The Gospel is not about a particular location, or ceremony, or externalism. Religionists try to strike their little religious matches when the Sun of the Gospel is shining brightly. They light their little matches, and engage in their rituals, and keep their little rules; but their matches soon burn out. They try to set up these super standards in formalized religion, and appear to be beyond the average individual, and have some superior spirituality that others don't have. They are doubly meticulous in their religious observances. But true worship of God is from the heart, and it is not a burden. The heart and spirit of man is now the sanctuary of God, not a building of some sort. The heart is where God is truly worshipped today. "Do your best, try a little harder" is the empty message of man-made religion, "God helps those who help themselves, so if I start to help myself, and God will help me, if I get it started, God will finish it." God will only accept you for Christ's sake, not because of anything you have done.
The Gospel is not, "Do your best"; the Gospel is, "Your best is never good enough to please God." Faith alone in Christ's atoning Sacrifice for sinners is the Gospel way to Heaven. Christianity is not doing this or that; the Christian trusts the Blood of Jesus Christ, and worships God through the Holy Spirit from the inside. A true worshipper has Christ in him, he is passionate about the Gospel, worship is not a chore and drudgery to him. Only God can make you a true worshipper. Worshipping in the Spirit, glorying in Christ Jesus, recognizing that you can do nothing to save yourself, and that Christ has done absolutely everything for you - this is the Gospel. Glorying only in Christ Jesus.
Do not approach God with a righteousness of your own. By nature you are a condemned sinner, you are all wrong inside, you are a transgressor of God's pure divine laws. You have nothing of your own to plead your case before God. All your best deeds are tainted with iniquitous motives. If you trust in Christ Jesus Himself, you are totally, finally, and invincibly all right, based on the Righteousness of Christ, and it can be yours by Faith in Christ's Blood. Salvation cannot be reversed. God judged my sins on Christ at Calvary. Are you aware of your great need of Christ? You are utterly unworthy and unfit for heaven, but Christ Jesus through the Holy Ghost is still seeking you and wants to save you. Seek God's mercy in Christ's Precious Blood, lay hold upon His precious promises by Faith.
You have lived a lousy life every day of your life, you are a sinner and in deep trouble with God, you need to trust to the Crucified Savior who was God Incarnate. You must trust in what Another has done for you, not in what you have done. You can never be worthy of Christ's Righteousness; His Righteousness is a free gift to needy sinners. You can't earn favor with God, but Another, Christ Jesus, has done on your behalf what you could not do for yourself. The Gospel is shocking to the self-righteous man; for he lives his life with the notion that by nature somehow or another what he is and what he has achieved will be able to secure his standing before God and gain him entrance to heaven. He thinks he is just as good as the next man, and just as acceptable to God as others are. He thinks that God is grading on the curve, and that he will be just fine as long as he does his best. God doesn't grade on the curve; He grades by Christ. The mark of the true Christian is that he worships by the Holy Spirit, he glories only in Christ Jesus, and he puts no confidence in himself.
