Dr. David Shin, president of Ouachita Hills College, gives a message that reflects on the secret of happiness as played out in the life of Solomon.

<p>Dr. David Shin, president of Ouachita Hills College, gives a message that reflects on the secret of happiness as played out in the life of Solomon.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Ouachita Hills College

David Shin

The Secret of Happiness

This message was recorded on the campus of Wachita Hills College.

For more information visit our website www.ohc.org Father in heaven thank you so much for the Sabbath hours that are soon to be upon us.

And we pray for the Holy Spirit to attend us this evening.

We recognize that my feet are made of clay, feeble, frail human instrument.

And I pray that you would use me, not for my glory, but for yours.

And that some semblance of ideas and thoughts would be conveyed tonight in the weakness of humanity, combined with divine unction and Holy Spirit power, to touch someone's heart tonight.

We pray for divine guidance, for enlightenment.

May we hear your voice tonight through your word, for we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus.

If you have your Bibles, and I pray that you do, I invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes, the words of Solomon in his reflection of a very dark time in his life.

Before we get to this passage, I want to disclose a little bit about myself.

I have a natural tendency and the propensity to be an obsessive individual.

The Lord's been working on that over the years.

But I tend to become immersed in things and there was a period in my life in which I was immersed and obsessed with bicycles.

And these weren't ordinary bicycles, these were expensive bicycles, the types of bicycles that they ride in the Tour de France.

I remember 1 time I was blowing it up so much, when I wasn't using the gauge and it popped and it blew my eardrums.

I just, my ears were ringing for days and I could tell you story after story because I'm not the most coordinated individual.

I won't go into detail but I hit a pedestrian oh 30 miles an hour going down a hill.

This poor lady, probably 50 at the time, and I lost control.

And my tires, I'm serious, went through between her legs from the back.

I mean, it was just my face went into her back.

I don't know what this lady was thinking, but anyways, I- But I didn't give it up.

I didn't give it up because it was my obsession.

Friend of mine, we were biking together, he ran over a dog.

And I went through this cycle where I would buy and sell bicycles on eBay, believe it or not.

You would get a bicycle box and then you would sell the bicycle and then I would tell my wife every single time, honey, I promise you, if I get this bike, it's the bike of all bikes.

I'll never have to get another bicycle again.

And I would be happy with it for a little bit until I would see another bicycle.

And it went through a series, I think, of 7 to 8 bicycles.

And this gets expensive after a while, because the shipping is in excess of $150, and you always lose money on eBay.

And the bicycle of bicycles was a carbon fiber bicycle.

Featherweight, you could lift it with your pinky.

And 1 day, I finally, well, I actually had several of them.

But I got the specialized Roubaix, which was the bicycle that they would do in Italy.

It had top level components, featherweight, carbon fiber, ah, it was beautiful.

Problem was, every time I'd ride it, I'd be worried that there'd be a scratch on it.

And when I got it, I had this preconceived idea that if I got the bicycle of my dreams And I got it, finally.

And I thought that I would reach the pinnacle of this experience, happiness, Of like this aura of I've arrived finally in my quest of this obsession of having this experience of happiness And it lasted for a few moments, but after a while, it was just collecting dust in the garage.

You may laugh at me because it's a bicycle But for some of you it may be oh If I can just get that phone come on now Academy students Right if I can just get that iPad If I could just get that iPad, if I could just get that MacBook Pro with the M1 chip, I could just get that car, that house, that marriage, come on now, right?

6 foot 3, barrel chested, and spiritual to top it off.

Quote scripture like Randy Skeet and looks like a supermodel.

Come on now, you're laughing because it's the truth.

If I could just get that person in my life, then I'll be happy.

If I could just get that income, I will have arrived.

If I could just get that house and that dream job, I will have reached the pinnacle of my existence and I will be finally happy." And so here it is, Solomon, The quintessential chaser of the American dream.

I sat in my heart, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with mirth.

But surely this was also vanity, and I said of laughter, madness, and of mirth, what does it accomplish?

I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guarding, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of my life." And he goes on, I made my great works, I built myself houses, I planted myself vineyards, I made myself gardens and orchards, I planted all kinds of fruits in all of them." And he goes on.

Now I had a friend of mine that told me, David, for everything that the Lord gives you, he always takes something.

If you're smart, you might be lacking in other areas.

If you're athletic, I found that the athletic people in my school were always asking me notes for my homework.

If you're beautiful, sometimes they're arrogant and you don't want to be around them.

But every now and then, I would meet somebody that would just make me sick.

Handsome, got 35 on their ACT, doctor's son, athletic, doctor's son, athletic, and to top it off, a nice personality.

He was Bill Gates, Brad Pitt, I don't know, that's from my generation, Einstein, and to Einstein, and to top it off, he was spiritual, at least for a time.

He grew up on the spirit of prophecy, health message, all those types of things.

And yet, there was a part of him that wanted the world.

Just a little part in the beginning, But then it grew.

And the lynchpin, the turning point in Solomon's experience, the Bible says there were all types of these beautiful women that were around, and he thought in order to build a peaceful empire that he would build alliances through marriage.

And so began this slippery slope, and I've seen it over and over again.

And this is a tangent here, but it's an important 1.

Young people, be very careful who you engage or become engaged with, or become infatuated with, or get into a relationship with.

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The Secret of Happiness

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