{"id":40937,"date":"2015-11-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/"},"modified":"2015-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladimir Putin Steals Super Bowl Ring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2012, Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots football team, revealed to the world that Russian president Vladimir Putin <em>stole<\/em> one of Kraft&#39;s $25,000 Super Bowl rings. Don&#39;t feel too bad for Kraft&mdash;he has <em>three more<\/em> where that came from! But it&#39;s true: back in 2005, when Kraft was visiting Putin at the Kremlin, he made the mistake of showing the Russian leader one of his Super Bowl rings. Kraft took it out and handed it to the Russian leader, who put it on his finger and said, &quot;I could kill someone with this ring&quot;&mdash;because it was so massive. Then, according to Kraft, Putin put in in his pocket, his KGB guys surrounded him, and they walked out&mdash;<em>with Kraft&#39;s ring!<\/em> It even had Bob Kraft&#39;s name engraved on it!<\/p>\n\n<p>Kraft talked to the State Department, and they encouraged him, in the interest of U.S.-Russian relations to lie and say that he gave it to Putin as a gift. But Kraft finally broke his silence in 2012.<\/p>\n\n<p>But the point is this: Kraft <em>did<\/em> give Putin his ring&mdash;temporarily, to borrow for a few moments. He intended for Putin to <em>use<\/em> it for a few moments, put it on his finger, admire it. But he did not intend for Putin, once he took possession of it, to act as if this ring belonged to him!<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: Isn&#39;t that what we&#39;re tempted to do&mdash;what we too often do&mdash;when it comes to stewardship. A &quot;steward&quot; is someone who manages finances, possessions, property, or real estate on behalf of someone else. Stewardship describes a Christian&#39;s relationship to all the good things that God has given us.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3991,4043,4057,4092,4153,4246,4374,4401,4410,4557,4666,4843,4909,4937,5077,5081,5145,5146,5147,5164,5266],"tax_ctp_topics":[401],"class_list":["post-40937","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-finances","tax_ctp_tags-generosity","tax_ctp_tags-giving","tax_ctp_tags-gratitude","tax_ctp_tags-holidays","tax_ctp_tags-ingratitude","tax_ctp_tags-lifestyle","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-money","tax_ctp_tags-luxury","tax_ctp_tags-offering","tax_ctp_tags-possessions","tax_ctp_tags-riches","tax_ctp_tags-self-centeredness","tax_ctp_tags-selfishness","tax_ctp_tags-stewardship","tax_ctp_tags-stinginess","tax_ctp_tags-thanks","tax_ctp_tags-thanksgiving","tax_ctp_tags-thanksgiving-day","tax_ctp_tags-tithing","tax_ctp_tags-wealth"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vladimir Putin Steals Super Bowl Ring - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vladimir Putin Steals Super Bowl Ring - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2012, Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots football team, revealed to the world that Russian president Vladimir Putin stole one of Kraft&#039;s $25,000 Super Bowl rings. Don&#039;t feel too bad for Kraft&mdash;he has three more where that came from! But it&#039;s true: back in 2005, when Kraft was visiting Putin at Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/\",\"name\":\"Vladimir Putin Steals Super Bowl Ring - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Vladimir Putin Steals Super Bowl Ring\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vladimir Putin Steals Super Bowl Ring - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/vladimir-putin-steals-super-bowl-ring\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vladimir Putin Steals Super Bowl Ring - CT Pastors","og_description":"In 2012, Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots football team, revealed to the world that Russian president Vladimir Putin stole one of Kraft&#39;s $25,000 Super Bowl rings. 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