My friends, we are built upon a strong, strong foundation of those who had come before us. We have a rich history of men and women in the Bible who have given themselves to the Lord. And that is yours to receive this day - if you would open up those windows, those obstacles, those barriers to receive all that God has for you. The treasures of His Word; Open it up, and receive the longstanding history of those who have trusted in God and who have come out of the other side proving that His way is the right way for us.

The Word is rich. It is a treasure - It is an inheritance for you this day. God gives it as a father would give a treasure to his children, and as an heir for you. You are His heirs to receive what the Bible has for us. Now we've been talking so much about remembrance and God is not done with that yet; He wants us to remember the miraculous, wonderful works that He has done throughout the ages. And our story does not begin here - Your story did not begin the first moment you put your faith in Jesus. It begins with those who had the longstanding relationships with God. The patriarchs of the Bible, like Abraham who, when God called him out of his father's house, he was able to go and follow God faithfully. Leaving everything that he knew behind, he walked into a place that he did not recognize, in a way that he did not know. They lay the foundations for us, that is the faith of those who would later put their faith in Jesus Christ.

There are men and women of the Bible that had that experience with God. They knew His deliverance, they saw His victory, they had His salvation in the past and their story today becomes a part of your story. It strengthens us in who we are today as a church because we know where we have been and we know where we are going. You receive that history through something called heritage: Heritage is what is passed down unto you. Things like the faith, the traditions, the faith of those who went before you to believe the Word of God and to overcome great obstacles. To overcome the things of this world, the traditions of this world, the things that are not real of this world - They rose up over the obstacles of Satan and were successful with him.

This day we receive a powerful heritage in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have overcome - and this is what is the foundation of our faith today. When we look at history we remember the wonderful works of God: His power through the generations, His ability to keep His promises, His faithfulness to those who have put their trust in Him. And this day, that is what gives us the strength to our faith. When God's people gather together to remember all that He has done, then they are ready for the next obstacle. Nothing getting in our way, nothing taking you out, nothing making you put a surrender flag up. But when they forgot the works of the Lord, that's when they returned back to where they were - right where they had come from. This day, would you put your trust in God, in the works that He has done throughout history, time and time again, through those who came before us to trust in the Lord?

First, we must understand that history develops trust. You see, what God has done when we remember, that is the foundation for your faith. But only if you remember it. Only if you study it. Only if you allow it to change your heart today. When God does a work, it should not just be in our mind. It's not something that we only know in our hearts; it can't just be lip service, but something that truly affects the decisions that we make, something that changes the responses that we have to obstacles, trials, and tribulations. Let the history of God come into the house of the Lord. And because they were able to stand, we also will stand today.

David's remembering, throughout his life, began when he was still in the field. We remember when God called him there when he was still a shepherd and God delivered him even over the lion and the bear. And then when God raises him up - separates him from his brothers and raises him up - to be the highest in Israel as king. And later through his life when he became very mighty in battle; battles that he was outnumbered, battles that were against him, against the odds, he was able to be victorious in God - And these are the events of his life that he recalled continuously throughout his life, so that he could remember when the bad times came, when the obstacles come, when the trials come, (because, surely, we know that they do) we stand on the history of God. That He has proven Himself to be faithful and true to those who would believe in Him. You see, David remembered what God had brought him through, and he trusted Him to bring him through it again and again and again.

And I ask you church, this day, how many of us are so easily willing to give up and give in as soon as things start shaking? When things get hard God does not want His people to ever give up because He has proved through the ages that He is our faithful and true standard. On the day that the Ark was being brought into the city of God, David is determined in his heart to set the precedent for the people that they would not only remember the past, but they would allow it to change them. And we know this story - This is actually David's second attempt of bringing the Ark back - He did not inquire of the Lord the first time, he didn't ask Him how he should do it, he did not follow the protocols that God had when it came to the Ark, and he did not give Him the reverence that God deserves. And so we remember that when the Ark was being transported on the poles into the city, it began to shake. And that's when Uzzah reached out to grab it, but because he touched the Ark in an unholy manner, he was killed.

You see, we serve a God that deserves utmost honor and reverence in our life. Someone once said that if you don't remember the past, you are doomed - or you are condemned - to repeat it. David doesn't want to repeat the works of the past. He is going to remember to honor the Lord in his life. He remembered that throughout history, the Israelites didn't always remember what God had done; They weren't willing to learn about what God had done in their lives, and so when He did the signs, the wonders, and the miracles, they soon often forgot them leaving them back where they were. You see, the works of God are supposed to build trust in His people. It's supposed to make us venture out, and go out on a limb, and do the impossible, and do things that you were never able to do before: To pray when things get hard. To believe against all odds. To pray with our families. To bring in the Bible studies. To seek out God like we never have before.

"God's faithfulness should yield a faithfulness back in us."

Our history should result in a change, my friends. God's faithfulness should yield a faithfulness back in us. He is looking for us to reciprocate all that He has poured into our past - to our ancient past, to our now past, to today. All the things that God has done, He's looking to yield that same fruit in us. We love God because He first loved us. We are loyal to God because He has shown us loyalty first. We are responsible to God, we are faithful to God. We honor the Lord because He has done all of that for us.

The church must reciprocate all that God has been pouring in in this season. Now David, of course, is learning from his past experiences. He saw that he had done wrong with the Ark, and now this time, the second time around, he is ready to do things right. Church, are we ready to do what is right this time? Are we going around the second time and saying, “This time I'm gonna honor you. This time I'm gonna do it in prayer. This time I'm going to do it by faith. This time I know it's not by my own strength, but by your mighty hand that sustains me.” 1 Chronicles 15:12-13, “He said to them, ‘You are the heads of the Levitical families; You and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it. It was because you, the Levites, did not bring up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of Him as to how to do it in the prescribed way.’”

And so we know the history of the Bible, that the Levites were the only ones that were supposed to have anything to do with the Ark. They were the tribe that was chosen to do all of the work in the temple: They did the washing. They made the sacrifices. They cleaned the basins. They had a special job, and the Lord was their portion. When the people first came into the promised land, you know that they were the only ones that were not allotted a piece of property in the promised land. That their land, their inheritance, was that of the Lord, and they served God alone in the temple. God had to have a people that were consecrated unto Himself; He is a jealous God that will not share us with anyone else.

And so the first time around, David had not paid careful attention to the commands of God. He did not remember. Remembering what God had done in the past is not simply about looking back. It is about allowing God to change how we trust and obey Him, and this time he was ready. You see, David could have been embarrassed about the situation that was so publicly unsuccessful, but instead (and maybe he was, honestly) - but the reality is this time he was willing to take responsibility for it. He was going to change the way the people did it. And here in this verse, he's saying, “We know what we did wrong. But this time, my friends, we're going to seek out God and we're going to do it right.”

How could he do that? How could he take the responsibility? How could he put himself out there for God? But you see, it's because of his past that he trusted that the way of God was right for him - That God had great plans for his life because God had proven Himself to be faithful and true. He had decided that all of the commands of God - not some, but all of the commands of God were good. Psalm 18:30, “As for God, His way is perfect. The Word of the Lord is proven.” Is the Word of the Lord proven? Have you determined that God is good? Is His way good for you this day? Are His plans to prosper you? To give you hope and a future? Are the commands, the laws, what He's asking you for, what He's requiring of you, is it too hard? Does He not know? Does God not know better?

But you see, David had determined in his heart that the ways of God were good. “I may not understand it, but I know that You have a plan for me, and therefore I will yield to what You are asking of me this day. I will trust in You. I will trust in the way that You're leading my family and I, knowing that You know right and that You know better.” You see, the Lord has proven Himself to be faithful and true throughout our lives, hasn't He? When we called to Him, He answered you. When you were lost and wandering off, God went out and brought you back into the house of God. And when you did not know the way because you were in darkness, He lit the way for you, giving you His word, placing you in the house of God.

David trusted in God's way as being the right. Isaiah 55:9, “And as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” You see, there are people all over the United States - when they start tripping up on their relationship with God, they say, “This is too hard! And the commands of God are undesirable to me.” But I say to those people this day, they forgot that the commands of God had once brought them hope. They forgot that the commands of God once were their blessing. They forgot that the commands of God was what put food on the table! They forgot that the commands of God allowed them to interview and get a job, and have a car, and provide for their family. They forgot, my friends. But the church today must remember all that the Lord has done.

Will you determine in your heart that the Lord is good? That His ways are upright? And that He has proven Himself throughout history time and time again that He is faithful? We think about olives that must be pressed in order to give off their oil. And I ask you, if the Lord begins that squeezing with you today, will you still determine that He is good? Will you still allow your trust to be fully invested in the Lord this day, even through the squeezing? Knowing that God has a plan to bring you to heaven, to bring you to Himself, and that you would not short change yourself from receiving a great inheritance? God has kept this inheritance for us, and He is trying to bring us, to prepare us for what we are to receive.

David had a history - a long, long history with God that was so in depth with the Lord, that he was never going to give up today. And I want you to reflect back throughout this sermon about your own journey with God: How He has saved you in those near misses throughout your life. When He rescued your life! Or, even a spiritual rescue, of setting your feet apart, for giving you the knowledge that He needed in order to save you from yourself: From a mind of confusion, from a mind of darkness, from a mind that didn't know up from down, it has been God that has reached down to rescue each one of us. When we look back at what He has done, it gives us faith for what is ahead. Now, whatever may come, the Lord will have you in His hands.

We must secondly understand that history must be recounted. If there's anybody in the Bible who understands the importance of recounting his history, it's David. His entire life was a testimony before the Lord. He was chosen even while he was a shepherd - a nobody. And he was set apart from his brothers, he was lifted up, he was chosen, he was given opportunity from the Lord. From pasture to palace, it was not his own strength, but truly the hand of God in his life. And it is those things that he recalled back upon continuously over and over. And so when it came time to bringing this Ark, my friends, he was determined - he was determined to do it right this way. 1 Chronicles 16:7-11. “When David first appointed Asaph and his associates to give praise to the Lord in this manner: ‘Give praise to the Lord, Proclaim His name; make known among the nations what He has done. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; Tell of all His mighty and wonderful acts. Glory in the holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and His strength; Seek His face always.’”

Just a little bit of history for you on this Bible verse. But interestingly, if you can put it back to verse 7, Asaph was a hire of David. He was appointed to bring up the procession of the Ark, and this guy was very talented. Just like our Luke, he was a singer, a musician, a songwriter, and he later became the director of music for David's kingdom and also later for Solomon's. What's so cool is that he ended up writing 12 of the Psalms in our Bibles, including Psalm 78, which we're going to get to a little later. So as we move on to the next part of the verse in 8 through 11, David tells his new hire “In this manner you will praise the Lord.” And what do we find in that scripture. “Proclaim His name. Make known among the nations all He has done. Tell of His wonderful acts.” It is in this manner, church, that we must proceed to recall the works and talk amongst ourselves the wonderful acts and deliverances that God has done in the place. When I speak to some of you, some of you don't know each other's stories. Some of you don't know the hard times throughout your lives. And we need to bring it out more than ever in this season to tell how God lifted you up, out of the muck and of the mire, out of the pit of darkness, and how God has rescued you.

"Proclaim His name. Make known among the nations all He has done. Tell of His wonderful acts."

You see, we must recall what God has done, and scripture commands that we would recall His mighty deeds just like David did. To remember all how He has delivered you and brought you out of - How He has remained faithful to His promises throughout the ages and certainly in this place. We are supposed to remember all that He did even from long ago. Why do we study the history of the Bible? Why is it so important for us to know today? And I think for myself, it's mainly because you must know the sovereignty of God that we serve. You must know that He is not limited in His power by time, by laws of nature, by laws of gravity, or anything else. God can do as He pleases. We remember those times in the Bible that He even stopped the sun in the sky for 24 hours. He is not limited by the laws of nature. He restricts the rain and He brings it forth. He brings drought, He brings famine, disease, pestilence, healing. He is unlimited in what He can do, He is God Almighty sovereign over the earth that He has created. Over men and women, over mountains, over everything that is in creation, God has power over.

And so we have Asaph, the director of music (that's his title), and he understood the power of remembering. And so this is actually a very long psalm; We're only going to do a piece of it, and you can go home to read all of the history that he begins to recount. But he put it so poetic and so beautiful because he's just praising what God has done. This is our power. This is our heritage. This is the foundation of which the Christians today must rely on: that God will stop at nothing. that He is not encumbered by anything. Nothing can restrict the power of God. And this is Psalm 78:13-16, “He divided the sea and led them through; He made the water stand up like a wall. He guided them with the cloud by day and with the light by fire at night. He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas; He brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.”

We serve a mighty, mighty God. You see, we have to recount the miracles that God did then because He is still the same God that does them today. He was a provider then, and He is a provider now. He moved in power then, and He moves in power now. He was a healer then, and He is a healer now. He was a savior then, and He is a savior now. That is not my song, but He is the same God. And it speaks of the perpetual, never-ending, enduring power of God throughout the ages that will never cease until the family of God is in heaven with Him, exalting Him, and making Him the king; crowning Him king over our lives, giving Him all glory. The perpetual, never-ending, enduring power of our God that we serve - We must know our history, my friends.

And so we not only remember the miracles of yesterday, but also of today. What God has done for each one of us, for He has not left us as we were, but gave us hope to change us. Like when James had his foot-high mohawk, or when Pastor Kris wore blue suede boots and had a license plate that read “Buff Burke” - what God has saved us from!

But truly we know that God has done so much. The bad health reports can't even catch up to us. We're moving, we're running with God, hallelujah! Freedom from bondage and against all odds, we are all still here together. When we get together at my mom's house or when some of us are in groups together, what do we all love to do besides eating? We love to reminisce, right? We love to talk about all that God has done for us. And it's not like the world when they reminisce; It's not the wild and rebellious days of how many beers you could handle. No, it was truly the glory of God falling in this place, my friends. It is how the demons flee at the name of Jesus. How our children are filled with the power of the Holy Ghost. This is what we speak of! And we can go on miracle after miracle, seeing someone walk out of a wheelchair, seeing cancers healed. There are so many miracles that God has done in this place, but I believe there are many more to come.

If you don't talk about it - if you don't say it amongst yourselves - it's like it didn't happen. It stops giving off its blessing, but why shouldn't it? If we still remember the
Red Sea, and we just think, “Wow! God could do anything for us. Why should we not speak of what God is doing in our midst? He has comforted us. He has given us hope when it felt impossible. He has brought a friend over to us when we could not stand on our own.” God has been a friend to each one of us, we must speak of these things. And when you do, you're going to be reminded that He's a personal God, isn't he? He is a God of the details who cares about the detail of your life. And if you remember what He has done, you will also know that God sent His one and only son, Jesus, so that you would not perish, but that you would have eternal life in Him. He sent his Son for you personally and for me. And that love that He's shown has been personally directed to you.

We serve a God who wants you to receive this heritage; The history of those faithful people who have honored Him. If you know what it's worth, you will know the love that God has had for you. What He gave when He gave His one and only son. Do not let the circumstances steal your praise. Do not let circumstances steal that you serve a powerful and almighty God that can move on your behalf in any way that He pleases. So as we look back and recall His mighty, mighty works, we must understand that maybe, we didn't start the story, but we have inherited a story, and it is your responsibility, church, to pass it on to the next generation. We have a history of the Lord and our history, my friends, is our heritage. Our heritage is that which we pass on to the next generation, to our children, that they would know that God is a God of miracles; That He is for us and He has brought a very small people and He gathered them to Himself to make them His treasured possession - a diadem in the hand of the Lord. He has gone to great expense to make a people for Himself.

Your history is your heritage. And it is for you to take it as a treasure that it is and pass it to your children; to pass it to the next generation. To pass it to those in the nations who have never heard the Word of God that they too may share in what we have. Just as David passed his faith on to his son Solomon, and then later, God was able to preserve a remnant for Himself all the way through the line of Jesus Christ and then to us - there has been a great heritage that is passed on throughout the ages. You see, it has kept us this day to receive a great treasure from the Lord. And I ask you today, do you have a heritage to share? It is your story of redemption. It is your story of how God had went down into the muck, into the weeds, to rescue you. That God did miracles in your midst, that God moved mountains to get you to Himself. This is a treasure that we have. Your story, with my story, with our story, with the story of those who have come from old, this is the power of the church! What can prevail against the power of the church this day?

There is nothing that can rise above it . We look at Psalm 78:4-6, and this is still Asaph writing. He said, “...we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders that He has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our ancestors to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they would in turn tell their children.” You see, God commands that one generation would tell the next so that they would trust and know Him. We must tell those who would hear us; We have to stop thinking that people don't want to hear it, because we have a mighty message to bring to the nations this day. You see, our heritage creates an identity so that we would know that God is in this place. The church is unlike any other entity. Nothing else is like it and people should know that things operate differently in this place. You see, because we are not our own, we belong to God, and there is a great benefit to this this day. When you're in the church, it is God who is over you, who directs your paths, that knows where you will work, that knows your comings and your goings, who looks out for you in everything that you do, who is with you when every time you start that car. God is in our midst.

Think of the Jews who happily embrace their own heritage. During this time of the year, what do we see them doing? They're out shopping for the holidays that they have coming up. They have all of these traditions that they get ready for, and it's a way that they commemorate the things that God has done for them. And the children watch their parents as they go and prepare and they're so excited about what the festivities are going to bring. They're not ashamed of their heritage; They are so glad to share what the parents do and give it to the children and say, “This is how we honor God. This is what we do in the house of the Lord. We belong to the Lord. We don't do things our own way. We come here on Friday nights to pray and to give God thanks for what He has given us.” This is a heritage. Is it a treasure to you? The way that we worship? The way that we teach them the Bible? Do you open up the book with your roommates? Do you share it with your friends here? Look at the treasure that God is revealing to us this day.”

You see, those little girls who wake up in the morning and they know one day, “I'm going to have my family at my table too! And I will host the Friday dinner at my house!” They embrace their identity, they embrace the culture, they embrace the heritage that has been laid upon their lap. Would you embrace that you are a Christian this day? To never be ashamed of it and to say, “This is the way of the Lord. This is the way for you.”

When we think that they are able to honor God in such a manner, because they honor what God has done for them in their past, we think about us who have Christ, who is the fulfillment of all of the promises, who is the fulfillment of all the feasts that they're celebrating. How much more should we value the inheritance that has been given to us that you have received? You have the fulfillment this day that is in Jesus.

Now when we think about the heritage that we receive, we know that it also rises up and builds resilience in the church. Because, when you see a couple Davids rising up in your midst, you're going to have the encouragement to overcome obstacles that you never did before. Doesn't God deserve that there would be some that would be rising up and to say, “I'm going to be faithful. I'm never going to surrender. I'm never going to call retreat, because I'm going forward.” And our young people need to see Christians who are determined to move forward in the house of the Lord! It reminds me of Paul and let me read this for you - He was imprisoned. He was flogged. He was whipped. He was beaten. He was pelted, shipwrecked, jailed, deprived of sleep, hungered, thirsted, cold, naked. All of these challenges throughout his life and yet he did it with joy! He did it for the sake of the church! He did it for the future generations, for you and I, so that we would know that because he endured, we also will endure!

"We are of those who are firm in our faith, overcoming again and again."

This is the heritage of those who will persevere until the end. We are of those who are firm in our faith, overcoming again and again and being assured of the deposit that has been in our hearts, guaranteeing what is to come. You see, you are those heirs and those heiresses that will come to receive an inheritance of the Lord that will never perish, spoil, or fade - that is kept in heaven for you - that you would receive and share with those around you. The Bible says, “Let us press onward…straining to what is ahead, that I may gain the prize which is Jesus Christ.” Let us never give up.

And finally, this heritage is one that reaches the nations. This is the way that you will bring people to the house of God, this is the way that you share your testimony with them and you witness to the world. You see, God has a word for the nations. I think of the Gadarene, right? The man who had demons within him. And when Jesus came to save him, He healed him in that place, and he wanted to go with Him so bad, but the Lord Jesus said, “No, you stay here and tell them what I have done for you.” Years later, when Jesus came back to that place the people were no longer afraid of Him, but they flocked to the Lord like never before; Where they once couldn't come near Him, when they once were too afraid to get their healing, God was able to come into that place and they received and they ran to Him.

Would you tell the nations this day of what God has done? Would you witness to them and tell them what the Lord has done for you? Revelation 7:9, “After I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples, languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and with white branches in their hands.”

My friends, this gives you a clear picture of what the intention of this great heritage that we have received really means; It truly is God being able to have people from all walks of life. Some of you, if we look back, some of you couldn't have been counted if nobody ever gave you the Gospel this day, but would you go forth into your communities, into your school, into your job, to all different kinds of people, not thinking anymore that they don't want to hear it. The ears are being opened! Open up the windows and let the Spirit of God come through to you this day.

We have an inheritance this day that we must share, and it is the time for the church to rise up - to be able to give the world the inheritance that is for the children of God. We remember His mighty deeds. The God who is faithful then is now faithful in our midst. Our history is not just a collection of memories, it is a heritage in which God must be honored. Would you receive your heritage this day? And would you rely on the history of those who have gone before you. To live by it, to pass it on to the next generation. There are riches in the house of the Lord.