Why is it important for Christians to identify with their heritage as the people of God, and to consider their spiritual ancestors as heroic?

What do Christians have that those who came before did not, and why?

How important is our role in the story of God's purposes?

The New and Living Way | Episode 39 | Hebrews 11:36-40

And others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth.

And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.