Do you live for others and God, or for self? 1 Corinthians 9-10

1 Corinthians 10:11 (NASBStr)

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Paul, in these chapters, is addressing the freedom's we have in Christ.   He has used himself as an example in chapter nine.   His conclusion there is that he is free to do a lot of things, but his over-riding principle is that what he does he must serve others.   In chapter ten he is going to use the nation of Israel to make another point.  We are to please God with our service.  We are to glorify God with our interaction with men (see 1 Corinthians 10:31).    He started the chapter by saying that all of Israel had the same experiences but not all of the "pleased" God.   The only way we can please God is if we do what we do by faith (Hebrews 11:6).   They did not respond in faithful obedience and therefore God was not pleased with them.   They did not practice their faith in faith. They became performers of works, lacking a true heart of faithful repentance.   Rather than glorifying God with their lives they served self.  This is what Paul is warning the Corinthian believers about and wants to prevent in their lives.   These serve as an example to us.  Their failure to practice faith in faith and to allow God to produce in them caused them to be cast off and God to lay them waste in the wilderness.  He doesn't want to the Corinthians, or us, to make the same mistake.   The failed in their relationship with God.   We are not to use our freedom (remember, this is the point of this entire section .... what we use our freedom to do or not do) in way to please ourselves.  We are to use the freedom we have in Christ to serve ourselves as they did.   That is the point of them being our example.