I grew up Catholic and now go to a Protestant or non-Catholic church in Charlotte, NC. Michael Houdmann, Founder and CEO of GotQuestions.Org writes that a major difference between the two boils down to believing in the Bible alone as God's word verses believing that God's word plus man's input as the divine inspired word of God.

WHAT DO PROTESTANTS BELIEVE?

A major difference is the issue of sufficiency and authority of Scripture. While Protestants believe that the Bible alone is the source of God's special revelation to mankind, it also speaks to everything we need to understand as necessary for our salvation from sin.

Protestants view the Bible as the STANDARD for Christian morality and ethics which governs our behavior. This is called sola scripture and is one of the five Solas in Christianity. (Solas meaning "alone" in Latin. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 makes clear that "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (ESV).

WHAT DO CATHOLICS BELIEVE?

Catholics do not believe in sola scriptura hence do not believe that the Bible alone is sufficient. They see both the Bible and sacred Roman Catholic tradition as equally authoritative and binding on the Christian. While not all Catholics hold to doctrines such as purgatory, praying to the saints, worship or veneration of Mary, etc., the Catholic doctrine hold to them even though they have little or no mention or basis in the Bible. In truth, these doctrines are based on Roman Catholic traditions based on the Catholic Church's insistence that the Bible and tradition are equal in authority. The problem with this is that it undermines the sufficiency, authority, and completeness of the Bible. The view of Scripture is at the root of many, if not all, of the differences between Catholics and Protestants.

WHY WE ARE NOT TO MESS WITH GOD
EXODUS 9:27-35

When we tell God we are going to do something, we better do it. Today, I am going to show you WHY we are not to mess around and lie to God. Let’s get started.

In Genesis 9:27-35, we find Moses coming around towards the very end of all his warnings and plagues on Egypt. After Moses called down dust to create a storm of hail, lightening and fire which killed most of the Egyptian’s servants and livestock, Pharaoh, calls for Moses and tells his this: 

"27 Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's."

It was bad enough for Pharoah to confess his sins, but worst that he really never meant it; hence he lied on top of rejecting God’s commands. Thats a really bad place to be for any human being, especially a world leader.

GOD’S GRACE EXTENDED TO PHARAOH

“33 So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth.” 

PHARAOH SEALS HIS OWN FATE WITH A HEART EVEN MORE HARDENED

"34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.”

The moral of the story is that the worst we try to lie to God and/or not keep our word in carrying out what we said we would, the worst the judgement of God will eventually be in our own life.

Conclusion

When we tell God we are going to do something, we better do it. Today, I showed you through God’s Word WHY we are not to mess around and lie to God. And this was not the rest of the story. As all know, Pharoah lost his only son for disobeying God to the degree that he did. Let’s think about this very truth and reflect on how we can do better with honoring God and keeping our word in obedience to God in our lives.

PURPOSE OVER STAYING PUT
Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

THE CALLING (Exodus 7)
“1 And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land…4 Pharaoh will not listen to you…5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them” (Exodus 7:1-5).

PURPOSE IN ACTION (Exodus 7)
"6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.”

FIRST:  
THE LORD CALLS MOSES & AARON. “1 And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet." 

SECOND: 
THE SPECIFIC MISSION:
The Lord calls Moses and Aaron and instructs them as to the mission of his life.

"You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land…"

THIRD: 
GOD MANAGES EXPECTATIONS REGARDING WHAT THEY WILL ENCOUNTER IN THAT THEY WILL FAIL AT FIRST.
"4 Pharaoh will not listen to you.”

FOURTH: 
THE BIG PICTURE: THE EGYPTIANS WILL KNOW THE TRUTH OF THE TRUE GOD!
"5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them” (Exodus 7:1-5).  

God was clear that He would reach out his hand against the Egyptians, and bring the the Israelites from among them. Then God moves from calling to action.

PURPOSE IN ACTION (Exodus 7)
In verse six, Moses writes not that they contemplated, thought about, or prayed on God’s calling. Moses and Aaron simply got up and “made it happen”!

"6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them." 

NOW FOR THE KICKER: THESES GUYS WERE IN THEIR 80’s! Let’s pick it up in verse 7.

OLD MEN WITH A NEW MISSION
"7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.”

Verse 7 makes clear that Moses was 80 and Aaron 83 years of age!  They could have chilled out and golfed, taken life easy, spend time by the water, or just coasted through the rest of their lives. But NO-they went uncomfortably to complete God’s calling and spoke with Pharaoh. It had to have been intensively inconvenient, uncomfortable, and simply unpleasant to take up God’s calling at such an old(er) age. But they did. WHY? Because they put PURPOSE OVER AND ABOVE STAYING PUT.