've invited me into it. You've already provided everything I need. Lord, just show me what I need to be doing today and uh and let's walk together. And that's been super fruitful, but also super freeing for me as well. I love that.
SPEAKER_01That's such a powerful uh passage there for Christian business people, entrepreneurs. Uh, we we had a group that was meeting in our house from my church, a group of entrepreneurs. And the first night I asked them, you know, why don't you share with us what's the biggest problem you're facing in your entrepreneurial endeavor right now? And then, you know, they would share, you know, I need more money, I need more, you know, better marketing, I need, you know, this and that. And it was all it was all external stuff, right? And but the verse was exactly that one that that you mentioned that we really honed in on after everybody sort of, you know, spilled what's their what they're struggling with, what they feel like they need, that hey, you already have everything you need for life and godliness. Yeah, you know, and uh I think that includes some people, their theology might say, well, that doesn't really include business. Um, I mean, isn't isn't business kind of a big part of your life? You know, that's where we spend most of our waking hours, right?
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, it's how you know, it's how God designed us as artists, as entrepreneurs, as whatever. God designed us, you know, in a unique way. And for many of us, that's in the marketplace. And I think, you know, I run into people the same thing. Oh, God's just concerned about spiritual blessings, and you know, they believe the lies that, you know, money is the root of all evil. They're like, no, money's not the issue's your heart, right? Where is your heart connected to? And I think, you know, you read in Matthew 6 where Jesus is like, oh, you of little faith, like you guys that don't get it, like look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. I provide so much for all of them. Why are you worried about the things that you're gonna eat and what you're gonna wear, where you're gonna live? These are not spiritual things necessarily, they're physical things. And so the promise of God, I think, is that when we're seeking first the kingdom, and I would say in line with your unique design, in line with the assignment that that God's given you, as you're pursuing that faithfully, all these things, parentheses, both spiritual and physical, that we need will be added unto you. Because how how cruel would God be, right? To give us a calling without the the cash flow and without the provision and without the connections that we need to do the thing uh that he's called us to do.
SPEAKER_01So yeah. Wow, what a powerful, powerful lesson. Um, tell us a bit more about your your coaching that you're doing and some of the big things that you're really focusing in on with your coaching clients.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So in 2016, I came off. Uh I was working as an artist, had a gallery studio, all this. I was also kind of had this other side of my life, which was speaking in Christian art conferences and inspiring artists to be who God had created me to be and all this, and wanted to get off the road and do more of that online. And the Lord uh led us to start an artist mentoring program that really my commitment from the beginning has been to try to bring your art life, business life, and spiritual life together from a kingdom perspective. How can you be the person God's called you to be, do the things He's called you to do from a kingdom perspective? And just my promise was always to pull the curtains back, right? I want to do every, I want to show you all the mistakes that I made, all the things that I've you know done successfully, and try to give you a roadmap with that. Um, so I thought initially that I would be focusing mostly on the business end, how to build your website, how to market your art, how to sell and all that sort of thing. And we do all that. Um, and it's very effective. But primarily, I think um much of the big work that we do, especially early on with people, is helping them learn how to renew their mind to the truth of God's word. Most Christians, um, I talk about this in the new book, God's Plan for Living. I call it that, you know, I say they're they're saved but not satisfied. They're faithful, but but frustrated. Most of them have a framework for living that is based on woundedness and fear and anxiety and the troubles of life and this sort of um hope that one day it'll get better, one day we'll go to heaven. But right now, uh, I'm just kind of having to, you know, hold on until Jesus comes and try to figure this thing out myself. Nobody's ever taught them how to get their heart healed, how to, you know, allow the Holy Spirit into the deep places and and come in to renew your mind and realign your heart to the way the kingdom works. And so so much of what we do is uh helping to break those uh religious bondages, if you will, and uh and these these stones of woundedness and fear and anxiety that get laid on top of this beautiful rushing river of living water that that God wants to rush through them in their life. Part of what we do is just help people get rid of those rocks and get rid of the sticks and the blockages and all that kind of stuff. And when you can start really seeing people get free, the business stuff is pretty easy. I mean, the art stuff is pretty easy. All of a sudden, you're like, you're free internally to do the things that God's called you to do externally. And so we really um, everything we do is is holistically driven um as opposed to sort of this siloed approach that most people are used to. You know, I'm gonna go over here to learn my art, I'm gonna go over here to learn my business, and I'm gonna listen to just my spiritual life folks over here. We we bring it all together because uh I just believe that it's all the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01So yeah. You have a favorite example or or testimony from somebody that kind of came into the program one way and is is now um uh just on a better path today as a result of what they've been learning.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I I I think of so many. I mean, we've had such crazy stories. I've had people come in, like I'm thinking of this one lady, she came in, started getting free of all this stuff. She lost a hundred pounds uh in the first year and a half that she was in the program, in addition to starting her art business. But she was like, I'm just learning that all this, you know, food has become this drug for me that you know God's beginning to set me free from. And so I can, I'm starting to build better habits and new ways of living. I'm I'm thinking of a of a couple, uh a friend of mine that they're they're a couple and um newly married, came into the program together, both had been working artists for years, just barely um making it. Um, in a couple of years now, they've just uh sold their house, moved to another city, paid cash for a business or a building uh that they've fully renovated, art gallery and studio downstairs. They're living upstairs, just had this huge grand opening. Uh, they just got small business of the year uh in their area and they're they're living the life, you know, they're doing the thing. And they were so fearful early on about this idea of provision and is God gonna take care of me? And is this calling as an artist really something from the Lord? So we we just see stories like that over and over and over again that when you can begin to realign people to the truth of God's word, how to receive all that he's already promised you in his word by faith and learn to walk in that um on an ongoing basis, in line with your design, in line with your assignment, um, it's amazing the transformation that can begin to happen.
SPEAKER_01So yeah. What are some of the other common strongholds that people are are living with, entrepreneurs, artists are living with that's really preventing them from being preventing us from being able to fully receive what God wants to entrust to us and to release what God wants to um to pour out through us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Most of it I would say is is bound up in fear, and it it may come through like what we would call commonly the imposter syndrome or just these feelings of inadequacy somewhere along the way in their life, either through a traumatic situation, something somebody said to them. I mean, I can't tell you how many artists have these memories of my fourth grade teacher said this about my art project and it completely shut my art down. Or my dad said I could never be an artist. I needed to go be an accountant to make get a real job, and it shut down my creative side for the next 20 years. So most people have these kind of lies that they have believed and they've created a life around it that is functional, but it's not really flourishing uh in their life in the Lord. And all we're doing again is helping to come come up and say, hey, if you've always felt from the beginning of your time on this earth that that you're a creative, that you're an artist, that God's got this thing inside of you, quit pressing it down. Like this is a way, this is the way probably that God's given you to release his kingdom in the earth. It's not who you are, it's not your identity, but it's how you release the kingdom and express the nature of God in the earth. And again, when you can see people come in, just that realization. When we when we teach this, I mean I just did a a thing bringing in a whole bunch of new members this this last week, and some of them are hearing this for the first time. And I'm watching hundreds of people on Zoom, and they're people are just crying. You're like, they've never heard this before. Nobody's said that the very thing that you've been stuffing all these years is the very thing probably that God's given you to release his kingdom. And um, when you can wake people up to that, man, there is such um such power and uh and opportunity in that to see people live the abundant life.
SPEAKER_01So and tell us about that new book that you have. Um God's Plan for Living a Simple Roadmap to Your Ideal Kingdom Life. And um, what is that gonna do for Christian business professionals?
SPEAKER_00Well, the thing that I've heard over and over, uh, Darren, throughout all the artists, you know, mentoring years is man, the things that you're teaching to artists are not just for artists, they're for everybody, and everybody needs this. And so I was, you'll appreciate this maybe from a marketing perspective. And I'm a marketing guy, you know, as well as being in ministry all these years. It's it's like I recognize the power of the of being in a niche, of being in a lane, and uh God had called me to artists, and I love that. And I'm like, I don't know if I want to be talking to everybody, you know, I'm very comfortable in where I am now. But the Lord led me to write this book, uh God's Plan for a Living, and gave me an acronym, IDEAL, which is I D-E-A-L, Identity, Design, Expansion, Alignment, and Love. And it's really this framework, I think, that works for anybody, no matter where we're called in the kingdom, that when our identity is established in Jesus, we know who he says we are, what we can do, what we can have, our design, our unique design, then gets uncovered and our assignment begins to be uh revealed to us. And as we walk in our design and in that assignment, in the context of an intimate relationship with Jesus, he both aligns us uh with the right people, right places, right time, right opportunities, uh, and he also refines us so that we are able to carry and walk in the fullness of what um he has for us, uh, all while we're walking uh as sons and daughters that are already loved, not having to perform for his love. And so the framework is uh a simple plan for living for anybody that wants to kind of disconnect from uh religious uh rule keeping and and that sort of thing, and really enter into uh the adventure, I think, of life in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01So awesome. God's plan for living, a simple roadmap to your ideal kingdom life. Uh, I'm I know people can get that on Amazon, I'm sure quite a few other places. And then also Matt TommyMentoring.com is where we want people to go, right? That and that's Tommy T-O-M-M-E-Y mentoring.com. Uh, what else you want to say about uh about your coaching program?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would just say anybody that is a creative that's looking to take maybe their hobby or their part-time gig as an artist and they really believe that you know God's on that for the next season and they want to be able to get not only the practical but also spiritual support that they need in the context of uh you know a safe, loving Christian community with with somebody that's built uh very, very successful businesses over the years. Um, I'd love to be able to help folks walk with that, uh walk you know on that journey. And they can find all of that at uh at Matt Tommy Mentoring as well.
SPEAKER_01So awesome. And Matt, I want to close out with this with this question here. What does it take to please God in business?
SPEAKER_00I think it takes a heart that is pointed toward him every day. I I I think uh I think of David, and I I so relate to him, you know, a guy that screwed it up, a guy that messed up maybe more than he more than he did it right. But the Bible continues to say that he he was a man with uh after God's own heart. And I think for all of us, especially as we're walking in business and we have struggles and mistakes and things that don't go right, uh, I love that scripture, you know, the righteous fall seven times and get back up. It's like as long as our heart is moving toward uh the direction of the Lord and we're we're listening in to his uh his steps, listening to his lead and following uh his steps every day, that that to me is what keeps us on the path and um keeps his pleasure and favor flowing in our life.
SPEAKER_01So well said, Matt. So glad we were able to connect again, Matt. Um, even though you know we passed like uh ships in the night a couple couple months ago. Um but um again, everybody, matt TommyMentoring.com is the website and his latest book is God's plan for a living. You can go go check it out. Uh thank you so much, Matt. Appreciate you sharing your heart and your wisdom with us today. We're all better for it. Thanks. My pleasure. We hope you've enjoyed this episode. And if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you'd leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity and Business Podcast on iTunes. You can get more information about HCU's Center for Christianity and Business and sign up to receive free access to all issues of the Christian Business Review Journal by visiting our website at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.