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Sometimes we have to go back into these wounds that we've covered up our whole life

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and we have to kind of cut. We got to let the Word of God cut it into that area

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and we have to open it up and get the cancer out, get the infection out, the

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bitterness, the hiddenness, and let the light of Christ shine in there to bring

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healing. That's what our passage is saying.

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I'm talking about five qualities of a blood-stained ally. And after years of

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ministering to men, doing conferences, doing retreats with men, we have one

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particular retreat we do almost every year. Sometimes we're at a different

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state where we do it, but it's called Whole Heart Advance. And at the Whole

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Heart Advance, this is where we take about a hundred, 130 guys up into the

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mountains. And one of the talks that I give there is being a blood-stained ally.

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We also have another conference we do on the off year called Wilderness Encounter

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and we go off into the wilderness and there we also talk about blood-stained

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allies. So the blood-stained ally message is really key to your maturity and

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growth in Christ. So through all these years and these experiences, I see five

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qualities. There's more than five, but I'm going to say there's five qualities

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that are the irreducible minimum that someone needs to have. So I'm hoping this

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is helpful for you as you think about your own life. And the passage that I'm

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going to kind of teach from on the qualities of a blood-stained ally is

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2 Corinthians 4. And we're going to run through about 10 verses here in

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understanding what I think are the qualities of a blood-stained ally. So in

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2 Corinthians, Paul is really talking about suffering. He's talking about

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relationships with other people. He's talking about shame. And so the

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environment here is leading up to how do we break the power of shame in our

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life? How do we break the power of sin over our lives that debilitates us, that

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handicaps us, that paralyzes our faith in Christ? So we pick it up in 2

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Corinthians 4. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy,

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we do not lose heart. The thing about blood-stained allies is it's all about

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not losing heart. These are relationships in your life that are going to pick up

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your heart. They're going to strengthen your heart. Verse 2, but we have renounced

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the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of

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God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every

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man's conscience in the sight of God. If you're one of those people that

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underlines the Bible, like I am, underline by manifestation of the truth,

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commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. So the

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number one quality, the first quality here is vulnerability. You need

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relationships, men with other men, women with other women, marriage couples where

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there's a vulnerability that you can share your heart. You can manifest truth

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commending yourself to every man's conscience. So the first quality of a

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blood-stained ally is they're vulnerable. It's not teacher-student, it's a mutual

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teaching and a mutual learning together. So vulnerability is number one. And if you

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look at this, it says we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the hidden

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things of shame. So it's someone you can name the shame with. So if you were

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sexually abused as a kid, this is someone you can share. I was sexually

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abused as a kid. If you grew up in a home where there was a divorce and you

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just never gotten over that, you can talk about that. You talk about the divorce.

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It's naming the shame. It's naming what's holding you back. It's learning to quit

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posing and acting like, oh, everything's just fine and you just have this great

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Christian life. Everybody knows you don't, but you think you do. Well, you're

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not going to have blood-stained allies if you're going to be a poser and a

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pretender your whole life.

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Number one is someone who you can really be real with and the word I would use is

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vulnerability. Second quality that I see in this these two verses is a patient

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love. Someone who has a patient love for you who even as you manifest truth you

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talk about the truth of the hurt and pain that you've been through in your

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life. There's a patient love. They're not judging you. Judgmental people are not

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going to be the best people to be blood-stained allies and so patient love. So first is

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vulnerability. Second is patient love. That means that they understand. It's not

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just that you can share or that they can share but they understand your

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brokenness. They understand and like I said in the last episode they may not

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have been through exactly what you've been through but there's an empathy.

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There's an understanding and that's actually another probably key word here

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for patient love. They have empathy for you and they don't judge but actually

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they show mercy and they extend grace to you. Verse three, but even if our gospel

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is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing whose minds the God of this

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age is blinded who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of

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Christ who is the image of God should shine on them for it is the God who

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commanded light to shine out of darkness who is shown in our hearts to give the

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light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So

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number three I would say truth and compassion together. So this is this is

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someone who's a Jesus follower who can be a part of shining the light of Christ

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on those wounded areas but also with compassion. So one time I was on a elk

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hunt. I hunt big game in the Rockies here and and I cut myself when I was

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butchering this elk and a snowstorm moved in and I needed to get back to

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camp pretty quick because it was snowing really the snow buildup was accumulating

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really fast so I grabbed a quarter of this elk put it on my back and I went

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back into camp and I totally forgot that I had cut myself pretty sharp

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blade that I use and so the next morning I woke up and it was infected it was

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aching and hurting and I looked down and it was all pussy because it was getting

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infected because I had not treated it you know what I had to do so I had to go

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in with a blade again I had to cut it open again squeeze out the poison the

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infection put some ointment on it but also to get air and sunshine into that

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wound so that it would begin to take care of itself and heal itself and

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that's the way things work with our hearts too that sometimes we have to go

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back into these wounds that we've covered up our whole life and we have to

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kind of cut we got to let the Word of God cut it into that area and we have to

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open it up and get the cancer out get the infection out the bitterness the

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hiddenness and let the light of Christ shine in there to bring healing that's

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what our passage is saying having someone with you as a partner someone

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with you as a blood-stained allies as a blood-stained ally is huge here because

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that relationship means that you have accountability it also someone who's got

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just love and affection for you even though it's super duper hard it's really

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painful to open up your heart that way that's the third quality is truth and

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compassion having the ability to let's have someone in your life who gives you

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truth and compassion and then I would say quality number four under that

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rubric is a prayer partner someone who will pray with you over that someone who

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will pray into the pain pray into the situation and and love you and and pray

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for the power of God to continue to come into that wounded area then look at

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verse 7 but we have this treasure and earthen vessels that the excellence of

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the power may be of God and not of us we are hard-pressed on every side yet not

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crushed we are perplexed but not in despair we are struck down but not

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destroyed

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always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of

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Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies for we who live are always being

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delivered up to death for Jesus sake so I think lastly it's the word I like to

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use is stick to itiveness stick to it it is I mean endurance this is a friend

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this is a blessed ally that's gonna stick closer than a brother stick closer

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than a sister even through hard times they don't quit one of the things that I

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really really loved about Lord of the Rings all the different episodes of Lord

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of the Rings was the relationship that Sam and Frodo had these guys I mean that

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the Fellowship of the Ring definitely had it but Frodo and Sam really had this

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relationship of endurance and if you watch all of the movies you see how

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Frodo is is increasingly wanting to quit he just wants to get out of this thing

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and he and he's starting to actually get better at times about having to carry

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the weight of this ring but Sam is is right there beside him Sam won't quit

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Sam is the key to Frodo's courage that's a blessed and ally without Sam

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Frodo never would have made it without Sam Frodo would have quit but he's there

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even to the very end even as they have to release that ring into the fire Sam

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is like right there so that's a beautiful example of a blessed and ally

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so endurance I have the same the same guys are my blessed and allies ten years

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ago so after a decade together man we've been through a lot we trust each other

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man if we had disagreements holy cow yes have we gone through even deeper harder

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stuff than we did in the beginning absolutely but we stick closer than a

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brother and so endurance is key so the five qualities of a blessed and ally are

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vulnerability patient love or empathy truth with compassion prayer partnership

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and lastly endurance so look for someone like that I want to challenge you men

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and women to look for blessed and ally ask God to give you wisdom to find some

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blessed and allies for your life it'll change your life it'll be one of the

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best decisions you ever made because your growth will just be exponential

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because you're no longer holding on to the past you're moving out with the

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future and you've got some brothers and sisters that all stand with you as you

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go through all the issues that go with life so God bless you I hope this is

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helpful to you